Book outline involves sitting down together to flesh out your story and structure in such a way that it follows standard storytelling conventions and will have the broadest appeal to readers. Depending on the project’s complexity, a book outline can take as little as one session or multiple.

Once we have a basic outline of the book, we can then dive deeper into the mechanics of the narrative. Here, we will discuss your narrative motivation—defined as the thing that makes you “tic.” What overarching desire is driving your protagonist to make choices and take risks? In opposition to this desire, what underlying need adds to the protagonist’s internal conflict? This service might feel like therapy, but it’s critical to creating a compelling and relatable narrative.

Once we have your novel’s outline and structure in place, writing out the narrative will be up to you. My role in this process is to offer initial critiques of the narrative, looking for voice, style, and organization and ensuring your writing follows our agreed-upon outline.

Once we complete the manuscript, I send it off to my editor for a complete line edit. Line editing involves looking at the manuscript line by line, with particular attention to grammar, style, clarity, repetition, and word choice. This might involve reordering paragraphs, rewriting sentences, and trimming and cutting as required.

A traditionally published manuscript will go through several rounds of proofreading, so I’ve designed a service to replicate this process. I will coordinate a team of three to five technical editors to make your manuscript shine. After this service is complete, your manuscript will be ready to go, whether for self-publishing or for submission to literary agents and publishers.

Some writers prefer to stick with the traditional publishing route and want to try their luck at querying for a publishing deal. From finding the right agent to helping to formulate a winning query letter, C.J. Adrien is here to help.

Outside of helping writers take their projects to the finish line, he can also help in the process that comes after producing a finished manuscript. As a marketing expert in the publishing industry, C.J. is uniquely placed to help authors market themselves and their work once it’s finished. He has created an effective and replicable author platform that will take your work to the next level in sales you won’t find anywhere else in the industry.

A finished manuscript is not publishable. C.J. has vital relationships in the industry to help authors format their interior files, create compelling book covers, and design a professional finished product.