Claire Rose – Editor

"An incredibly supportive and knowledgeable editor." - Clara Booth, author-illustrator of Lost & Found in History.

"Working with [Claire] has been wonderful, pleasant, and fruitful [...] I really enjoyed it." - Balthazar Pagani, author of How to be a Manga Artist.

When it comes to bringing children's stories to life, you know you can trust an editor who has worked directly with your readers.

As a former school librarian and manager of children's books in an independent bookshop, plus my time with Thames & Hudson Ltd. and now my freelance career, I know what kids want to read and what publishers want to see. I champion reading for pleasure and centre the reader at the heart of the edit, because children deserve great books, great books deserve great ideas, great ideas deserve great writing and great writing deserves great editing.

Working with me means that I will work WITH you, every step of the way, whether it be crafting solid story foundations, developing your plot or giving your manuscript that final polish.

I offer:

Editorial Assessment: Comprehensive feedback notes (1-5 pages) on your manuscript, highlighting strengths and areas for improvement in plot, story progression, character arcs and pacing.

Developmental Editing: A guided edit of the macro-elements (core story-structure and fundamentals, including pacing, characters and marketability) of your manuscript draft. Taken at your pace, as hands-on or hands-off as you need. This service includes an initial Editorial Assessment.

Line and Copy Editing: An edit focussing on the line-to-line construction of the story. Ensures that sentence structure and vocabulary are suitable for your chosen readership, checks for consistency in tone and clarity of storytelling. Flags hanging threads, unanswered questions or points of confusion, with guidance on how to address and improve them. A line edit is followed by a copy edit to tidy the spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Project Management: Long-term editorial guidance of your project, through developmental, line and copy editing, starting from a rough draft, outline or even from a one-line premise!

Proofreading: A final check of spelling, grammar and punctuation and overall consistency (including of elements such as page/chapter headings, or text formatting including capitalisations, italicisation, etc.), to be undertaken after final formatting and typesetting of your book is complete. Most suitable for self-publishing clients. I can proofread to UK or US English standards.

Submission Material Assessment: Comprehensive feedback notes and/or a line edit and proofread of your cover letter, synopsis and opening 10,000 words/3 chapters of your manuscript.

Proofreading (for self-publishing clients) and submission assessment (for clients aiming for traditional publishing) is discounted for clients who have previously had an editorial service for the same manuscript from me.

My quotes are based on the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading's recommended rates. I do not work with AI or take on work developed with AI.