Intersection Column | Why My “Perfect” Manuscript Needed a Sensitivity Reader

by Suzanne Woods Fisher

When my editor called two days after I sent her the manuscript for Chase the Light, I braced myself. Two days is fast. Really fast. In my experience, fast usually means one of two things: either she loved it so much she couldn’t put it down, or there were big problems.

“I read it in two days,” she said. “And I have no revisions.”

I actually laughed. “Really?”

“None. It’s ready.”

That’s a moment every writer dreams about. The wow moment. The one where you realize all that time wrestling with plot holes and character arcs actually paid off.

And then: “But I want to send it to a sensitivity reader.”

That was a first for me.

Chase the Light takes place in Acadia National Park, on the rugged coast of Maine. My main character, Scout Johnson, is a park ranger who discovers a letter of confession tied to a shipwreck from the 1800s.

Now, if you know anything about the Maine coast, you know it’s a ship graveyard. Hundreds of vessels went down in those treacherous waters over the centuries.

But this particular ship was carrying gold.

Not pirate treasure or smuggled riches—federal money, sent from the government to the Penobscot Nation as restitution for land taken from them. These payments came sporadically, grudgingly, and this particular shipment never arrived. The gold, Scout and my swoony male lead Naki Dana discover, is hidden in clever spots around the park.

Naki has been looped into the treasure hunt because he knows Acadia like the back of his hand. He’s also Penobscot. The son of the chief.

In writing the National Park Summers series, I’ve felt it was essential to tell the complete story. And that story doesn’t start with Congress declaring a place protected in the early 1900s. It starts centuries before that, with the indigenous people who lived on, cared for, and were often forcibly removed from that land.

Acadia is no exception. The Wabanaki Confederacy—which includes the Penobscot Nation—had called that coastal land home long before it became a tourist destination.

So having Naki as the romantic lead was about honoring that history, acknowledging that loss, and showing that indigenous people aren’t relics of the past—they’re here, now, living full and complex lives.

But here’s the thing: I’m not Penobscot. I’m not indigenous. And no matter how much research I did—and I did a lot—there would be blind spots.

That’s where the sensitivity reader came in.

For Chase the Light, my sensitivity reader—who is indigenous—looked through the lens of her experience to flag anything that might be inaccurate, stereotypical, or unintentionally harmful. Small details about language, cultural practices, and even the way Naki thought about his heritage. Things I would never have caught on my own, no matter how many books I read or articles I studied.

She also affirmed the things I’d done well, which honestly meant just as much.

You might be wondering why I didn’t just write what I know. After all, that’s what writers are told to do. Why not make Naki a white man and avoid the sensitivity reader process altogether?

Because Chase the Light is a better book with Naki as Penobscot. The romance with Scout is sweeter because it’s rooted in real history and real stakes.

If you’re a writer considering a sensitivity reader, my advice is simple: do it. Not because you’re scared of getting something wrong (though that’s valid), but because you want to get it right. Because the people you’re writing about deserve to be seen fully, truthfully, and with respect.

And if you’re a reader picking up Chase the Light, I hope you’ll feel the care that went into every page. I hope you’ll fall in love with Naki the way I did—not because he’s swoon-worthy (though he absolutely is), but because he’s a fully realized person with a history, a heritage, and a story worth telling.

The whole story.

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About the Author

Suzanne Woods Fisher is a bestselling author, Christy finalist, Carol and Selah winner, and two-time ECPA Book of the Year finalist, with over forty books to her name. She writes contemporary, historical and Amish novels. Suzanne lives in California, where life (family and friends) inspire her stories.

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About the Book

When Acadia National Park ranger Scout Johnson discovers a weathered note near a remote lighthouse, she never imagined it would expose a century-old mystery about a forgotten shipwreck, a lighthouse keeper's suspicious death, and a vanished treasure.