Helen Woodhouse – Editor

I love a good story. And I love words and how the different ways you can put them together can alter the tone and voice of a story.

I am also that person who will flick back in a book to check a family tree, map or timeline – perfect, it turned out when I changed career from being a lawyer, for checking narrative consistency.

I’ll not judge you by any mistakes or inconsistencies – we all make them, and by looking for someone to go through your manuscript and check for these before you commit to printing it, you’re taking a sensible step.

I've been a freelance copyeditor and proofreader since 2020, working for indie authors and publishers, including 2025's Independent Publisher of the Year, Boldwood Books. I'm a Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP).

I specialise in editing at a sentence level, which could be:

Line editing or copyediting – the stage after you’ve got your story straight and are happy that you’ve dealt with any big issues that may have been raised by beta readers or developmental editors. I’ll look at spelling, grammar and punctuation, and also check for consistency in language, style, plot, characterisation and timeline.

Proofreading – the final step before you commit to printing, after you’ve dealt with any issues raised in the previous rounds of editing. I'll check for anything that may have been missed and go through any changes you needed to make in those previous rounds.

I’ve certainly enjoyed the work I’ve done for my clients, so it’s wonderful to hear that it’s been appreciated:

"I've long since lost count of how many copyeditors I've worked with in my career but I've never come across anyone as good at her job as Helen. She is absolutely outstanding!... What struck me most was that she can not only 'hear' an author's voice, she can make editorial suggestions that are actually in tune with it. In my experience, that's quite extraordinary." Alison Roberts, romance author

"It was a pleasure to work with Helen. Her keen eye and thoughtful comments have really helped to improve the manuscript. Her approach is very much to enable the story to be told clearly and in the writer’s own voice. I was also hugely grateful to her for picking up a location error, and I’m now very confident with the finished book. I do hope to work with her again." Kate Galley, women’s fiction author

"Thanks so very much for all your hard work. I really did find it very useful. And particularly your advice re the timeline. That was important." John Nicholl, thriller author