The Argonode Promising Authors Grant.
A developmental edit on a 90,000-word novel runs $1,500 to $3,000. For an author who has not been paid for the manuscript yet, that is the line between a structural read and no read at all. The first draft of Spine was built in the long quiet after exactly that line.
Each cycle we give ten authors three months of Spine Pro, free. Long enough to run the brief on the full manuscript, talk to the characters whose voices you keep second-guessing, work the notes back into the draft, and end the quarter with a different book.
- ·Three months of Spine Pro, free, no card on file.
- ·Unlimited manuscripts. A hundred editorial briefs a month. The full plot graph, the cast network, in-voice character chat.
- ·A working email address that reaches Ufuk directly when something is broken or unclear.
- ·Half off Pro for the rest of the year if the read landed and you want to keep going.
- ·A finished or near-finished manuscript you have lived with for at least six months. We can tell.
- ·No deal with a major publisher, no developmental editor on your retainer right now.
- ·The ability to write two hundred words about the book that sound like you and not a query workshop.
- ·The willingness to tell us, in writing, what Spine caught and what it missed once you have used it.
Tell us about the manuscript.
Every application is read by a human within two weeks. We are not grading the prose of the application. We are checking whether there is a real book at a real stage and whether the writer has put in the time the manuscript will need from us.
This is not a writing prize. We are not picking the manuscript that would win a craft award. We are giving the tool to writers who are already doing the work and would have hired the editor if they could.
We will turn down strong manuscripts every cycle. If we say no, the no is about fit and timing, not about the writing. Reapply next quarter. Most of the books that need a tool like this do not get it on the first ask.