Louise Walters - Editor
Louise is an author, editor, mentor, and former indie publisher.
She is the author of Mrs Sinclair’s Suitcase, published by Hodder & Stoughton in 2014, and has self-published four further novels: A Life Between Us (2017), The Road to California (2018), The Hermit (2022), and We Are Family (2024).
Louise Walters Books ran from 2017 to 2023, and published mainly literary novels and novellas. Louise was also the original publisher of fantasy author Laura Laakso’s Wilde Investigations novels, now published by Bloodhound Books. Louise continues to work as Laura’s editor on the series.
Louise has a degree in Literature from the Open University, is an alumni of the Jericho Writers Self Edit Your Novel course (2013), and was a volunteer with the Womentoring Project.
Find Louise on Twitter here: @LouiseWalters12
Testimonials
- L M West, author of 'This Fearful Thing'
– Victoria S.
– Andy S.
– Beena N.
WHY WE LOVE LOUISE
Louise is a flexible editor with a wide-range of specialties covering everything from general non-fiction to women’s fiction. She’s worked with us on a variety of different projects and regularly assists authors with edits on memoirs and non-fiction material. She’s also experienced in literary and more contemporary fiction narratives. We spoke to her about her approach to writing and editing here.
WHAT LOUISE SAYS ABOUT EDITING
I love editing! I especially love drilling down into the heart of a project, paying close attention to structure and point of view. Often fixing these two aspects in a novel helps to fix everything else. A firm foundation is essential and I always work on edits with these aspects firmly in mind. It gives me enormous pleasure to help writers take their work to the next level. It’s wonderful when my advice chimes with a client and something “clicks” for them. I take a firm, frank approach, and I’m quite a hard marker. A critique isn’t worth having if flaws are ignored. But I aim to be constructive and detailed, and where things are working, you’ll hear a lot about that too.
I have both traditionally-published and self-published my own novels. I also published twelve novels by seven writers at my now defunct indie press, Louise Walters Books.
I am happy to work on your project in several ways: manuscript assessments, proof-reading, and editing –structural, line, and developmental edits are all good for me.
What Louise works on
Manuscript Assessment
Developmental Editing
Agent Submission Pack assessment
Post-editorial guidance
Line-editing
Proof-reading
Genres Louise specialises in
Louise's published books
The Road to California
Proud single parent Joanna is accustomed to school phoning to tell her that her fourteen year old son Ryan is in trouble. But when Ryan hits a girl and is excluded from school, Joanna knows she must take drastic action to help him. Ryan’s dad Lex left home when Ryan was two years old. Ryan doesn’t remember him – but more than anything he wants a dad in his life. Isolated, a loner, and angry, Ryan finds solace in books and wildlife. Joanna, against all her instincts, invites Lex to return and help their son. But Lex is a drifter who runs from commitment, and both Joanna and Ryan find their mutual trust and love is put to the test when Lex returns, and vows to be part of the family again.
A Life Between Us
Tina Thornton’s twin sister Meg died in a childhood accident, but for almost forty years Tina has secretly blamed herself for her sister’s death. During a visit to her aging Uncle Edward and his sister Lucia, who both harbour dark secrets of their own, Tina makes a discovery that forces her to finally question her memories of the day her sister died.
As Tina finds the courage to face the past, she unravels the tangled family mysteries of her estranged parents, her beautiful French Aunt Simone, the fading, compassionate Uncle Edward, and above all, the cold, bitter Aunt Lucia, whose spectral presence casts a long shadow over them all.
Mrs Sinclair’s Suitcase
Roberta likes to collect the letters and postcards she finds in second-hand books. When her father gives her some of her grandmother’s belongings, she finds a baffling letter from the grandfather she never knew – dated after he supposedly died in the war.
Dorothy is unhappily married to Albert, who is away at war. When an aeroplane crashes in the field behind her house she meets Squadron Leader Jan Pietrykowski, and as their bond deepens she dares to hope she might find happiness. But fate has other plans for them both, and soon she is hiding a secret so momentous that its shockwaves will touch her granddaughter many years later…