Write a reader's report on a manuscript submission
An acquisitions-style reader's report summarizing the manuscript, its strengths and problems, market fit, and a clear recommendation.
The prompt
Write a reader's report on a manuscript submitted to our list.
Manuscript or sample: [PASTE THE SAMPLE CHAPTERS, synopsis, and proposal or query]
Our imprint and list: [WHAT WE PUBLISH, recent titles, the readers we serve]
What the acquiring editor asked me to focus on: [e.g. "voice", "is the structure fixable", "commercial potential"]
Agent and author context: [AGENT, author's previous books or platform, other publishers known to be reading]
Write the report with these sections:
1. Summary: genre, word count, premise, and a short plot or argument summary (no more than a third of the report).
2. What works: voice, concept, characters or argument, pacing, research - with quoted lines or page references.
3. What doesn't: problems that would need fixing, and whether they look fixable with editing or are built into the book.
4. Market and list fit: likely readers, how it might be positioned, and comparable titles to check, labeled [VERIFY].
5. Author platform and promotability, based only on what was provided.
6. Recommendation: pursue / consider with reservations / pass, with the reason in two sentences.
7. Questions for the editor or agent.
Keep the tone fair and specific; this may be shared internally. Judge only the pages provided and say so if the sample is too short to judge the full book. Do not make up sales figures or comp performance.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Research & Summaries prompts
What to fill in
- PASTE THE SAMPLE CHAPTERS, synopsis, and proposal or query
- WHAT WE PUBLISH, recent titles, the readers we serve
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the RTF structure (Role, Task, Format). RTF tells the model who to be, what to do and what shape the answer should take. It is the quickest structure that still gives noticeably better results than a bare request.
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