Editorial services

by willwain Comment Closed
Freelance substantive editor, copy editor, proofreader and researcher with over twenty years’ experience.  Currently writing and researching  a sea story, the Ghost Ship of Trinity Bay, about the Welsh Marie Celeste What can I do for you? Do you have a finished or an unfinished book, story, essay or other work? Does it need some polishing, or would you like a considered opinion (based on a thorough reading) of your work? I can evaluate it, suggest rewrites or changes, do detailed copy editing,  or simply check it for errors and anything that is unclear (proofreading).  All  manuscripts considered, in electronic (digital) or typescript form. I’ve a lot of experience in assessing novels and poetry, making suggestions and selections, and working closely and sympathetically with writers to give them serious feedback about their work. I’ve helped bring books to print in both print and digital form. And I can guarantee personal attention, good communication, and a tailor made approach to each individual writer. Email me...
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Editorial ‘CV’

Editorial ‘CV’

by willwain Comment Closed
Editorial CV Some of my recent projects: 2020 substantive editing on CHASE, a thriller by Brian Waltham 2019 copy editing on Chris Clunn’s book (published 2020) on Semanta Santa Marinera, photographs of the Holy Week in Valencia’s Maritime Quarter 2018-19 Work on Betou: the Biography of a French Hamlet (Line Press, London) 2016-19 Substantive editing on Damian Knight’s the Pages of Time series 2015 Copy editing and helping to bring to press Damian Knight’s first novel, a sci-fi thriller for young Adults,  ‘The Pages of Time’. 2014 Video editing for Brian Waltham Celebration in London in September 2014 2013 design and maintenance of website on the history of shops and pubs in Primrose Hill, London 2012 Editing Chris Clunn’s retrospective ‘I Should Coco’. Editorial work on Brian Waltham’s ‘Memos’ and his website at www.brianwaltham.com 2011 Edited the introduction to Chris Clunn’s new book of portrait photography Meirionnydd (FUW 2011). 2011 Made the initial selection for Brian Waltham’s posthumous poetry collection The Hang of It (Line Press 2011) and later...
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Smaller Sky Books 2000 – 2008

Smaller Sky Books 2000 – 2008

by willwain Comment Closed
In 1998, an old friend, the poet, jazz pianist and former BBC Producer Graham Tayar, happened to mention to me that the author William Cooper (pen name of Harry Hoff) was looking for a publisher for his latest novel, the final one in the series of Scenes… that had begun in the 1950s with Scenes From Provincial Life. After a trip to London from Oxford to meet Harry, who was charm itself, and who in fact funded some of the initial print costs, Lucien Crofts and I set up Smaller Sky Books, initially working from a tiny premises next to the sub-post office in the Oxfordshire village of Stonesfield. (The name of the press, suggested by Will Richards, comes from my father’s almost-cult novel, The Smaller Sky, published in the late 1960s, about a man who literally lives out his life on Paddington Station.) Scenes From Death and Life sold out its first small print run and was reviewed in the Independent, the Spectator, the Oldie and elsewhere and...
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