A thorough read and edit aimed at getting your book from where it is to where it needs to be. If you’re writing a novel, I’ll be looking at the essential building blocks like plot, pace and character development as well as the big-picture aspects like atmosphere, emotional control and marketability.

If you’re writing a proposal for a non-fiction book, I can help you develop your idea into a business pitch that demonstrates what it is you want to do and why you’re the person to do it, including the sections of a proposal that really benefit from a bit of industry insight.

You’ll receive a marked-up manuscript, an editorial letter, and a conversation of up to an hour to discuss your work.

This service is for writers who are ready to start submitting to agents but want an industry opinion first. I’ve been taking submissions as an agent for over a decade. I know how hard it is to get an agent’s attention and I know the red flags that will have an agent closing your submission and moving onto the next. For fiction, I’ll read your synopsis and first three chapters or 10,000 words; for non-fiction I’ll read your proposal and sample material; and for both I’ll read your cover letter.

You’ll receive a marked-up submission package explaining my response as an agent as I worked my way through your material, as well as a letter setting out your package’s strength and weaknesses and my suggestions for improvement.

If you’re not ready or able to commit to a more intense level of service, I offer a budget service whereby I would read the first 5,000 words of your project, plus a synopsis and cover letter if they’re available, and schedule a half-hour follow-up call to discus your work without providing written feedback.

This is a line-by-line edit of your manuscript, chapters or proposal with a focus on readability, sentence structure, flow and grammar. You’ll want this rather than a developmental edit if you’re happy with the overall structure of your work but want to improve the reading experience and professionalism. I’d be paying attention to word choice and sentence flow, but also to dialogue consistency, character choices and voice. It’s an intensive tidy-up, a polish and a sense-check rolled into one.

You’ll receive a manuscript heavily marked-up with edits and suggestions, which can be followed up by an extra editorial conversation if you’d like to discuss the more structural content of your work.

I’ll read your work with a view to providing a lighter-touch overview of your manuscript or proposal, assessing your work for pace, plot, consistency and market suitability. A good option for writers happy with the overall structure of your work and confident in their writing skills who want a professional opinion.

You’ll receive a detailed editorial letter setting out where your work succeeds and where it can be improved. This service does not include a manuscript mark-up.

This is the final hurdle before your work is ready for submission or publication. I’ll be looking for typos, grammatical errors and inconsistencies as well as making sure you have all your em-dashes and en-dashes right and all your quote marks consistent. Were you consistent with your Oxford commas? Did you always use UK English spelling or did you occasionally allow US spellings to creep in? It’s the fiddly stuff.

You’ll receive a manuscript marked-up with errors for correction, as well as a style and consistency sheet setting out which stylistic choices I made and detailing which style I corrected two in the case of inconsistency. You can also provide a style sheet in advance for me to work to if preferred.