Editorial and Critique Services

Hello. My name is Debra Doyle, and this is the weblog for Dr. Doyle’s Editorial and Critique Services. I have an earned Ph.D. in English from the University of Pennsylvania (1981), and for business, I write. About the only thing I’ve ever done for money besides writing–if we don’t count a stint working in the dishroom of the cafeteria while I was in college, which, really, let’s not–has been teaching: Freshman composition (under the various trendy names it’s gone by over the past two or three decades), which wasn’t really that much fun; and fiction (yearly at the Viable Paradise workshop from 1997 through 2016), which was and is considerably more enjoyable.

Along the way, I’ve become a published author.  I’ve written or co-written around thirty novels and around thirty short stories.  I’ve written, and been paid for, non-fiction essays.  I’ve edited myself and my co-author, I’ve been edited by the best, and I’ve edited other people’s works.  Now I’m putting that expertise up for sale.

What I will do: Critique and line-edit your novel. A critique generally runs 3-5 pages, and covers structural and developmental issues. If I think that your novel has reached or can reach a level which makes it suitable for submission, I’ll tell you so. If I don’t, I’ll be honest about it and tell you that, as well.

What I won’t do (because no one can): Guarantee that your novel will be commercially published. Guarantee that your novel will be elevated by my services to publishable quality—I’ll only undertake to make it a better novel than it was before, and to provide you with what I hope will be a learning experience in the process. Think of the whole thing as a private tutorial, if that makes more sense.

Fields I’ll work in: Fantasy; science fiction (I only undertake to vet the fiction part; you’re on your own with the science half); historical fiction, alternate-historical fiction, and historical fantasy; mystery/thriller; dark fantasy and paranormal. I have experience with both YA and adult fiction.

Fields I don’t work in: Contemporary mainstream; literary mainstream; experimental fiction; most nonfiction. If that’s the kind of manuscript you have, I’m not the editor/teacher you’re looking for.

What I will charge: for a typical (e.g., 80,000-100,000 word) novel, $1500, paid in advance via check, PayPal, or Google Pay. Rates for shorter works and for doorstops are negotiable.  For a short story, or for the first 5000 words/first chapter of your novel, the fee is $100; if you later come back for a critique of the whole novel, you’ll get $100 off of the regular whole-novel fee.

My PayPal address is doyledebra@earthlink.net; my Google Pay address is doyle.debra@gmail.com — of the two, Google Pay is handier if you’ve got it.

If you’d like to get in touch with a satisfied customer, just ask. And if you’d like to know a little more about me, you can go here: Dr. Doyle’s Question and Answer Time.

Contact me at doyledebra@earthlink.net if you’re interested.