Gary Budden

Gary Budden – Editor

Experienced fiction editor, available for developmental editing, book coaching, and copyediting. Founder of the award-winning Influx Press.

Overview

I am an experienced fiction editor based in London, UK, with fifteen years experience in the publishing industry, and the co-founder of award-winning independent publisher, Influx Press.


Influx Press has published over seventy titles since 2012, with many critically acclaimed novels, non-fiction works, and short story collections.


In 2018, Influx Press won the Republic of Conscious Prize for best small publisher.


In 2022, our title The Trees was shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize.


My freelance editorial clients include Dead Ink, Titan Books, Unbound, among many others.


Some highlights from my portfolio include:


BOY PARTS – Eliza Clark. This has sold 80,000+ copies to date in the UK, is being developed for television, and is currently being translated into several languages.

LAMB – Matt Hill

WATER SHALL REFUSE THEM – Lucie McKnight Hardy

ESC & CTRL – Steve Hollyman

THE SERVICE – Frankie Miren

TERMINAL ZONES – Gareth E. Rees


Titles I have worked on have received significant national press coverage in publication such as The Guardian, Telegraph, VICE, The i, BBC, The Quietus, and many more. They have been translated and published in numerous countries outside of the UK, and launched the successful writing careers of several writers.


I have a passion for weird fiction, place-focused writing, and literary speculative fiction and am always excited to work on manuscripts from new writers.


I offer development edits, copyedits, and proofreading, providing advice on structure, character and plot, copy-edits to address style, tone and consistency, and proofreading.


I also offer book coaching services to guide and assist with your ongoing writing project.


I like to work in dialogue with the author, offering sensitive and insightful feedback to help highlight your unique voice and to tell your story in the best way possible.


I look forward to working with you!


Gary

Services
Non-Fiction
Biographies & Memoirs History Travel
Fiction
Fantasy Horror Literary Fiction Science Fiction Short Story
Languages
English (UK) English (US)

Work experience

Titan Books

Feb, 2017 — Feb, 2019 (about 2 years)

I worked as an editor in the fiction department of Titan Books for two years, acquiring and editing science fiction, fantasy, horror and TV/film/gaming tie-in fiction. I worked with New York Times bestselling authors as well as emerging debut authors.

I worked with many established and emerging authors including Paul Tremblay, Nina Allan, Aliya Whiteley, M.T. Hill, Tim Major, Mark Morris, Gareth L. Powell and many more.

Unsung Stories

Oct, 2014 — Dec, 2016 (about 2 years)

Ambit Magazine

Jan, 2013 — Sep, 2016 (over 3 years)

Influx Press

Jan, 2012 — Present

I am the co-founder of award-winning independent publisher, Influx Press.

Influx Press has published numerous titles, including BOY PARTS by Eliza Clark, the James Tait Black Award-winning 'ATTRIB. AND OTHER STORIES by Eley Williams, and IMAGINARY CITIES by Darran Anderson.

Influx Press won the Republic of Conscious Prize in 2018 for best small publisher. In 2022, THE TREES by Percival Everett was shortlisted for the Booker Prize

Portfolio

Deliverywoman: Stories

Eva Wyles

Influx Press

Developmental Editing Editorial Assessment
LAMB

Matt Hill

Dead Ink

Developmental Editing Editorial Assessment
Water Shall Refuse Them

Lucie McKnight Hardy

The heatwave of 1976. Following the accidental drowning of her sister, sixteen-year-old Nif and her family move to a small village on the Welsh borders to escape their grief. But rural seclusi... read more
Developmental Editing Editorial Assessment
Boy Parts

Eliza Clark

‘Hallucinogenic, electric and sharp, Boy Parts is a whirlwind exploration of gender, class and power.’– Jessica AndrewsIrina obsessively takes explicit photographs of the average-looking men s... read more
Developmental Editing Editorial Assessment
Sinking Bell

Louis, Bojan

Dead Ink Books

Proofreading
From Blue to Black

Joel Lane

Influx Press

'Lane's prose delivers a vicious blow to our soft, nostalgic places; like finding a discarded gig flyer from years gone by, ripe and brimming with memory. Divine, acerbic and essential.' – Mat... read more
Proofreading
You Will Grow Into Them

Malcolm Devlin

Influx Press

'Set to become one of the decade's landmarks of English weird.' – Nina Allan, author of Conquest WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY ANGELA SLATTER Malcolm Devlin's debut short-fiction collection, firs... read more
Developmental Editing
The Stone Tide

Gareth E. Rees

Influx Press

When Gareth E. Rees moves to a dilapidated Victorian house in Hastings he begins to piece together an occult puzzle connecting Aleister Crowley, John Logie Baird and the Piltdown Man hoaxer. A... read more
Developmental Editing
Ghosts on the Shore

Paul Scraton

Influx Press

Germany's Baltic coast. A place of escape, of carefree summer holidays, of spa towns and health retreats. A place where some of the darkest stories of 20th Century German history played out. I... read more
Developmental Editing Editorial Assessment
In the Shadow of the Phosphorus Dawn

Rob True

Influx Press

'Terrifying and enthralling, a unique novel seething with violence. I loved it' Heidi James, author of The Sound Mirror Carl, reeling from the death of his brother, is drowning in visions. Fol... read more
Developmental Editing
Ways of Living

Gemma Seltzer

Influx Press

'These are sharp, wry, playful stories of split and secret selves, alter-egos, doppelgangers – of escape routes from the very contemporary and existential crises their women find themselves in... read more
Developmental Editing
Mothlight

Adam Scovell

Influx Press

Phyllis Ewans, a prominent researcher in Lepidoptera and a keen walker, has died of old age. Thomas, a much younger fellow researcher of moths first met Phyllis when he was a child. He became ... read more
Developmental Editing
Nettles

Adam Scovell

Influx Press

'One of the most interesting and original young British writers about landscape, culture and people that I know; consistently adventurous in his explorations of place as a novelist, essayist, ... read more
Developmental Editing
How Pale the Winter Has Made Us

Adam Scovell

Influx Press

Isabelle is alone in Strasbourg. The day after her partner leaves to travel abroad, she receives news of her father's suicide, his body found hanging in a park back home in Crystal Palace. Isa... read more
Developmental Editing
In the Pines

Paul Scraton

Influx Press

'The fragmented stories and haunted photographs in Paul Scraton and Eymelt Sehmer's In the Pines feel like field recordings from the shadow forest of their imaginations, transcribed into the p... read more
Developmental Editing
Exercises In Control

Annabel Banks

Influx Press

'Smart and smarting, Banks's incisive stories reveal the sharp tensions and chaotic impassivities of modern life. A triumph.' – Eley Williams, author of Attrib. 'We do have a complaints proced... read more
Developmental Editing
Polluted Sex

Lauren Foley

Influx Press

A pregnant woman takes the ferry to the UK. A fractious intimate relationship develops between an Irish woman, an English man, and her girlfriend. Two ungendered characters contest the same fe... read more
Developmental Editing
Lairies

Steve Hollyman

Influx Press

'An absolute triumph' Kerry Hadley-Pryce, author of The Black Country Shaun wakes up in hospital after a fight in a local nightclub and discovers his girlfriend has been assaulted. Ade and Col... read more
Developmental Editing Editorial Assessment
ESC&CTRL

Steve Hollyman

Influx Press

Vincent wakes up in an apartment in New York City with no recollection of having arrived there. Back in the UK, his girlfriend, Emily, has been murdered. Guided by mysterious phone calls which... read more
Developmental Editing Editorial Assessment
The Service

Frankie Miren

Influx Press

Lori works illegally in a rented flat in central London, living in fear of police raids which could mean losing her small daughter and her dream of a new life. Freya is a student who finds she... read more
Developmental Editing Editorial Assessment
The Muslim Cowboy

Yates, Bruce Omar

Dead Ink

Developmental Editing Editorial Assessment
Marshland

Gareth E. Rees

Influx Press

Cocker spaniel by his side, Gareth E. Rees wanders the marshes of Hackney, Leyton, and Walthamstow, avoiding his family and the pressures of life. He discovers a lost world of Victorian filter... read more
Developmental Editing Editorial Assessment
Terminal Zones

Gareth E. Rees

Influx Press

'Fresh and disturbing stories mapping out the pressure points in the psychedelic everyday - Rees consistently reaches the places others do not.' – Will Wiles, author of Plume 'Gareth E Rees pr... read more
Developmental Editing
The Breach

M.T. Hill

From Philip K. Dick Award-nominated author M.T. Hill, The Breach is a unique science fiction mystery set in the dangerous underground world of the urban exploration scene.Freya Medlock, a repo... read more
Developmental Editing Editorial Assessment
Absorbed

Whitehead, Kylie

Developmental Editing
Glitch

Lee Rourke

After two decades spent in the US, L-J is on a flight back to his native Suffolk to visit family and his childhood coastal home. His flight is straightforward, as per design, until it hits a g... read more
Developmental Editing
Hope Island

Tim Major

A gripping supernatural mystery for fans of John Whyndam's The Chrysalids from the author of Snakeskins.Workaholic TV producer Nina Scaife is determined to fight for what remains of her family... read more
Developmental Editing
All My Colors

David Quantick

From Emmy-award winning author David Quantick, All My Colors is a darkly comic novel about a man who remembers a book that may not exist, with dire consequences. A bizarre, mind-bending story ... read more
Developmental Editing
How the Light Gets in 2016

How the Light Gets In is the debut collection from award winning short story writer, Clare Fisher. A book of very short stories that explores the spaces between light and dark and how we find ... read more
Developmental Editing
Built on Sand

Berlin: long-celebrated as a city of artists and outcasts, but also a city of teachers and construction workers. A place of tourists and refugees, and the memories of those exiled and expelled... read more
Developmental Editing
Car Park Life

Gareth E. Rees

CAR PARK LIFE is a psychogeographic exploration of the UK's retail chain store car parks by the author of MARSHLAND and THE STONE TIDE. These commonplace urban landscapes are little-explored, ... read more
Developmental Editing
Sherlock Holmes - Cry of the Innocents

Cavan Scott

A HOLY MYSTERYIt is 1891, and a catholic priest arrives at 221b baker street, only to utter the words “il corpe” before suddenly dropping dead.Though the man’s death is attributed to cholera, ... read more
Developmental Editing
Place Waste Dissent by Paul Hawkins (2015-11-12)

Developmental Editing
Signal Failure: London to Birmingham, HS2 on Foot

Tom Jeffreys

Signal Failure
Developmental Editing
Acquired for Development By...

Gary Budden

Twenty-five writers, twenty-five different perspectives on the rapidly changing London Borough of Hackney. From gentrification to supermarket sandwiches, Turkish Alevism to inner-city river li... read more
Developmental Editing
Sherlock Holmes - The Legacy of Deeds

Nick Kyme

A DARK PAST It is 1894, and Sherlock Holmes is called to a Covent Garden art gallery where dozens of patrons lie dead before a painting of the Undying Man. Holmes and Watson are soon on the tr... read more
Developmental Editing
An Unreliable Guide to London

Gary Budden, M. John Harrison, Chloe Aridjis, Courtt Kit Caless

AN UNRELIABLE GUIDE TO LONDON brings together twenty-six stories about the lesser known parts of a world renowned city. Stories that stretch the reader's definition of the truth. Stories that ... read more
Developmental Editing
Total Shambles by George F. (2015-03-09)

Developmental Editing
Skein Island

Aliya Whiteley

From the award-winning author of The Beauty, Aliya Whiteley, Skein Island is a powerful and disturbing look at the roles we play, and how they form and divide us. "Aliya Whiteley is one of the... read more
Proofreading
Imaginary Cities

Darran Anderson

Inspired by the surreal accounts of the explorer and 'man of a million lies' Marco Polo, Imaginary Cities charts the metropolis and the imagination, and the symbiosis therein. A work of creati... read more
Developmental Editing
Ghosts of Empire

George Mann

The latest installment in acclaimed Ghost series from Sunday Times bestselling author George Mann In the aftermath of the events seen in Ghosts of Karnak, and with the political climate somewh... read more
Developmental Editing
Embers of War

Gareth L. Powell

From BSFA Award winning author Gareth L. Powell comes the first in a new epic sci-fi trilogy exploring the legacies of war.The sentient warship Trouble Dog was built for violence, yet followin... read more
Developmental Editing
A Demon in Silver

R.S. Ford

A new stunning epic fantasy for readers of Brandon Sanderson, Michael J. Sullivan and Brian Staveley.In a world where magic has disappeared, rival nations vie for power in a continent devastat... read more
Developmental Editing
Originators

Andrew Lane

"It’s plausible, unpredictable, and thoroughly entertaining” Publishers Weekly on NetherspaceIt's half-way through the twenty-first century.Contact with alien races was made forty years ago, b... read more
Developmental Editing
Metronome

Oliver Langmead

You and I, we wear our wounds. I wear my scars, you wear your tattoos, and we don't forget who we are.' It is for the entities known as Sleepwalkers to cross the doors between dreams, and hunt... read more
Developmental Editing
The Arrival of Missives

Aliya Whiteley

From Aliya Whiteley, author of the critically-acclaimed The Beauty, comes a genre-defying story of fate, free-will and the choices we make in life. In the aftermath of the Great War, Shirley F... read more
Developmental Editing
You Will Grow Into Them

Malcolm Devlin

The world is a far stranger place than we give it credit for. There, in the things we think familiar, safe, are certain aspects. Our fears and desires given form. Moments that defy explanation... read more
Developmental Editing
The Record Keeper

Agnes Gomillion

The Record Keeper is a visceral and thrilling near-future dystopia examining past and present race relations. After World War III, Earth is in ruins, and the final armies have come to a reluct... read more
Developmental Editing
The Predator

Christopher Golden

The official novelization of the summer blockbuster The Predator, Shane Black’s new movie with a screenplay by Shane Black and Fred Dekker.For centuries Earth has been visited by warlike creat... read more
Developmental Editing
New Fears

Ramsey Campbell

WINNER - 2018 BRITISH FANTASY AWARD FOR BEST ANTHOLOGYFEAR COMES IN MANY FORMSThe horror genre's greatest living practitioners drag our darkest fears kicking and screaming into the light in th... read more
Developmental Editing
Snakeskins

Tim Major

An SF thriller examining the repercussions of rejuvenation and cloning on individuals’ sense of identity and on wider society. Caitlin Hext’s first shedding ceremony is imminent, but she’s far... read more
Developmental Editing
Zero Bomb

M.T Hill

From Philip K. Dick Award-nominated author M.T. Hill, Zero Bomb is a startling science fiction mystery that asks: what do we do when technology replaces our need to work?The near future. Follo... read more
Developmental Editing

Gary has 45 reviews

Professionalism

Quality

Value

Responsiveness

Stephen O.

Stephen O.

Mar, 2025

Very pleased with Gary's professionalism and the quality of the edit.
David P.

David P.

Mar, 2025

Gary is excellent, and I find myself returning to him for feedback. He is sharp, fast, and provides a perspective which lies somewhere between Reader and Editor, which is precisely where I want it.
DOSU K.

DOSU K.

Feb, 2025

Gary was patient and worked well with me to ensure the story had minimal flaws and was good for publication. I would surely recommend him.
Stephen O.

Stephen O.

Feb, 2025

Gary was extremely professional, his responses were quick and clear. His editing was concise and insightful.
Cory T.

Cory T.

Nov, 2024

Gary's manner was very professional, and he was very prompt with his responses and edits.

Sign up to read more reviews

Create a free Reedsy account to connect with Gary and thousands of other publishing professionals on Reedsy.

Professionals similar to Gary

Get a range of offers by requesting quotes from multiple professionals.

William Boggess

William B.

I am a freelance editor with over a decade of experience working with major publishers, top literary agencies, and independent authors.

Durham, NC, USA

100% reply rate

View profile
Christopher Noël

Christopher N.

I've been a freelance editor for 25 years, working with clients on novels and memoirs later published by Dutton, W.W. Norton, Scribner, etc.

Calais, VT, USA

100% reply rate

View profile
Jeannine Thibodeau

Jeannine T.

I've been an editor for 27 years now, and I've done everything from line editing, copy editing, and proofreading from academia to fiction.

Boston, MA, USA

100% reply rate

View profile