Caroline Hulse - Editor
Caroline Hulse is an author, with four books published in fourteen languages and optioned for television. She writes book club fiction with offbeat humour. Her work has been published to significant critical acclaim and press reviews. The Adults (2018), Like A House On Fire (2020), All The Fun Of The Fair (2021), and Reasonable People (2023) are all published by The Orion Publishing Group (an imprint of Hachette UK).
Caroline has a degree in English Literature from the University of Sheffield and has extensive experience of coaching and mentoring. She loves helping other authors get the best out of their writing and has been an editor with Jericho Writers for many years.
Find Caroline on Twitter here: @CarolineHulse1
Testimonials
- Helen L.
- Jack D.
- Nussaibah Y.
WHY WE LOVE CAROLINE
Caroline is our go-to editor for anything comedic, especially when it falls under the book club or women’s fiction umbrella. She’s an expert at pulling out what’s funny, while still paying a close eye to key building blocks of story like plot and character. Caroline believes books are created in the editing process, and she’d love to be part of yours. Find out more about Caroline’s work and approach to editing in our interview with her here.
WHAT CAROLINE SAYS ABOUT EDITING
Writing a successful book is about craft as well as talent, and authors at all levels benefit from external insight. Many of us, when asking for editorial feedback, want to hear ‘it’s perfect, don’t change a thing!’ – often published authors secretly want to hear this too! – but that isn’t what you’ll get from me. My work gets immeasurably better as a result of thoughtful edits, and I want you to feel the same about yours.
Before looking at how your book works on a sentence level, I firstly consider it as a whole, and focus on making the recommendations that will have the biggest impact. A book’s vision is the author’s, not the editor’s, so any changes and decisions will ultimately be yours, but I will provide direction to help you think these through. All the while, I will champion your book’s strengths, and help you feel energised for the work ahead.
I read widely: particularly crime and thrillers, book club and literary fiction, and historical and women’s fiction.
What Caroline works on
Manuscript Assessment
Developmental Editing
Agent Submission Pack assessment
Post-editorial guidance
Genres Caroline specialises in
Caroline's published books
All the Fun of the Fair
“Sometimes hilarious, sometimes heart-breaking, it’s compelling and beautifully written” – Daily Mail
The Fair is the only good thing that happens every year. And Fiona Larson is the only person in town who’s never been.
She’s pretended to go – but she’s never been allowed. Because, before Fiona was even born, her sister died there. Her perfect sister. Who always ate her greens. Always tidied her room, which is still an untouched shrine.
But this year everything will be different.
Like A House On Fire
Things Stella and George have had blazing rows about:
– Misquoting Jurassic Park.
– Leaving a Coke can on the side of the bath.
– Fitting car seats for their hypothetical kids.
In other news, they’re getting divorced.
But first, Stella’s mum is throwing a murder mystery party and – with her dad losing his job, her mum’s recent diagnosis, and some very odd behaviour from her sister – now is not the time to tell everyone.
All Stella and George have to do is make it through the day without their break-up being discovered – though it will soon turn out that having secrets runs in the family…
The Adults
Claire and Matt are divorced but decide what’s best for their daughter Scarlett is to have a ‘normal’ family Christmas with them all together.
Claire brings her new boyfriend Patrick, a seemingly eligible Iron-Man-in-Waiting.
Matt brings the new love of his life Alex, funny, smart, and extremely patient.
Scarlett, their daughter, brings her imaginary friend Posey. He’s a rabbit.
Together the five (or six?) of them grit their teeth over Organized Fun activities, drinking a little too much after bed-time, oversharing classified secrets about their pasts and, before they know it, their holiday is a powder keg that ends – where this story starts – with a tearful, frightened, call to the police…
Reasonable People
‘Warm, thoughtful, clever – the sort of book you’ll think about long after you’ve finished.” BETH O’LEARY, author of The Flatshare
CantBeArsed8: Am I the villain for being furious my partner’s father changed my daughter’s pirate party into a princess party?
REASONABLE PEOPLE is a sharp, funny and timely comedy-of-errors about a feuding family.
After a kid’s party faux-pas, mother Janine anonymously vents about her father-in-law’s behaviour on internet forum Am I The Villain Here? When the community is invited to take sides the post goes viral, with mild-mannered Roy ending up in the national newspapers and sparking protests at his local library.
REASONABLE PEOPLE explores how judging others reveals our deepest, most unreasonable selves – with Hulse’s trademark heart, humour and humanity.
