Matthew Baylis – Editor

Hello, I worked for several years as an editor for Old Street Publishing, a prominent indie publisher based in the UK, and now edit a range of fiction titles for online publishers (alongside a side-hustle with the Metropolitan Police). I'm an author, too - I wrote a crime trilogy, a duet of comic novels and a travelogue the Sunday Times called 'a cult classic'.

I first began working with authors 32 years ago, as an assistant in a literary agency. After a few years I left that world - temporarily - to pursue my other great love - writing stories on the BBC's 'EastEnders', then training writers and developing tv dramas and films in Cambodia.

I continued as an editor-for-hire, though, working on tv-tie-in science titles and various prison memoirs, leading writing workshops and delivering online creative writing tutoring. I kept writing my own books, too, and I hit it off with the publishers of Books Three, Four and Five to the point that they also hired me as an editor.

How do I work? That depends on what you've written and what you require. A typical operation would be: I read your book (minimum 60,000 words) and write you a detailed appraisal, telling you what I liked, what I felt needed improving, and how to go about it (what Reedsy calls 'developmental editing'). I can then do the same thing for a further draft, if you choose, or undertake a line edit and proofread.

Or: if you've already been through a draft or two and you now just want a copy-edit or proofread prior to your next stage - e.g. typesetting, submission to agents/publishers - then I'll provide that. I can't design covers, but I can certainly help with the jacket copy, and give you pointers about submitting your work to publishers.

I also offer a Zoom consultation as part of the package (I do it through Reedsy's own interface). It's often easier to get my points across in a live conversation, and it means we arrive at the answers together, rather than me sending you a list of questions and/or suggestions. Writing doesn't have to be a solitary pursuit; often collaboration gives that vital extra burst of energy to nudge a writer onto the homeward stretch.

I used to call myself an 'editorial fixer' (because I'll do everything, from helping you find an ending that eludes you to fixing the punctuation and making sure it really was possible to travel by train from Vienna to Naples in 1953 without stopping-over in Rome...) but fixing isn't the best word. I see redrafting as part of the process, not as trying to mend something that's gone wrong. Books take time.

It seems a bit rude to give you a list of the things I don't/won't do. BUT the subjects/genres about which I know the least, and have least experience of editing are children's/YA, sci-fi, fantasy (that includes magic, ghosts, vampires, werewolves, anything supernatural), erotica & sport.