Megan Collins - Editor
Megan Collins is the author of the psychological thrillers The Winter Sister (2019), Behind the Red Door (2020), The Family Plot (2021), Thicker Than Water (2023), and Cross My Heart (2025), all published by Atria/Simon & Schuster.
Megan is the managing editor of 3Elements Review, a prompt-based literary magazine, where one of her duties is to provide extensive feedback (on the developmental and line-edit levels) to submitters who pay for such services.
She has an MFA in Creative Writing, and taught creative writing for twelve years. Throughout her teaching career, she guided many of her students through the process of writing and revising work that then went on to win prestigious regional, state, and national writing competitions. Many of her former students have since had their work published. She now tutors on the Jericho Writers Ultimate Novel Writing Programme.
Find her on Instagram, Threads, and TikTok at @megancollinswriter.
If you’d like to work with Megan, get in touch with our Writer Support team; tell us about your book and what you’d like support with, and we’ll help you identify your next steps.
Why we love Megan
Megan’s reports are brimming with positivity, whilst paying attention to the issues an author needs to fix. Her reports are filled with answers to your questions, as well as questions that you need to answer to find the core of the story you want to tell.
What Megan says about editing
As a former creative writing teacher, I know there is nothing more rewarding than helping someone find their voice, shape it, and then use it to say something deeply resonant in a way that’s completely unique. Working with aspiring writers is, for me, a magical and inspiring experience; as a witness to their struggles, their bravery, and ultimately their successes, I find I often get as much as I give. I strive to guide each writer I work with toward artistic growth and creative breakthroughs.
Among the creative writing students and faculty at the school where I taught, I had the reputation of being “the editor,” which meant that I had the immense privilege of working with students as they prepared to submit their writing to competitions or journals. I always offered thorough, meticulous feedback that addressed both the big picture (character development, story arc, etc.) and the small (diction, cadence, etc.). As such, in addition to manuscript assessments, I’m happy to do line editing for authors.
What Megan works on
Manuscript Assessment
Developmental Editing
Agent Submission Pack assessment
Post-editorial guidance
Genres Megan specialises in
Megan's published books
The Winter Sister
Sixteen years ago, Sylvie’s sister Persephone never came home. Out too late with the boyfriend she was forbidden to see, Persephone was missing for three days before her body was found—and years later, her murder remains unsolved.
In the present day, Sylvie returns home to care for her estranged mother, Annie, as she undergoes treatment for cancer. Prone to unexplained “Dark Days” even before Persephone’s death, Annie’s once-close bond with Sylvie dissolved in the weeks after their loss, making for an uncomfortable reunion all these years later. Worse, Persephone’s former boyfriend, Ben, is now a nurse at the cancer center where Annie is being treated. Sylvie’s always believed Ben was responsible for the murder—but she carries her own guilt about that night, guilt that traps her in the past while the world goes on around her…
Behind the Red Door
When Fern Douglas sees the news about Astrid Sullivan, a thirty-four-year-old missing woman from Maine, she is positive that she knows her. Fern’s husband is sure it’s because of Astrid’s famous kidnapping–and equally famous return–twenty years ago, but Fern has no memory of that, even though it happened an hour outside her New Hampshire hometown. And when Astrid appears in Fern’s recurring nightmare, one in which a girl reaches out to her, pleading, Fern fears that it’s not a dream at all, but a memory…
The Family Plot
When a family obsessed with true crime gathers to bury their patriarch, horrifying secrets are exposed upon the discovery of another body in his grave in this chilling novel from the author of Behind the Red Door and The Winter Sister.
At twenty-six, Dahlia Lighthouse remains haunted by her upbringing. Raised in a secluded island mansion deep in the woods and kept isolated by her true crime-obsessed parents, she has been unable to move beyond the disappearance of her twin brother, Andy, when they were sixteen.
After several years away and following her father’s death, Dahlia returns to the house where the family soon makes a gruesome discovery: buried in their father’s plot is another body—Andy’s, his skull split open with an ax.
Thicker Than Water
Julia and Sienna Larkin are sisters-in-law, connected by Julia’s husband and Sienna’s brother, Jason. More than that, the two are devoted best friends and business partners, believing that theirs is a uniquely unbreakable bond. To Sienna, her protective brother can do no wrong, and although Julia knows he’s not perfect, they’ve built a comfortable life and family together. Recently, Jason has been putting in long hours to secure a promotion at work, so when his boss is found brutally murdered—his lips sewn shut—the Larkins are shocked and unsettled, especially as local gossip swirls.
A few days later, Julia and Sienna’s lives are upended when Jason gets into a car accident and is placed in a medically induced coma. Worse, the police arrive with news that he’s the prime suspect in the murder investigation. With Jason unable to respond—and with Julia and Sienna working to clear his name—the two women find their friendship threatened for the first time: Sienna staunchly maintains her brother’s innocence, but as their investigation uncovers a complicated web of secrets, Julia is less sure she’s willing to defend her husband.
With her signature “moody and atmospheric” (USA TODAY) writing, Megan Collins has crafted a rich, gripping story that explores just how fragile our closest bonds can be.
Cross My Heart
She has his wife’s heart; the one she wants is his.
Rosie Lachlan wants nothing more than to find The One.
A year after she was dumped in her wedding dress, she’s working at her parents’ bridal salon, anxious for a happy ending that can’t come soon enough. The recipient of a life-saving heart transplant, Rosie knows her health is precious and precarious. She suspects her heart donor is Daphne Thorne, the wife of local celebrity author Morgan Thorne, who she begins messaging via an anonymous service called DonorConnect, ostensibly to learn more about Daphne. But Rosie has a secret: She’s convinced that now that she has his wife’s heart, she and Morgan are meant to be together.
As she and Morgan correspond, the pretense of avoiding personal details soon disappears, but as she digs deeper into Morgan’s previous marriage, she discovers disturbing rumors about the man she’s falling for. Could Morgan have had something to do with his late wife’s death? And can Rosie’s heart sustain another break—or is she next?