Creative writing mentorship

One-to-one mentorship, developmental editing, manuscript appraisal and creative coaching for developing writers.

I'm a bestselling author with experience teaching creative writing at MA level, and I love working with early-career writers to help them hone their manuscripts, find their voice and make writing a more central part of their lives. I can help with nonfiction, novels, children's and young adult fiction (I'm no good with poetry, sorry!).

How I can help:

  • Give you compassionate feedback on your writing to help you see your own strengths and weaknesses.
  • Suggest specific exercises and resources to help you learn the skills you need to round out your creative toolkit.
  • Work with you to develop a full-length project to the point where it's ready for submission.
  • Be your writing cheerleader, and help to hold you accountable to your own writing goals.

What I can't do:

  • Proofreading or detailed line edits.
  • Act as a sensitivity reader.
  • Introduce you to an agent or publisher.
  • Guarantee publication.
Send an enquiry

Initial exploratory session

Start here. I always want to make sure that there's a good match between my abilities and your creative goals before we commit to working together. If there's good chemistry, we can then proceed to month-by-month mentoring.

You submit:

  • An outline of your project,
  • Up to 3,000 words,
  • A cover letter telling me what you'd like my help with.

You'll get:

  • Written feedback,
  • A 30-minute chat (online),
  • A follow-up email with suggested next steps.

Price: £70 once-off.

Month-by-month mentoring

Ongoing support as you write a full-length work, from the wild fumbling through the first draft, to establishing a sustainable writing routine, to revising the manuscript into a well-structured form, all the way to polishing the query letter to send to potential agents.

You submit:

  • Up to 5,000 words a month (to a deadline).

You'll get:

  • Written feedback on your work,
  • A 1-hour meeting every month (online or in-person in east London),
  • Suggestions for exercises and resources,
  • Support with setting goals and establishing a writing routine that works for you.

Price: £80 per month or £384 for six months paid upfront (20% discount).

Full manuscript reading

Detailed, impartial feedback on the full draft of a book, including commentary on the concept, plot, structure, character journeys and writing style. Please note that this is not a full copy-edit, this is known as developmental editing. Suitable for early or late drafts of a manuscript.

You submit:

  • A full-length work of up to 120,000 words,
  • A cover letter telling me if there are particular questions you have or areas you'd like me to give special attention to,
  • (Optional) A draft of your query letter and synopsis.

You'll get:

  • An editorial report of around 3,500 words,
  • In-line comments in the document flagging specific problem areas and moments of brilliance,
  • A 30-minute meeting (online).

Price: £18 per 1,000 words. Expect a 4-week turnaround for longer projects.

If you're working on a children's book or picture book, let me know and we can agree on a price structure that suits you.

Send an enquiry

Please note that I reserve the right to choose not to continue working with you at any time, for any reason. You'll be refunded pro-rata if you pre-paid for a six month package.