Poetry Critique Service

Poetry Critique Service

About The Poetry Critique Service

If you use our poetry critique service, you will receive:

  • a detailed critique of your manuscript, including constructive criticism, advice and tips for improving your work, all delivered in a positive and encouraging manner
  • comments on your poem/s pace, flow and style as well as observations on structure and anything else we notice
  • proofreading / edits of typos and any other errors spotted as your work is read
  • an optional phone / video call with the editor who has provided your critique so you can ask questions and discuss their advice in more detail

You’ll receive a comprehensive report in Microsoft Word document format, which will contain a detailed critique, summarising our overall thoughts and giving extensive feedback on all significant elements of your poetry. All criticism is constructive. While we might point out faults or areas for improvement, the feedback you receive will be positive and encouraging.

For more details, please see the FAQ section lower down this page.

Peter I

Please extend my deep gratitude to Emilie for the wonderful feedback she’s provided at a very reasonable price. I have the deepest respect for critics and editors who don’t feel the need to tinker with every little thing just for the sake of it, and Emilie is clearly of that admirable type. Because of that, I paid extra attention to the spots that she mentioned could use a little tweaking. All in all, I’m very happy with her work, and I plan to enlist her services again in the future.

Mehreen N

Thank you so much! Your critique is very helpful and constructive.

The contest results are in. While I didn't win, my story made it to the shortlist of the judges' favourite pieces. Around 500 participants competed. So the result isgood. Thank you so much for all your help!

Margot H

Many thanks for your observations and critique of my poems. Thank you so much, Lynda, for your invaluable comments. I know I will enjoy continuing to write and learn from your advice.

How to Pay and Submit your Poem/s

Pay Using PayPal or Stripe

Make your payment via PayPal or Stripe using the buttons below. Once you have made your payment, you will be returned to this page.

You do not have to have a PayPal or Stripe account and can pay by credit card, debit card or even direct debit. We use PayPal and Stripe because they are secure, safe and protect your personal information, ensuring a safe transaction. You can read more about PayPal and Stripe in the FAQ.

Pay by BACS (Bank Transfer)

If you would prefer to pay directly from your bank account into mine via BACS, please contact me.

Other Payment Options

Payments can also be arranged via cheque if you are ain the UK. If you'd like to use either of those options, or discuss an alternative, please contact me.

Then Submit Your Work

Once you have paid for the poetry critique service, email your manuscript as a Microsoft Word document (as a .doc .docx or .rtf file) to chris@christopherfielden.com for assessment. Please state your name, contact details and any other information you feel necessary.

If you can't supply a document in the required file format, please email me - we can usually find a way around it.

What Happens Next?

Chris will reply to your email within 3 days to let you know he's received your manuscript safely. If there are any problems he will let you know. Don’t worry, Chris checks his spam folder too! If for any reason you do not hear from him within 3 days, please get in touch.

On occasion, Chris travels with work and takes holidays / vacations where he has no internet access. This is rare, but in these instances he sets up an 'out of office' reply on his email, letting you know if there will be a delay in his response.

If you need any more information, please check the FAQ below, or you can email Chris.

Dustin S

I had a lovely meeting with Ms. Nash, and I feel it was very helpful for me in getting an educated, outside perspective on my work. The feedback was solid, and she is very friendly, encouraging, and personable. Thank you for facilitating a great experience!

Nancy H

Thank you for such a comprehensive and informative critique. I am grateful for your time and attention. Thank you very much for the citations and websites for inspiration. I'm thinking through your suggestions and will try to apply as many as I can. I love your service and you'll be hearing more from me.

Gregory M

Thank you very much for the critique work you have done for me as well as for your advice on how to deal with it. It was really helpful. Also, I would like to thank Lynda for her feedback and links for further reading.

Poetry Critique Service Prices

All the prices for our poetry critique service are presented in Great British Pounds (GBP).

Please note, the prices are for individual poems, not the overall line-count of multiple poems. If you wish to submit more than one poem, we sometimes offer discounts. Please contact me for more information.

Payment is made via PayPal or Stripe. You can also pay by BACS direct from your bank account or by cheque. If you'd like to do that, please contact me.

Poems up to 60 lines in length £60

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Poems up to 90 lines in length £85

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Poems up to 120 lines in length £110

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Poems up to 150 lines in length £135

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Poems up to 180 lines in length £160

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Poems over 180 lines in length

By discussion - please contact me

Notes on Prices

Our poetry assessment service fees are calculated to allow us the necessary time to thoroughly review and critique your poems. Each manuscript is read at least twice, which is time consuming. All comments, advice and tips are carefully considered so you gain the most out of the service.

Writing Services

Meet The Poetry Service Team

Here are details of our poetry critique service team.

First, the ladies.

Dr Lynda Nash

Dr Lynda Nash

Dr Lynda Nash is a tutor, mentor and freelance editor. She has a PhD in Creative Writing and is the author of several books for adults and children.

You can learn more about Lynda on the main Meet The Team page.

Emilie Lauren Jones

Emilie Lauren Jones

Pic by Lee Allen Photography

Emilie Lauren Jones is a full-time freelance poet and Coventry’s first Poet Laureate. She has been published online and in print many times. Her words have also been featured on several national television and radio stations. She runs regular poetry workshops for adults and children, has judged poetry competitions and is experienced in offering constructive critiques to poets. Emilie holds an MA in creative writing from the University of Birmingham.

You can learn more about Emilie on the main Meet The Team page.

***

Second, the gents.

Allen Ashley

Allen Ashley

Allen is an award winning editor and a prize winning poet who specialises in science fiction and fantasy. He is the author or editor of fourteen published books, President of the British Fantasy Society and judged the BFS short story competition for many years. He works as a creative writing tutor, with six groups currently running across north London.

You can learn more about Allen on the main Meet The Team page.

Christopher Fielden

Christopher Fielden

Chris is an award-winning short story writer. He is also the author of How to Write a Short Story, Get Published & Make Money, which has been an Amazon bestseller.

Chris runs this website. He started these writing services in 2013 and, until 2018, undertook all the critiques himself.

When his workload became unmanageable, he invited expert proof-readers to become part of a select critiquing team. He still undertakes critiques on occasion, but now primarily focusses on administrating and marketing the services his website offers.

You can learn more about Chris on the main Meet The Team page.

Poetry Critique Services FAQ

This service allows you to have your poetry proofread and critiqued by highly experienced poets, editors and published authors. You’ll receive detailed comments based on their real life experiences. By receiving constructive criticism you’ll be able to improve your poems and develop your writing. You’ll also increase the likelihood of achieving publishing success, seeing your work in print and earning money from writing.

If your poem is strong and we know of a relevant poetry competition, magazine, or any other publishing opportunity suitable for your work, we will suggest them to you as part of the service.

Here are some frequently asked questions.

Do you share my personal information with anyone else?

No.

Never.

We will never give any of your personal information or writing to anyone. Anything you send us is treated with the utmost confidence. Your privacy is respected at all times.

If you want any further information, please review this website's privacy policy.

How long will it take to receive my critique?

We aim to proofread your poem/s and return your critique within 6 weeks (42 days).

Often, the turnaround time will be quicker than this. We will try and give you a more accurate idea of timings when replying to your initial email.

Please can you give me some more details on what I can expect from this service?

Yes! You will receive a detailed critique containing comments, edits and suggested improvements for your consideration. These are all provided in a Microsoft Word document.

The edits will be suggestions regarding fixing typos, spelling mistakes, grammar and structure.

We sometimes use Word's comment boxes to make annotations regarding certain sections within the manuscript. The section will be highlighted and the comments will appear in a box attached to the highlighted area. This makes it very easy for you to see what the comments pertain to and review them. Once you’ve finished considering a comment you can simply delete it.

Critique

In addition to the above, we will summarise our thoughts on your manuscript, pointing out strengths and weaknesses. All of this will be delivered in an honest but positive manner. We strive to encourage writers, not offend them with unnecessary negativity. We appreciate that some writers using this service will be beginners and always keep this in mind when providing comments.

Where appropriate, we will let you know if we think your poetry is suitable for submitting to a specific competition or magazine or website that we're familiar with.

Don’t Be Afraid!

We understand a lot of new writers can be nervous about engaging with this type of service, as they don’t want someone they don’t know telling them their writing is bad. The team always try to keep all criticism constructive, positive and encouraging.

Everyone has different styles and levels of knowledge regarding writing. We will simply point out areas for improvement. Once you’ve digested what we’ve suggested, you will be able to improve your poems and give them a better chance of publication.

Part of any critique is personal opinion. You may not agree with everything we say. Good! We don’t expect you to. But you will have considered an outside opinion, which can only help your writing progress.

What is the difference between your critique service and your editing service?

A critique is a big picture analysis, so it should be conducted before a comprehensive edit. Our service gives a broad assessment of your manuscript.

Our editing services are a thorough, line by line edit of your manuscript. We take an in-depth and comprehensive approach to tackle any grammatical problems in preparation for publication. You can learn more about our editing services here.

What don’t you do?

While we will suggest edits, we are unlikely to pick up every typo in your work. We recommend using spellcheckers and diligent proofreading.

We will not rewrite your poems for you. The suggestions we make are for you to consider and then use to revise and improve your writing yourself.

Why do you offer writing services?

When Chris launched his website way back in 2011, he started to receive regular requests to proofread stories and give his opinion on how to improve them. Sadly, he had to turn a lot of these proofreading requests down as he simply didn’t have time to offer this type of service free of charge.

However, due to the frequency of the requests, he decided to offer a paid critique service on the site as it was obvious it’s something his website users wanted.

In 2018, Chris restructured the services, to improve the quality and scope (and to make his ever increasing workload more manageable). He put a small team of experts together enabling him to offer critiques for poetry, non-fiction and longer stories, in addition to offering a critique service for short stories.

Why do you read the manuscripts twice?

To fully understand a poem you have to read it from beginning to end. It's the same with fiction and non-fiction - to gain an objective view, you have to read a manuscript in its entirety.

Chris has received critiques in the past where comments are made towards the beginning of a story that are irrelevant, simply because the proof-reader hasn’t read to the end before making them. He found this frustrating.

Therefore, we read through your work a minimum of two times, so comments are based on the poem as a whole. The team find this provides a better quality critique and more useful advice for the writer.

Why do you use PayPal / Stripe to receive payments?

PayPal and Stripe are both world leading payment service providers. They offer a secure service, ensuring that monetary transactions are quick, easy and safe.

PayPal allows you to set up an account and pay via your bank in any currency, or you can simply pay by debit or credit card without setting up an account. Stripe offers multiple payment options. Whichever payment method you prefer, you can be confident that your personal information is safe.

Setting up secure payments within this website would be very costly and is not something we're currently able to do. PayPal and Stripe are trusted and widely used. For more details, check out the PayPal website and the Stripe website.

While PayPal and Stripe are available in most world territories, there are some countries that they do not operate in. And some of our clients prefer to pay direct via their bank. Therefore, we also accept payments via bank transfer and cheque. Please contact Chris for more details.

Why should I use your service?

The poetry critique service team are all highly experienced writers. They've all written extensively in their field of expertise and have had their work published through a wide variety of magazines, competitions, books, journals, websites and more.

We know, this doesn’t mean we can guarantee that you’ll be published, but it does mean that we can offer you advice based on real-life experience and help give you the best chance of achieving publication.

Testimonials

Below are some poetry critique service testimonials, kindly provided by writers who have used Chris's writing services in the past.

Peter I

Please extend my deep gratitude to Emilie for the wonderful feedback she’s provided at a very reasonable price. I have the deepest respect for critics and editors who don’t feel the need to tinker with every little thing just for the sake of it, and Emilie is clearly of that admirable type. Because of that, I paid extra attention to the spots that she mentioned could use a little tweaking. All in all, I’m very happy with her work, and I plan to enlist her services again in the future.

Margot H

Many thanks for your observations and critique of my poems. Thank you so much, Lynda, for your invaluable comments. I know I will enjoy continuing to write and learn from your advice.

Dustin S

I had a lovely meeting with Ms. Nash, and I feel it was very helpful for me in getting an educated, outside perspective on my work. The feedback was solid, and she is very friendly, encouraging, and personable. Thank you for facilitating a great experience!

Gregory M

Thank you very much for the critique work you have done for me as well as for your advice on how to deal with it. It was really helpful. Also, I would like to thank Lynda for her feedback and links for further reading.

Comments

 

Christopher Fielden Est 2011

This website was established in 2011. It was redesigned in 2024.

The “Poetry Critique” page was published after the redesign.

Comments are welcome. Please feel free to share your thoughts and ask questions.

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