Test me out by getting a sample edit for free

It’s important that you find a copy editor who’s right for you and your novel and with whom you have good rapport. Not all copy editors are the same, and not all offer the same service, so it’s a good idea to shop around and find someone who meets your requirements and with whom you can develop a good relationship. (If you’re not quite sure whether the type of editor you want is a copy editor, scroll down to the Q&A.)

I’ve been copyediting since 1990, and I’m highly skilled and experienced. I only copyedit fiction, and I edit between 20 and 25 full-length manuscripts a year. I specialize in genre fiction, particularly crime fiction, thrillers, urban fantasy, fantasy, horror, historical fiction and science fiction. I work with debut novelists, bestselling writers and everyone in between. Though I’m British, many of my clients are American.

As well as editing for grammar, style and punctuation, I can give writers feedback and advice on craft mechanics, analyzing their use of POV, skill at scene setting and so on (first-time novelists, in particular, find this service useful). A published author, I understand the editing process from the writer’s perspective. My mission is to help you craft a great book, not mess with your style or vision.

If you are seriously considering hiring a copy editor to work on your novel and you’d like to try me out, ask me to copyedit some of your pages. I’ll edit them for free, without obligation. Send a Word document of between 10 and 15 double-spaced pages to mbtrower at yahoo dot co dot uk, and I’ll aim to get them back to you as soon as I can. (I’m giving my email address in that form so that I don’t end up getting lots of spam.)