Editor, Reader and/or Coach

Ready to take your masterpiece from great to out of this world?

No matter how great we are, we all need someone to bounce off and review our work to help us take it to the next level.

I can help with...

Content Editing

As a content editor for non-fiction I look at accuracy, tone, and strength of key messages. For fiction I suggest changes as necessary to the plot, characters, and setting. I also look at grammar and formatting.

Reading

As a reader I will give you early, high-level feedback and impressions of your work. Writer’s request early readings to get opinions on the direction, structure, and substance of their piece.

Coaching

Coaching involves a combination of editing and reading as well as check ins, ongoing discussions, strategy sessions, and whatever we agree will help most with your writing process.

Why work with me?

Aside from excelling in English throughout school, going through university to a Masters level, lecturing at a top Australian university, and going on to be a writer myself, I have also trained in ‘deep editing’ techniques.

This means I look beyond surface level issues and systematically assess and help improve writing content, structure, style and presentation.

My aim is to connect with your writing and your purpose, and help make it as clear, compelling, and accurate as possible.

I have extensive experience editing complex works from large corporate documents such as annual reports and white papers, to a 300+ page epic history of a hill station in India I had previously known nothing about.

I lectured Undergraduate and Masters students at the University of Adelaide for around six years and marked countless papers including for content, structure, grammar, spelling and so on.

I love working with authors on large projects and uncovering the magic, just as I love working with great editors on my own writing projects.

Fresh, trained eyes can make such a difference and help take work from great to out of this world.

Shall we talk about your project and see if we can work together?

Testimonials

"As a reader and editor, Claire just gets it. If you are looking for someone to add value to the structure and content of your work, you will find her extremely astute and her feedback invaluable. She is respectful, collaborative, and delivers to deadlines."

Sachin Sharma

Senior Commissioning Editor, Harper Collins Publishers

“I worked with Claire Richardson on editing my historical coffee table book on the Indian hill station, Kodaikanal. Her attention to detail and capability to paraphrase were outstanding. Her non-judgmental suggestions on a few potentially controversial topics was also extremely useful."

Badri Vijayaraghavan

Business Executive and Author

"Claire was a great discovery for two novice novelists. Her meticulous editing work on our book made a world of difference and smoothed out the bumps. She will be the first person we talk to after the sequel."

Peter Withy

Co-author of Muddled Waters

"I like that Claire looks at things differently to me, but she understands my style and doesn't try to change it. If you are looking for a thorough and insightful editor, Claire delivers!"

Maria Doyle

Consultant in Adult Education and Training

** Samples of work I have edited are available on request. **

Shall we chat about working together?

We will discuss your writing projects, goals and objectives, the type of help you are looking for, and whether I am the right fit for you.

Quotes for editing finished work

If you have a finished manuscript, just want a chat, and don’t need to talk about it, email me the following directly to Claire@ClaireRWriter.com

Requirements to quote for editing services

Some books can need a lot of work with the English, the way the content is structured, and/or even rewriting or adding content to some parts.

Every book I see to edit is different and requires different treatment so I cannot estimate the time to quote without looking through all of these.

Table of contents

This gives me an idea of the basic structure and flow of your book.

Six - eight sample pages

I will spend 30 minutes doing a sample edit. This will give me an idea of the treatment required and how long it will take to do the remainder of the book.

It will also allow you to see the editing I will do and whether it is what you have in mind.

Final or expected word count

I need this to calculate the total time it will take me. If you have not yet finished your book, it is okay to send me an estimate of what you think.

I will not edit work until you have finished with it, so if there is a large deviation in the word count from when I quote to when the manuscript comes, we can easily adjust the hours/price accordingly.