Rufus Purdy – Jericho Writers
Jericho Writers
167-169 Great Portland street, 5th Floor, London, W1W 5PF
UK: +44 (0)330 043 0150
US: +1 (646) 974 9060
Rufus Purdy

Rufus Purdy - Editor

Rufus Purdy is an experienced editor, currently working at Titan Books. He previously worked as a literary agent, running his own agency, and ran his own editorial-services company. He worked at Curtis Brown from 2012 to 2018, where he combined the roles of Editor, New Writing at Curtis Brown Creative and Editor at its digital imprint Studio 28. Highlights included being the editor for espionage-fiction author Alex Gerlis, who sold more than 180,000 copies of the novels they worked on together, and working with Squeeze songwriter Chris Difford on his memoir Some Fantastic Place (Weidenfeld & Nicolson).

Many clients that he has worked with across his roles as editor and writing tutor have found publishing success, including: Paul Laird (The Birth and Impact of Britpop, Pen & Sword), Roisin Maguire (Bardo, Profile Books), Melissa Welliver (My Love Life and the Apocalypse, Chicken House), Natalie Lewis (Don’t Believe the Hype, Hodder), Loraine Peck (The Second Son, Text Publishing) and Adam Simcox (The Dying Squad, Gollancz).

Testimonials

"Rufus was the editor on all of my first three novels (which have sold more than 180,000 copies) and I was delighted with the work he did. Like most authors I thought my books were pretty much the finished article when they went to him, with the possible exception of the odd typo. I was wrong. Rufus helped bring a lot of sense to the story, as well as ensuring the text went off in an excellent and much improved state. I have no hesitation in recommending him."

- Alex Gerlis

"Rufus provided me with a thorough and detailed editorial report after reading my entire manuscript. He was incredibly encouraging, understood the genre and showed an absolute grasp of the journey I wanted to portray. But, most importantly, he gave me a concrete and reasoned way forward… He ended the report with a step-by-step process to ensure I understood how to take the next draft to a better place, and followed it up with an insightful and incredibly helpful Skype tutorial. This enabled me to produce a draft that garnered the attention of Curtis Brown literary agents Alice Lutyens (London) and Pippa Masson (Sydney). I now have a two-book deal with a major Australian publishing house, Text Publishing."

- Loraine Peck

"I can’t recommend Rufus’s editorial services enough. He gave me a detailed breakdown of what he felt worked and, more importantly, what didn’t. It sealed up a lot of plot holes, and I ended up adding around 9,000 words of killer new content. And you definitely can’t argue with the results: I received five full manuscript requests within 24 hours of submitting and went on to sign with Harry Illingworth at the DHH Literary Agency. I now have a three-book deal with Gollancz."

- Adam Simcox

WHY WE LOVE RUFUS

Rufus’ reports are clear and precise, helping you refine the craft of writing, whilst paying close attention to the market. Get the perspective of a literary agent and an editor with Rufus – his wealth of experience could be just what your manuscript needs.

WHAT RUFUS SAYS ABOUT EDITING

As one half of the Curtis Brown Creative team during the writing school’s first five years, I’ve worked with many writers – including Jane Harper, Lisa Williamson, Nicholas Searle and Caz Frear – from the ‘aspiring’ to the ‘household name’ stage, and there’s no better feeling than that of helping someone realise their dream of becoming a published author. And, as I have a foot in both the editorial and literary-agent camps, I’m uniquely placed to assist writers with getting their book into the best-possible shape and realising its commercial potential.

I consider myself a generalist when it comes to what genres I like to work in, and I love great stories of all kinds – whether they’re ultra-commercial romantic comedies and thrillers or more literary mediations on what it is to be human. Personally, I’d love to see books written in strong regional voices and I’m still hoping to, one day, find a great football novel.

As well as preparing editorial reports, I also offer line-editing, developmental-editing, copy-editing and one-to-one mentoring.

Genres Rufus specialises in

Fiction
Contemporary
Literary (Including ‘bookclub’)
Crime / Thriller / Action
Women’s
Historical
Romance & Erotica
Comic/satire
Paranormal
Children's
Young Adult
Non-Fiction
Memoir/autobiography
Other Narrative Non-fiction
Subject-led Non-fiction

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