Run a Sensitivity and Authenticity Reading Agency

1. 1

   Define the service precisely

   A sensitivity or authenticity read is expert manuscript feedback on the portrayal of a specific identity, culture, profession, or experience, delivered as a structured report: what reads as authentic, what misses, what harms, and why. It is consulting input, not censorship and not a certification; say so in your materials because both authors and critics misunderstand the product.

2. 2

   Build the roster like a talent agency

   Recruit readers with the relevant lived experience plus demonstrated craft literacy (writers, editors, scholars, professionals), interview and reference-check them, and record each reader's specific areas. Depth of match is the product: 'a Deaf reader who grew up oral' is a different expertise than 'a Deaf reader,' and clients pay for precision.

3. 3

   Standardize the report

   A consistent template (overall assessment, page-level notes, patterns, suggested directions) with a defined depth per tier. Standardization is what makes an agency more valuable than a directory; the client knows what a deliverable looks like before buying.

4. 4

   Price for real reader pay

   Market rates per manuscript vary with length and depth; set client pricing so readers earn fairly (they are the product) with an agency margin for matching, QC, and admin, commonly structured as a percentage split disclosed to readers. Rush reads and multiple-reader packages price higher.

5. 5

   Sell into the professional pipeline

   Agents preparing submissions, editors at presses without internal programs, author-services studios, and serious self-publishers. Position reads early in revision, not as a last-minute stamp, and offer anonymized case studies showing how reads changed books for the better.

6. 6

   Protect readers and boundaries

   Confidentiality both ways, no public shaming of clients, the reader's right to decline material, and clear scope (feedback, not endorsement; the author owns their choices). A code of practice protects everyone and professionalizes a category often done informally for exposure.

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