Editorial Support

Published by Sam Ruddock on 31st August 202131st August 2021

Your writing, turbocharged.

Before you send your manuscript out to agents. Before you start looking for publishers. Get a manuscript assessment or full edit to ensure your book is polished and ready.

Your writing deserves an editor who cares

Investing in working with an editor can give you the best chance of securing a readership, agent, and/or publisher.

Story Machine offers a thorough, professional, artistic and commercial editing service to help you make your work the best it can be. We love diving into words and stories, immersing ourselves in your characters and settings, and helping you turbocharge the reading experience.

Whatever your work, we can work with it. We’ve edited literary fiction, sci-fi, southern-gothic horror, young adult, non-fiction, short stories, novellas, and much more.

‘I trust Sam. My writing is…let’s say a bit odd. But he hasn’t tried to push me into the standard format – he knows what my writing is, what I want it to be, and how to make it better.’
JM Burgoyne

Editing Packages

We offer three packages, to help you get the support you need.

Feedback and advice

We read your manuscript and offer a 1 page report on your work, including suggestions of areas to develop.

Prices: £75 up to 15000 words; £300 up to 75000 words; £50 per 10000 words above this.

Manuscript Assessment

We read your work and write a comprehensive 3-6 page report on your work, including areas of strength and areas to work on, sources of further development, and commercial potential of the work.

Prices: £250 up to 15000 words; £500 up to 75000 words; £100 per additional 10000 words

Comprehensive Edit

A complete manuscript assessment which includes a line-by-line mark-up of your manuscript, copy edit, and a comprehensive 3-6 page report on all areas of development.

Prices: £300 up to 15000 words; £650 up to 75000 words; £150 per additional 10000 words.

Please note that VAT is on top of each of the prices listed above

We recognise that no two works are alike, so everything we offer can be personalised to suit you and your manuscript.

Testimonials

‘Sam is an editor with a clear vision, who is able to communicate that vision with sensitivity: coaxing without coercion, persuading without pressure. I count myself very fortunate to have had Sam as my editor.’
Sarah Passingham, author Push: My Father, Polio, and Me

‘Sam is an encouraging and enthusiastic editor who enabled me to see my work more objectively and to take bigger bolder steps in honing the story.’
Amanthi Harris, author of Lantern Evening and Beautiful Place

Further Information

All submissions for editing should be sent in MS Word, and formatted to 12pt font, double spaced lines. Line-by-line editing can only be done on an electronic copy.

We request a sample 2 pages before agreeing to any editing job. This ensures that we are able to give you the support that you need.

Before we start, we ask you four key questions to ensure that we are editing to your aims and ambitions for the work, rather than our own agenda.

How would you describe this work in 100 words?
What is most important to you in this work? (this might be the prose rhythm and flow, or characterisation, or themes, or something else entirely. Inevitably a combination of these is going to be important to you, but knowing which is the key will help me help you focus on that at the heart of your work)
What are you pleased with in the work so far?
What would you like to be working better? (have you tried to work on this already? If so, what have you done?)

We may take up to 6 weeks to complete your edit.