Ian W. Sainsbury – Editor

Hi, I'm Ian. Thanks for checking out my profile. I love books, and (like all compulsive readers) I love discovering new writers.

If we work together, I promise to do everything I can to bring out your voice, draw your readers into your story, and make your book compelling and commercial. I'll be honest and transparent throughout the process. My only goal is to help you make your story as unputdownable as possible.

My developmental edit will get straight to the point. I'll tell you what's working, what isn't, and help you identify what you can do about it.

I also offer detailed copy editing, if you want to focus on your writing sentence by sentence. I'll help you to recognise (or recognize—I edit books in British, American, Canadian, and Australian English) areas where your writing shines, and I'll point out any bad habits so you can nip them in the bud. For instance, I'll let you know if you overuse clichés like 'nip them in the bud'.

About me: I've read at least half a billion words of fiction, written over a million words in my novels, and sold hundreds of thousands of books since first publishing in 2016. I've edited most of my own novels, including The Picture on the Fridge, which won the Kindle Storyteller Award in 2019.

No AI-generated manuscripts, please. By all means, use a smart grammar checker to clean up your prose, but it's your voice I'm interested in.

"Ian has a brilliant eye for character, story and spotting all my bad habits. His feedback weeds out the bad stuff, leans into what’s good, and gives me the confidence to go leaping into the next draft. It’s got to the point where I don’t think I can finish anything without running it by him first!" Mark Stay, author of The Witches of Woodville series, Robot Overlords, and The End of Magic series.

"Ian has been invaluable both as an editor and mentor. When I think I finally have a novel or story ready to publish, I send it to Ian for a final read and discover the real work is still ahead of me. He has an amazing eye for detail, both with grammar and sentence structure but also spotting factual, historical, and logical flaws. He has an understanding of story structure and character that is second to none. He makes me look good, and elevates my storytelling!" Andy Chapman, author and screenwriter.