Overview
I'm currently a commissioning editor at one of the Big 5 publishing houses in the UK, having previously build a successful list of exciting literary fiction and bestselling non-fiction at the award-winning publisher Unbound. I'm a Guest Lecturer at Faber Academy on their novel writing course, and mentor at a leading London writing school where I help aspiring writers from talented beginners to household names turn their ideas and proposals into manuscripts. I've helped a wide range of authors with their work and hope I can help you too!Most commonly the service I offer on Reedsy is editorial assessment. I will read your work thoroughly and carefully, providing suggested edits and comments through the manuscript. You'll also receive a second document that assess your work in big picture terms in areas like character, plot, story development, sense of voice and consistency. Away from my day job, I'm the host of the popular publishing podcast What Editors Want where I interview industry-leading editors on what they look for in a book, so alongside editorial work I offer advice on writing pitches, synopsis, and routes to publications.
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.
Services
Non-Fiction
Biographies & Memoirs
History
Nature
Fiction
Historical Fiction
Humor & Comedy
Literary Fiction
Short Story
Thriller & Suspense
Women's Fiction
Languages
English (UK)
Awards
- Faber & Faber Tebbutt Scholarship
- Cuirt International Festival of Literature New Writing Prize
- The Bookseller Futurebook Hack, Winner of Discoverability Category
Certifications
- MA Publishing from UCL
- BA in Creative Writing, English and History
- Qualified Copyediter from the London School of Publishing
Work experience
Unbound
Aug, 2014 —
Mar, 2020
(over 5 years)
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.
Faber & Faber
May, 2014 —
Aug, 2014
(3 months)
I worked primarily on the Faber and Faber classics list, learning the basic nuts and bolts of editing and publishing.
Waterstones
Sep, 2013 —
May, 2014
(8 months)
Worked at various branches of Waterstones selling books while I completed my MA in Publishing.
Charlie Byrne's Books
Jun, 2012 —
Aug, 2013
(about 1 year)
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'.
Portfolio
'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... 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 unem... read more
‘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... read more
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 ... read more
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.... read more
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 ... read more
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 ... 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; ... read more
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 ... 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 b... 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.F... read more
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 wa... read more
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... 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 Mulber... read more
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, ... read more
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. Desper... read more
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... read more
'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... read more
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, sa... read more
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... read more
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 pigeo... read more
'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... 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’... read more
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 ... read more
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 twent... 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 s... read more
Philip has 14 reviews
Professionalism
Quality
Value
Responsiveness
Stefan S.
Oct, 2021
Hannah F.
Aug, 2021
renate K.
Aug, 2021
Andy M.
Oct, 2020
Ginny W.
Sep, 2020
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