Anna Barrett - Editor
Anna Barrett (née Hogarty) is a book editor and former literary agent with the Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency.
With more than ten years’ experience in the publishing industry, Anna mentors writers at The Writers Space, and edits on a freelance basis for a variety of publishing houses, literary agencies, writers and brands from around the world.
As in-house editor for the Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency, Anna worked with writers such as Gail Honeyman, Fiona Barton, Elizabeth Kay and Elizabeth Macneal on their novels ahead of their publishing deals. Previous to this, Anna worked in the editorial departments of John Murray, Hodder & Stoughton, Headline and Atlantic Books, where she saw a variety of titles through from acquisition to print, from bestselling fiction to illustrated books.
Find her on Twitter here: @annasarahtweets
Testimonials
Cesca Major, The Silent Hours
Lucy Foley, The Hunting Party
Katherine May, Wintering
WHY WE LOVE ANNA
Anna is an absolute joy to work with and her expertise within trade publishing really shines through in everything she offers. In our experience, her editorial comments are always astute and empathetically delivered; they are designed to really help authors shine in today’s competitive market. Having worked with the hugely successful Madeleine Milburn team, she is very on the pulse with industry trends and had a huge hand in some of the genre fiction’s biggest breakout stars. To top it all off, she has been professionally trained with the Publishing Training Centre in a wide range of editorial services. For her own writing, she is represented by Kate Burke at the Blake Friedmann Literary Agency, and is currently working on her first novel.
WHAT ANNA SAYS ABOUT EDITING
I work with writers at all stages of their publishing journey: from discussing ideas and assessing novels in progress, to looking at agent-approaches and providing help with developing that all-important pitch. There’s nothing I find more satisfying than getting to the heart of what a story is about, and helping the author to make sure it shines.
I specialise in commercial fiction: thrillers, crime and mystery, women’s fiction, ‘up-lit’ and book-club reads. I particularly enjoy working with debut writers on fresh concepts and ideas, and am very used to looking at manuscripts from the earliest stage.
Another big passion of mine is yoga, which I teach, and I have represented writers such as Katherine May, Mimi Kuo-Deemer, Michelle Elman, James Reeves and Gabrielle Brown on their publishing journeys. If you are writing in the mindfulness/meditation/ideas-for-living space, I might be the editor for you.