The New Zealand Society of Authors CompleteMS Programme opens today.

Do you have a completed manuscript draft you want to take to that next level?

Consider applying to the NZSA CompleteMS Manuscript Assessment Programme - a programme that provides writers with essential critical feedback on an advanced work, moving it closer to publication.

An assessment assists an author in improving their work by providing a constructive, detailed report on the project’s strengths and weaknesses, and offering suggestions on how the author might move the project forward. 

In addition, all assessments are offered a follow up 1 hour Q & A with their assessor.

Writer Maria de Jong said “The manuscript assessment helped me to produce an art book that would appeal to a publisher. Helpful suggestions were made, such as adding descriptive sub-headings to liven up the text, and to cut passages that were repetitive or dragged. Suggestions were also made to expand intriguing threads of the story. I found it invaluable having an assessor cast an expert eye over the manuscript.” Maria’s book Fred Graham Creator of Forms Te Tohunga Auaha was published by Huia in 2014 and has gone on to win the arts category of the Ng? Kupu Ora Aotearoa M?ori Book Awards 2014.

A selection panel will choose 13 successful applicants who will be matched with an assessor who specialises in the genre in which the applicant writes. In 2015 we are thrilled that comic / graphic novelists will now also be able to submit their completed manuscripts for assessment in this programme. We will continue to dedicate one of the CompleteMS assessments to a mid-career writer.

The NZSA has been assisting writers with full manuscript assessments since 2003.  CompleteMS is supported by Creative New Zealand and is open to members of NZSA.

Application Deadline: 29 May 2015