For Authors

Working with Your Manuscript

When you have spent months or years working on a manuscript, it can become difficult to see what is actually on the page rather than what you know should be there. A character's motivation may be perfectly clear to you, an important event may have been explained fifty pages earlier, or a chapter may feel necessary simply because it has always been there.

We provide an objective editorial perspective on novels, memoirs and other manuscripts, whether you are still developing the work or have reached what you hope is a final draft. The purpose is not to turn it into somebody else's book, but to identify the places where the writing may not yet be doing what you intended it to do.

The Story as a Whole

A manuscript needs to work from beginning to end. We look at structure, pace and continuity, including places where the story loses momentum, information appears too early or too late, or something important has simply disappeared along the way.

We also look for inconsistencies in characters, relationships, locations and timelines. People change as a manuscript develops and so do stories. A character who had blue eyes in chapter two may have brown eyes by chapter eighteen, while a journey that originally took three days may later appear to have taken a week. These are easy things for a writer who knows the story intimately to overlook.

The Writing on the Page

At sentence and paragraph level, we look at clarity, repetition, dialogue, word choice and flow. Sometimes a sentence simply needs tightening. Sometimes a paragraph is explaining something the reader already knows. At other times, a scene makes perfect sense to the writer but leaves the reader without a piece of information needed to understand it.

Suggestions are made for a reason and remain suggestions. Where the intended meaning is uncertain, we ask rather than rewriting the passage according to what we think you might have meant. Your voice belongs to you and should still be recognisably yours when the editing is finished.

Memoir and Non-fiction

Memoir and other non-fiction bring different problems. Dates, places, names and events may need to remain consistent across a long manuscript, and something presented as fact may need checking. Where information appears inconsistent or requires verification, it is flagged for your attention rather than silently changed.

The Final Read

Once the editing is complete, a final proofread checks spelling, grammar, punctuation, formatting and the small inconsistencies that are easily introduced during revision. The aim is a clean manuscript that is ready for whatever you decide to do with it next.