Critique, assessment, beta read or edit — which do you need?
A critique is a reader's structured response to a portion of your work — usually three chapters — telling you whether it holds. An assessment covers the whole book. A beta read is a reader's experience rather than a professional's judgement. An edit changes the text. Four different questions, four different prices.
Quick facts
- What it is
- An explanation of the manuscript critique, and how it differs from an assessment, a beta read and an edit.
- Best for
- Authors with an opening rather than a finished book, who want to know whether it holds before writing on.
- What it does
- Defines each of the four responses, says which question each one answers, and gives the UK price range for a critique of three chapters and of a full first read.
- What it does not do
- It does not critique your chapters, and a critique does not change the text.
Related Your Book Pro page: Beta Reader
Four kinds of feedback, four different questions
Match the question you actually have. Buying the wrong one is why so many authors say feedback wasn't useful.
| The question it answers | Scope | Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Critique | Does this opening work? Should I keep going? | 3 chapters, usually | £85–£215 |
| First read / initial feedback | What have I actually got here? | Whole draft, impressionistic | £250–£600 |
| Beta read | How does a reader experience this? | Whole draft, reader's eye | £0–£200 per reader |
| Assessment | Does the book work, and what are the real problems? | Whole draft, diagnostic | £400–£900 |
| Developmental edit | How do I fix it, chapter by chapter? | Whole draft, prescriptive | £1,500–£4,800 |
A separate free preview: A free outside view of your own pages
A separate editorial preview of one extract; it does not read the whole book or do the specialist job this page describes. Send up to 5,000 words. You get back what the draft appears to be doing to somebody who wasn't there when you wrote it, the strongest thing in it named, the exact place a reader starts to drift, and three revision priorities in order.
A separate editorial preview of one extract; it does not read the whole book or do the specialist job this page describes. An AI-assisted read of your own pages. Not a human edit, not a line edit, and not a scored report.
What a critique is for
A critique answers the question authors most want answered and least want to ask: is this worth continuing?
It is usually bought on the first three chapters, because that is where an agent, a browsing reader and a sample-reader all decide. If the opening does not hold, nothing further down the book gets read, so it is also the highest-leverage 3,000 words you own.
A good critique tells you what the opening is promising, whether the voice is consistent, whether the premise is clear by the end of chapter one, and whether a reader would turn to chapter four.
Why the first honest read is so hard to get
Everyone close to you is compromised. Family are kind. Friends are kind and also worried about the friendship. Writing groups can be excellent, and are sometimes a mutual encouragement society with a rota.
The result is that many authors reach draft four having never once been told the truth about draft one — and then pay £2,000 to hear it from an editor, having spent three years going the wrong way.
The first honest read is worth buying early, cheaply, and repeatedly. It is not the last word; it is the thing that stops you compounding.
How to ask for feedback so you get the truth
Never ask is it good? — it is unanswerable and it invites reassurance.
Ask instead: where did you stop? What did you think the book was about after chapter one? Which sentence made you decide what kind of book this was? What would make you not buy this?
And say, explicitly and more than once, that you want the problems. People need permission twice before they believe it, and once more before they'll write it down.
How to receive it
Say thank you. Do not explain. Do not clarify what you meant — the fact that it needed clarifying is the note.
Then wait a week before deciding anything. The first reaction to hard feedback is not information; it is weather.
And separate the report from the person. A critique that says the opening does not work is not a statement about whether you can write. It is a statement about 3,000 specific words, which you can change on Tuesday.
About Your Book Pro
Your Book Pro is a book-writing platform built in Britain. Start with an idea, notes, half a draft, a podcast, or a finished manuscript, and use our purpose-built AI tools for planning, feedback, editing, proofreading, cover designs, and to create print-ready files. Writing is totally free: you can type, upload or speak your book as much as you like, and use only the editing tools you need with Plus, or go unlimited with Pro.
Produce world-class drafts at the fraction of the cost of hiring a human editorial team.
Every account starts with 1,000 welcome credits, and a plain export of your own words is free.
Each guide says plainly when a person does the job better than AI. Guides on legal topics are general information, not legal advice.
Initial Feedback is the first honest read. It tells you what you actually have — what the material is doing, where the voice is strongest, what the opening promises and whether the draft keeps it — without the social pressure that makes human first readers so unreliable.
It is deliberately the first rung. Detailed Editorial Feedback is the whole-book diagnosis; Beta Reader is the reader's-eye view; the Editing Suite is where the fixing happens. They work on the same manuscript, so each one knows what the last found.
What a human critique adds, and we say this on the tool page too: an experienced editor reading your opening is also reading the market — whether this kind of opening is being acquired, what an agent's reader will do with page one. For £85–£215 on three chapters, that is a reasonable thing to buy once you have a draft worth showing.
Sources / checked against
- CIEP suggested minimum rates, effective 1 March 2026. Reedsy marketplace averages, September 2026. Prices dated 9 September 2026.
Get a first read
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Email me my free review linkQuestions people ask
- How much does a manuscript critique cost?
- £85–£215 for three chapters and a synopsis; £250–£600 for a full first read of a complete manuscript.
- Is a critique the same as a beta read?
- No. A critique is a professional's judgement on whether the writing works; a beta read is a reader's experience of reading it. Both are useful and they answer different questions.
- When should I get my first feedback?
- Earlier than most people do — on a complete first draft, or on three chapters if you are unsure whether the approach is working at all. Waiting until draft four means three drafts spent going the wrong way.
- Should I get feedback on a partial draft?
- On the opening, yes, and it is often the best money you spend. On a random middle section, rarely — it cannot be judged without context.
- What if the feedback contradicts my beta readers?
- Look for what they agree on. Readers are reliable about their experience and unreliable about causes; editors are the reverse.