Hi, I’m Gareth, an editor—based in the UK—who has been working with an independent publisher for the last two years and freelancing before that. I specialize in sci-fi and fantasy, though I love working with all areas of speculative fiction. Send me your sci-fi, fantasy, dystopian, paranormal work for both YA and adult markets.
Whatever your editing needs, I can help you. Whether it’s developmental edits, copy/line edits, or proofreading—I have a service that can make your book the best it can be.
I am a Featured Editor on
I work together with the author to offer my advice on how to improve your book. I know what it’s like being a new author in search of someone who understands your work and how to take it to the next level—I’ve been there. Now I love helping authors to realise their potential and turn their writing dreams into reality.
My task is not only to edit and improve your work but to help you see where you already have great instincts and how to hone your writing, so next time you are even closer to the cleanest manuscript you can produce. And, most importantly, I need to enhance your writing, while still keeping your style and voice. It’s your book after all.
Please get in touch if you want to discuss your needs in more detail.
CLIENT TESTIMONIALS
BK Greenwoodauthor of The Last Roman series."Gareth provided proofreading and comprehensive edits for my debut novel series, The Last Roman. It was an absolute pleasure working with him. He is extremely responsive, collaborative and provides genuine and helpful feedback. His skill level in both editing and interior design is top-notch. I highly recommend his services. I have used him on all three of my novels and I will be using him again on future projects."
Andy Del Galloauthor of Carve a New You"Gareth was a joy to work with. As a first-time author, it was great to have a professional editor involved for guidance. Gareth allows your voice to prevail through all the wonderful improvements he suggests. I will absolutely work with him again."
Nick Steadauthor of the HYBRID novel series“Gareth taught me the art of trimming unnecessary words for a tighter sentence to give a more polished feel to my manuscripts, and his advice on my action sequences has also proved invaluable. I would highly recommend him as an editor to any author looking to polish their work or in need of advice on strengthening their plot, and I will be asking him to help again when the next book in my series is ready for editing!”
Ryan Beckerauthor of Euphoric Wonderland“This guy is incredible! He did everything for me and so much more. He is worth way more than 50 dollars an hour and his work proves it. He made my cover for my book brilliant looking. A true piece of art. Not to mention he is a fantastic writer which showed in his editing and everything else he did. So friendly to talk to and answered all my questions without hesitation. I can’t wait to go back to him in the future for my next book. Super, super pleased. Definitely hire this guy he will get the job done and then some. A++++”
“Gareth has a great way of simplifying material, and a sharp, polished pen. I hired him to edit a series of classic novella’s. He successfully completed the work with amazing quality, in a short turnaround time.”
Sara BurgessAuthor of The House on Hall Road“The benefit of Gareth’s professional critique and editing skills have transformed my writing. He has a clear vision of what works in any genre and communicates this with sensitivity and skill. As a result of his concise and pertinent commentaries, I have been both supported and inspired to complete my novel. I have learnt so much about how to look at my work objectively to achieve my goal of having a manuscript fit to present to potential publishers or agents. Gareth has expertise in many areas which I have found helpful such as proofreading and editing as well as making the most appropriate word-choice, adjusting sentence structure for the best effect, and ensuring readability.”
Nancy Morrillauthor of Movin' on Up"Gareth was a professional to deal with during the whole proofreading and editing process. He also gave great advice to us newbies on uploading our book to KDP, and helped out immensely with our book cover design. He responded to all emails in a timely manner."
S V MichaelsonAuthor of the Mark The Mechanic series“It was a great pleasure working with Gareth. He is passionate about writing and doesn’t just get the job done—he puts a piece of his soul into his work.”
Jude Gulbeckauthor of The Holy Experiment"Gareth was a great help for us with our ebook project - as well as the blurb and keywords, he also handled the editing and formatting too and delivered some great and timely work. Highly recommended if you're publishing on Amazon and need someone who knows their way around the whole process."
Sean Glazeauthor of Staying Coachable"Gareth was fantastic - he completed work quickly and professionally, was very responsive, and made a few very helpful modifications to ensure everything was perfect! Would definitely recommend and rehire."
“Exemplary! Fantastic experience. Gareth was responsive, timely, creative, insightful and thoroughly professional. He went beyond our expectations and we will surely hire him again.”
EDITING TERMINOLOGY
DEVELOPMENTAL EDITING
This comes first and is big-picture work that involves looking at the story as a whole. You might hear it called structural editing, but the focus is always on:
- Plot: The sequence of events leading the reader through the story.
- Structure: How the plot is organized. Are events sequenced correctly?
- Characterization: Are characters believable as we follow with them through their journey.
- Pace: The speed of the story as it unfolds. This should vary to give fast-paced action scenes, but also have a lull for readers to catch their breath.
- Viewpoint: Readers should know whose eyes they are seeing through and head-hopping that can confuse and pull the reader out of the story.
- Narrative style: Is viewpoint in the first, second or third person?
- Tense: Is the story told in the present or the past tense? Both have benefits and limitations.
MANUSCRIPT APPRAISAL
This is a review of your work, looking at all the areas a Development Edit focuses on, but without the editing aspect. Instead you will receive a chapter-by-chapter evaluation of your work highlighting issues which need addressing. It is a great way to see how your manuscript is holding up and whether there are any areas for you to review and rework.
The Manuscript Appraisal can also be referred to as a Manuscript Evaluation or Review.
LINE EDITING
This is the second step in the editing process and it looks at style. A strong sentence can make a story; a poorly written one can kill it. Line editing is also referred to as substantive or stylistic editing and focuses on:
- Phrasing and word choice
- Character consistency
- Viewpoint and narrative style
- Removing cliché and awkward metaphors
- Dialogue quality and consistency
- Removing repetition and overwriting
- Consistent tense
- Showing rather than telling
COPY EDITING
Copyediting is the nuts-and-bolts of sentence-level editing focusing on:
- Spelling, grammar, punctuation, hyphenation and capitalization and dialogue tags
- Consistent proper-noun spelling
- Spacing between letters, words, lines and paragraphs
- Chapter order, timelines and logical character traits
PROOFREADING
Proofreading is the final stage of editing before publication. Every novel, print or digital, requires this final quality check. A proofreader looks for errors and layout problems that slipped through previous rounds of editing or have been introduced during them.
Proofreaders do more than just fix typos. They check for consistency—spelling, punctuation and grammar—but also check layout issues such as consistent indentation, spacing, chapter headings, page numbers, and styles.
PRICING
MANUSCRIPT APPRAISAL
OR PROOFREADING
$10 (£8.00) per 1000 words
If you don’t need a full Developmental Edit, but would like someone to review your story and give you high quality feedback on your work chapter-by-chapter, a Manuscript Appraisal is a great alternative.
If you just need someone to proofread your previously edited work then check out our proofreading service.
DEVELOPMENTAL, LINE OR COPYEDITING
$20 (£16) per 1000 words
For a single type of editing it’s $20 per 1000 words. If you find you need 2 or more types of editing, then we just add $10 per 1000 words to the combined cost per additional edit type.
FOR EXAMPLE
A combined Line + Copy edit would cost
$20+$10 = $30 (£24.00)
A combined Dev, Line and Copy edit would be
$20+$10+$10 = $40 (£32)
PORTFOLIO
If you would like to see who I work with and examples of my work, please check out my portfolio page showing all the work that I have helped my clients publish on Amazon.