Recently I came across someone who is offering book doctoring services. This person has never had a novel published, nor have they worked in publishing. Their only qualifications are that they like doing it, and have worked on friends' novels to the point where they decided to charge for it.
They may be brilliant - I hope they are. When I was on my MA course I cheerfully handed out what I felt were incredibly insightful comments to fellow students. With hindsight, I don't think the comments were that bad. However, I recognise it was only later that I was able to offer anything truly useful as feedback, when I'd had enough experience of looking at manuscripts and working out feedback as well as writing my own novels and short stories.
We all have to start somewhere. But how can someone expect to offer something worth being paid for when their experience is so limited? What really agitates me is that they're working for a well known literary consultancy which charges serious fees to would-be writers. The answer has to be, if you're thinking of using a literary consultancy ask who is going to be giving the critique.
