Editing for Writers Who Change the World

Sensitivity and Ethics Read

Most of the books we work on are true: memoir, spiritual writing, practical theology, self-help. True books carry obligations that fiction does not. They portray real people. They make claims about communities. They tell readers how to live.

A Sensitivity & Ethics Read is a full read of your manuscript by an editor with a PhD in ethics, looking for places where your book may be doing something you did not intend.

We read for:

Language and terminology. Outdated, clinical, or harmful language; terms whose meanings have shifted since you learned them; framing that describes people primarily by what they lack.

Representation of communities. Stereotypes with documented histories, inspiration framing, and whether the book is written for the people it discusses or about them for someone else.

Third parties. Memoir depicts real people who did not consent and cannot respond. We look at fairness of portrayal, identifying details that may not be earning their place, and passages where your account of someone else's motives is carrying more weight than your evidence can support.

Reader harm and duty of care. Guidance that is sound for most readers and risky for some, including survivors and people in crisis. We flag where a book would benefit from a caveat, a qualification, or a referral to professional help.

Religious and theological sensitivity. Supersessionism, appropriated practice, scripture cited against communities, assumed denominational default, exclusive language, and redemption arcs applied to someone else's suffering.

Structure and authority. Who the book addresses as "you" and who it discusses in the third person. Where a single experience is generalized into a universal claim. What the book's moral architecture rewards and punishes, and whether that matches your intent.

Fees:

Manuscript length Fee

Under 70,000 words $700

Over 70,000 words $900

You get: a written report organized by category and severity, page-referenced notes, a note on whether a specialty read is called for, and one follow-up email exchange.

What this read can and cannot do

This report identifies what a trained reader can find from the outside, working from research, editorial experience, and knowledge of current conversations in the field. It is not the same as a read by someone with lived experience in all of the communities your book depicts, and it cannot certify that your manuscript is free of harm.

We will tell you when your book needs a specialty read from someone inside the communities you are writing about. We will point you toward specific readers where we can, at no additional cost. Where we can speak from experience as well as research, we will say so. Our own ground is religious and theological writing, queer and sapphic life, and the depiction of trauma and recovery.

Best for: memoir, spiritual and religious nonfiction, self-help, and any book that portrays real people or advises real readers.

Fiction

We read fiction as well. The categories shift toward tropes and their histories, characterization, whose story the plot serves, and who survives it, but the structure of the service is the same.

Manuscript length Fee

Under 60,000 words $500

60,000–100,000 $650

Over 100,000 $800

Add a deep read in one of our own areas, religious and theological, queer and sapphic, or trauma and recovery, for $200. Additional areas are $200 each.