Sarah Naughton – 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
Sarah Naughton

Sarah Naughton - Editor

Sarah Naughton is a Costa shortlisted and bestselling author of YA and psychological thrillers and is published in eleven territories.

Her debut novel, The Hanged Man Rises (Simon & Schuster), was shortlisted for the Costa Children’s Book Award in 2013. Another historical YA novel followed before she was approached by Orion to write psychological thrillers. Tattletale was an Amazon bestseller, as were The Other Couple, The Mothers and The Festival. The Mothers was The Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month. She also likes to dip her toe in horror, with short story ebooks The Last Gift, and Get Them Out of My Head for the No Sleep Podcast.

Sarah published a YA thriller in October 2023 called You Better Watch Out and another in May 2024 called Your Time is Up. She has been working with Anthony Horowitz and Storytel on the Becoming Sherlock series, which are entirely new Sherlock Holmes stories written primarily for the audiobook format. The first in the series, The Red Circle, was released exclusively on Storytel in December 2023.

Find Sarah on Twitter here: @sarahjnaughton

Testimonials

"I found my manuscript assessment an incredible resource and a tremendous help toward a next rewrite of my manuscript. Many valuable insights, many things I need to home in on and develop better."

- Liam G.

"The feedback was so helpful. Your advice was spot on and I honestly can’t thank you enough for all your help and support. You’ve really gone above and beyond."

- Kate R.

WHY WE LOVE SARAH

Sarah is an established author who brings a wealth of knowledge across a mix of different genres. Her writing experience means she has a meticulous eye when it comes to Psychological Thrillers and YA. Sarah will provide a deeply insightful report that draws on her own specialist experience.

WHAT SARAH SAYS ABOUT EDITING

I firmly believe that nearly all of us are capable of becoming published authors if we’re committed to learning the craft and don’t allow the inevitable setbacks to discourage us. My own writing career has been as much dogged determination and donkey work than any innate talent. Engaging a professional editor is not for the faint hearted and there will be things that are hard to hear – most likely the gut-punch that you have a long way to go before your manuscript is ready to submit to an agent. We’ve all experienced it. The easy way out is to self publish, and for some writers that works, but I would say stick at your dream of a book deal with a major publisher – if your manuscript makes it that far, you can be sure it’s the very best it could ever be. When you’ve received editorial feedback take a moment to lick your wounds, then set about making the changes that will certainly improve your manuscript. This is what a writer’s career is: editing, editing, editing. It takes me a couple of months to write a book and three times that to edit it. Learn to deal with constructive criticism now and you will make much faster progress towards your dream of publication.

I certainly wouldn’t have been published without the help of some really talented and incisive editors, and I really hope I can help you navigate the path that I was helped along. Please send me thrillers, horror and YA (particularly with a supernatural twist).

Genres Sarah specialises in

Fiction
Literary (Including ‘bookclub’)
Crime / Thriller / Action
Paranormal
Young Adult
Children's

Sarah's published books

The Hanged Man Rises

The Hanged Man Rises

The Blood List

The Blood List

Tattletale

Tattletale

The Other Couple

The Other Couple

The Mothers

The Mothers

The Festival

The Festival

The Last Gift

The Last Gift

You Better Watch Out

You Better Watch Out

Your Time is Up

Your Time is Up

View more editors