My Services.
Literary agents and publishers:
Editorial work for agents: I offer editorial work on manuscripts before they go out to publishers, making sure the book is in good enough shape to sell, or for delivery. This would include structural and line editing (see below).
Selling foreign rights: I’ve sold foreign rights at the Susijn Agency on and off for many years as part of my literary consultancy. I have particular experience covering Europe, Russia and South America.
Editorial work for in-house editors: Do you have too many edits coming in? Would you like a safe pair of hands to do the odd edit for you, at whatever level is appropriate? I’m equally happy working with the author direct, or with the editor behind the scenes.
Reading and reporting on submissions: I’ve been in-house for the last year and know what is being acquired and what is selling. I can give, informed quick feedback.
Anthology editing, compilation and publication: I’ve compiled several anthology collections in my role as a consultant, working closely with contributors, editors and publishers e.g. The Picador Book of 40 and Carol Ann Duffy’s Shore To Shore.
Consultancy work on backlist exploitation and Literary Estates: Having worked on acquiring, publishing and marketing backlist for Open Road, I have extensive knowledge of where backlist rights are held and how best to exploit backlist content. I’ve also consulted for Charisma AI on backlist potential in the gaming world.
Authors:
I work on both fiction and non-fiction but specialize in literary and historical fiction, as well as a variety of non-fiction including travel, memoir and biography.
Manuscript assessment: I provide sensitive and constructive feedback on work in progress, giving a thorough critique of the work, along with expert advice on how to develop it further.
I offer both structural/developmental editing and line editing:
Structural editing: If you’ve written a novel and you don’t think it’s as good as it can be, I will read your manuscript and write you an editorial letter, a long and thorough explanation of what’s working and what isn’t, and general suggestions about how to fix it. It will probably address plot, characters, structure, themes, pacing–all the macro issues. I follow that by citing specific instances of these problems and specific solutions, as well as specific instances of less general issues–a problem with a given scene, for example, or some bit of narrative logic that’s breaking down, or a drift in perspective. If there are issues of style that need to be addressed, bad prose habits you might have fallen into, I would discuss them as well, giving you examples, telling you what the problem is, and what you need to do to improve. I tend to provide most of the notes and comments in the manuscript using Track Changes, with more general comments in the accompanying email. If you don’t use Track Changes, let me know, and we can discuss other options.
Line editing: When you feel your book is pretty much in the shape you want it to be – the plot works, the characters are fully realized, all the scenery and furniture is in place – I would do the line editing. Line editing is actual hands-on editing: fixing sections that aren’t working, moving passages as necessary, cutting things that aren’t helping, reworking sentences that could be doing their job better. Most first drafts benefit from some trimming, and it often takes an other pair of eyes to see what’s essential and what’s excess. Again, this process is done in Track Changes, but can be done on the page, if preferable.