Donna Hillyer – Editor

I'm a fiction and non-fiction editor with over 20 years' experience, having climbed the ranks from editorial assistant to editorial director/company board member, and my skills are subsequently wide-ranging.

I’ve commissioned and grown authors (both mainstream and genre) to bestselling and award-winning status, and I now work in various capacities with publishing companies, literary agents, private authors and writers'/literary festivals. Publishing clients include: Bazar Kustannus (Finland), Bookouture; Elliot & Thompson; Hachette Ireland; HarperCollins; Harpeth Road Press (US); Little, Brown; Orion; Pan Macmillan; Penguin Random House; Reedsy; Summersdale; Transworld and Whitefox.

I work on fiction and non-fiction, across all editorial areas, e.g. >

- query letter review and advice

- manuscript assessments

- structural/developmental edits

- line-editing

- copy-editing

- proofreading

Do get in touch about your project; I'd love to hear from you!

* A selection of Sunday Times Bestsellers I've worked on in a freelance editorial capacity:

- Lucky by Ed Jackson (rugby union player turned Paralympics presenter)

- Get Divorced, Be Happy by Helen Thorn (award-winning comedian and podcaster)

- Knee Deep in Life, and No Shame, both by Laura Belbin (author of the Knee Deep in Life blog)

- Hear Me Out by Sarah Harding

- Friend Request by Laura Marshall

- Midnight in Everwood by M.A. Kuzniar

- A Different Kind of Happy by Rachaele Hambleton (aka Part-Time Working Mummy)

- With This Kiss by Carrie Hope Fletcher

- Be Yourself and Happier: The A-Z Guide to Wellbeing by Will Young

- Springtime at Cannon Hall Farm by The Nicholson Family

- Ten Things I Hate About Me: How to Stay Alive With a Brain That's Trying to Kill You by Joe Tracini

- The Good Liars / Anita Frank

- The Four by Ellie Keel

- Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

- The Dose Effect by TJ Power

A selection of other titles:

* John Marr's sci-fi hit The One (now on Netflix)

* The Summer of Impossible Things by Rowan Coleman and Killer Intent by Tony Kent, which were both chosen for the 2018 Zoe Ball TV Book Club

* Two of the six WHSmith Richard and Judy Book Club summer 2019 titles - How to be Famous by Caitlin Moran & Marked for Death by Tony Kent

* The No.1 bestselling novel (Ireland), The Hungry Road by Marita Conlon-McKenna (2021)

* Winner of the Romantic Novelists’ Association Popular Fiction Award 2022 (voted for by librarians, book bloggers and reviewers, and booksellers): The River Between Us by Liz Fenwick; and the Festive Holiday Romantic Novel Award 2022: Winter at Cliff’s End Cottage by Sheila Norton

* One Life: The True Story of Sir Nicholas Winton by Barbara Winton, which inspired the major motion picture ONE LIFE (2023)

* The Quick and the Dead by Emma Hinds: A Love Reading Star Book and Best Book of the Year Pick 2025

* We Both Have Secrets by Emma Robinson shortlisted for The RNA's Romantic Thriller Award 2026