You can learn all about Emily’s experience here.
She can provide manuscript assessments, structural edits, mentoring and submission preparation packages.
‘I love clever twisty-turny crime thrillers, upmarket/book club fiction, literary fiction and narrative non-fiction. For me, anything that’s a bit dark and psychological usually comes top. I also love women’s fiction that tugs on the heart strings, or anything about human resilience and strength in times of crisis or gives a shrewd observation of the human condition.’
Miriam joined the team in September 2022. After starting her career at a boutique literary agency in Spain, she worked in Primary Agenting at Rogers, Coleridge & White Literary Agency. In 2021, she became a freelance editor and translator.
She provides manuscript assessments, structural edits and mentoring.
‘I am interested in story-led, character-driven works as well as more playful and experimental writing. I love literary and upmarket fiction and narrative non-fiction, historical fiction, clever crime thrillers, and any works which explore what it is to be human especially with a focus on psychological and emotional subjectivity. On the children’s side, I love to edit middle-grade and YA.’
Juliet has over ten years’ experience in the industry, working as a rights manager, literary scout and agent in both the UK and Australia. Over her career, she has worked with best-selling and award-winning writers like Mark Billingham, Claire Fuller and Hannah Richell.
She provides manuscript assessments and structural edits.
‘In my own reading tastes, I’m hungry and undiscriminating. I dip into a bit of everything. The books that are particularly special to me are the ones that have a gift for chronicling the human condition.’
Silvia Molteni has a BA in Philosophy of Science from the University of Milan and an MA in Publishing and Creative Writing from Kingston University London. She is the head of the children’s and YA books department at PFD Agents. She has been at PFD for over twelve years and there she manages her own list of clients, alongside selling audio and foreign rights in the children’s and YA list worldwide. The Bookseller named Silvia 2019’s Rising Star.
Amongst her clients are bestselling and award-winning authors such as Ross Welford, Onjali Q. Rauf, Caitlin Devlin, Ida Tufte Michelsen, Cathy Faulkner, Eibhlis Carcione, Leanne Egan, Rachael Craw, Susie Bower, Jacob North, Alex Bertie, Lisa Lueddecke, E Latimer, Scarlett Dunmore, Isabel Marinov, Jamie Windust and Samuel J. Halpin.
Silvia is our resident children’s books expert. She provides manuscript assessments, structural edits and mentoring for children’s books from picture books to Young Adult.
‘In MG fiction, I’m drawn to strong and diverse voices, with a preference for contemporary and realistic settings and magical realism. I love a laugh-out-loud story, endearing characters, mind-blowing adventures and stories with lots of heart. I always enjoy dark and gothic tales and generally veer towards voice and character driven narratives and gorgeous writing.
On the YA side, I read across all genres, but again preferably literary, character-driven, voicey and beautifully written. While commercial fantasy that involves complicated world building, multiple books and high wordcount is not my cup of tea.
On the adult front, my taste is very eclectic. I’m a big fan of beautiful writing and complex character driven narratives, in a Donna Tartt’s vein, Michael Coleman and Jeffrey Eugenides, but I also enjoy reading more commercial and entertaining fiction in the crime, psychological thriller and bookclub genres. I adore adult narratives with young protagonists.’
Margaux Vialleron is a French-Born, Glasgow-based writer and cook. She is the author of two novels: The Yellow Kitchen (July 2022) and Breaststrokes (May 2024). Her story, Fernanda’s Fish Soup, was runner-up in the 2022 Harper’s Bazaar Short Story Competition. Before switching to freelance, Margaux worked as a Translation Rights Agent for a London-based literary agency for eight years. She is also the co-host of the SPK Book Club, reading and culinary community, and she writes The Onion Papers, a newsletter about storytelling in the kitchen. Find more about Margaux’s work at her website and connect with her via Instagram.
Margaux is our resident published writer, offering an insight into the publishing process from an author’s perspective. She provides mentoring and submission preparation packages.
‘I’m passionate about storytelling and I love to help writers to find their voice and, in the process, confidence in the story they want to tell. I’m keen to work with anyone who doesn’t feel like their voice and style fit the usual publishing curriculum and with authors who write across languages. As a publishing professional and creative writing mentor, I’ve experience working across a wide range of books, from literary fiction, upmarket and book club reads to women’s commercial titles. I’m also a food writer and keen non-fiction reader, and I enjoy working on non-fiction projects greatly.’
A read of an entire manuscript and an honest report. We’ll look for commercial possibilities, structural issues or improvements that could be made and give you our professional opinion on your plot and characters. Please note, if you're looking for line edits this is not the service for you.
Send us: Your draft manuscript (after you have proofread it)
What you get back: A 3-4 page editorial letter with advice on areas of improvement and how to proceed. If you’d like to ask any questions about your report post-assessment, we can discuss via email.
This is the big one and the most popular service - a full in-depth look at your work by a fresh pair of eyes, in order to catch any plot or character development issues that have arisen, tighten the structure and pace, look at theme and stylistic technique, and subsequently come up with a detailed plan on how to approach your next draft. Your quote will depend on your word count.
Send us: Your draft manuscript (after you have proofread it)
What you get back: 8 or more pages of detailed editorial critique, advice for improvement on character, plot, setting, structure, voice, pace and so on using examples in your work and light line corrections on the manuscript. Included is an optional (but recommended) 1-hour zoom session to discuss my structural edit feedback.
Once you have your shiny new manuscript and you are ready to submit to agents or publishers (accepting unsolicited manuscripts), this is when you work on your submission package. We will guide you through writing those pesky cover letters and your synopsis/proposal to give you the best chance when you send your work out into the world.
Send us: Your cover letter and synopsis/proposal drafts.
What you get back: An annotated version of your cover letter and synopsis/proposal drafts and a curated list of suggested agents/indie publishers to get you started. Included is a 1-hour zoom session to discuss your submission package.
These regular hour-long one-to-ones will give you time with us to thrash out any ideas, go over things you are finding difficult, learn more about stylistic technique and give you confidence to move on to the next stage of the process.
Send us: Whatever works for you, it is your time with us and you set the agenda. We can provide worksheets to focus on your character development or plot skills which are to be completed prior to the session for example, or you can send us up to 7,500 words of your work in progress to focus on. Alternatively, we can simply chat through your ideas or difficulties.
What you get back: A 1-hour zoom session where we focus on whatever it is you need help with.
To schedule a FREE consultation and/or to receive a quote for a service, get in touch using the form at the bottom of this page. We’d love to hear from you.
With the aim to be fair to the writer, we quote once we’ve read a short sample of the work and we’ve had a consultation. The quote will depend on your word count and the amount of feedback required.
We have also completed editing projects for publishers and external editing services, such as:
Editing services often have lots of names for the same thing and it can get a little confusing. Here’s a handy guide to help you choose which service you need:
Please, just tell me if it’s any good!
If you have a draft written and you just want an objective opinion from an expert to give you a general idea of where you might need to focus your efforts on the next round, you’re looking for a Manuscript Assessment.
I know my manuscript isn’t hitting the mark, but I can’t figure out what to do to improve it. I’m stuck – I need direction and details!
If you’re looking for some in-depth feedback on your manuscript, assessing your structure, characters arcs, pace, tone, style, commercial potential and crucially, pointing out exactly where the issues occur on your manuscript, you want a Structural Edit.
I’d prefer a bit of step by step guidance as I plan and work through my manuscript.
If you’d prefer to take it slow and have a proverbial hand to hold, guiding you through this tricky writing process, book a few Mentoring Sessions and we’ll work through your idea from the planning stage to the final draft. Let’s make sure you have the groundwork sorted.
I have edited and edited and now I am ready to submit… So, how do I do that?
Whether you are looking to submit to an independent publishing house or to an agent, first you need to get your submission together and that can take a bit of doing. It’s easy to get this final hurdle wrong! I can help you with my Submission Prep Package.
*** Please note that we do not offer proofreading services, and we do not currently offer copy-editing services. ***
We love nothing more than to hear your ideas and be your sounding board. If you come away from a session or service with us and feel excited about your writing again, we have achieved our aim. It’s not always easy, but we’re there for you because we know it’s tough. We’re here to help.
Retaining the integrity of your style and narrative voice will be key. We’re not in the business of making you sound like everyone else – that’s boring. We want you to be uniquely you.
We have the unusual advantage that we are still currently within the industry (see our Rights Consulting page). We have an ear on the ground, so to speak, so we can give you insider knowledge not only to how the publishing machine works, but we also know what editors and agents are looking for right now.
We’ve learnt editing from the best editors and institutions (Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading) and are constantly looking to learn more in order to help you (see my About page).
If you'd like to arrange a consultation for an Editorial Service, get a quote, hear more about my Rights Consulting services, or if you can't find what you're looking for, drop me a line in the contact form. I'll get back to you as soon as I can.
I look forward to hearing from you.
