---
title: "Editor or literary agent — Charge for the query critique, run the trenches · ApplyForm use case"
description: "You read queries for free and manuscripts arrive by email. How a editor or literary agent runs it on ApplyForm: Query-letter critique (€75 · 7 days) → First 10 pages + query (€130 · 7 days) → Query strategy call (€90) → Craft essay + one teardown (€7 / mo) → Querying trenches, monthly agent AMA…"
url: https://applyform.app/use-cases/literary-agent
---

Use case · Creative · Editors, literary agents and writing coaches

# You read queries for free. _€75, written, in a week._

The query arrives by email with the first three chapters attached and “no pressure”. You read it on the train, you see the hook buried in paragraph three, and you either write two careful paragraphs for nothing or feel bad about not replying. This is the same reading with a price, a seven-day window and a refund if you miss it: a query critique, a first-ten-pages read, a strategy call, a weekly craft letter and a Discord for the people in the trenches. Representation decisions stay where they were.

[Set this up with the agent](https://applyform.app/#hero-chat) See the whole stack 

Free to start. You keep 80%. Critiques you don't reach refund themselves at the deadline.

_applyform.app/c/hana-reads/query-critique · €75 · answer in 7 days_

Query letter (PDF or paste, up to 400 words) query-ilse-v4.pdf · 2 pages

Genre, word count, comps Adult upmarket fantasy · 94,000 words · comps: Piranesi, The Ten Thousand Doors of January

Where is it in the process? Sent to 32 agents since March. Four full requests, no offers. I can't tell if it's the letter or the pages.

**Pay and submit**  
Refunded automatically if there's no reply by Tuesday 30 Sep, 18:00

€75

Rung one · Paid form

## The form they fill in  
instead of _the email._

The letter as a PDF, the genre and word count with two comps, and one honest paragraph about where they are. Nothing else. Four full requests and no offers is a different answer from thirty-two form rejections, and the form gets you that context before you read a word. The €130 tier adds the first ten pages; cap either at eight a week and the form closes itself.

[Start from a blank form](https://applyform.app/signup?template=custom)

What you send back

## Paragraph by paragraph.  
_Then a verdict._

One note per paragraph of the letter, one on the comps and bio, and a verdict: is it the letter or is it the pages. Written in the inbox, sent from the form. It is what makes the price defensible, what they forward to their critique group, and what makes a dispute almost impossible: the work is on the page, dated, within the window.

_Inbox · Query critique · due in 3 days 9 h_

**Paragraph 1** — Opens on the world and its magic system. Agents skim that. Open on Ilse's choice in sentence one; the world can wait until sentence four.

**Paragraph 2** — Two subplots compete for the stakes line. Cut the sister. One protagonist, one want, one cost.

**Comps and bio** — Both comps are 2019–2020. Swap one for a 2025 debut in the same imprint list; it tells the agent you read the market, not just the canon.

**Verdict** — The letter is 80% there and would get requests as is. Four fulls and no offers means the problem is the pages. That is the €130 read, not another query pass.

**Reply sent**  
Buyer notified · €60 to your balance · 27 Sep

Answered

The whole stack

## Five products,  
switched on _in this order._

Two forms first, because the reading is where the demand already is. Then the call, then the letter that fills both, then the community for the people who need company while they wait.

1.  1
    
    Day one · Forms & Requests
    
    ### Query-letter critique _€75 · 7 days_
    
    PDF or pasted letter, genre and comps, one paragraph of context. Paragraph-by-paragraph notes and a verdict within seven days or an automatic refund. A “Why am I getting rejected?” variant with the rejections attached is the same form at a different price.
    
2.  2
    
    Day one · Forms & Requests
    
    ### First 10 pages + query _€130 · 7 days_
    
    The letter plus the opening as a PDF. Margin notes on the pages, a note on where the story actually starts, and whether the letter and the pages are promising the same book. Cap at four a week; ten pages with notes is an hour.
    
3.  3
    
    Week two · Bookings
    
    ### Query strategy call _€90 · 30 min_
    
    For the writer with four fulls and no offers. Intake: the list they've queried, the responses so far, the genre and the comps. Google Meet, evening slots, reminders at 24 h and 1 h.
    
4.  4
    
    Week four · Newsletter
    
    ### Craft essay + one teardown _€7 / month_
    
    The essay and the market note free; an anonymised member query teardown and the first-page critique behind the €7 tier. The agent drafts from your notes; you edit.
    
5.  5
    
    Week six · Community
    
    ### Querying trenches, monthly agent AMA _€10 / month_
    
    Discord with a weekly critique-swap thread, a trenches check-in and one agent or editor AMA a month. Yearly plan on, cap at 150 so the swaps stay useful. Waitlist when full.
    

_Hana's Tuesday letter · 08:00_

#### #23 — The query that buried its hook in paragraph three

Craft essay

Inciting incidents are not events, they are decisions. Three openings that start on a choice, and why the fourth (which starts on a prophecy) got form rejections.

What I'm reading

Two debuts from the spring list, one that sold in a pre-empt and one that didn't. The difference is on page two.

Query teardownpaid

A member's letter, anonymised, before and after: 412 words to 287, the hook moved from paragraph three to sentence one, the sister subplot cut. Requests went from 1 in 20 to 3 in 9.

First page, line by linepaid

One member's opening page with margin notes: where the story starts (paragraph four), what the first sentence is doing (nothing), and the rewrite.

Market and slots

Two imprints opened to upmarket fantasy this month; romantasy submissions still closed at three. Two call slots left · AMA with an editor on the 14th.

Rung four · Newsletter

## What the weekly issue  
_actually contains._

One craft essay, one reading note, one query taken apart, one first page with margin notes, one market note. The essay and the market note are free, which is what gets it shared on Bluesky. The teardown and the first page are the paid part, which is what gets it renewed: writers in the trenches will pay €7 a month to watch someone else's letter get fixed.

Craft newsletters at $8 a month with a $500 founding tier are already a normal shape on Substack. You don't need a big list; you need two hundred paying readers who query.

Rung five · Community

## Company in  
the _trenches._

Querying is months of silence punctuated by form rejections, and the people doing it want two things: someone to read their letter before they send it, and someone to tell them the silence is normal. A small Discord with a fixed weekly swap and a monthly AMA does both. ApplyForm grants and revokes the role as people pay and cancel; you show up once a week and once a month. Anything longer than a swap comment becomes a €75 form.

-   Monday
    
    **Critique-swap thread**
    
    Post a query or a first page, critique two others first. The rule keeps the ratio honest and the thread short.
    
-   Wednesday
    
    **Trenches check-in**
    
    Who queried, who got a request, who got a rejection. Accountability and the reminder that a 10% request rate is good.
    
-   Monthly
    
    **Agent or editor AMA, 60 min**
    
    A colleague from the other side of the desk answers questions live. The reason people renew after they sign.
    
-   Monthly
    
    **Write-in and roundtable**
    
    Ninety minutes on camera with mics off, then twenty minutes on one craft question. Members bring the question.
    

Why these prices

## Numbers from  
the _market._

**$50–150** what a query-letter review costs on Reedsy

More with pages attached; the marketplace lists 500+ editors who are ex-agents or ex-Big-5. €75 sits inside the band, and there is no marketplace between you and the writer.

**$49 / $99** Manuscript Academy's pay-then-submit consults

$49 for a ten-minute query or first-page consult, $99 for query plus ten pages plus a fifteen-minute call. Writers already pay first and upload second; the form is that flow with a deadline attached.

**$300** median query-coaching project (EFA 2026)

Editorial Freelancers Association rate chart: query coaching $70–78 an hour, general coaching $75–100. A €75 critique and a €90 call are the entry to that.

**$8 → $500** the craft-newsletter ladder that works

$8 a month or $70 a year for the letter, a $500-a-year founding tier with one 1:1 call, application-only group coaching above it. The €7 tier is the first rung.

**1,200** paid subscribers in under a year, one poet

About $60,000 a year from the newsletter alone, plus a separate paid writing community. The ceiling on a letter about craft is higher than most editors assume.

**$1,500–5,000** what a full-manuscript edit costs

Above the €200 form cap by design. The €130 first-pages read is the sample that earns the quote; the edit itself is invoiced the way you already do it.

Market figures from published industry and platform data, September 2026, rounded. Your prices, volume and retention will differ.

Common worries

## “Is a paid critique  
_an ethics problem?_”

Not if it is firewalled. The critique is a service sold to any writer; representation is decided in the query inbox, not the critique inbox, and the page says so. Agents who sell critiques follow the association canon: if you later offer representation to a writer you critiqued, you refund the fee. The agent writes that sentence into your form's description and won't remove it.

**“Who owns the pages I'm sent?”**

The writer does. Every submission carries terms the buyer accepts before paying: they keep copyright, you get a limited licence to read and comment, nothing is confidential beyond that, and the files are deleted after the window closes. Nothing uploaded is ever used to train anything.

**“Ten pages with notes is an hour.”**

It is. Cap the €130 form at four a week and the €75 at eight. The seven-day window is long on purpose: read in one sitting, write the notes in another. Querying peaks in January and September; lower the caps when you're on submission yourself.

**“What if I miss the deadline?”**

The buyer is refunded automatically and told why. You get a nudge at half-time and again near the end. A missed deadline costs you the €75, never the relationship.

## Stop reading queries  
_for free._

Tell the agent your Substack or Bluesky handle. It reads what you post, proposes the two critique forms and the strategy call with prices from the market, and sets them up when you create the account.

[Set this up with the agent](https://applyform.app/#hero-chat) [Create an account](https://applyform.app/signup?template=custom)

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