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
- Liam G.
- 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).
What Sarah works on
Manuscript Assessment
Developmental Editing
Post-editorial guidance
Line-editing
Copy-editing
Proof-reading
Genres Sarah specialises in
Sarah's published books
The Hanged Man Rises
Supernatural Victorian thriller for teens, featuring child killers, possessed policemen and a teenage medium.
Costa Childrens Book Award 2013
The Blood List
Thriller for teens set during the witch trials of the 1600s, as a golden boy unearths the dark truth about his origins and why his mother could never love him.
Tattletale
Psychological thriller about love and obsession, as a woman tries to get to the truth about her brother’s murder.
Amazon #1 bestseller
‘A compulsive, twisty story about trauma and revenge, delivered with dazzling skill.’ Sunday Mirror
The Other Couple
Psychological thriller about the honeymoon from hell.
Amazon #1 bestseller
The Mothers
Psychological thriller about the unbreakable bond formed by women who meet at an antenatal group, and how far they will go to protect one another.
Amazon #1 bestseller
The Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month
The Festival
Psychological thriller about the chilling consequences of four women’s attempt to recapture their youth at a music festival.
The Last Gift
A Christmas ghost story.
You Better Watch Out
A Young Adult thriller with a dark twist on a Secret Santa. Perfect for BookTok, this thriller is the ultimate blend of haunting and festive.
Your Time is Up
A Young Adult real-time thriller set over the course of a maths A-Level exam