Melissa Hyder – Editor

A friendly, meticulous and conscientious editor with over a decade of experience in children's publishing.

I spent ten years working in a London publishing house, focusing on supporting and creating fantastic children's novels. Five years ago I moved to working part-time and freelance, and these days I work on a purely freelance basis with a selection of publishers, and directly with authors who wish to self-publish. I typeset text (laying out a tailor-made interior design ready for print) and provide a range of editorial services:

– manuscript critiques, to help point authors in the right direction as they build their books.
– developmental editing, to provide an in-depth look at how to make the story tighter and work better.
– copy-editing, to polish language, tidy spelling, punctuation and grammar, as well as catch any glaring plot issues.
– proofreading, to check for typos, repetition and any final problems on a set of text-designed pages.

My speciality and passion is for working on children's books, especially fiction for 8-12 and YA. I think there is nothing more exciting and resonant than a great story, especially one that inspires and excites young minds, and I enjoy supporting authors in making their tale the very best it can be.




Julia Wills, author of Fleeced! and Rampage!:

I was lucky enough to have Melissa as my editor for my debut novel Fleeced! Creative, insightful and brimming with good sense and suggestions, she has a solid grasp of story structure, coupled with the imagination and skill to help make the storytelling work. More than that, she possesses a great emotional literacy that brings characters fully to life, making them real to the reader, so that readers are genuinely invested in them, and remember them long after the book is closed. Add to all this the fact that she’s a real pleasure to work with, always supportive and optimistic, and it will come as no surprise that I asked if she could be my editor on the sequel, Rampage! too. I cannot recommend her highly enough. She’s great!


Rachel Burge, author of The Twisted Tree

I sent my manuscript to Melissa at the stage where I was basically happy with the plot, but wanted help to take it to the "next level". Not having worked with an editor before, I wasn’t sure what to expect – but the feedback I received from her was incredibly insightful and helpful.
Not only did she help me improve story flow and tension (particularly at the end of chapters), she helped me think more carefully about character arc, which I feel added a depth to the story that was missing before.
I was impressed with the length and detail of the report – and the thought and time that had gone into it – as well as the useful copy-edits on the manuscript.
Melissa really "got” what I was trying to achieve with it. As well as helping me to improve this story, I feel I’ve learnt a few tricks which I can use when writing the next!