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 Since then I have worked with over two hundred individual published and unpublished writers on everything from epic historical fiction to contemporary-set short stories, from life-writing and creative non-fiction to scholarly articles and book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.

appraisals

Short stories, extracts, synopses, submissions packages, or any combination. Choose between:

1)      I read and mark up the manuscript (including any synopsis/plans etc.) with full comments and notes, and return that to you by registered post or electronically.

2)      I read the manuscript (including any synopsis/plans etc) and make notes, and comments on the ms, for a 90 minute meeting in person, on the phone, or on Zoom, at which we talk through the issues. At the end I’ll give you or email my notes and the commented-on manuscript, although they won’t be as comprehensive as option 1.

When you’ve had the appraisal, you’re welcome to email me with any queries which will help you make the most of my comments.

For clients I work with directly, for either of these options, I charge £210 to read up to 4,000 words, including around 500 words of synopsis if that’s relevant. For longer manuscripts, as a guide, 5,000 words including a synopsis would be £238, and 10,000 including a synopsis would be £294. These fees are guaranteed until April 2024, but please be aware that if you have been referred by an editorial agency, rather than inquiring directly, the fees may vary to reflect the different costs involved.

Book-length manuscripts. I’m sorry that, because of other commitments, I’m not at the moment taking on any full manuscript appraisals, except for existing clients. But you would be surprised by how successfully we can use a shorter section or sections, in conjunction with a synopsis or longer treatment, to explore about 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 drop me a line.

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 in this particular session. If at any stage we are focussing purely on goals and motivation, and there really isn’t any text for feedback, then the fee for a meeting is £100, and you’re welcome to send me up to 1,000 words of notes before we meet.

Generally speaking we would meet for 90 minutes either in person or on Zoom. After the first meeting, if you’d like to go ahead, we would meet regularly, arranging the next date at the end of each meeting. I find every six weeks works well as an interval, but I am very happy to be flexible. If you’d prefer not to commit to a regular arrangement we can work ad hoc, with you emailing me whenyou feel another meeting would be useful; however, with ad hoc arrangements it may be a little longer before I can find space in my diary for the reading and meeting.

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.

* Please note that these prices are guaranteed for any feedback booked and paid for before 6th April 2024; after that there may be a small increase.

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.