Editing to bring out the best in your work

Writing is your craft, your passion. Editing is mine. What I desire is to see you succeed in your writing goals. And I do that by providing thorough editing services that give you the best chance of winning an audience. I can take you from brain storming and synopsis to shape the structure of your story, through early drafts with copy editing, and all the way to a final draft polished with fine proofreading.

The services I provide

Structure editing

For when you’re starting a story. We look at plot holes and world building.

Copy editing

Anywhere in the middle of the creative process, for checking you’re on the right track. Make sure you haven’t forgotten about Chekov’s gun.

Proofreading

The last stage of the journey. Before you send it out into the world it’s given an inspection to see that it’s all ship shape.

Push your limits

Books and classes can only take you so far. At some point you have to put words on paper and show them to someone. When you’re ready to pursue publishing, you need an editor. That’s where I come in. I will be honest, encouraging and drive you to fulfil your potential.

Here’s what you get out of it

There are a lot of writing advice books out there that give tips and tricks on how to be better, how to make a more interesting story. But they can’t tell you how to get your specific story to the point that it can go out into the world. I can. I will work with you to make your manuscript its best possible version.

I’ve received some very strange feedback in my time. “There’s something wrong with it but I can’t tell you what that is.” “You need to level up your writing.” “This story is just too dark, but I can’t say how.” This and others have been useless and frustrating. But you won’t hear that from me. Every note, comment and suggestion will have a reason behind it. And everything will be open to discussion. I want to forge a partnership between us based on honesty and respect.

While you might find a nice writing partner out there, the majority of writers aren’t professionals at it. Ask around at a writing group and see what the others do for day jobs. They all love writing I bet, but they don’t live it. Every day, I work with writers to help them increase the quality of their writing. I’m not going to go into your story half-hearted, or be too busy with other things to meet a deadline. I will give you my full attention because my goal is to help you reach your goals.

Some free advice

A lot of people have put out various books on writing. I thought I’d do something different. So I’ve distilled some of the big lessons of writing and turned them into kinetic typography videos. Here’s the first one.

What others have wanted to know

Why should I hire you and not use an AI to correct my work?

AI can be fast to use and even free, but they have severe limitations on what they can do, and there’s a good chance that the story you enter in for checking will be made part of its data set for future users, putting your copyright at risk.

What is the Sample Edit?

Writers might be hesitant to fork out money when they don’t know what I can do, so I offer the Sample Edit. You send me a section of your work (up to 2000 words) and I will copy edit or proofread it (your choice). This way you know what you’re getting when you hire me.

Why are you prices listed in ‘per thousand words’?

That’s so that you know you’re not being cheated. I can’t give a quote of so many hours, then mysteriously end up taking longer and charging you for much more than you were quoted. This way, you know exactly how much it costs going in.

What others have said about me

Nick is an excellent, thorough and conscientious proofreader with an excellent eye for detail, and a streak of humour that makes even the most tedious proofing entertaining. His work ethic is excellent and he has met every deadline I have given him, even for the occasional last-minute job! His work is highly recommended.

Kate Coe, author

En dash? Em dash? Slapdash? If you’re writing fast and jumping quickly between U.K. and U.S. English, then it helps to have a great proofer on your side. That’s Nick.

Lucy Holloway, copywriter

The helping hand for you

The big truth of writing is that you can’t get where you want to be on your own. But I can be there for you, helping you at any stage of the journey. Be it shaping characters, mapping a plot or correcting punctuation.

And our journey together starts with me proving myself to you. Let me earn your trust, become your partner, and aid you in your goals.

Ready to get started?

Click below to see how you can contact me. There’s twitter, email, LinkedIn and more. Whatever you’re comfortable with, we can speak there.