Novel Consultation with Yasmin Zaher
Novel Consultation with Yasmin Zaher
Fiction
The best writing is rewriting. This is an inevitable lesson, and one that we learn the hard way.
My goal is to guide you into the next draft, and to strategize together so that you edit with focus (and courage!). My approach is to help you identify the essence of the book, its heart and temperament, its rules and language, so that you can rebuild the manuscript around this renewed understanding of the project.
We will begin with a one-hour conversation where we discuss your vision, goals, and concerns. I will then read the manuscript in full and will offer an extensive editorial letter covering voice, structure, character, plot, stakes, pacing, and other story elements. I will also give you a 10-20 pages sample of line edits in order to address elements of prose. We will meet again for a one-hour call to talk about my notes and come up with a revision plan. I am also happy to discuss other aspects of the writing and publishing life. If you have found the process helpful, I offer a reduced rate for second and third revisions.
I only work with writers whom I am confident I can help. Please provide a work sample of 10-20 pages for review. I charge a flat fee of $1,900 for projects up to 60k words and $2,400 for those up to 100k words. If you can’t afford the fee, a sliding scale is available (if you want to take advantage of this option, please note your financial situation in the ‘Other Information’ section of your registration).
Sarah Manguso is the author of the acclaimed debut novel, Very Cold People (Hogarth, 2022), which the New York Times called, “masterly.” She is also the award-winning author of 300 Arguments (Graywolf, 2017), an NPR Best Book of 2017; Ongoingness: The End of a Diary (Graywolf, 2015), a New York Times Editor’s Choice; The Guardians: An Elegy for a Friend (FSG, 2012), a Salon Top Ten Book of 2012; The Two Kinds of Decay: A Memoir (FSG, 2009), a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year; Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape (McSweeney’s 2007), a Los Angeles Times Critics' Choice; and the poetry collections Siste Viator (Four Way, 2006), and The Captain Lands in Paradise (Alice James, 2002), a Village Voice book of the year. A master of the unconventional in multiple genres, Kirkus Review praised Manguso as "a Proustian minimalist on the order of Lydia Davis.”
