Lara Hinchberger - Editor
Hands-on, collaborative editor with 16+ years' experience (12 at Penguin Random House CA) with historical, women's, mystery fiction and more
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Overview
During my time in-house at some of Canada’s foremost trade publishers, I prepared scores of titles for publication, collaborating closely with authors from acquisition (and often before) to hone and polish their work to a fine gleam, and then with the entire publishing team to help every book find its best audience. After many years I chose to shift to the freelance path so that I could concentrate on what I truly love -- digging deeply into a narrative, getting to know the characters, their challenges and environment, and working closely with the author to pinpoint what is not working yet, figuring out how to improve it, and generally make something good even better.
I have worked with writers at all stages of their careers, and tailor my editorial services to each project according to the expectations of the author and the requirements of the text. Whether you are seeking a comprehensive big-picture assessment that proposes creative ways to build on your work's strengths and address its challenges or feel ready for a sensitive and thorough line-by-line edit that will enhance your distinctive voice and strengthen the weave of character, story, pace, diction, and more that creates a strong novel or work of narrative non-fiction, do be in touch -- we might make a great team.
(Projects translated from the French are always welcome.)
“I was extremely lucky in having Lara as my editor for two novels. I immediately sensed her respect for my vision of the novel and I grew to depend on her instincts, her experience, and her fine judgement. It’s a wonderful thing to feel that your editor cares as much as you do about getting it right.” -- Joan Thomas, award-winning author of FIVE WIVES, THE OPENING SKY, CURIOSITY, and READING BY LIGHTNING
“Lara guided me through three novels with the uttermost patience, tact and perspicacity. Everybody should be so fortunate to have such a good editor.” -- Maureen Jennings, author of the bestselling MURDOCH MYSTERY series and the DETECTIVE INSPECTOR TOM TYLER series
“Lara . . . is the best editor I’ve ever worked with, and I look forward to her help again with my next novel.”
Kurt Palka, author of THE HOUR OF THE FOX, THE PIANO MAKER, and CLARA
“Lara has the rare ability to read a manuscript, see the book an author wants to write and work with the author until the manuscript satisfies both the writer and the publisher. She’s terrific!”
Gail Bowen, author of the JOANNE KILBOURN SHREVE mystery series
Languages
English (CAN)
English (UK)
English (US)
Non-Fiction
Biographies & Memoirs
Fiction
Contemporary Fiction
Historical Fiction
Mystery & Crime
Psychological Thriller
Women's Fiction
Young Adult
Work experience
Founding editor
Self-employed
October, 2014
–
Present
(over 5 years)
Since the start of the freelance phase of my editing career in 2014 I have worked with publishers both large and small and with independent clients both seasoned and just beginning their creative journeys. I have loved continuing to edit authors I published while in-house (KURT PALKA, MAUREEN JENNINGS, and THOMAS TROFIMUK for example) as well as beginning new relationships. A few of the latter include the internationally bestselling author Eva Stachniak, (on the historical novel THE CHOSEN MAIDEN); Shane Peacock (on the YA gothic DARK MISSIONS OF EDGAR BRIM trilogy ); and Jay Hosking (on his mind-bending debut THREE YEARS WITH THE RAT). On the non-fiction side, I have worked with accomplished art professionals on the Art Canada Institute’s LIFE AND WORK online book series, including the volumes on LIONEL LEMOINE FITZGERALD, FRANCOISE SULLIVAN, and AGNES MARTIN.
Acquiring Editor (contract)
Penguin Canada (Penguin Random House Canada)
September, 2017
–
December, 2018
(about 1 year)
In 2017/18 I pressed pause (mostly!) on my freelance business and went back in-house for a year and a bit at Penguin Canada. My acquisitions included new work from acclaimed Canadians novelists Karma Brown (the Number 1 national bestseller RECIPE FOR A PERFECT WIFE) and Nicole Lundrigan (HIDEAWAY) and international debuts from Jo Jakeman (STICKS AND STONES [UK]/THE EXES' REVENGE [CA/US]) and Hazel Prior (ELLIE AND THE HARPMAKER). I worked on the final editorial stages of Thea Lim’s Giller-prize shortlisted AN OCEAN OF MINUTES and was part of the stellar international team supporting Guy Gavriel Kay’s newest sweeping epic of an alternate past, A BRIGHTNESS LONG AGO.
Executive Editor
McClelland & Stewart (Penguin Random House Canada)
October, 2007
–
October, 2014
(about 7 years)
I joined historic Canadian publisher McClelland and Stewart as Executive Editor in 2007. There I was involved with all aspects of acquiring, editing, and shepherding onto the public stage a wide range of works by acclaimed and bestselling Canadian and international writers. As always, the most satisfying part of my job was working intensively with my authors, from mystery masters such as Maureen Jennings and Gail Bowen to Canadian literary lights such as Joan Thomas (CURIOSITY; THE OPENING SKY) and Katrina Onstad (EVERYBODY HAS EVERYTHING) to international stars such as Sarah Waters (THE LITTLE STRANGER; THE PAYING GUESTS) and Tash Aw (MAP OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD) to bring their beautiful, thoughtful, exciting words and ideas to their fullest potential.
Editor
Doubleday Canada (Penguin Random House Canada)
November, 2003
–
September, 2007
(almost 4 years)
I began my career in trade publishing in 2003 at Doubleday Canada, where it was exciting to be involved with the beginnings of Doubleday’s international imprint, Bond Street Books, whose early lists featured debuts by Chris Cleave, Diana Evans, and David Wroblewski. On the domestic front, I acquired both fiction such as CONCEIT, Mary Novik’s award-winning novel of 17th-century London, and voice-driven narrative non-fiction such as Natalie MacLean’s acclaimed RED, WHITE, AND DRUNK ALL OVER: A WINE-SOAKED JOURNEY FROM GRAPE TO GLASS.
Portfolio (23 selected works)
Recipe for a Perfect Wife: A Novel
Karma Brown
In this captivating dual narrative novel, a modern-day woman finds inspiration in hidden notes left by her home’s previous owner, a quintessential 1950s housewife. As she discovers remarkable parallels between this woman’s life and her own, it causes her to question the foundation of her own relationship with her husband--and what it means to be a wife fighting for her place in a patriarchal s... read more
A Brightness Long Ago
Guy Gavriel Kay
International bestselling author Guy Gavriel Kay's latest work is set in a world evoking early Renaissance Italy and offers an extraordinary cast of characters whose lives come together through destiny, love, and ambition. In a chamber overlooking the nighttime waterways of a maritime city, a man looks back on his youth and the people who shaped his life. Danio Cerra's intelligence won him ent... read more
Hideaway
Nicole Lundrigan
"Authentic, disturbing and unbearably tense, Hideaway will leave you reeling." --Shari Lapena, #1 internationally bestselling author of The Couple Next DoorGloria Janes appears to be a doting suburban mother and loving wife. But beyond her canary-yellow door, Gloria controls her husband, Telly, as well as seven-year-old Maisy and her older brother Rowan, through a disorienting cycle of adorati... read more
We Were Killers Once: A Thriller (Brigid Quinn Series)
Becky Masterman
"Former FBI agent Brigid Quinn, with her trademark toughness, raw humor, and human frailty, is back and better than ever in Masterman’s latest novel. As Quinn is drawn into an infamous cold case with a possible link to the two killers immortalized by Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, she finds danger closing in. A gripping premise, brilliantly executed―you won’t be able to put this one down!"―Sha... read more
An Ocean of Minutes: A Novel
Thea Lim
AN INDIE NEXT PICK! A “Best Book of 2018” —Real Simple “Lim’s steady prose and deft character development ensured that I was hooked on Polly’s story from beginning to end. [F]ull of fascinating social commentary on class differences, racism and sexism...it’s easy to fall into this novel and become emotionally involved in Polly’s journey and her search to find the people she loves.” —Los Angele... read more
The Piano Maker
Kurt Palka
The suspenseful, emotionally resonant, and utterly compelling story of what brings an enigmatic French woman to a small Canadian town in the 1930s, a woman who has found depths of strength in dark times and comes to discover sanctuary at last. For readers of The Imposter Bride, The Cellist of Sarajevo, Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay, and The Red Violin. Helene Giroux arrives alone in St. Hom... read more
The Hour of the Fox
Kurt Palka
From the bestselling author of The Piano Maker comes a stunning, profoundly moving story about motherhood, grief, marriage, and friendship. For fans of M. L. Stedman's The Light Between Oceans.Margaret Bradley is the most senior associate at a prestigious law firm, and she is on track to make partner. It is the 1970s; her climb up the career ladder in this male-dominated profession has been di... read more
The Chosen Maiden
Eva Stachniak
The lush, sweeping story of a remarkable dancer who charts her own course through the tumultuous years of early twentieth-century Europe. Beautifully blending fiction with fact, The Chosen Maiden plunges readers into an artistic world upended by modernity, immersing them in the experiences of the era's giants, from Anna Pavlova and Serge Diaghilev to Coco Chanel and Pablo Picasso.From their ea... read more
Curiosity
Joan Thomas
Award-winning novelist Joan Thomas blends fact and fiction, passion and science in this stunning novel set in 19th-century Lyme Regis, England — the seaside town that is the setting of both The French Lieutenant's Woman and Jane Austen's Persuasion.More than 40 years before the publication of The Origin of Species, 12-year-old Mary Anning, a cabinet-maker's daughter, found the first intact ske... read more
The Malice of Fortune
Michael Ennis
Against a teeming canvas of Borgia politics, Niccolò Machiavelli and Leonardo da Vinci come together to unmask an enigmatic serial killer, as we learn the secret history behind one of the most controversial works in the western canon, The Prince...When Pope Alexander dispatches a Vatican courtesan, Damiata, to the remote fortress city of Imola to learn the truth behind the murder of Juan, his ... read more
The Little Stranger
Sarah Waters
"The #1 book of 2009...Several sleepless nights are guaranteed."—Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly One postwar summer in his home of rural Warwickshire, Dr. Faraday, the son of a maid who has built a life of quiet respectability as a country physician, is called to a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once impressive and hands... read more
The Paying Guests
Sarah Waters
The New York Times bestselling novel that has been called “a tour de force” (Wall Street Journal), “unputdownable” (The Washington Post), “a delicious hothouse of a novel” (USA Today), “effortless” (The Economist), “seductive” (Vanity Fair) and “pitch perfect” (Salon) “Superb, bewitching…Forget about Fifty Shades of Grey; this novel is one of the most sensual you will ever read, and all withou... read more
Beware This Boy (Tom Tyler Mystery Series)
Maureen Jennings
November, 1940. Tom Tyler, Detective Inspector of the small Shropshire town of Whitchurch, is a troubled man. The preceding summer had been a dark one for Britain, and even darker for Tom's own family and personal life. So he jumps at the opportunity to help out in the nearby city of Birmingham, where an explosion in a munitions factory has killed or badly injured several of the young women wh... read more
Everybody Has Everything
Katrina Onstad
After years of unsuccessful attempts at conceiving a child, Ana and James become parents overnight, when a terrible accident makes them guardians to 2 ¿ year-old Finn. Suddenly, two people who were struggling to come to terms with childlessness are thrust into the opposite situation-responsible for a small toddler whose mother's survival is in question. Finn's crash-landing in their tidy, urba... read more
The Licence of War
Claire Letemendia
This second thrilling novel featuring Laurence Beaumont, the seductive, sardonic protagonist introduced in The Best of Men, blends history and fiction in a seventeenth century alive with intrigue, passion, violence, and wit, from the embattled court of King Charles I at Oxford where poisonous rivalries fester, to stately country estates and the colourful underworld of thieves and whores. 1643:... read more
After three years of sipping, spitting, and slogging her way through bushy vine leaves and cellar cobwebs, award-winning writer Natalie MacLean takes readers behind the scenes of the international wine world, exploring its history, visiting its most evocative places, and meeting some of its most charismatic personalities. In Red, White, and Drunk All Over, Natalie travels to the ancient vineya... read more
![By Emily White Count Me In: How I Stepped Off the Sidelines, Created Connection, and Built a Fuller, Richer, More L [Hardcover]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41rWDJw2orL._SL160_.jpg)
The Dark Missions of Edgar Brim
Shane Peacock
The first in a gripping gothic trilogy from an acclaimed author, featuring monsters from classic literary tales, secret societies and the fight between good and evil.Edgar Brim is a sensitive orphan who, exposed to horror stories from his father as a young child, is afraid of almost everything and suffers from nightly terrors. His stern new guardian, Mr. Thorne, sends the boy to a gloomy schoo... read more
The Dark Missions of Edgar Brim: Monster
Shane Peacock
The pulse-pounding second book in a gripping gothic trilogy, featuring monsters from classic literary tales, secret societies and the fight between good and evil.After vanquishing the terrible creature that stalked the aisles of the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edgar Brim and his unusual crew of friends return to their mentor only to discover that he has been brutally murdered by an unknown assailant... read more
The Dark Missions of Edgar Brim: Demon
Shane Peacock
The third and final book in a gripping Gothic YA trilogy, featuring monsters from classic literary tales, secret societies and the fight between good and evil.Having tracked the monstrous Godwin to the Arctic and barely escaped with their lives, Edgar Brim and his friends return to London. Edgar continues his work at London Hospital, now under the tutelage of the Chairman, the affluent and cha... read more
Waiting for Columbus
Thomas Trofimuk
A man arrives at an insane asylum in contemporary Spain claiming to be the legendary navigator Christopher Columbus. Who he really is, and the events that led him to break with reality, lie at the center of this captivating, romantic, and stunningly written novel.Found in the treacherous Strait of Gibraltar, the mysterious man who calls himself Columbus appears to be just another delirious men... read more
Dead Ground in Between (Tom Tyler Mystery Series Book 4)
Maureen Jennings
From Canada's premier author of historical mysteries, Maureen Jennings, comes the haunting fourth novel in the DI Tom Tyler series. Set in Britain during the darkest days of World War II, this is a must-read for fans of Foyle's War, Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series, and wartime dramas.It's late 1942; the war is still raging and the upcoming Christmas season looks bleak. Detective Insp... read more
Lara has 3 reviews
Professionalism
Professionalism
Quality
Quality
Value
Value
Communication & Punctuality
Communication & Punctuality
I can't give enough praise for the quality of Lara's work and professionalism. She was receptive to the questions/concerns about my manuscript in her feedback and provided meaningful, specific feedback on both the mechanics and creative approach to my work. I couldn't be happier with the result and have a clear roadmap on how to elevate my manuscript to the next level. I would work with her aga...
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Camille Endicott, March 2020
I could not be happier with my experience. Lara was prompt (early!) but also insightful, encouraging, and concise. A thoroughly professional transaction.
Roxie Kirk, December 2019
outstanding editor. Lucky to have found her.
David D'Angelo, December 2019
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