How to Make a Reading Report

If you want to know how to make a reading report step by step with its correct structure, follow these instructions:

Manuscript details

This first section should include the following things:

• Name and surnames of the author.
• The title, perhaps provisional, that the author has given to his work.
• What type of reader is it aimed at (children, adults, …).
• The genre and subgenres it covers (romantic, horror, historical, …).
• The total length of pages.
• The publication date of the work (if it has already been published).
• Punctuation.

Descriptive part

• The synopsis or a summary of what the story is about.
• The narrative structure that it has.
• The subject it deals with: an impossible love, the conflict between parents and children, corruption in the political world. etc.
• The style.
• A short biography of the author (other works he has published, professional resume, city of birth, etc.)

Assessment

The valuation is the key point of the report, because thanks to this the editor or publisher will be able to get an idea of ​​what the work itself is and if it has some type of characteristic or affinity with its publishing catalog. The valuation includes the following aspects:

• If it is a commercial work
• If it has literary quality
• If you have influences or there are links with other writers, books, literary trends, etc.
• What type of audience can it be aimed at?
• The reader’s own or subjective opinion (what feeling the work has given him).

Query

Here, the professional reader proposes the following things:

• The final title of the work.
• The text to be published on the back cover of the book.
• The cover design.
• The appropriate marketing actions to publicize the book and reach the right audience.

Regarding the price of a reading report, there are several factors that influence when establishing a standard or definitive price: the publisher for which the work is being carried out (if it is a large publisher or a new publisher), the trajectory of the professional reader (the more known in the literary and publishing world, the more it will rise your cache), etc.

Normally, and according to the current market, the payment scale is established based on the pages read. Currently, prices range from 0.66 cents to the euro per page read.

If you want to work as a professional reader and receive a commission, the first thing you should ask yourself is what type of client is said work aimed at. Is it for an editor or an author who wants to see their work valued and from another perspective? Each of them will assess the points that make up the report differently:

• Editorial catalog: Both will be interested to know if the book meets the requirements to belong to the editorial catalog. In the case of the author, this information will be essential for him to send his manuscript to all publishers that have a catalog related to his book.
• Strengths and weaknesses: assessing which points must be reinforced or improved in the work and which are those that define it and make it a great job is an essential part of any professional reading report.
• The first impression is what counts: In the case of the author, a reading report by a professional reader will be an excellent cover letter to an editor. For the editor, the more condensed and explicit, the better.

Publishing houses hire reading reports while writers, when they go to a professional reader, hire what is called a literary report. The literary report analyzes, of course, the structural part of the work, but it is also oriented so that the work can be presented to publishers. Wondering how to make a literary report? Follow these steps:

1. Literary aspects: analyze the synopsis, the structure of the novel, the characters, the point of view, dialogues, etc.
2. Formal aspects of language– Analyze the proper use of spelling and syntax.
3. Coherence: analyze if the text has meaning and coherence at a formal and stylistic level. That is, if the novel is a unit and not an amalgam of ideas and meaningless texts.
4. Strengths and weaknesses of the work: what shines with its own light in the work and what must be polished or developed for it to be publishable.
5. Commercial orientation: what can we highlight, eliminate, correct in the work so that it reaches the widest possible audience or so that it is considered publishable (it is not about selling millions of books but it is about making the book itself profitable for publication).
6. Personal valuation: once the technical and marketing part is done, assess the text from the point of view of a sensitive reader.

You may also be interested in this article on What to do to publish a book.

If you are thinking of dedicating yourself to the world of professional reading and wondering how to make a literary report or how to make a professional reading report, it is important that you know that the work should not exceed two or three pages in length, which is why synthesis and precision is paramount.

If you want to make a literary report, you must develop each of the parts of its structure thinking that the person who is going to read it needs to “get to the point” of the matter. In your professional reading report you should develop:

• The technical part or, as we have seen, where the most basic details of the manuscript appear.
• The descriptive part– This should include a short biography of the author, synopsis of the work, theme, etc. Think that if you make a professional reading report for a publisher, the descriptive part is one of the most relevant, because only then will the editors get a main idea of ​​the work at hand.
• The evaluative part: it is where else any editor stops. You must rate the work both commercially and literary, because nowadays the combination of literary quality and commerciality are essential to gain a foothold on the shelves of bookstores. Also assess what other similar books are already on sale and, therefore, are competitors. Including in this section the feelings that the book has caused us on an individual level can also be helpful when evaluating a literary text and it is that, we must not forget that a professional reader is an avid reader who has literary sensitivity. It also includes where to make corrections or tasks of editing to polish the text (eliminate fragments that do not add anything to the story or make it too long, increase content in certain chapters to get to know a character better, …).
• The advisory part: the advisory part may or may not be part of your literary report depending on whether the publisher has decided to hire her. If requested, you must include the definitive title of the published book (this article on How to choose the name of a book can help you), what design the cover should have, the synopsis of the back cover and the marketing lines to be used. continue to reach the largest number of readers and be able to compete with books in the same editorial line.

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