Editorial Services

Congratulations on getting your story to the editorial stage!

I hope you're feeling proud of your achievements so far and excited about your next steps, but I understand if you're also a little apprehensive. You've put hours, months, probably years of solitary work into writing your story, and now you're going to let someone else in on the magic.

Choosing to trust an editor with your writing can be daunting, and you might feel overwhelmed by all the options and the different aspects of the decision to be weighed. You might find yourself torn between instinct and practicality, with emotion and logic each having their say. But should you choose the editor that appeals most to your heart or your mind? Seeing as your words belongs to both, I think it's only fair that each is satisfied at this stage. To get the most out of the process, you want to feel completely comfortable with your choice of editor, and that is not something to compromise on.

Your story deserves a strong writer-editor relationship, and an editor who understands your creative vision and loves your characters just as much as you do. You need an editor you can confidently let in on not only your story, but what it means to you and what you want it to mean to your readers. The editorial process is always most rewarding when it is a joyful collaboration, where both editor and writer are excited about the story, and passionate about making it sing.

My goal as an editor is to help you tell your story, your way. My priority in refining your text will always be to illuminate your voice, your characters, and your words. I am always happy to discuss editorial changes with my writers, explain my reasoning and see if we can find a better solution together. But, of course, you have the final say and if something that isn't working yet is important to you and your story, we'll figure out a way to integrate it and make it work.

It’s your story. You have to be completely happy with it.

And I'd love to help you get there.

Editorial Services

I'm always happy to tailor my editorial work to the needs of my writers, so even if none of these services looks quite right for you, please contact me with your requirements and I'll see what I can do.

Manuscript Appraisal

This is a great option if you're a little stuck with your novel and just want a professional opinion on your next steps, or which level of editing your manuscript is ready for. It's a relatively cheap way to get some editorial feedback and pointers, or to help you resolve any difficulties you're having with misbehaving characters or plot holes.

What you get:

• A written summary of my assessment, including thoughts on your characters, plot, narrative choices, worldbuilding and prose style. I will highlight your manuscript's strengths and the things I particularly loved, as well as any weaknesses.
• Detailed recommendations for your next steps, which could be anything from revisiting certain elements of the story (such as worldbuilding, magic systems or character relationships), restructuring sections (maybe opening the story elsewhere or changing the sequence of specific plot points), or working on your narrative and prose style (perhaps for consistency of perspective, voice, or imagery).

Developmental Editing

This is the most complex level of editorial work. I will look at every aspect of your storytelling: your worldbuilding or setting, your characters' motivations and believability, your plot structure your and narrative decisions.

I'll dive into your story world, dig out your themes, get under your protagonist's skin, and find solutions lurking in any sneaky plot holes. And I'll bring all my experience, intuition and enthusiasm, as both an editor and a lifelong reader with me.

What you get:

• A full editorial letter summarising my critique, including my structural breakdown and analysis of your novel and overall thoughts on your plot, characters and storytelling.
• Comments throughout your Word document, giving detailed feedback and suggestions for developing your plot, characterisation and narration, as well as identification of any plot holes, continuity errors or areas where you lose clarity.
• An additional Word document with a thorough line edit of your opening 1,000 words. I include this so that you can get an idea of the type of improvements you could be making to your prose during your developmental revisions.
• An optional follow up meeting, and ongoing email support.

Line Editing

This is an intense edit, focused on getting your prose flowing smoothly, your dialogue feeling natural, and your voice shining through consistently. I'll be going through each sentence of your novel to make sure every single word is pulling its weight. This is often the most daunting stage of the editorial process, but results are more than worth it. This is where a novel starts to read like a finished book!

What you get:

• Tracked changes throughout your Word document, with comments giving detailed explanations and suggestions for any of the more involved edits.
• A brief editorial letter summarising any recurring issues and explaining my reasoning for editorial decisions, along with my overall thoughts on your story, highlighting its strengths and suggesting improvements where appropriate.
• An optional follow up meeting, and ongoing email support.

Please only commit to line editing if the story is done and you are ready to focus completely on the telling. Of course, I'll let you know if I do find something that needs developmental work, like a sneaky plot hole or a deep continuity error, but I will be going into this edit assuming you are 100% happy with your novel's content.

Which level of editing do you need?

If you need help getting your story in order, you're looking at developmental editing, but if you're at the stage where you need to focus on making your prose as strong as it can be, you want line editing.

If you're not sure, an Initial Manuscript Appraisal might be a good starting point. Especially if you know there is still some self-editing you could be doing, but you want some guidance on where to start and what you should focus on. 

(Speaking of self-editing, I do have a free ebook to help you with the process.)

Some writers find it beneficial to have an initial appraisal or a line edit done on just a small section of their manuscript (usually the opening), during their self-editing process, because they are then able to apply my thoughts and suggestions to the rest of the novel, before returning for a full developmental or line edit.

Get in touch

If you aren’t sure what stage you're at, or you just want to chat about the options, please let me know. I can also work with you on short fiction, poetry or memoir. I love talking about writing and getting to know new voices, so please do get in touch.


I'd love to hear about your project and see if I can help you bring it to life.