Experienced commissioning editor, enthusiastic about literary fiction and narrative non-fiction. Competitive rates and publishing advice.
I am also a writer and hope this gives me an insight into the challenges my authors face. My writing won the Cúirt International Festival of Literature's New Writing Prize and has been twice longlisted for the Bath Novel Award. I also review books for publications including The Times Literary Supplement. I was the inaugral winner of the Faber & Faber Scholarship to UCL, where I completed an MA in Publishing, and I also hold a copywriting qualification.
I was a commissioning editor at Unbound, an award-winning publisher behind books like Letters of Note, The Wake and The Good Immigrant. We've won the Bookseller Book of the Year, the PEN Ackerley Prize, the Gordon Burn Prize and been shortlisted for the Booker, Goldsmiths and Folio Prize.
My job involved assessing manuscripts and proposals from authors and agents to find the ones I'm passionate about. I typically provided two rounds of edits - the first a bigger picture editorial review and the second a line by line edit, if required. I then manage the book through to publication while it is being copyedit, typeset and proofread to answer any queries and take in any corrections.
I worked primarily on the Faber and Faber classics list, learning the basic nuts and bolts of editing and publishing.
Worked at various branches of Waterstones selling books while I completed my MA in Publishing.
Selling books at Ireland's best bookshop. With no computer database of stock, working here is the bookselling equivalent to cab driver's 'The Knowledge'.
Dan Dalton
'If a tree falls in a forest and Jon Bon Jovi is with you when it happens, is it still a figment of your imagination?' Johnny Ruin is a literary novel that explores themes of heartbreak and mental health. The novel is set in the mind of the narrator, a surreal United States where each state is a new state of mind: lust, anger, jealousy. Haunted by the idea that he is somehow broken, the narrat... read more
"Heartbreaking and breathtaking." (Clive Barker, author of Hellraiser). In 1986 Marc Heal stumbled across a yellowed newspaper cutting about Derry Knight: a man who claimed that he belonged to a secret Satanic group operating at the highest levels of British society. Helped by John Baker, vicar of the Sussex village of Newick, Knight had falsely raised large sums from wealthy gentry on the pre... read more
Robert Phillips
In Trust Me, PR is Dead, Robert Phillips - the former EMEA CEO of Edelman, the world's largest public relations firm - calls the end of the PR industry and advocates new models of public leadership and public value. He tells tales from the front line and twenty-five years at the summit of PR, from the 'Hello Boys' Wonderbra campaign to sharing the stage with CEOs and prime ministers, as well a... read more
Sarah Pullen
What would you do if a stranger told you your son was going to die?Silas is ten years old when the headaches start. When the diagnosis arrives, his parents are told they have until Christmas… maybe. And so begins Sarah Pullen’s battle to save her son, against doubting doctors and insurmountable odds. This story about love and loss traces her family’s journey from that first day at the hospital... read more
As humans, we are drawn to predators like no other group of animals. They are the epitome of form and function, and have a level of perfection that we revere.In 2009, wildlife expert, conservationist and photographer David Plummer was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Rather than let it defeat him, he was galvanised to grab life by the horns and achieve the perfect wildlife shot. Over the ne... read more
Irvine Welsh, A.L. Kennedy, Meera Syal, John Niven, Pauline Melville, Daisy Buchanan, Christopher Brookmyre, Zoe Venditozzi, Nina Stibbe, Mike Gayle, Murray Lachlan Young, Barney Farmer
Jon Bloomfield
'Indispensable . . . Speaks of hope and courage' Observer'An ode to openness, offering a refreshing alternative to those accounts that treat migrants as faceless statistics' David Lammy MP'A highly informed and eloquent account of life in a modern British city during a period of globalisation, austerity and mass migration' Patrick Cockburn, IndependentRace and migration are the most prominent ... read more
Chuck Mullin
Anxiety is a wildride. Often, there seems to be an assumption that if you’re mentally ill, youjust sit around and cry all the time. There is a certain amount of that, true,but there’s also much more to it.Chuck Mullin has wonfans with these funny, quirky pigeons that illustrate how mental health affectsher everyday life. From Bad Times to Positivity, the comics use humour to providea glimpse o... read more
Sylvia Topp
This is the never-before-told story of George Orwell's first wife, Eileen, a woman who shaped, supported and even saved the life of one of the twentieth century's greatest writers.In 1934, Eileen O’Shaughnessy’s futuristic poem, ‘End of the Century, 1984’, was published. The next year, she would meet George Orwell, then known as Eric Blair, at a party. ‘Now,’ he remarked that night, ‘that’s th... read more
Amy Kean, J. Milton
This is the story of a brave young girl, Elodie-Rose, who one day decides to change the world and keep all her fucks in her basket. Wait a minute. You’re confused. What are fucks, you ask? It’s quite simple, really. Fucks are her self-esteem; all the happy, sad and wonderful thoughts that sit in her basket. That sit in every girl’s basket! And every girl must give these fucks away every time s... read more
Stephen Leslie
'To put it simply, this book is fun. It’s also funny, deep, at times disturbing, at other times profoundly hopeful. But every image gets remade in ways that hold a bit of genius' Lens Culture'Funny, tragic and often bizarre, Stephen Leslie’s photos in his book Sparks are an unique ode to street photography' GuardianA family isbrought close to ruin by a pet python; an Icelandic advertising agen... read more
Stevyn Colgan
Can lollipops reduceantisocial behaviour? Could wizards prevent street gambling? Do fake bus stopsprotect pensioners? Can dog shows help reduce murder rates?Stevyn Colgan spentthirty years in the police service—twelve of them as part of the ProblemSolving Unit, a special team with an extraordinary brief: to solve problems ofcrime and disorder that were unresponsive to traditional policing.They... read more
Max Dickins
A book about opening yourself (and sometimes your colon) up to new experiences.When comedian Max Dickins was dumped by his girlfriend, he was faced not just with excruciating heartbreak but also with the cold realisation that he was bored, bored, bored. Desperate to shake things up, he took a friend’s advice and reluctantly bought a deal on Groupon.He then bought another. And another… until wh... read more
Timothy O'Grady
Visit a place where your accent is an aphrodisiac, invites a Las Vegas tourist board ad on the London Underground. Just the right amount of wrong, offers another from The Cosmopolitan Hotel. Clearly, it works. Over forty million people a year travel to Vegas, more than to Mecca. It is a global celebrity, an improbable oasis, a place offering bank-breaking fortunes and instant gratification, 24... read more
Annabel Port has found herself in some bizarre and, let’s say, diverse situations. She’s sneaked around Google HQ in search of ball pools. She’s exhibited her own conceptual art at the Tate Modern (unofficially). She’s been a real-life shop mannequin at Mulberry.There were the attempts to overthrow Prince Andrew and befriend Vladimir Putin, as well as become an erotic-fiction writer, a self-he... read more
Matthew Herbert
In the last hundred years – between the invention of the microphone and the computer – music has undergone a profound revolution. No longer confined to specifically designed instruments, we can now make music out of anything.Why use a guitar when you can use a lawnmower? Why use a lawnmower when you can use an explosion in Libya?The Music evokes a shifting sonic landscape in precise detail – C... read more
Una Mullally
Abortion is illegal in almost every circumstance in Ireland, making it the only democracy in the western world to have such a constitutional ban.Between 1980 and 2015, at least 165,438 Irish women and girls accessed UK abortion services. In 2016, the figure was 3,265.Any woman or girl who procures an abortion, or anyone who assists a woman to procure an abortion in Ireland can be criminalised ... read more
They are trees of life and trees of knowledge. They are wish-fulfillers ... rainforest royalty ... more precious than gold. They are the fig trees, and they have affected humanity in profound but little-known ways. Ladders to Heaven tells their amazing story.Fig trees fed our pre-human ancestors, influenced diverse cultures and played key roles in the dawn of civilisation. They feature in ever... read more
Ireland's Green Larder tells the story of food and drink in Ireland, for the first time. From the ancient system of the Céide Fields, established a thousand years before the Pyramids were built, right up to today’s thriving food scene.Rather than focusing on battles and rulers, Margaret Hickey digs down to what has formed the day-to-day life of the people. It’s a glorious ramble through the ce... read more
Jonathan Bate
Jonathan Bate believes that the slow, meditative reading of poetry – absorbing ourselves in the images of a poem, slowing to its beat, allowing our minds to rest in the pause of a line-ending – can bring us tranquility as we find echoes of our own experiences on the page. Experiences of beautiful places, strong feelings and moments that lift the human spiritIn The Shepherd’s Hut, Bate introduc... read more
From the editor of A Country of Refuge comes an anthology of writing on one of the defining issues of our time; focusing on the fate of refugee children and young adults, it is aimed at children and adult readers alike.There are tales of home, and missing it; poems about the dangerous journeys undertaken and life in the refugee camps; stories about prejudice, but also stories of children’s for... read more
Lucy Popescu
A Country of Refuge is a poignant, thought-provoking and timely anthology of writing on asylum seekers from some of Britain and Ireland’s most influential voices.Compiled and edited by human rights activist and writer Lucy Popescu, this powerful collection of short fiction, memoir, poetry and essays explores what it really means to be a refugee: to flee from conflict, poverty and terror; to ha... read more
Lia Leendertz
The Almanac revives the tradition of the rural almanac, connecting you with the months and seasons via moon-gazing, foraging, feast days, seasonal eating, meteor-spotting and gardening. Award-winning gardener and food writer Lia Leendertz shares the tools and inspiration you need to celebrate, mark and appreciate each moment of the year.
Heritage. Adaptation. Values. Flexibility.From the oldest pub in the world to the Liberty Bell and the origins of a nation, Established: Lessons from the World’s Oldest Companies tells the stories of twelve businesses with a combined age of almost 5,000 years. They’ve survived war, plague, rebellion, boom, bust, depression and strange twists of fate. But how and what can we learn from them.Spa... read more
Joe Nutt
What s the point of poetry? It s a question asked in classrooms all over the world, but it rarely receives a satisfactory answer. Which is why so many people, who read all kinds of books, never read poetry after leaving school. Exploring twenty-two works from poets as varied as William Blake, Seamus Heaney, Rita Dove and Hollie McNish, this book makes the case for what poetry has to offer us, ... read more
Andy Bush
‘Bush can literally draw anything. I’ve watched him draw a stick of celery with enough finesse and detail to make a botanist weep. And then, in the next breath, he drew Rick Astley’s hair. Brilliantly.’ Mel GiedroycWhat do celebrities get up to when they’re at home and away from the glare of the public eye? Between playing songs on Absolute Radio, Andy Bush always wondered about the mundane, b... read more
Every adult paid a living wage. No strings attached.Universal basic income is a very old idea that is fast becoming the radical idea of the twenty-first century. It could eradicate poverty and avoid a much-predicted dystopian future of automation and high unemployment – but it could also have an unexpected effect: an explosion of mass creativity.Phil Teer draws insights from the creative and e... read more
McQuade, Aidan
Andy Macleod, October 2020
Reply from Philip Connor
Ginny Walker, September 2020
Andy Macleod, May 2020
Andy Macleod, May 2019
Caroline Greco, April 2019
Reedsy is a community of top publishing professionals. Join Reedsy today to browse 1000+ profiles.
Sasha is an editor and wordsmith who can help your writing project—short or long, nonfiction or fiction—reach its fullest potential.
New Orleans, United States
Making sure your prose sings, your facts and story are straight, and your unique voice shines through.
Austin, United States