I was born shortly after the Great Depression, the eighth child in a farm family of nine. By then, my mother had learned how to handle measles, mumps and chicken pox as well as the usual scrapes and bruises that growing children are heir to. However when my brother Leslie axed his ankle while chopping wood, Mom knew she needed help and she knew where to get it. She headed for Dr. Kirk’s office. When my baby brother fell through the barn floor to the stable below, she knew she needed help again.

I see a parallel between my mother’s care for us and how I nurture my writing skills. Mom knew when her skills were inadequate for the task. She headed for an experienced doctor who could determine the extent of my brothers’ injuries and how to treat them. Then she followed through with the treatment suggested. When I completed my first historical novel, a new genre for me, I needed someone to examine my manuscript, ferret out its weaknesses and prescribe a treatment for its ills. It would be up to me to act on the advice I received.

What Can a Book Doctor Do for You?

• Study your plot to see if your story has enough substance to warrant publication.
• Check for consistency in your viewpoint character.
• Evaluate your characters to make sure they are intriguing and memorable and that their emotional reactions are relevant and easily understood.
• Verify the authenticity of your dialogue to make sure it’s appropriate to your characters and warn you if any of those characters has a “motor mouth.”
• Examine your setting to see if it paints a picture the reader can visualize.
• Look for sensory details that draw the reader into your story.
• Affirm your ability to revise your novel to improve its salability.
• Determine that the story is written from your heart and that it’s worth telling. Or suggest that it may not be marketable. (It’s better to find that out before you spend any more time trying to spiff it up.)

Do You Need a Doctor?

• Will a stranger find your novel worth reading? (Does it have take away value?)
• Does it still excite you after all the time you’ve labored over it?
• Have you been writing long enough and with sufficient output that you know that you write with clarity?
• Are your skills in grammar, spelling and punctuation adequate?
• Have you shared your novel with a critique group or someone knowledgeable of the genre and able to compare it to similar books?
• Does your manuscript lack that certain “something” that sets it apart from the mediocre?

How Do You Find a Doctor?

Beware of “quacks” and of fraudulent editing services. Many of them will take your money but won’t make your work more marketable. You need an experienced specialist who knows how to write for children. Someone who is well read in that genre and who is knowledgeable of the publishing industry. And one who is qualified to make an overall assessment of your manuscript and edit it for content. Finally your doctor must be able to line edit, copy edit and proofread.

The “Freelance Editors & Manuscript ‘Doctors’ List” published by the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (and available only to members) lists twenty-five doctors you can trust. Questioning your writing friends to see if any of them have had a manuscript critiqued might prove helpful. I found my doctor through the recommendation of a fellow writer at the Highlights Foundation Writing Workshop at Chautauqua in 2004. Before you commit to any doctor, ask for credentials and for titles of published books which he/she has “doctored.”

Two experienced book doctors I highly recommend are Kristi Holl at Kristi@KristiHoll.com and Paula Morrow at http://PaulaMorrow.com.

How Do You Contact the Doctor?

Once you have the name of a contact, email or write that person and ask if she is willing to critique your manuscript. Your brief initial letter should include information that would help her decide if she has the time and interest to critique your work. Here’s what I included in my one-page letter:

• A brief sentence that summarized my novel.
• The genre, reading level and length.
• A statement explaining for whom I was writing this story. (Middle grade readers who like historical fiction).
• A terse one paragraph synopsis of the story.
• A brief explanation of this story’s appeal to me and what qualifies me to write it. (I explained my interest in my main character, a Scots teen-ager, and that I had a Scots “authority” to verify the historical accuracy of my text.)

Book doctor fees vary widely. Ask if the fees will be based on the project, or by the hour. Insist on a contract that lists exactly what services will be provided. Request an estimate for the project and inquire about the turn-around time.

What Did I Receive from My Doctor?

• Affirmation of my story and its potential for publication.
• A detailed analysis of improvable points, accompanied by suggestions and examples on how to make the changes.
• Questions that drew out problems that needed addressed to clarify things that were apt to befuddle my readers.
• Help with keeping my Point of View consistent, my dialogue realistic and my setting visual.
• Advice on novel writing such as focusing on my main character at the beginning and ending of each chapter.
• My editor’s perspective on the need for more specific details in some scenes and suggestions on what might be included.
• A reminder that this was MY story and that I should follow my “gut” feelings if I disagreed with my doctor’s criticism.
• Encouragement that once I made the changes, my novel would likely find a publisher.

Having my first historical novel critiqued by a professional children’s book writer/editor was a wise decision. For two hundred dollars, I received five pages of suggestions and corrections for whipping my story into shape, along with numerous comments and helps written in the margins of the manuscript. My manuscript and critique were returned within three working days.

My mother’s doctor worked faster than my book doctor, but didn’t have to read 150 pages before making his diagnoses. My doctor will be hearing from me again if I feel I need professional assistance.