Editorial services for all novels, memoirs and non-fiction – Jericho Writers
Jericho Writers
167-169 Great Portland street, 5th Floor, London, W1W 5PF
UK: +44 (0)330 043 0150
US: +1 (646) 974 9060
Authors of Fiction & Non-fiction

Our Editorial Services

Get help with your book, manuscript or novel from a professional editor. We aim to offer the best book editing services in the world.
Turnaround time from 2 weeks

Editorial Services

We handle all types of work – fiction, non-fiction and children’s books – and we work with writers from all over the world. Our editorial assessments offer detailed structural reports by professional book editors with actionable advice on problem areas and how to resolve them, from commercial potential and genre to plot and structure, voice and style, pace and tension, and characterisation. If you’re self-publishing then our copyediting services can offer you an extra level of support with in-text comments directly on your manuscript. There are lots of different types of editing available, so if in doubt, get in touch and our Writers Support team will be happy to talk through your options with you.

Could you be our next success story?

We’ve helped hundreds of writers like you get published. Many of our clients have gone on to win prizes, become bestsellers, get film deals, achieve huge global sales, and more. Now it’s your turn.

Not sure which service is right for you?

If you’re not sure which editing service is the perfect match for you and your manuscript, then get in touch – we’d be happy to help!

Our Book Editors

Request your dream editor or let our team match you with the editor best suited to your work. We’ve hand-selected our team of expert book editors over the last 20 years, including specialists across trade fiction and non-fiction. Here you’ll find traditionally published authors as well as publishing professionals such as literary agents and editors with Big 5 publisher experience.

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Abby Davies

Abby Davies

Editor

  • Bio
  • Books
  • Genres
  • Awards

Abby Davies is the author of Mother Loves Me (2020) and The Cult (2021), both published by HarperCollins, and Arrietty (2023) by Apple Loft Press.

Abby has an incredible eye for pace and tension, both on a sentence-by-sentence level and across the entirety of your manuscript. She’ll tease out what needs to be done to make a manuscript work, whilst telling you what you’re already doing well.

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  • Thriller
  • Crime
  • Action
  • Women’s fiction
  • Young Adult
  • Mother Loves Me was shortlisted for Mslexia Novel Competition 2018
Claire Gillman

Claire Gillman

Editor

  • Bio
  • Genres

Claire is an experienced journalist, writer and editor. She has been coaching and mentoring writers for nearly 15 years.

Claire has written 30 non-fiction books for adults and creative non-fiction titles for children, some under the pen-name, Rory Storm. Among her titles are three books in the Hodder Teach Yourself series on how to get published and how to make money from freelance writing. She has coached authors for top publishing houses and has also run writers’ workshops, always with the emphasis on fun, style and discovering your inner creativity.

  • Memoir / autobiography
  • Biography
  • Mind/Body/Spirit
  • Travel
  • Parenting
  • Natural health writing
  • Other narrative non-fiction
  • Creative non-fiction
Clare Coombes

Clare Coombes

Editor / Literary Agent

  • Bio
  • Books
  • Genres

Clare Coombes is an author, editor and literary agent with over 15 years’ experience of writing and editing professionally. She is a co-founder of the first Liverpool-based literary agency. Clare is a published author of two novels, Definitions (2015) and We Are of Dust (2018).

Her experience spans the breadth of editorial services and includes work across a variety of forms including full fiction manuscripts, anthologies, non-fiction proposals and pitches for film and TV.

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  • Historical fiction
  • Women’s fiction
  • Crime/Thriller/Action
  • Contemporary
  • Literary (including Book Club)
  • Romance
  • Memoir / Autobiography
  • Other narrative non-fiction
  • Subject-led non-fiction
Jon Curzon

Jon Curzon

Editor / Literary Agent

  • Bio
  • Genres

Jon Curzon is a literary agent at Artellus Ltd., where he represents writers across fiction and non-fiction. Client’s he has represented have been published in the UK, US, Germany, France, India, the Netherlands, South Korea, and Greece.

In addition to his agenting work, Jon has also worked as a freelance editor for literary consultancies and creative writing courses since 2015. His perspective as an agent allows him to precisely identify what’s working in your manuscript and what needs tweaking in order to take your work to the next level.

  • Contemporary
  • Literary (including Book Club)
  • Comic/Satire
  • Short stories / Novellas
  • Memoir / Autobiography
  • Other narrative non-fiction
Lesley McDowell

Lesley McDowell

Editor

  • Bio
  • Books
  • Genres

Lesley is the author of fiction and non-fiction as well as short stories and was a literary critic for major newspapers. She is the recipient of three Creative Scotland awards, a Society of Authors grant, and was Writer in Residence at Gladstone’s Library in 2014. She has been a judge for several literary awards, and chairs regularly at book festivals.

Lesley’s knowledge of the market and publishing as a business shines in every report she does, as does her enthusiasm for the art of storytelling.

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  • Contemporary
  • Women’s Fiction
  • Literary (including Book Club)
  • Crime/Thriller/Action
  • Paranormal
  • Memoir/Autobiography
  • Other narrative non-fiction
Dexter Petley

Dexter Petley

Editor

  • Bio
  • Books
  • Genres

Dexter Petley is an experienced editor, acclaimed literary novelist, memoirist and translator. As a long serving editor with Jericho Writers, (since 2005) many of Dexter’s clients have achieved considerable success in finding agents and publishers.

Dexter does not shy away from complex themes or influences. His expertise spans entire genres, from commercial book club to war fiction. He takes everything in his stride, turning his fastidious, but fair, eye to anything at hand – making you a better writer for it.

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  • Contemporary
  • Literary (Including ‘bookclub’)
  • Crime/Thriller/Action
  • Historical fiction
  • Women’s fiction
  • Comic/satire
  • Young Adult
  • Short Stories & novellas
  • Memoir/autobiography
  • Other Narrative Non-fiction
  • Subject-led Non-fiction
Holly Seddon

Holly Seddon

Editor/Mentor/Tutor

  • Bio
  • Books
  • Genres

Holly is an international bestselling author with six published novels to date. She is also a mentor and tutor on our Ultimate Novel Writing Course.

Holly is endlessly supportive and encouraging of every writer we send her way. We love her concise and on-point editorial style.

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  • Contemporary
  • Literary (Including ‘bookclub’)
  • Crime/Thriller/Action
  • Women’s fiction
  • Short Stories & novellas
  • Plays and screen scripts
Helen Lane

Helen Lane

Editor / Literary Agent

  • Bio
  • Genres

As an agent, Helen is very hands on developmentally, and works with her clients to perfect their manuscripts before submission, encouraging her authors to push their writing to new levels. Before becoming an agent, she spent years producing developmental edit reports for the agents she interned under. Her strengths lie particularly in identifying plot holes and pacing, world building, and character development.

  • Science Fiction
  • Fantasy
  • Paranormal
  • Young Adult
Russel McLean

Russel McLean

Editor

  • Bio
  • Books
  • Genres

A former bookseller, Russel McLean is an author, editor, and teacher. He has worked for publishers of various sizes as a developmental editor, including work on one book that was shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for best Scottish Crime Fiction at the Bloody Scotland Festival. He has also run masterclasses in fiction writing for festivals, universities and creative writing groups, as well as advising MLitt students on the fiction element of their dissertations for the University of Dundee’s crime writing and forensics course.

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  • Crime/Thriller/Action
  • Science Fiction
  • Fantasy
  • Comic/satire
  • Paranormal
  • Short Stories & novellas
Philip Womack

Philip Womack

Editor/Tutor

  • Bio
  • Books
  • Genres

Philip is the author of The Other Book and The Liberators (Bloomsbury). The Liberators was a Children’s Book of the Year for 2010. He teaches Creative Writing to BA and MA students at London University, and has been a literary critic for nearly twenty years, as well as a freelance journalist for a variety of national newspapers and magazines.

Philip is known for his honest and well-informed editorial reports – particularly those he does for children’s authors and sci-fi and fantasy writers. Philip is also a Tutor on our Ultimate Novel Writing Course.

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  • Contemporary
  • Literary (Including ‘bookclub’)
  • Crime/Thriller/Action
  • Science Fiction
  • Fantasy
  • Comic/satire
  • Paranormal
  • Short Stories & novellas
  • Children’s
  • Young Adult
  • Memoir/autobiography
  • Other Narrative Non-fiction
Cecile Shanahan

Cecile Shanahan

Editor

  • Bio
  • Genres

Cecile Shanahan is an experienced editor and proofreader who adores helping writers to make their words shine. She has a special interest in children’s and young adult literature and educational publishing, but often works on general fiction and non-fiction titles too.

Since joining Jericho Writers she has assisted more than 20 authors to progress their writing projects through agent submission pack assessments, manuscript assessments, developmental edits, copy edits, line edits, proofreading and post-editorial support.

  • Contemporary
  • Literary (Including ‘bookclub’)
  • Crime / Thriller / Action
  • Women’s
  • Picture books
  • Children’s
  • Young Adult
  • Subject-led Non-fiction
Deirdre Power

Deirdre Power

Editor

  • Bio
  • Genres

Deirdre began her publishing career in a literary agency, working with children’s authors ranging from Tom Fletcher and David Farr to debut novelists and upcoming new authors. Since then, she has gone on to work in children’s editorial at major publishing houses, working across everything from picture books to YA.

Deirdre brings a keen editorial eye and in-depth knowledge of the market, and spends more time reading children’s fiction than anything else.

  • Picture books
  • Children’s
  • Young Adult
  • Other Narrative Non-fiction
Naomi Jones

Naomi Jones

Editor

  • Bio
  • Books
  • Genres

Naomi has over eight years’ experience working in children’s publishing. She began her career at Puffin (Penguin Random House) before moving to Orion and then Hachette Children’s Group. Her previous experience as a Rights Manager brings invaluable insight into maximising a book’s sales potential and she has worked closely with both UK and international editors to develop a good knowledge of global publishing markets and trends.

Naomi has a BA (Hons) in English Studies from the University of Nottingham and is a keen reader and writer. Naomi has been working as a freelance editor and mentor helping other children’s writers to develop their manuscripts and craft for over four years.

 

 

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  • Picture books
  • Children’s
  • Young Adult
Pippa Goodhart

Pippa Goodhart

Editor

  • Bio
  • Books
  • Genres

Pippa began her children’s book career as a bookseller and advisor to publishers before beginning to write books herself. She’s had over a hundred titles published, some of them award-winning.

For the last quarter century, Pippa has combined writing her own books with teaching and critiquing to develop writing for children skills in others.

To date, Pippa has had over 140 picture books, early readers, and MG novels published.

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  • Picture books
  • Children’s
Victoria Lee

Victoria Lee

Editor

  • Bio
  • Genres

Victoria’s wide experience of writing and editing includes children’s picture books through to teen fiction, education and teachers’ books, academic writing, and general fiction and non-fiction. She has worked for publishing houses, universities and individuals. She advises and mentors authors, sometimes over many years.  Children’s books, especially picture books, remain her passion.

Even though her editing background is in traditional publishing, Victoria is very interested in the self-publishing route as it provides opportunities to ‘do things differently’. She is also keen on writing for the pure joy of it.

  • Picture books
  • Children’s
  • Young Adult
Teresa Heapy

Teresa Heapy

Editor

  • Bio
  • Books
  • Genres

Teresa has worked in children’s publishing for 27 years. She’s an editor and an award-winning author, with 11 picture books and 80 educational books published.

Teresa worked in-house as a Commissioning Editor for Heinemann and Oxford University Press before going freelance, and now combines editorial work with writing picture books and books for young readers.

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  • Picture books
  • Children’s
  • Children’s Non-Fiction
Vee Walker

Vee Walker

Editor

  • Bio
  • Books
  • Genres

Love of family history was the start point for Vee Walker’s unique début novel Major Tom’s War (Kashi House), which evolved from a narrative non-fiction account of an unlikely WWI courtship into gripping historical fiction.

Vee writes both fiction and non-fiction. Her novels are so closely based on archive material that they can be used as academic source texts.

Vee honed her writing/editing skills as a heritage consultant for 20+ years, working with museums and natural/cultural/historic sites throughout the UK. Her poetry and descriptive writing can be found within unusual interpretive installations on mountains, in forests and along the coast.

 

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  • Historical
  • Contemporary
  • Literary (Including ‘bookclub’)
  • Women’s
  • Science Fiction
  • Fantasy
  • Short Stories & novellas
  • Comic/satire
  • Picture books
  • Children’s
  • Memoir/autobiography
  • Other Narrative Non-fiction
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Get in touch

Unsure which editorial service is right for you and your manuscript? Our Writers Support Team will be happy to discuss your options with you.

Main contact form

Please note that during weekends and busy periods, it might take a few days before we reply.

Our Guarantee

We’re confident that we’re the best at what we do. That’s why we offer a guarantee for all the editorial work we undertake.

We promise:

To give you a stringent, in-depth report.

To use an expert editor with authority in the industry.

To consider the market for your manuscript.

To be honest and constructive.

To respect your copyright.

To pitch your work to agents on your behalf if, in our view, it is strong enough to be marketed.

To advise you honestly and in good faith.

We’ve had thousands of satisfied customers – and helped countless writers like you get agented and published. Join them!