Right now, I've put 1/2 down and he's encouraged me to finish the first draft. He read the first three chapters, and had a FaceTime chat with me about his impressions. The first read and FaceTime conversation was only $25.
Initially, I didn't intend to submit a finished work (because I was paying him, so he couldn't tell me what to do), but I decided to take the challenge and have him read the book from start to finish. We extended the deadline of his review, and I've been finishing the last 8 chapters and took the opportunity to revise again. I've been going back into a lot of the reviews and integrating changes, thinning out the word count, etc.
Once I submit the first draft (tonight), he will read it and get back to me within a week. Each of his suggestions will then get reviewed by me and I'll have the option of accepting or rejecting them. Then he'll integrate the ideas into the draft as part of the fee. FYI, he isn't doing punctuation or line editing. He's reviewing concept, plot, and overall impression.
His initial assessment got me to fix my monotone sentences, getting me to link them into longer segments in order to vary the meter. I think the whole work is better just from that idea. TJ also has weapons training, (saber and fencing) so he'll be a benefit in that arena since I've been kinda managing that side of things without a lot of input from others.
As for the overall value of the critique, we'll see in a week. I'm paying a lot, and I'm waiting to see if the investment is worth using him for the other four books. Right now, his fee is high. A penny a word. Unless I manage to hack out a couple more chapters, the overall cost will be about 1200 dollars.
So far, I consider TJ's services to be of value, and it helps knowing that I'm dealing with a person who is vetted and actually works in the field. He reps what I want to write, and I've got a good concept that I think is marketable in a post-LOTR world. If he offers me a contract, then he's paying me back, but I don't think I'm ready for a sale.
I feel that people publish too quickly. They polish their book to the maximum of their abilities, but they get tired and don't enlist professional help, so they have a crapload of misspellings, punctuation errors, and don't keep track of their props, etc. If I self-publish, I'll probably hire someone as a line editor to correct the errors I've let slip by.
The only exception that I've seen to this rule is The Martian, and that blows a lot of my theories out of the water.
I'll let you know what else happens. I've got my fingers crossed...
