Overview
I'm a professional book editor and proofreader, specialising in fiction. I'm an Advanced Member of the Society for Editors & Proofreaders (SfEP), a Member of the Association of Freelance Editors, Proofreaders & Indexers (AFEPI), and the founder of the Editors' and Proofreaders' Alliance of Northern Ireland (EPANI). I also format/lay out interiors for POD and do ebook conversion. Freelancing since 2004.
Services
Non-Fiction
Biographies & Memoirs
History
Writing & Publishing
Fiction
Literary Fiction
Mystery & Crime
Short Story
Thriller & Suspense
Languages
English (UK)
Awards
- Judith Butcher Award (SfEP, 2014)
Certifications
- BA (Hons) First Class, English Literature (1998)
- MA in Modern Literature, Distinction (2000)
- PhD (Mary Tighe) (2004)
- On-screen editing 1 & 2 (SfEP), 2010
- Basic Proofreading (PTC), Merit, 2011
- Fiction Editing (Publishing Ireland), 2013
Work experience
Averill Buchanan
Sep, 2004 —
Present
I'm a book editor and proofreader (and occasional book indexer).
I specialise in fiction editing --- development/structural editing and copy-editing --- and proofreading. I 'd welcome enquiries to ghost-write fiction.
I also do text layout/formatting and ebook conversion, and I offer a hand-holding service for first-time self-publishers.
Clients include independent/self-publishing authors, small presses and publishers.
Subjects & specialisms includes fiction (adult only), and narrative non-fiction, including biography, autobiography and memoir.
Graphic Detail
Jan, 1986 —
Jun, 1993
(over 7 years)
I established and managed a graphic design consultancy in Belfast with a staff of three. Design for print: corporate IDs
and logos; books, brochures, newsletters; posters etc.
I sold the business in 1993 to return to university as a mature student.
Portfolio
“One morning in May, I was in prayer upon a rooftop overlooking fields of rice when I heard a voice a like a trumpet’s clarion-call say, ‘Write this book. It is your future.’”So begins The Dream Vision, a modern Pilgrim’s Progress. A Man with a Caul seeks to h... read more
Stories of artwork inspired by the experience of political conflict in Northern Ireland. The book is illustrated throughout with with more than 100 original photographs of sculpture, installations, community projects and paintings. The introduction by Jan Jord... read more
Reporter Noel Byrne is about to die. Two snipers hold him in their crosshairs as he delivers his live report from the HQ of HiberBank in central Dublin. His first problem is they will kill him if he doesn't say exactly what they want him to say. His second pro... read more
The re-emergence of religion as a significant cultural, social and political, force is not gender neutral. Tensions between claims for women’s equality and the rights of sexual minorities on one side and the claims of religions on the other side are well-docum... read more
Ten years after the war, Joe leaves his home in Hell Paso and strikes out for decadent Slushland, where the Arm – a gang of violent renegades – is intent on bringing the city to its knees. Soon, Joe finds himself thrown headlong into a battle for this doomed c... read more
Gregory wanders through a post-apocalyptic landscape with only one friend he truly trusts - his last link to a former life that he barely remembers. What will the future hold for him in this strange, amoral world?"In one sentence, I loved this novella and hear... read more
'All The Way Back To Here' begins The Harris Trilogy. In a desperate attempt to escape from a life that feels unbearable, Sid Harris leaves his native London and travels to Ibiza. On his chosen 'desert island', he meets Denzel Anderson, a wild companion unlike... read more
Using empirical research to explore medieval writers' imaginings of time, this study presents a new morphology by which to study narratives of time in fifteenth-century literary culture, focusing on poems of John Lydgate and Thomas Hoccleve. Karen Smyth begins... read more
An exploration of women’s contributions to visual culture in major urban centres between the wars (1918-1939), this collection sheds new light on women’s relationships with the processes of modernism and modernization. Women’s work in a variety of mediums is e... read more
Focusing on W.B. Yeats's ideal of mutual support between the arts, Karen Brown sheds new light on how collaborations and differences between members of the Yeats family circle contributed to the metamorphosis of the Irish Cultural Revival into Irish Modernism.... read more
Can a moment's kindness transform a lifetime of despair?Seventy-year-old Margaret Brooks has been obedient since childhood and barely knows how to think for herself. Bullied for decades by 'Mr Brooks', Margaret gets no respite after her husband dies, for her d... read more
This edited interdisciplinary collection draws together recent original work on the connections between radicalism and localism in a variety of international locations over the last two hundred years. The areas covered include the United Kingdom, North America... read more
'Cosmic Leap' is the second volume of 'Saba’s Choices' picking up where 'Mother Lake' left off…Saba, a charismatic shaman gifted with amazing powers, is from a fisher tribe living in forested isolation around the great eel lake and northern coast of Ireland. S... read more
Saba, a charismatic shaman gifted with amazing powers, is from a fisher tribe living in forested isolation around the great eel lake and northern coast of Ireland. She is rescued from a perilous attack and becomes the lover of Fion, the headstrong leader of a ... read more
Published here for the first time, John Hewitt's autobiography charts his life in Northern Ireland from his early years until his 'enforced exile' in Coventry in 1957. It details his career in the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery, his maverick political views on... read more
A New Year has dawned at 1A Riverview and for Aimee McCourt Logan (AKA your narrator) reality is encroaching in the form of exams, job applications and an unprecedented bout of committed monogamy- usually, it seems, involving unsuitable or possibly illegal mal... read more
Inspiring Mystical Journey into the World of the Spirits Incredible spiritual journey you can't miss. Order your copy now! Forty-five-year-old Doobie Shemer has it all: a loving family, two cars, a dog and two cats. He lives in his suburb house, holds a corpor... read more
This collection of essays throws vast new light on the most significant literary-political journal of the Romantic age. Its chapters analyze Blackwood's wide-ranging contributions on some of the most topical issues in Romantic studies, including celebrity, Bri... read more
The "(re)turn to history" in Romantic Studies in the 1980s marked the beginning of a critical orthodoxy that continues to condition, if not define, our sense of the Romantic period twenty-five years on. Romantic New Historicism’s revisionary engagements have p... read more
In 1914, County Armagh represented a miniature Ireland, with an industrialized, urban north, and a largely rural, agricultural south. It was also the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland and the birthplace of Orangeism. This book is the first detailed exploration... read more
A beautifully written Irish memoir about an extraordinary family.From the author’s great-grandmother Katherine Rose, who made her way from Stratford-upon-Avon to Lisburn as part of the Plantation of Ulster, and her forebear William Blacker, who founded the Ora... read more
How do you cope with a terminal diagnosis for your husband?Grief affects us all; the only thing that’s different is how we deal with it to empower ourselves.In "From Cornwall to the Andes", Barbara Webb recounts her experiences of caring for her terminally ill... read more
Dark, moving and beautifully written, Bernie McGill’s debut collection of short stories explores the lives of women across the generations. From the storm-battered coastline of the north of Ireland to the sleeping villas of Andalusia, McGill’s characters grapp... read more
A MALEVOLENT FORCE. A SECRET SOCIETY. A DECISION TO DETERMINE THE FATE OF THOSE ON BOTH WORLDS.On Exilon 5, Stephen finds himself overwhelmingly attracted to Serena, the new female Indigene who suddenly appeared in District Three. But who is she really, and wh... read more
A SECRET CODE. A MISSING INDIGENE. A LIFE-ALTERING CHOICE TO BE MADE.Under orders from Earth’s World Government, Dr. Caroline Finnegan studies the imprisoned Anton’s genetic code in detail. But when a colleague turns up on the table in her medical facility, he... read more
A VENDETTA. A DESIRE FOR FREEDOM. A SECRET THAT WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING.Having already begun a massive relocation programme, the World Government on Earth sends Bill Taggart to monitor the threat level of the Indigenes, the alien race that lives on Exilon 5. Bi... read more
Awakening Alice, the second book in The Harris Trilogy, is a book about love and redemption. It considers whether it is possible to go back and rekindle first love that has been betrayed. Denzel Anderson is drug-free for the first time in his adult life and fi... read more
What Is Meditation? In this "How To Meditate" Guide, acclaimed and bestselling novelist Orna Ross explains all -- and introduces her own meditation method, which she practices daily. Inspiration meditation is not just for writers and artists -- though they wil... read more
Ever fallen for the wrong guy or in with the wrong people? When translator Ellah Flanders lands up in southern Brazil she finds she’s falling for a guy as she’s never fallen before. He’s part of a seductive, heady crowd that become her new circle of friends in... read more
