more about individual tutoring and mentoring

I first began helping writers, doing manuscript appraisals, nearly fifteen years ago, while completing my own PhD in Creative Writing and teaching for the Open University. Since then I have worked with over two hundred individual published and unpublished writers on everything from epic historical fiction to contemporary-set short stories, from life-writing and creative non-fiction to scholarly articles and book chapters.

This page gives a broad picture of how I work, and I hope answers many of your questions, but every writer is different and I’m always happy to discuss ways that we might work together. I also very much enjoy working with writers’ circles and groups. Just click through to Contact to find out more or ask any questions, and to find out where I will be appearing in the next few months, click through to Events.

To get a flavour of how I think about writing, dip into my writing blog This Itch of Writing - and note that paying supporters of This Itch of Writing get a 5% discount on all my fees*: just tell me which email address your membership is listed under, and I’ll make sure the discount is applied.

Short stories, extracts, synopses, submissions packages, or a mixture.

Choose between:

1)     I read and mark up the manuscript (including any synopsis, plans or notes) fully with comments and notes, and return that to you. After that you’re welcome to email any questions that will help you make the most of my feedback.

2)     I read the manuscript (including any synopsis/plans etc.) and make notes on it for a 90 minute meeting, either face-to-face if you can get to Clapham (see ‘Places’, below), or on Zoom (or WhatsApp). During our meeting, we will explore what I think is working in your writing, and what you might do about the things which could work better. At the end I’ll give you or email the notes I made for our conversation, for you to take away, although they won’t be as comprehensive as option 1.

For either of these options, I charge £220 (£209 for Itch of Writing supporters) to read up to 4,000 words including a synopsis, which can be quite short and unpolished!. For longer manuscripts, as a guide, 5,000 words including a synopsis would be £235 (£223.25), and the maximum 10,000, including a synopsis, would be £330 (£304), but I’m happy to quote pro rata for wordcounts in between.

Do note that these fees are guaranteed until August 2027; after that there may be a small increase. The 5% discount for paying supporters of Itch of Writing applies provided you are still a supporter when we meet: just let me know what email your membership is listed under.

MENTORING

Mentoring is structurally like a series of appraisals of short writing, and the fee is the same, but the discussion and feedback would also focus on your wider and longer-term goals and hopes as a writer, as well as the writing that I’ve seen. Generally speaking we would meet for 90 minutes; after the first meeting, if you’d like to go ahead, we would meet about every six weeks, arranging the next date at the end of each meeting.

If you’d prefer not to commit to a regular arrangement, I’m happy to work ad hoc, with you emailing me when you’d like to meet again; however, with ad hoc arrangements it may be a little longer before I can find space in my diary for the reading and meeting.

COACHING

We would generally base our discussion on my having read a chunk of your writing, but there are times – perhaps at the beginning of a project, perhaps when you’re not sure what project to tackle next or whether to embark on a major course – when it’s all about motivation, process and planning, and there’s nothing really to read.

I’m happy to work that way, and for a 90 meeting I would charge £115 (£109.25 for Itch of Writing supporters). You’re welcome to send me up to 1,000 words of notes, or other text, to help guide our discussion.

developing your feedback & teaching skills

I love working with writers who would like to develop their feedback and teaching skills, either simply to become more effective in their writing community, or as a path to work as a tutor or editor. My approach to helping you will be tailored to what you are looking for, so do get in touch, and we can discuss what you need.

BOOK-LENGTH MANUSCRIPTS

Please note that, because of other commitments, I’m not at the moment taking on any full manuscripts, except for longstanding clients. I quite understand if that means you’d prefer to find another editor, but you would be surprised by how successfully we can use a shorter sections in conjunction with a synopsis or longer treatment, to explore how the book as a whole is working. If you are an existing client, then I may be able to read your book-length manuscript, so do email me to discuss the possibilities.

practicalities

Presentation: Whether you’re emailing a file or putting a printout in the post, I do ask you to format your manuscript as follows, as it makes a big difference to how effectively I can work on your writing:

• a .docx or .doc file (not a .pdf, or anything else)

• double line-spaced

• at least 2.5cm margins

• page numbers

If I have to do serious re-formatting before I can work, I will have to charge extra, but I’ll let you know before going ahead. For more details of the industry-standard way to present manuscripts, click through to this post on my blog.

Times: My diary does get very full, but when you enquire I should be able to give you an idea of the dates when I can give you the feedback. I will need your manuscript about ten days before that, or two weeks if it is longer than about 5,000 words.

Dates: When we discuss how we’ll work together, we will agree a date for you to send the manuscript, and a date for the meeting or feedback.. As I get enquiries all the time, I can’t promise to hold the dates we’ve agreed until you send the payment, though I will try: after you’ve paid, the slots are yours. With regular mentoring clients, we will generally set the next date at the end of the meeting.

Places: If we’ve agreed to meet for feedback, and you can get to South London, we can meet in person; it’s on the Tube and we have lots of excellent cafés to choose from. However, phone and Zoom also work very well, whether it’s because you live in Australia, or because you can’t get away from the office.

Payment: I ask you to pay, ideally by bank transfer, when we agree the dates for sending the manuscript and for meeting or sending the feedback. After our first meeting, I ask you to pay at the same time as you send the next manuscript.

My comments: I write comments and reports to help develop your writerly craft and confidence, so that you can make progress with this specific project and your writing in general. They’re not comments meant for general or public consumption, and they’re not designed as publicity quotes or recommendations. If you would like me to give a quote for that kind of purpose, I am usually happy to do so: just email me and we can sort something out.

Other genres: I love working with all kinds of fiction and creative non-fiction, and find the same opportunities, problems and technical issues crop up regardless of the genre. But there are genres in which I don’t have specialist knowledge of the readership and the current market: chiefly writing for children and young adults, and the very science-fiction-y end of fantasy and speculative fiction. The more historical-fiction end of fantasy, and the realistic end of speculative fiction, are fine. However, if you are looking for a specialist in those areas, I may well be able to recommend someone, so do get in touch.

Finally, I have a great deal of experience in working with writers, and I will do my best to help you to improve your writing and achieve your goals. But nothing in life is certain – least of all anything to do with the publishing industry – and it’s just not in my power to get you that agent, that book contract or that prize. Of course the market matters if you hope to sell your work, either to a publisher or directly as a self-publisher but, because of all the uncertainties, it’s important that you feel that working on your writing is worth doing in itself.