Do you need help and advice with your writing? Let me help you!
As an experienced writer, editor and proofreader, and a specialist in children’s literature, I would be delighted to help you with your writing project, from bouncing off ideas to a full edit of a final piece of work. Please read on to find out:
- how I can help
- how much I charge
- my 3,000-word free edit and quote
- how to contact me
- why you should choose me (a potted biography!)
How I can help you
I am happy and comfortable working on a wide range of genres both in children’s literature and books for adults, including general fiction, comedy, thrillers, adventure, poetry and non-fiction.
The help I can offer will depend on your needs and where you are at with your work.
- I can provide a proofreading service for works that are nearly ready for publication, checking for typos, grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
- If your work is in more of a ‘draft’ stage, or a work in progress, I can help you with structure, plot, pace, dialogue, characters and general ‘sense’ and consistency. It is quite common for writers, when they have written books or stories in chunks, to lose the narrative thread as later chapters or revisions have been made – it’s hard keeping all those balls in the air!
You don’t have to submit a whole, completed work to me, either. If you are stuck with one aspect of your story and want a fresh eye on it, you can just send me that part, with a brief synopsis of where it sits in the entire composition.
Equally, if you would like me to work on an entire book or collection but would prefer to spread submissions over a period of time rather than send everything at once, that is fine. We can work out a mutually acceptable timetable to achieve this.
How much I charge
Again, this will depend on what you want done and the time it takes to do so – some pieces will be very ‘light touch’, while others will need a lot more TLC. I am happy to quote per hour or per project after considering and advising on the amount of work that needs doing. As a guide, I generally charge £25 per hour for straight proofreading and light edits, and £30 per hour for more substantial editing and advising, which is in line with the suggested minimum rates by the Society for Editors and Proofreaders.
If you prefer to think in terms of words, for novels this would equate roughly to £5-£10 per 1,000 words, again depending on the state of the original text. If you wish to submit a novel, for example, in instalments, you can ‘pay as you go’ too.
For picture books or relatively short children’s fiction, I can work out a quote with you as the nature of editing these books is a little different to longer novels.
Free 3,000-word edit and quote
When you’re so close to a piece of work, it can be hard to see what needs doing and how finished or polished it is. For this reason (and before any money exchanges hands!) I am happy to provide a free quote on whatever 3,000 words you’d like help with. This helps us both. I will know the level of support you might need and you can decide if you are happy with this and would like to continue. You will also get an idea of my working style and my approach to critiquing (which is supportive but still honest!). All you need to do is send me:
- whatever 3,000 words you’d like comments on
- a synopsis of your piece of work
- what kind of help you are particularly seeking
- your deadline / schedule.
How to contact me
Please do get in touch with me with any queries you may have and I will be happy to help. My email address is: childtasticbooks@yahoo.co.uk and I will endeavour to reply within a week at the latest (usually within a day).
Why you should choose me
As well as reviewing children’s books, I work as a freelance writer, editor and proofreader, and have done so for the past 12 years after learning the trade in a publishing house. Much of my previous work focused on non-fiction but the skills are transferable to fiction and I have developed experience in helping fellow writers with their work over the years, from basic proofreading and editing services to advice on dialogue, structure and characterization. This has been honed through general writing courses with the Open University (as part of my second BA in English Literature) and Oxford University (where I specialized in writing for young adults).
I have also just completed an MA in Children’s Literature (Merit) from the University of Roehampton. The course has covered a wide range of topics related to children’s literature, including:
- historical and socio-economic factors affecting literature for children
- culture, religious belief, pedagogy and philosophy
- Feminism, Marxism, Psychoanalysis, Structuralism
- how children respond to texts according to developmental phases
- poetry for children
- writing for children
- British Children’s Literature, 1960 to the present day (with a special focus on World War II themes).
Thanks for checking this page out. I look forward to hearing from you!
