What does REAL WRITERS cost?

REAL WRITERS is run by professionals; this is (partly - we're real writers too) how we earn our daily bread. Our fees have risen only twice since REAL WRITERS was formed in 1992. Compared with other similar services our charges represent excellent value - and they're a fraction of the fees charged by a solicitor or an accountant, and considerably less than a car mechanic or computer repair agency.

Our basic fee of £25, for regular and one-off critiques, covers a full professional evaluation of up to 2500 words of prose, 100 lines of poetry, or 20 pages of script.

For detailed assessment of longer work, we charge a supplementary £10 per additional 1000 words of prose; for poetry the supplement pays for another 30 lines.

Our hourly rate of £25, payable on invoice within 30 days, usually becomes cheaper at 5000 words: a full-length novel, for instance. We will, if you wish, agree a cash limit with you before we begin, so you know right from the start how much you'll pay - but when you calculate your maximum bear in mind that reading time can vary between ten and fifteen hours for a novel of 80,000 words, and producing the appraisal at least another hour.

We also offer several special introductory package deals, available once only to each client:

• Publishers' Package: a full appraisal of a synopsis and opening chapters of a novel, max 10,000 words, for just £50.
• Prose Writer's Package: a full appraisal of a short story or feature article, max 3000 words, for just £30.
• Poet's Package: a full appraisal of a single poem or a selection, max 120 lines, for just £30.
• Playwright's Package: a full appraisal of a 30-minute script, max 36 pages, for just £50.

Before seeking an appraisal of an entire novel, we strongly recommend that aspiring novelists take advantage of the Publishers' Package special deal. A synopsis and two or three chapters, up to 10,000 words, is what a publisher or agent would want to see in the first instance, so it is important to get this 'shop window' sample right. An extract of this length allows our tutor to identify ongoing problems, which you can address before sending us the whole work.

Also in this section:

• How to Pay for the REAL WRITERS Service?
• How to Use the REAL WRITERS Service?