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A real editorial report, in full
Most authors have never seen an editorial report and are being asked to spend £400–£4,800 on one. So here is a complete one: what it covers, how it is structured, what a hard note actually sounds like, and what it costs from a human. Read it before you commission anything from anyone.
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 hard note sounds like
A good report is uncomfortable and specific, and it separates the book from the author.
Not: the middle drags. But: chapters nine to fourteen contain no change in what the reader knows or what is at stake. The question raised in chapter one is answered on page 96, and nothing replaces it until page 210. This is the most likely point of abandonment.
The first is a judgement you cannot act on. The second names the mechanism, locates it, and implies the fix.
If a report you have paid for reads like the first, ask for the second. That is what you bought.
How a report is structured
The overview. What this book is, who it is for, and whether it currently does that. Two or three paragraphs, and the most important part — an author who disagrees with the overview will disagree with everything after it.
What is working. Specific, not flattering. This exists so you know what not to break in revision, which is a real risk: revision damage is when an author fixes the reported problems and destroys the good parts on the way past.
The main issues. Two to four, ranked by consequence. More than four is usually an editor listing symptoms rather than diagnosing.
Chapter-level notes. Where each issue actually shows up, so the finding is actionable rather than abstract.
Market position. Where this sits, and against what.
Why this page exists
Editorial services are sold to people who have never seen one. You are asked to spend somewhere between £400 and £4,800 on a document nobody will show you in advance, on the strength of a description.
That is a bad position to buy from, and it is why so many authors buy the wrong pass. So this page shows the whole thing — structure, tone, the shape of a hard note, and what the recommendations look like.
Use it to judge us, and use it to judge anyone else you are considering. If a freelance editor will not show you a sample report, ask why.
What it will not tell you
Whether it will sell. Whether an agent will take it. Whether it is good, in the sense people usually mean.
An editorial report tells you whether the book does what it is trying to do, and where it stops doing it. That is a narrower and far more useful thing, and any report claiming more is selling something.
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.
Detailed Editorial Feedback produces a report of this shape on your whole manuscript — read at once rather than chapter by chapter, which is the thing that makes structural findings possible. It costs 900 credits for a 60,000-word book, and every account starts with 1,000 that never expire, so the first one costs nothing.
Upload a manuscript written anywhere. Run the review. The report is yours to keep and to take to a human editor if you decide you want one — and arriving at that conversation with the obvious problems already fixed usually means a smaller quote.
What a human report adds: market judgement. An editor who has sold books in your genre will tell you what an acquiring editor in London responds to this year. That is real, it is specific to people, and it is worth £400–£900 if the book is going to agents.
Run a whole-book review
Upload a manuscript written anywhere
Email me my free review linkQuestions people ask
- What does an editorial report look like?
- Ten to thirty pages: overview, what's working, two to four ranked issues, chapter-level notes, and a line on market position. No tracked changes — an assessment diagnoses rather than edits.
- How much does one cost?
- £400–£900 from a human for a manuscript assessment. £1,500–£4,800 for a full developmental edit, which adds detailed chapter-level guidance.
- Should I ask an editor for a sample report?
- Always, before commissioning. A professional will have one ready with the client details removed. Hesitation is information.
- How do I know whether the report is any good?
- Specificity. A good note names a mechanism and locates it. A weak note offers a judgement you cannot act on.
- What do I do with the report?
- Read it once, put it away for a week, then sort every note into agree, disagree and don't understand. Act on the first, ask about the third, and leave the second for a fortnight.