All about me
I bring strong and relevant perspectives to add value to the editing and proofreading of books for children.
The trained proofreader and editor
I trained with the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading, the Publishing Training Centre, Beth Cox and Louise Harnby.
The consumer
I was a primary school librarian for four years and see your books through the eyes of the consumer: child, educator and budget holder. I ran library sessions on research skills and to encourage reading for pleasure. I stretched the children working at greater depth with challenging texts and developed a love of reading with reluctant readers. I value the pictures as highly as the words. I taught the children what I know and love, and they shared with me what they needed from a book and a library.
The musician
I trained as a violinist and have a degree in music from The University of York. I understand voices and structure, assonance and dissonance, symbolism and referencing, melody and lyricism, harmony and counterpoint – all of those things that underpin the written word. I can bring you an understanding of what is happening behind the words to help you to polish your book for publication.
The parent
I am a parent of children whose reading habits could not be more different. I appreciate the importance of the bedtime story, of opportunist reading (where you casually leave tantalising books ‘on the side’), the excitement of a new book dropping through the letterbox on publication day and the modelling of reading in all its manifestations. I know that there is a book, magazine, children’s newspaper, set of instructions or catalogue for every occasion and that reading is reading.
