Editing Assessment

£120 (up to 120,000 words) · £160 (120,000–250,000 words) · Over 250,000 words—get in touch

Tells you what your manuscript actually needs, in what order, and what it will cost.

I read your outline as a story in its own right, then sample your manuscript at fixed points across its whole length. You get a written report with a clear recommendation, a drift analysis showing how your prose holds up from beginning to end, and a starter style sheet.

Reverse outline add-on: from £250. Only if you don't have an outline and would rather I built one—this requires a full read rather than a sampled one. You keep the outline afterwards.

48-hour turnaround from an agreed date. Fully credited against your edit if you commission within six months.

Self-Editing Starter Pack

£250

Everything you need to start editing your own work effectively:

• A detailed annotation of a chapter of your choice, up to 3,000 words

• A mini editorial report identifying the strengths and weaknesses in your prose

• Tailored craft book recommendations

• A personalised roadmap—a step-by-step guide through your own editing process

• A style sheet template

Best for writers who want to do the work themselves and need to know where to aim. Fully credited against a full edit within six months.

A Close Read

(A service for AI-assisted authors)

£95

Close reading is what literary scholars do. They scrutinise a text closely enough to see how its language is actually producing meaning. It's the core of my study, and it's turned out to be unexpectedly useful when there are two texts to read—the instructions you gave the AI, and the prose that came back.

The gap between them is almost always a vocabulary problem.

You ask for less telling and more showing, and you get more sensory detail with the emotional signposting untouched—because show, don't tell has come to mean "add description" rather than "dramatise". You ask for better pacing and get shorter sentences because pacing has been confused with speed. You ask for chemistry between two characters and get two characters announcing their attraction because what you wanted was subtext but you didn't state that.

In each case you knew exactly what you wanted, but the term you reached for meant something slightly different in the critical tradition it came from. Or you simply didn't know that the term existed at all. That divergence is what I'm reading for.

What you get:

• Where your terms and their effects came apart, traced specifically through the text

• The literary concept you were actually reaching for, taught and explained properly—what it means, where it comes from, how it works on a page

• The precise vocabulary to ask for it, and why that specific language accomplishes your intended goal

• Reading recommendations for when a concept is worth pursuing further

What to send: up to 3,000 words of prompting—a single prompt, a chain of them, your system instructions, your style guidance, whatever is actually shaping the output—plus up to 5,000 words of the prose it produced, and a few lines on what you were going for.

More is better here. One prompt and its output is an anecdote; several allows me to see the pattern.

Developmental Editing

£36/hour

Available for both completed manuscripts and outlines.

Structure, character, pacing, worldbuilding, tone. I read the whole manuscript or outline and give you an editorial report covering plot, structure, pacing, character development, worldbuilding, style, dialogue and tone—what's working, what isn't, and what to do about it. The fee covers both the read and the report.

A 90,000-word manuscript typically runs 30–60 hours.

Line Editing

£28/hour

Sentence-level work: rhythm, word choice, mood, tone, characterisation, dialogue, repetition, flow. You get tracked changes with explanatory comments where necessary, a style sheet, and a report covering overall impressions and persistent issues.

A 90,000-word manuscript typically runs 80–130 hours.

Partial line edits are available. If a full edit isn't in budget, I can work on your opening chapters, or on whichever section you feel is weakest. Some writers get better value from a partial edit plus coaching than from a full edit alone.

Coaching

£65 per hour

Tailored one-to-one sessions over Zoom. After an initial (free) conference call I build a lesson plan around what you actually need, which might include:

●      Annotation and feedback on a pre-selected sample

●      Help with plotting and structure

●      Learning to read your own work diagnostically

●      Confidence, motivation, and building a writing habit

●      A breakdown of core craft principles

●      Working through common blocks

All lesson plans are developed with you and subject to your approval.

I currently have room for one or two more coaching clients.

Recorded Critique Session

£65 · one hour

A personal Live Edit, with you (and your guests) in attendance or not as your comfort dictates. Your pages, an hour of my full attention, recorded so you can go back to it, with the same post-session breakdown that goes out in my newsletters. Less structured than ongoing coaching and with no commitment beyond the single session.

Founding rate: the first five sessions are £32.50

Credit, return clients, and discounts

Credit-back. The Editing Assessment and the Self-Editing Starter Pack are both credited in full against any editing service on the same manuscript, if you commission within six months. If you don't, the report is yours to keep and use, including as a brief for another editor.

Returning clients: 10% off. From your second book onward, every subsequent project is 10% off. You've already got a style sheet, I already know your voice, and neither of us needs to start from scratch.

Serial publishers. If you're publishing three or more books a year, get in touch about a standing arrangement—reserved capacity, predictable scheduling, and rates to match.

Payment plans are available on projects over £500. Ask me.

Interested in Hiring Me?

If you’re interested in hiring me, please contact me via the form below. Your initial message should include a brief description of your project and what services you require.

I will reply by email and we can schedule a video call to discuss your project further. If you’d prefer, I’m also amenable to communicating via email or a messenger service such as Discord. If we decide to work together I will send you an email outlining the deliverables and either a proposed time frame for completion or my availability for coaching sessions. Assuming these terms are agreeable, both parties will sign a contract that outlines the terms of service.

On completion of a project I will send the annotated manuscript, any editorial report(s) and an invoice for my services.

If you’re hiring me for coaching, payment will be either per session or on a monthly basis.