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Getting published

Our Book Editors

From the world’s major publishing houses

Big Five publisher expertise

Our editorial team members are professionals with experience at Penguin Random House, Macmillan, HarperCollins, Hachette, and Simon & Schuster — where they have worked on bestselling and award-winning novels published to international acclaim. They are in-house, wholly dedicated to our writers, and work as a team under the direction of our Editorial Director.

When you choose The Finished Novel Course, you work with publishing professionals who know exactly what a manuscript needs to reach publication standards. They will oversee every aspect of your novel as you progress toward a finished draft — and when you’re ready, introduce you to the literary agents and publishers they know personally.

The only fiction writing school with Big Five editors
find a book editor at The Novelry
book editing services team
Our editorial team

Professional publishing experience

Previously, leading literary agents submitted novels to our editors in their capacity as acquiring and commissioning editors at major publishing houses. Now our editors are submitting to those same agents — on your behalf.

Our editorial team brings years of experience across every type of editing role, with a focus on the developmental edit: the creative, structural work that transforms a promising manuscript into a publishable one. They also bring their knowledge of the acquiring and publishing process — so when it’s time to pitch your book, they know exactly what agents and publishers are looking for.

At The Novelry, you get the same quality of editorial attention as an author at a major publishing house.

editing services at the novelry
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Join us today

Follow a clear, proven path from first idea to a finished, publishing-ready novel.

The Big Idea

From idea to outline

The Big Write

Write your novel

The Big Edit

Edit and polish your novel

The Finished Novel Course

The Finished Novel Course

The complete journey. A proven path from first idea to a finished, publishing-ready novel.

Our editorial team

The professional book editor for your book

Meet the professionals from the Big Five major publishing houses—including Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan.

Tash Barsby

Tash Barsby

Tash Barsby was a Commissioning Editor at Transworld Publishers and worked at Vintage Books, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster before moving to Penguin Random House, where she worked with authors Sarah Pearse, Fiona Barton, Lesley Kara, and Tess Gerritsen.

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Josie Humber

Josie Humber

Josie Humber was a Senior Commissioning Editor at Hodder & Stoughton (Hachette), home to authors including Jodi Picoult, Stephen King, David Nicholls, and Erin Kelly. Josie has worked with bestselling authors such as Kate Mosse, Kate Morton, and Joanna Trollope.

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Elizabeth Kulhanek

Elizabeth Kulhanek

Elizabeth Kulhanek was an Associate Editor at Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette and home to bestselling and acclaimed authors such as Nicholas Sparks, James Patterson, Lisa Gardner. She has worked with bestselling authors, including David Baldacci, Scott Turow, Harlan Coben, Sandra Brown, Octavia E. Butler, and Min Jin Lee.

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Emily Kitchin

Emily Kitchin

Emily Kitchin was an Editorial Director at HQ (HarperCollins), home to authors including Adele Parks, Linwood Barclay, Sarah Morgan, Carrie Hope Fletcher, and Erica James. She has worked with bestselling authors such as Holly Bourne, Jennifer L. Armentrout, Sarah Maine, Elin Hilderbrand, Emily Giffin, and Leia Stone.

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Craig Leyenaar

Craig Leyenaar

Craig Leyenaar was a Commissioning Editor at Titan Books, home to authors including Stephen King, V.E. Schwab, James Lovegrove, Mickey Spillane, and Paul Tremblay. Craig also worked at Gollancz, part of the Hachette group, home to authors including Brandon Sanderson, Joanne Harris, Patrick Rothfuss, Alastair Reynolds, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Ben Aaronovitch.

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Krystle Appiah

Krystle Appiah

Krystle Appiah was an Editor at Macmillan Children’s Books, home to authors including Marcus Rashford, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Tomi Adeyemi, and Julia Donaldson. She has worked on children’s books from Sir Lenny Henry’s The Boy with Wings to Padraig Kenny’s The Shadows of Rookhaven.

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Nic Caws

Nic Caws

Nic Caws was Senior Commissioning Editor at Headline, part of Hachette, and their boutique romance imprint Headline Eternal, home of bestselling authors such as Sarah Adams, Erin Sterling, and Mariana Zapata. She spent over nine years in editorial at renowned romance publisher Harlequin Mills & Boon.

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Lily Cooper

Lily Cooper

Lily Cooper was a Senior Commissioning Editor at Michael Joseph and worked at HarperCollins and Hachette before moving to Penguin Random House. She has worked with bestselling authors including Jodi Picoult, Louise Penny, Will Dean, and Gillian Anderson.

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Gillian Holmes

Gillian Holmes

Gillian Holmes was an acquiring editor and copy editor at Penguin Random House where she acquired authors such as Katie Flynn. She has worked with bestselling authors Kathy Reichs, Dorothy Koomson, Tony Parsons, Rosie Goodwin, Amanda Prowse, Alan Titchmarsh, Jackie Collins, and Amy Silver (aka Paula Hawkins).

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Sadé Omeje

Sadé Omeje

Sadé Omeje was an Editor at HarperCollins 4th Estate, home to Hilary Mantel, Anthony Doerr, Jonathan Franzen, and Ann Patchett. Sadé worked with fiction and non-fiction from acclaimed authors such as Coco Mellors, Emmanuel Iduma, Joyce Carol Oates, Rodrigo García, Hannah Durkin, and Jonathan Escoffery.

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Francine Toon

Francine Toon

Francine Toon was a Commissioning Editor at Sceptre, Hodder & Stoughton’s literary imprint. She has worked on the novels of Stephen King, John le Carré, Fredrik Backman, and Erin Kelly. She has published award-winning authors such as Ned Beauman, Jessica Andrews, Rowan Hisayo-Buchanan, Kopano Matlwa, and Huma Qureshi.

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Sorcha Rose

Sorcha Rose

Sorcha Rose was an Editor at Hodder & Stoughton, a division of Hachette and home to authors including Stephen King, B.A. Paris, and Lucy Score. She has worked with the authors John Grisham, Peter Robinson, and Sophie Hannah, and on Erin Kelly’s Sunday Times bestseller The Skeleton Key and Will Dean’s The Last Thing to Burn.

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Natasha Qureshi

Natasha Qureshi

Natasha Qureshi was Commissioning Editor at Hodderscape, Hodder & Stoughton’s SFF imprint, home of international bestsellers Frank Herbert, L.R. Lam, Isabel Ibañez, Roshani Chokshi, and Pierce Brown. She has worked with authors such as Cecy Robson, Ella Fields, Thomas Olde Heuvelt, and Micaiah Johnson (shortlisted for the 2024 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction).

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Navah Wolfe

Navah Wolfe

Two-time Hugo Award-winning editor and finalist for the Locus Award for best editor, Navah has worked with authors including Catherynne M. Valente, Theodora Goss, Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone, Neal Shusterman, Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Margaret Peterson Haddix, and Katherine Rundell.

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Simran Kaur Sandhu

Simran Kaur Sandhu

Simran Kaur Sandhu was an Editor of middle-grade and Young Adult fiction at Macmillan Children’s Books, home to authors including Hilary McKay, Meg Cabot, Judy Blume, and Eva Ibbotson. With prior experience at HarperCollins, Profile Books, and Serpent’s Tail, she worked with award-winning authors including Tomi Adeyemi.

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Formerly Titan Books
Formerly Titan Books
Formerly HarperCollins
Formerly HarperCollins
Formerly Simon & Schuster
Formerly Simon & Schuster
Formerly Titan Books & Orion
Formerly Titan Books & Orion
Formerly Hachette
Formerly Hachette
Formerly Penguin Random House
Formerly Penguin Random House
Formerly Hodder & Stoughton
Formerly Hodder & Stoughton
Formerly Macmillan
Formerly Macmillan
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Expertise to finish your novel

‘My story whisperer book editor took my submission package to the next level. She gave me the perfect premise line, went over my first three chapters with her brilliant editorial eye, and gave masterful advice on how to reorganize my book’s timeline to jack up suspense. She then handpicked the perfect agents and gave me the benefit of her industry wisdom throughout the entire submission process. I couldn’t recommend The Novelry more highly.’

—Helena Echlin, now represented by Janklow & Nesbit after manuscript preparation and submission by The Novelry. Clever Little Thing has been sold to Pamela Dorman Books/Penguin Random House and Penguin Canada, Grijalbo (Spain), and Nord (Italy).

Enjoy finishing your novel with The Novelry

Published books from our alumni

We’ve taken complete beginners all the way through to secure world-class literary agency representation.

Beautiful tales, boldly told
book editing services
Serious guidance for serious writers

Edit to publishing standards

The Big Edit phase of The Finished Novel Course takes you through every aspect of the editing process — structural and developmental work first, through to the technical writing skills on a sentence-by-sentence level. You will learn to self-edit to a professional standard: a skill that will serve you for the rest of your writing life as an author.

Our editors are not solo freelancers — they are an in-house team, working together on your manuscript, connected to the literary agents and publishers who matter. When you invest in editing your novel at The Novelry, you are working with professionals who know exactly what a submission-ready manuscript looks like..

HarperCollins editors at The Novelry
From pitch to a polished performance

From the developmental edit to a final review

We guide you through the full editing process down to line-by-line style — so that you become your own best editor.

Our lessons draw on contemporary examples from across the genres: the architecture of bestselling novels, prose technique, and treatment decisions that elevate the great novels.  We teach Lucid Compression® — our own technique for prose that opens books with authority and keeps readers turning pages.

When your manuscript is ready, we help you build a complete submission package with a standout synopsis and a pitch letter that makes agents want to read on. Our regular program of live classes and industry guests ensures you understand exactly what agents and publishers are looking for — from the people who know.

a children's book editor with another book editor
We grow careers

Editorial feedback on demand

Once you join a course, you can book Paid Feedback Sessions with one of our professional developmental editors — available at any point in your program, on up to 5,000 words at a time. Each session includes a written editorial report and a 45-minute video debrief where you can ask questions directly.

We recommend saving these sessions for the second half of your program, when your story is settled and the feedback can be applied to work you know you're keeping. They are most valuable during The Big Edit phase — when you are moving from structural work to sentence style and word choice.

Editing is the core skill that differentiates published authors from new writers. Invest wisely. Learn from the best.

good book editors at work
HarperCollins editors at The Novelry
Two book editors

What makes a good mentor?

An aspiring writer will want to consider a potential writing mentor carefully to choose an experienced writer who has navigated the publishing industry successfully, with a proven track record, who has standing and recognition in the literary world and the publishing industry.

A good mentor is someone who loves learning and who understands that they too, as a writer, are always learning; that way the one-on-one mentoring relationship becomes a mutually fulfilling and exciting experience, open to new ideas and feedback that flows naturally both ways.

To choose your potential coach, consider the writing coach’s work. Have they been published recently? Do they write in a similar genre? Do they understand the book publishing process? Have they got teaching experience? Do they belong to professional organisations? That they belong to a writing community and are willing and able to work generously with other writers is an important test.

writing mentors at a desk

Working with an editor

A final draft begins with a big idea. Make sure you are packing a great premise before you begin writing. Come up with a strong idea for your story and follow a clear, proven path from first idea to a finished, publishing-ready novel with The Finished Novel Course.

What can a good editor do for you?

A good editor sees the big picture — what’s working structurally, and where the story needs to be pushed further. But they also know how to execute your vision on the page at the sentence level, word by word. They bring objectivity to material you're too close to see clearly, and the literary expertise to help you fix it.

At The Novelry, our editing team members are experienced publishing editors who have worked with bestselling and award-winning authors at the Big Five publishing houses — Penguin Random House, Macmillan, HarperCollins, Hachette, and Simon & Schuster. They will help you deliver a page-turning story.

Serious writers work with serious editors.

Better than a freelance editor?

Work with a team of professionals. Book editors tend to have genre specialisms — and publishers will only acquire books that perform well within a genre. So you need to ensure your editor specializes in your chosen genre. A solo freelance editor brings their own personal taste and judgment to your work, which may not align with what the market expects currently. A broader market-savvy editorial view is very valuable.

At The Novelry, our editors meet weekly to discuss our writers’ works-in-progress, pooling their combined knowledge and experience. You have access to the whole team — finding the right editor for your book and your stage of development. Your editor works with you directly across multiple rounds, becoming genuinely familiar with your intentions and ambitions for the story. The best editors respect an author’s style.

Work with an editorial team that understands the current market for your book.

Can a book editor fix my book?

An editor can identify the problems. Fixing them is the writer’s job — and ours is to make sure you know exactly how to go about that.

With our team of editors and working authors, we are well placed to find creative solutions to story problems at every level. Our substantive editing approach moves from developmental editing through to copy-editing, covering the full range of craft decisions that take a manuscript to publishing standard.

You will work with your editor directly across multiple rounds. Each session builds on the last — your editor reviews the storyline, assesses the draft, and gives you the precise feedback you need to move forward. We will review your manuscript before submission to ensure it is genuinely ready.

An editor cannot write your book. But the right editorial team can show you how to write it well.

What should I expect to pay?

Editorial services can be expensive, and as a writer, you place a great deal of trust in your book editor. What seems cheap today can prove expensive in the long run. Not to mention downright destructive. Don’t economize on your editorial investment after all your hard work so far. It’s the last gasp—and clinches the deal.

Many literary consultancies and editorial services farm out their editing work to freelance editors, often paid at very low rates, who work by the manuscript and move quickly onto the next. With this model, you neither meet your editor nor have the chance to ask questions. Some well-known companies follow this practice.

Be aware that some professional editing services also take a 10 or 15 percent commission on your publishing royalties. Always check the terms before you commit. At The Novelry, we take no commission — ever.

We are able to offer the expertise of in-house professional editors at a more accessible price point through our considered combination of course-based training and editorial services that empower writers to become their own editors.

Invest in editors who are invested in your book.

Can a book editor get me published?

Typically, a consultancy, proofreading service, or freelance editor’s work ends when they hand back your manuscript with corrections and a report. The hard work of revision falls entirely to you — and they take no further steps toward publication. Not so at The Novelry.


Your book editor, from a respected publishing house, will give you detailed line-by-line feedback, assessing your manuscript’s potential to meet the standards of a traditional publisher before advising on changes. If your manuscript is a match for one of our trusted literary agents, you will be invited to enter our submissions process.

We work with over 40 trusted literary agencies — including WME, CAA, The Book Group, and United Agents — who actively look to us for new fiction.

The Novelry is recommended by world-class literary agencies.