Research Areas
Nine active lines of inquiry.
White Papers, Case Studies, Methodologies, Framework Development, Editorial Research, Narrative Psychology, Publishing Studies, Technology Research, Reader Behavior, and Future Editorial Systems — organized as an ongoing research program, not a one-time report.
White Papers
Published research, open to the field.
White Paper · 2026
Reading Retention in Long-Form Fiction: An Eighteen-Month Study
Session-level tracking data across 340 unpublished manuscripts, identifying structural predictors of reader attrition.
White Paper · 2025
Tacit Knowledge in Developmental Editing: An Interview Study
Structured interviews with forty working editors, coded for recurring but unwritten editorial heuristics.
White Paper · 2025
Genre Contracts: A Comparative Structural Analysis
Comparative coding of structural patterns across mystery, romance, and literary fiction manuscripts.
Case Studies
Research applied to real editorial problems.
Case Study
Diagnosing a Stalled Series: A Structural Intervention
How Framework-based structural analysis identified why book three of a bestselling series was underperforming its predecessors — and the specific revision that resolved it before publication.
Case Study
Teaching Structure to Two Hundred Writers at Once
Results from the Academy's first cohort-scale structural editing intensive, measuring pre- and post-course manuscript assessment scores.
Current Studies
What we're studying right now.
Reader Retention in Serialized Fiction
Extending our long-form retention research to serialized and episodic fiction, where attrition can be measured installment by installment.
Participation: Now accepting manuscript submissions from serial fiction authors.
Timeline: Enrollment closes September 2026; findings expected Q2 2027.
Tacit Knowledge Across Genre Specialists
A follow-up to our developmental editing interview study, testing whether genre specialists carry additional tacit heuristics general-fiction editors don't.
Participation: Interviews underway with genre-specialist editors; not currently open to new participants.
Timeline: Fieldwork continues through late 2026.
Structural Diagnosis at Cohort Scale, Year Two
A longer-horizon follow-up to our first Academy cohort study, tracking whether diagnostic skill gains persist beyond the course itself.
Participation: Cohort concluded; submitted assessments are currently under review.
Timeline: Findings expected early 2027.
Series Fiction as a Distinct Structural Category
A formal follow-up to the open question raised in our stalled-series case study — whether series fiction carries reader expectations measurably distinct from standalone fiction.
Participation: Data collection is complete; no further submissions needed.
Timeline: White paper expected Q4 2026.
Research Ethics
“We study manuscripts with the explicit consent of their authors, and we publish findings, not names.”
Take part in what we're studying.
One study above is currently recruiting manuscripts; others are underway or in analysis. Wherever a study stands, there's a way to take part.