Alpha Reader Needed, Nonfiction

We are hiring TWO experienced alpha readers to help answer whether this nonfiction/memoir-with-a-Southern-twist 85,000-word manuscript is ready for a development editor. The best reader combines strong reading instincts with enough life experience, literary awareness, strong instincts for voice, and storytelling/oral history to recognize what the manuscript is trying to achieve. 1|--- NDA is required, PDF attached; 2|--- Manuscript includes instructions to answer a couple questions on our feedback form in addition to your longer notes back to us (please expect that we may need minor clarification on your notes); 3|--- If you are interested, PLEASE include your turn-around time; and 4|--- We will be posting another job soon for beta readers that won't require experience. 1. Where your attention shifts 2. Where meaning doesn’t land cleanly 3. Character and relationship clarity 4. Structure and flow, cohesion This manuscript suggests that certain places, people, and experiences settle into us over time, forming connections that are often unseen but deeply influential. Through a series of lived moments—some tall tales until they're not—the narrative traces how these bonds form, hold, and shape us, without trying to fully define or resolve them. And it seeks to leave the reader with one central idea: we are shaped as much by what holds us as by what lets us go.