Fern Beattie – Editor

I specialise in line and developmental editing for poetry collections, but in the past year have branched out to editing fiction and memoir, and am keen to explore this in more depth. In order to edit your work to the best of my ability, I will want to get a feel for you as a person. I work best liaising by email (but am happy to schedule video/phone calls if necessary) and we'll start by having a chat about exactly what you are looking for from this experience. My editing is about you, not me - I almost want to be like a ghost in the background tidying things up without removing any of your character from the work. I strongly believe in artistic licence so I do not cull or cut dramatically unless you ask me to - I will be ruthless with obvious errors, but anything open to interpretation I will always check in with you first and offer guidance and gentle suggestion.

I am also available for query letter editing. Together we will look at your chosen agent's requirements, you will draft a query letter and I will help you get it into ship shape with two rounds of edits.