Wednesday, November 24, 2010

In Which There Are Literary Consultants?

Have you ever heard about this? Literary Consultants?

Here's an example:


The Writing Coach.

Someone mentioned she had used a Literary Consultant (this specific one) before she queried her novel, and now she has an agent and a 3 book deal.

I've never heard of someone (or a team) of people you can hire to help you out, a creative or literary life coach if you will.




I think most people can be successful on their own without a consultant, but still, color me intrigued. If it wasn't in the UK, I'd dig a little deeper on this, for curiosity's sake. But clearly it is not cheap.

What about you, would you ever hire a Literary Consultant?


P.S. - being as there is a delicious holiday in the states tomorrow, there will be no Friday Fun Words. See you Monday!

20 comments:

DL Hammons said...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING Sarah!! :)

Anne Ahiers said...

interesting. did you look to see if there are any in the US?

Tracy said...

Hmmm, good question. I think I would consider it along the same lines as hiring a freelance editor to review my work before submitting. It definitely has its merits, but I'm not sure it's necessary to go that route before going through a certain amount of "this just isn't working" on my own, first.

Dan Schwent said...

I'm not going to say it's a scam but it sounds slightly spurious. I'd probably wait until I was tired of second guessing myself and forcing my manuscript on my friends and relatives before I gave them a try.

Summer Frey said...

Ummm...yeah, no. I wouldn't do that. That's what crit groups and betas and forums and all that jazz are for.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Austin Gorton said...

Weird. Never heard of it. I'm with Summer.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sarah Ahiers said...

DL - thanks! You too!

Anne - i did not. i was too lazy

Tracy - I agree. Give it a shot on your own first, before you shell out $700

Dan - me too. exhaust all other avenues first

Summer - very good point. Happy thanksgiving!

Teebore - i was shocked when i found it, and then i wondered if maybe i was just dumb for not knowing about it. YUM! Turkey!

Matthew MacNish said...

I'm an illiterary consultant myself, actually.

Anne Gallagher said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anne Gallagher said...

Happy Happy Thanksgiving

Sarah, Twin, Brother, Yvie, George and Tula (and the rest of the family too)

May all your food stuff be delish.

Nate Wilson said...

With all the information on the publishing process now readily available on the internet, most of their services feel superfluous to me. I mean, $500+ for a book report? No thank you. If I'm paying someone to look at my manuscript, there'd better be editing.

Then again, I've always been a self-help-without-using-self-help-books kind of guy. I'm sure some people would benefit from the hand-holding and one-on-one consultation. I'm just not one of them.

Anyway, have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Lola Sharp said...

Er, no. Just no.
Plus, I have delightful CPs and author friends and such.

Happy Thanksgiving, Sarah and Family and Fur-Family.

Love,
Lola

Unknown said...

I'm not really surprised. They have consultants for just about everything. I probly wouldn't get one though, because I am poor.

But have a Great Thanksgiving. Eat lots of goood food :)

Talli Roland said...

I used one for feedback on my MS, way back when I started writing and didn't have the network I do now. There are some very good ones in the UK - Cornerstones, for one.

The one I used basically read my manuscript and then gave me a detailed six-page report on areas that needed strengthening. It was really helpful, but very expensive for what I got.

Jessica Bell said...

Yep. I used Cornerstones Literary Consultancy when I was just starting out and they helped me WONDERS! Wasn't that expensive. I got a 10 page report for 350 pounds. That's pretty decent for 300 page novel!

Dan Schwent said...

Congrats on hitting 50k, btw.

Lindsay said...

I thought about it (especially since there are a few awesome ones here in the UK) when I was starting out. But since I now have a wonderful group of CP's, I'm happy to stick with them. :)

Sarah Ahiers said...

Matthew - Ha! wait...for reals?

Anne - thanks! You too! I cannot wait for pie!

Nate - i hear that. I mean, MAYBE if i had completely failed everyway i could think of. And if i had $500 bucks to throw around (which i almost never do) i'd look into it

Lola - you do have awesome CPs! It makes me jealous (not that i ever want to give up my CPs, just that i want everyone else's CPs too. I'm greedy like that

Naomi - it's very true that poorness makes us more frugal. Happy thanksgiving!

Talli - i wonder if it's more of a UK thing? I've never heard of them here

Jessica - ooh, 350 pounds is much more reasonabl in my opinion. That would tempt me a lot more

Dan - thanks! now i'm going to eat massive amounts of food for the next few days before i finish it up

Lindsay - see, i'm jealous now that i've learned it's a more common in the UK.

Southpaw said...

I haven’t heard of them either. Happy Thanksgiving.

yokohamamama said...

50,000 words! Happy Thanksgiving to you! (No thanksgiving here...no turkey...no pumpkin pie... mouth watering guys... :((

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