Services
WHAT I OFFER
With over 20 years of experience working as both a writer and editor, I offer expert, affordable help with producing written content that really does the job – whether that’s to engage, explain or promote. Whichever professional hat I’m wearing, I maintain a friendly yet rigorous focus on excellence, and always bring lots of enthusiasm to the process of creating something that really connects with people.
Writing services
Each of the following services are offered at a fixed cost, which is calculated based on the scope and needs of the project.
For clients in the non-profit, museum and visual arts sectors:
CREATIVE WRITTEN CONTENT: bringing curiosity, enthusiasm and a magpie’s stash of creative ideas, I generate engaging and strategically effective text and content templates for websites, books, exhibitions, etc.
For business clients and organisations:
PROMOTIONAL CONTENT: strategically effective text for commercial websites, rebrands, pitch decks, reports, etc. We discuss your objectives, then I produce clear, intelligent content that helps achieve them.
MESSAGING AUDIT: identify the unique value of what you offer your clients, and how to communicate that more effectively. Useful when you are creating a new service, updating a website, planning a marketing campaign, putting together a pitch deck, etc. Improves strategic focus, brand authenticity and confidence in articulating what your business can (and can’t) do for people.
WEBSITE AUDIT: get a thorough assessment of your website that tells you what is or isn’t working to support your strategic objectives. This comprehensive review – which covers messaging, text content and tone, plus SEO efficiency, design, layout and UX – includes actionable suggestions for how to improve your site’s effectiveness, plus a checklist that helps organise revision work.
Editing services
For both published and unpublished authors:
Working with a professional editor significantly improves the chances that of all your hard work on a text will pay off. Whether you need to gauge the effectiveness of your first draft, want solutions to a structural issue, or need to get a book manuscript ready for sending out to agents, I can help. I’m a candid, friendly and empathetic editor who works with both published and unpublished authors on non-fiction and fiction books, short stories, essays, etc. – as well as on the content of websites, blogs, reports, funding applications, etc. I offer the following editing services at fixed cost, which is calculated based on reading a sample of the text:
MANUSCRIPT ASSESSMENT – An answer to ‘Where’s my text at?’
Constructive, honest and truly objective (in a way that feedback from family, friends and even well-informed peers can’t be), a manuscript assessment is a professional review of your text that tells you what is and isn’t working. I carefully read through your work, making detailed notes as I go, then synthesise my thoughts in a comprehensive editorial report. This constructive critique looks at your fiction or non-fiction text in overview, offering feedback and guidance that covers foundational aspects such as structure, style, argument, expression, plot, story arc, pacing and character. The process finishes with a close-out meeting with me online, which offers you the chance to ask questions and discuss next steps.
As a lower-cost alternative, I offer a short manuscript assessment, which enables authors to get feedback and guidance on a short piece of writing, or on part of a longer text (does not include a close-out meeting).
DEVELOPMENTAL EDIT – Structural solutions that help you move forwards
Like a manuscript assessment, this kind of edit (also known as a ‘content’, ‘substantive’ or ‘structural’ edit) looks at the bigger-picture aspects of a text but in a lot more depth. Having analysed both content and structure, I not only give feedback but also suggest editorial solutions that should help accelerate the progress of your manuscript into something more publishable. A developmental edit is particularly useful for authors who feel an element of their current draft isn’t working (too long, too unfocused… something) and can’t work out how to fix it. But nearly every text will benefit from at least one round of development edits given this kind of work always tightens up foundational elements: for non-fiction I’ll look at structure, repetition, relevance, consistency and strength of argument, and for fiction, characterisation, motivation, pace, veracity, story arc and dialogue. As well as marking up the manuscript using Track Changes, I produce a written report designed to help you formulate a clear plan for moving forwards. The process finishes with a close-out meeting with me online, which offers you the chance to ask questions or discuss certain points, etc.
As a lower-cost alternative, I offer a short developmental edit that works on the content of a short piece of writing; this service can also be commissioned for an excerpt from a longer text, enabling authors to ‘suck it and see’ before committing to the cost of an edit on a full manuscript (does not include a close-out meeting).
LINE EDIT – Refining a text so that it reads well
Done after larger-scale issues of structure and content have been resolved, a line edit looks at sense and readability at the level of paragraph and sentence. The focus here is on ensuring that your writing is both clear and effective. Marking up the manuscript using Track Changes, I work on detailed elements including flow, tone, clarity, dialogue, veracity, word choice and factual accuracy. Note that if some or all sections of a text require a substantial amount of rewriting, I will charge the work at a slightly higher day rate.
COPY EDIT – Correcting the mechanics of a text
Done when the text is in effect ‘finished’, a copy edit focuses on making a manuscript look really professional ahead of submission to agents, etc. Marking up the text using Track Changes, I work to correct basic errors in the mechanics of a text, in areas including syntax, spelling, punctuation and word formats. (Copy editing is different from proofing. In copy editing, small changes are still made to the content and style of a text; proofing is the very last stage of editing, a ‘final pass’ done ahead of publication that’s designed purely to picks up typos or the odd thing (hopefully not more!) that got missed in the copy edit.)
I am based in Norwich, which is a very nice place, as well as a UK UNESCO City of Literature.