Any piece of writing will need rewriting to some extent. Sometimes, when you’ve been staring at your manuscript for a while, you can stop seeing it for what it is. An editor’s role is to step in and assess the quality of your work, then to advise you on areas of improvement. That could be big things such as the overall structure of a piece or character and scene development, right down to the individual words you use.

With the help of an editor, you’ll be able to redraft your work and improve its chances of being picked up by a literary agent or a traditional publishing house. If you are hoping to self-publish, an editor’s input can be invaluable in ensuring the work you put out into the world will appeal to readers.

While Artificial Intelligence is improving all the time, AI can never replace writing by a professional writer. A freelance writer is able to provide bespoke copy that is thoroughly researched and written to the highest standards.

Whether you’re looking for website content, marketing materials, social media posts or ghostwriting of your autobiography, hiring a freelance writer ensures you get the personalised service you need to get your words into print.

Sometimes you can read a manuscript so many times that you ‘can’t see the wood for the trees’, as the saying goes. That’s when you need a second set of eyes.

A professionally trained proof-reader can help spot any rogue typos or mistakes in grammar and punctuation. Their close inspection of your text can give it the final polish it needs before you self-publish or submit it to agents or publishing houses.

Of course! Hiring an editor is a big decision and you need to feel happy that their editing style is the right fit for you.

I am more than happy to carry out a short sample edit and talk you through it, to help you decide if you would like to work with me.

I offer very competitive hourly rates for my editing and proof-reading services, but the amount charged will depend to some extent on the quality of your manuscript.

In order to give an accurate quote, I would need to see a sample of your manuscript to assess how much work it might need. Before you give the green light for a full manuscript edit, I can provide a sample edit on a small section of your work.

For my writing services, you can specify a word count and I charge 0.06p per word, with no charge for reasonable amendments.

I pride myself on my fast turnaround times for writing, editing and proof-reading. While I will never drag the process out, the work takes as long as it takes if it’s to be done thoroughly.

For the majority of writing projects, I can have a first draft with you within 72 hours for longer pieces and within 24 for shorter works. This all depends on the amount of research which needs doing and my existing workload.

For editing, the process can take a number of weeks depending on the length of your manuscript. I will always try to give a realistic timeframe and quote at the beginning and keep you informed of progress.

That depends on how confident you are in your own editing abilities. There are three tiers of editing and all of them can play a part in your manuscript’s journey.

Once you have finished a first draft of your writing project, hiring a developmental editor can help you get a better understanding of your manuscript’s viability, where its strengths and weaknesses lie and what direction you should take a second draft in.

Once you have redrafted your manuscript, you might benefit from the help of a line editor. A line editor can advise on the finer details, such as the overuse of some words or areas where the writing could be tighter and simpler.

Those amendments made, the next stage could be a copyeditor. Copyediting focuses on how your manuscript works on a sentence-by-sentence level, really drilling down into the technical aspects of your manuscript, including formatting.

Proof-reading is the final stage before publication. A proof-reader won’t make changes to the structure of the text, but will catch as many typos, grammatical errors and punctuation mistakes as possible before you self-publish or submit the manuscript to agents and publishing houses.

Although I do work on non-fiction manuscripts, I specialise in fiction. My experience is largely in long-form literary fiction, short stories and poetry.

I undertake all manner of writing projects for both corporate and private clients. For a full list of services, please visit the Writing section of this site.