What the Heck is a Reader Report?

Hey guys! I'm switching it up a little bit today: Random Post today, Writing-not-Wednesday tomorrow. Hope you enjoy!

The publishing industry is a hard nut to crack, particularly if you're trying to get into that particular nut. Reading and talking about books all day is many people's idea of a dream job, but the job openings are relatively few. So, with many wonderfully qualified people applying for the same few jobs, how do employers separate the good from the bad? Reader reports.

Reader reports are like mini book reviews of unpublished manuscripts that are going through the editing process. Often they're done by interns or assistants prior to the agent accepting that book, and are mostly used to determine whether the book is saleable, what's good about it, and what needs to be fixed. Reader reviews are one of the main jobs of agency interns, and so obviously it's important that the person writing the report and the person reading it to have similar personalities and styles. Therefore, they are a good way of determining whether an intern and an agent will be a good match.

I was recently asked to write my first reader report last week, and thought that maybe sharing my experience could help future job hunters learn about what they're doing and writers understand a little bit more about what's going on with their manuscripts.

Writing a Reader Report:

1. Read other reports! If you can read other reports that your agent has found helpful, do it! Some agents may want a more formal report and some may find a more casual style interesting, so reading these will help you get a feel for what to focus on and how to proceed. If you can't get access to some samples, ask the agent what they look for in a manuscript and how formal they prefer their reader reports. It never hurts to ask, and you want to give the best possible product, so just do it!

2. Find out about the author. A quick google search should help you get a better feel for what you're about to read. Are they a new author? Have they published things before? Are they writing in a different genre than usual? What are the common critiques of their writing? While this information isn't essential to your reader review, knowing it can definitely help.

3. READ THE BOOK! This is the fun part. You're getting to read an actual book that might actually get published before anybody else! Enjoy it. Make sure that you take notes along the way. Write down what's boring, what's interesting. Note down if you don't understand something, or believe it, and why.
This is just a draft, and you're expected to critique, so look for the good as well as the bad. Keep a little log of plot holes, characterization problems, pacing issues, great lines, terrible lines, and anything else you noticed. The more you write down the easier it will be to critique it later.

4. Think about it. Don't go over your notes yet. Just sit and think. Collect your thoughts, and gather your gut reactions. The first word in reader report is "reader" so make sure to think about your experience reading the book. If you liked it that's great, if you didn't like it, that's fine too, but it's important to figure out your gut reactions before delving into the minutia.

5. Read your notes. Now that you've thought about the big picture, go through your notes and find out why you disliked this character or why you loved that plot point. Your notes will help you gather evidence for your opinions and might even remind you of something you forgot.

6. Write it! Just write. A reader report, unlike a book review, is about constructive criticism as opposed to just criticism, so the more you can say the better. Be polite, but don't hold back on your opinions. If you think something was weak, say it! While writing my reader report I was tempted to withhold one of my opinions about a character because I thought that my opinion might not be shared, or that I might be negatively judged for thinking it. I kept the critique in, and right after I emailed the reader report, I got a message back from the agent telling me that she had thought the exact same thing! You never know whether the agent will agree with you or not, but it's always best to speak your mind.

7. Eat a cookie. You just helped write a novel! You deserve a cookie. Mmmmm... delicious.

Hope that was helpful! Have you written a reader report or heard about reader reports before?