The Blind Reading
Before a publisher reads it, our panel does.
You have a manuscript: one you wrote, one built from your transcripts, or one a publisher turned down. We read it blind and tell you two things: is it sound, and will it land.
One report, two questions
Truth first. Then appeal.
Is it sound?
- Sources. Every pasuk, Gemara and Rishon checked at the text itself. What is right, what is wrong, and what we could not find, listed separately.
- Authority. Does Torah state the principle, or is it there to agree with an outside expert? We measure the balance the way a frum publisher's reader will.
- Written, not spoken. Traces of the shiur or the website ("last week", "on the sheet", "post your comments below") that tell a reader this is not yet a book.
- Numbers. Every number on the page counted, and every figure that disagrees with itself.
- Register. Measured against published seforim in your genre, not against taste.
Will it land?
- Seven readers read your manuscript separately, each blind to the others.
- Each one answers the question that matters to them: Would I write a haskama? Would I buy it for my sister-in-law? Would I send it up to the rav-reviewer?
- Each tells you where they stopped reading, quoting your own line.
- Each names one change, the one that would most move them to yes.
- Where several readers stop at the same place, independently, that is the finding.
The panel
Seven readers, from the beis medrash to the seforim store.
The mithazek
"Could my wife and I learn this on Friday night, and would we both get something?"
The avreich
"Is there Torah here I didn't already know, and can I trust the mekoros?"
The rebbe
"Would I write a haskama for this as it stands?"
The frum mother
"Would I buy this for my sister-in-law, and would I finish it myself?"
The Bais Yaakov teacher
"Can I teach from this next week?"
The publisher's reader
"Do I send this up to the rav-reviewer, or decline?"
The seforim-store browser
Title, contents, first page, one page from the middle. "Do I buy it?"
By genre
A chassidish reader, a Sephardi reader, or the reader your book is written for.
Our panel readers are modelled readers. Each is built from what a particular kind of frum reader buys, loves and puts down, and none of them is a real person. They show how your book is likely to be received. A "yes" from the panel is not a haskama and not a publisher's acceptance.
The report
What you receive.
The panel at a glance
Sources: 48 found · 41 checked · 35 verified · 2 to correct · 4 to ask you about
| Line | The manuscript says | The text says | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 212 | "b'tzelem Elokim, in the image of God (Bereishis 1:26)." | בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים בָּרָא אֹתוֹ: Bereishis 1:27. | To correct |
| 388 | "Hillel told the convert, what is hateful to you, do not do to your friend." | Shabbos 31a, as quoted. | Verified |
| 604 | "Chazal say that a kind word is worth more than a gift." | No location given, and none found. | Ask the author |
| 731 | "The three reasons are…", followed by four. | Counted: four. | To correct |
The rebbe · not yet
"Stopped at line 000. The one change: let the Torah state the principle in every chapter, and let the research illustrate it."
An illustration of the format, not a client's report. Every report we send is read and checked by us before it leaves, and it never rewrites your words: it tells you what we found, and you decide what to do.
After the reading
Then it is your decision.
Take it and go
The report is yours. Many authors make the changes themselves, or with their own editor.
The edit it calls for
A light polish, a line edit or a restructuring, scoped to what the reading found, and nothing more.
The Complete Sefer
Edit, typesetting, cover, ISBN and a listing at Yampolsky's: from manuscript to the shelf. How it works.
Request a reading.
Tell us about the manuscript: its subject, its length, and who it is for. We will reply with a scope.