Holly Seddon - Editor
Holly Seddon is an international bestselling author.
Her published books include Try Not to Breathe (Ballantine Books), Don’t Close Your Eyes (Ballantine Books), Love Will Tear Us Apart (Corvus), The Hit List (Trapeze), The Woman on the Bridge (Orion), The Short Straw (Orion), and 59 Minutes (Orion).
Holly has worked as a journalist and editor, and co-hosts the Honest Authors Podcast alongside Gillian McAllister.
If you’d like to work with Holly, get in touch with our Writers Support team; tell us about your book and what you’d like support with, and we’ll help you identify your next steps.
Testimonials
- Emma
- Rosie R.
- Lesley G.
- Suzy O.
- Nora V.
Why we love Holly
Holly is endlessly supportive and encouraging of every writer we send her way. We love her concise and on-point editorial style. Holly previously worked on the Jericho Writers core team as our Community Manager and we can confirm she is an absolute star to work with!
Members can take a look at Holly in action as she chats about Finding the Time to Finish Your Book, or catch a live episode of Honest Authors here.
What Holly says about editing
I understand that sometimes the difference between a good book and a great book is getting the right advice. My own writing has benefited enormously from professional and peer insights, which have helped turn my promising manuscripts into bestsellers. Now I would like to share what I’ve learned to help other aspiring writers find their voice, polish their plots and achieve success.
Throughout my years as a feature writer, I have learned to get to the heart of the story and shape it in a way that keeps people reading. And as an editor, I have a critical eye and attention to detail. I promise to be encouraging and kind in my feedback, as I know how hard you will have worked on it. I particularly love novels with shades of grey, where villains have a back-story and heroes have their secrets. And I love to see women portrayed in all our messy, funny, glory. I am happy to take on line editing and development editing work.
What Holly works on
Manuscript Assessment
Agent Submission Pack assessment
Post-editorial guidance
Opening Section Review
Genres Holly specialises in
Holly's published books
59 Minutes
If you knew you had fifty-nine minutes until everything and everyone you love would be lost forever, what would you do with that time?
It’s an ordinary evening. People are coming home from work, cooking dinner for their children, cuddling on sofas with their lovers. And then the message arrives, shattering everyone’s worlds:
Missiles are set to destroy England in fifty-nine minutes. Everyone should seek immediate shelter.
59 minutes follows the journey of three women trying to make it home to and protect their families. The journeys should be simple, but with a lost schoolchild seeking help, a teenage daughter suddenly going missing, and dangerous criminals on the prowl, there is peril at every corner.
The Short Straw
Three sisters find themselves lost in a storm at night, and seek safety at Moirthwaite Manor, where their mother once worked. They are shocked to find the isolated mansion that loomed so large through their troubled childhoods has long been abandoned. Drawing straws to decide who should get help, one sister heads back into the darkness. With the siblings separated, the deadly secrets hidden in the house finally make themselves known and we learn the unspeakable secret that binds the family together.
The Woman on the Bridge
How far would you go to save a perfect stranger?
Maggie is trapped. Dumped on her wedding day, rejected by her family and hounded by a man determined to make her suffer.
Charlotte is desperate. Double-crossed by her only friend and facing total ruin, she will go to any lengths to save what matters.
Two women, one night. A decision that will change everything.
The Hit List
On the anniversary of her husband’s accidental death, Marianne seeks comfort in everything Greg left behind. She wears his shirt and cologne, reads their love letters and emails. Soon she’s following his footsteps across the web, but her desperation to cling to any trace of him leads her to the dark web. And a hit list with her name on it.
To try to save herself from Sam, the assassin hired to kill her, Marianne must first unpick the wicked web in which Greg became tangled. Was Greg trying to protect her or did he want her dead?
Love Will Tear Us Apart
Sometimes a promise becomes a prison.
Fearing eternal singledom, childhood friends Kate and Paul make the age-old vow that if they don’t find love by thirty, they will marry each other. Years later, with the deadline of their 30th birthdays approaching, the unlikely couple decide to keep their teenage promise. After all, they are such good friends. Surely that’s enough to make a marriage?
Now, on the eve of their 10th wedding anniversary, they will discover that love between men and women is more complex, and more precarious, than they could ever have imagined. As Kate struggles with a secret that reaches far into their past, will the couple’s vow become the very thing that threatens their future?
Don’t Close Your Eyes
Robin and Sarah weren’t the closest of twins. They weren’t even that similar. But they loved each other dearly. Until, in the cruellest of domestic twists, they were taken from one another. Now, in her early 30s, Robin lives alone. Agoraphobic and suffering from panic attacks, she spends her days pacing the rooms of her house. The rest of the time she watches – watches the street, the houses, the neighbours. Until one day, she sees something she shouldn’t…
And Sarah? Sarah got what she wanted – the good-looking man, the beautiful baby, the perfect home. But she’s just been accused of the most terrible thing of all. She can’t be around her new family until she has come to terms with something that happened a long time ago. And to do that, she needs to track down her twin sister. But Sarah isn’t the only person looking for Robin…
Try Not to Breathe
The most talked about psychological suspense novel of the year, loved by Marian Keyes and Tess Gerritsen. Once you start reading TRY NOT TO BREATHE you will be hooked on this gripping, fast-paced thriller. You won’t be able to put it down. Just remember to breathe.
Alex is sinking. Slowly but surely, she’s cut herself off from everything but her one true love – drink. Until she’s forced to write a piece about a coma ward, where she meets Amy. Amy is lost. When she was fifteen, she was attacked and left for dead in a park. Her attacker was never found. Since then, she has drifted in a lonely, timeless place. She’s as good as dead, but not even her doctors are sure how much she understands.