Tutors

Eleanor has worked in book publishing for over 25 years, including (simultaneously) a stint in production journalism for about 10. She is a developmental editor, copyeditor, typesetter, occasional writer and a CIEP Advanced Professional Member. The titles she has worked on have been diverse (from graphic novels to data science) and she has long-term experience of every stage of the editorial process. Her specialist areas include commercial fiction, self-help, humour, Scottish interest, and – a sub-genre that is admittedly rare – the comedy cookbook.

Shelagh has worked as a freelance proofreader and editor for 10 years on a wide variety of publications, from books to online journals and publications for business. Though based in the UK, she has a global client base. She combines proofreading and editing work with tutoring for the CIEP and in-house training.

Catherine is a professional editor, proofreader and writer specialising in the healthcare field. She has nearly 15 years' experience working both on a freelance basis and in-house with medical communication and education agencies, pharmaceutical companies and journal publishers. She thoroughly enjoys tutoring, and has designed and conducted bespoke in-house courses in editing and proofreading. Outside the editorial world, she is a qualified UK Athletics running coach who works with athletes at her local club.

Averill specialises in all types of fiction editing, and enjoys working directly with authors, whether they aim to publish via the agent/traditional publishing route or through self-publishing. She is an Advanced Professional Member of the CIEP, Chair of AFEPI Ireland (the Irish editors’ association), founder of EPANI (the Northern Irish editors’ group), and a partner member of ALLi (the Alliance of Independent Authors).

For 25 years Denise worked as a chartered physiotherapist in the NHS, before leaving in 2011 to retrain as a proofreader and copyeditor. She became an Advanced Professional Member of the SfEP, forerunner of the CIEP, in 2015. Based in Glasgow, she splits her work between educational publishing, particularly English Language Teaching materials, and working with organisations and businesses, large and small. She has run sessions at SfEP conferences on a variety of topics and became SfEP/CIEP marketing and PR director in 2017. When she has spare time, Denise volunteers at large sporting events, loiters on social media and tries in vain to keep on top of her family's activities.

Sara is a copyeditor and copywriter who helps authors and businesses get their story out there without having to stress about imaginary rules. An Advanced Professional Member of the CIEP, and a trained writer, she loves to help people look their best. Based in the Highlands of Scotland, but serving customers worldwide, she works with businesses and publishers, as well as independent authors.

Caroline has worked in publishing for more than 25 years, initially in Berlin and Oxford, and then at Cambridge University Press, where she trained copyeditors for 15 years. Freelance since 2005, she specialises in copyediting and editorial training in the humanities and social sciences. She is a tutor on the Publishing Training Centre's 'Copy-editing by distance learning' course and co-editor of the fourth edition of Butcher's Copy-editing.

Andrea is a freelance proofreader and copyeditor specialising in non-fiction and is an Advanced Professional Member of the CIEP. Her background is law and business, having worked as a conveyancing solicitor, head of department and partner in a law firm for many years. Andrea is based in Hampshire, in the UK.

Fiona is passionate about language and about bringing writing to life. An Advanced Professional Member of the CIEP, she has more than 30 years' experience as an editor working on a wide range of publications from illustrated books to websites. Fiona runs the 'Essentials of grammar' course for Gloucestershire Enterprise Ltd and has been an SfEP/CIEP tutor since 2007.

Luke Finley set up Luke Finley Editorial in 2013/14 and is an Advanced Professional Member of the CIEP. Most of his working life until 2014 was spent in the voluntary and public sectors, which gave him a keen interest in plain English and trying to persuade people to communicate more clearly. He also wrote and delivered various kinds of training. As an editor, he has presented on plain English at two SfEP conferences and, with Laura Ripper and Sarah Carr, wrote the CIEP guide Editing into Plain English.

Sarah has been working as an editor and proofreader since 2000. She began her freelance career by proofreading exam papers and now edits and proofreads an increasingly wide variety of material, including fiction and poetry; children’s fiction and activity books; commercial and charity sector reports; and academic books and journals, with subject matter ranging from architecture to yoga therapy (she is still looking for a ‘z’). She has a BA in French Literature and Language and an MA in Celtic Studies. Sarah is an Advanced Professional Member of the CIEP and an SfEP Accredited Proofreader.

Jill French of jfeditorial specializes in fiction and creative non-fiction. She provides a range of editorial services – development editing, manuscript critiques, copyediting and proofreading. She is an Advanced Professional Member of the CIEP and a Partner Member of the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi).

Louis Greenberg is an editor, tutor and novelist with over 25 years’ wordworking experience and is an Advanced Professional Member of the CIEP. After 13 years as a bookseller, marketer and in-house designer, he started his freelance business in 2009. He edits and proofreads fiction and non-fiction for major publishers and independent authors, and works on higher education course material and corporate documents for clients around the world. He has an MA in vampire fiction and a doctorate in post-religious apocalyptic fiction; he tutors creative writing and scriptwriting at Oxford University’s Department for Continuing Education and has published nine novels. Among his eclectic interests are puzzles, sports, digital design, cooking and TV drama.

Following a varied career in government, Ray has been a freelance writer and editor since 2010. He has edited over 80 books on a wide range of subjects, including fiction, history, sport, travel adventure, true crime, self-help, autobiography and the Classic FM Quiz Book. He has already had ten of his own books published, and his TV and radio appearances to discuss his books have included The One Show, BBC Breakfast (yes, on the famous sofa!), Sky News and Radio 5 Live. His lifelong passions are travel, history and languages, and he has a working knowledge of French, German and Italian. He is an Advanced Professional Member of the CIEP.

Jane began her editorial career working for STM publisher Chapman & Hall on the Earth Sciences list. She has been a freelance copyeditor and proofreader since 1998. Jane works for a variety of clients, including publishers, self-publishing authors and businesses, on a wide range of subjects, including fiction, education, travel, nature, conservation and psychology. She is an Advanced Professional Member of the CIEP and the coordinator of the Bedfordshire & Buckinghamshire local group.

Hester has been working as a copyeditor and proofreader since 2005. She specialises in copyediting academic books and journals in humanities subjects for a variety of publishers and educational institutions. She also works directly with individual academic authors, particularly in development editing for non-native speakers. Before moving into editorial work, she was an academic historian and museum curator.

After his careers as teacher and lorry driver, Gerard trained as an indexer in 1990. Since then he's also freelanced as a proofreader, copyeditor, writer, mentor and trainer, working mostly at night for trade and academic publishers, national and international bodies, universities, businesses and individuals.

Gerard became an Advanced Member of the SfEP, now the CIEP, in 1998 and received an LCGI in Editorial Skills in 2010. He lives near the Roman Wall in Cumbria.

Graham has been a full-time freelance copyeditor and proofreader since 2013, following a long career in IT as an analyst, programmer and project manager. He is an Advanced Professional Member of the CIEP, and is the coordinator of its Liverpool local group, having previously carried out this role in the Manchester group. Graham mainly works for business clients, but also has substantial experience with non-fiction publishers.

Annie has been an editor throughout her career, starting in trade non-fiction and mass-market paperback publishing, then working for a number of non-profit organisations, before concentrating on editing in the humanities and social sciences. She now works as a freelance proofreader, copyeditor and project manager for a number of academic publishers, and has experience of typesetting in Quark and InDesign.

Liz has more than twenty years' experience as an editor and proofreader, having worked in-house for four different publishers. She has been freelance since 2008, and specialises in highly illustrated non-fiction books for a range of publishing clients, as well as technical proofreading. She is an Advanced Professional Member of the CIEP, and has worked as a proofreading and copyediting mentor since 2012. She also edits the CIEP's external newsletter, Editorial Excellence. Liz lives in Somerset in the UK.

Antonia has worked as a freelance and in-house editor for 25 years. She is an Advanced Professional Member of the CIEP. Her background is in languages and she originally trained as a Modern Languages Editor for HarperCollinsPublishers. Today she works for a wide range of book publishers (including Hachette, Pearson and CUP) on educational and trade non-fiction lists. She offers development editing, copyediting, proofreading and project management in diverse areas, including business, law and psychology. An experienced tutor, she created and delivered a course in copyediting and proofreading for adult learners in Cambridge, where she is based.

Hannah runs Black Cat Editorial Services, specialising in fiction editing for publishers and independent authors. Her services include copyediting, proofreading, and manuscript critiques. She is an Advanced Professional Member of the CIEP, the local group coordinator for West Surrey & North Hampshire, and a Partner Member of the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi).

In the 1980s Lucy proofread medical insurance forms. From 1990 she was a copyeditor at Macmillan in London. She headed the proof collation department at the New Grove Dictionary of Opera and then at the Dictionary of Art, later becoming its managing editor. In 1995 she moved to Scotland and went freelance; she paused for 10 years (babies), then picked up freelancing again. Lucy is based in Glasgow. She copyedits and proofreads, mostly academic books and textbooks, and is a mentor in proofreading for the CIEP. She is an amateur cellist and singer. Her degree was in French.

After a degree in Greek and Hebrew and a PhD in classical Greek, Susan’s interest in editing was sparked by researching and writing some commissioned books on local history subjects. She joined the SfEP (now CIEP) as a freelance in 2000, trained as a proofreader and copyeditor, and became an Advanced (now Advanced Professional) member in 2004. She works mainly for educational publishers, academic and cultural institutions and administrative bodies. She enjoys involvement in the CIEP Glasgow group.

Jane has worked with books for all her working life (which is rather more years than she cares to admit), starting life as a librarian in the field of mining and metallurgy. While raising her two children, she started a freelance editing business, which she maintained for 15 years before going back into full-time employment as Head of Publishing for a medical Royal College, publishing a varied book list, several journals and an online distance-learning programme, together with a plethora of official reports. Part of her role involved training editors, authors, administrative staff and anyone else who was interested in copyediting and proofreading. Now theoretically retired, she has returned to her freelance editorial business and has also expanded into consultancy and hen-keeping.

Peter works as a music book editor and music engraver and increasingly as a composer. His song cycle Sea, Shore and Tide was chosen by the London Schubert Players for their 2011 programme, and the Texas-based Madera Wind Quintet performed and recorded his Ultramarine in 2012. He is the author of Learning to Read Music (How To Books) and co-author of Pop Music: The text book (Peters Edition).

Sarah was taught grammar rigorously at her French primary school, and conceived a lifelong passion for getting words to play nicely together. After teaching languages for a few years, she found her home in editorial work and the CIEP. She has been proofreading and editing for 20 years, mainly teaching materials (languages and ELT) and academic history, with occasional forays into music and the social sciences.

Penny provides writing, editing and strategic-level communications support to a wide range of non-publishers, from public and voluntary sector organisations to multinational service providers and manufacturers.

After more than 20 years in the IT industry as a technical editor and writer, Sarah became a freelance editorial professional in 2002. She works on academic books and journals, and her main subject areas are social sciences, music, business and IT. She's delivered SfEP courses for staff at the House of Lords and House of Commons, Wiley–Blackwell and L'Oréal. She's now learning Welsh, the language of her ancestors, following a move back to her roots in south-west Wales.

Kate has been a freelance copyeditor and proofreader since 2002, and is an Advanced Professional Member of the CIEP. Previously, while studying for her PhD, she taught English and American literature undergraduates. Specialising in academic humanities, Kate works on monographs and edited collections in a wide variety of subjects. In her spare time she writes, sings, gardens and paddleboards.

Laura Ripper is a self-employed copyeditor and an Advanced Professional Member of the CIEP. She started out at Plain English Campaign in 2004, editing documents for private companies and public-sector organisations. After that she joined Foundations and then Digital Outreach – companies that worked with charities on behalf of the UK government. As an editor, she helped these companies communicate clearly with various audiences. She has also taught English as a foreign language in Russia and China. She continues to specialise in plain English and, with Luke Finley and Sarah Carr, has written the CIEP guide Editing into Plain English.

A freelance copyeditor specialising in academic and reference works, Rosemary was managing editor of the Grove dictionaries of music and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and latterly at Thames & Hudson. Besides her CIEP courses, she has created and taught workshops for corporate clients and industry bodies in Britain and abroad.

Abi has worked as an copyeditor and editorial project manager since the start of the millennium. After eight years working in-house – for business-to-business publishers, a trade publisher and a quango – Abi started her own editorial services business in 2009 and is now an Advanced Professional Member of the CIEP. She works with a wide array of clients on an even wider array of publications, with particular subject soft spots for linguistics and social policy.

Richard has been working as a freelance copyeditor and proofreader since 2012. Prior to that he worked for 20 years in IT. His clients include many trade publishers and literary consultancies, as well as an increasing number of self-publishers. He is a Professional Member of the CIEP. He has also written both fiction and non-fiction for a number of years, and has edited the Philip Roth Society Newsletter since 2008.

Tamsin began her publishing career as an assistant editor at Penguin, after reading English at university and studying for a Postgraduate Diploma in Printing and Publishing Studies. Between periods working in the Gambia and South Africa, she worked at OUP on the World's Classics list before going freelance in 1997. Her time is divided fairly equally between fiction and non-fiction, primarily for publishing companies but with some private clients too. Based in Oxford, she is a tutor on the Publishing Training Centre's 'Basic proofreading' course and is an Advanced Professional Member of the CIEP.

Lorraine has been a freelance copyeditor and proofreader since 2004. She specialises in academic monographs on law, music and linguistics, but manages to come up for air by also working on highly illustrated craft books and books on fashion and the fashion industry. She is an Advanced Professional Member of the CIEP and also a mentor in proofreading and editing.

Mairi worked as an in-house editor/managing editor for 10 years with Cambridge University Press and Longman. She has been a freelance editor and editorial project manager since 1989, working mainly on academic books and journals for a variety of publishers and corporate organisations. She worked as a part-time lecturer/tutor in editing on the Edinburgh Napier University publishing course for 10 years and has run tailored courses in proofreading since 2001.

Melanie Thompson has worked in publishing, journalism and PR since 1988. Her first job was assistant editor for Chapman & Hall science journals. She became a freelance editor/writer in 2000 and joined the SfEP shortly after that (Advanced Member). She has been a visiting tutor for the PTC (Copy-Editing Skills) and has been a trainer for the SfEP/CIEP since 2017.

Katherine trained as a journalist and after spells as chief subeditor of a daily newspaper and senior media officer for the police, now specialises in fiction. She works mainly with independent authors and small publishers. She is an Advanced Professional Member of the CIEP and wrote the CIEP guide Getting Started in Fiction Editing. She is also a partner member of ALLi (the Alliance of Independent Authors) and a member of the Editing Globally collective. She particularly enjoys training other editors and is based in Aberdeenshire.

Helen White is a freelance proofreader and copywriter with more than 15 years of editorial experience. She is an Advanced Professional Member of the CIEP. Before going freelance, she worked as a BBC journalist and in marketing roles for the New Vic Theatre in Staffordshire and a Swiss process engineering firm. These days she mainly works with corporate clients and publishers.

Gale has worked as a freelance and in-house editor for over 20 years, both in the UK and Hong Kong, and is an Advanced Professional Member of the CIEP. She originally learned her editing skills on the job, before honing them with various courses with the SfEP, predecessor of the CIEP, and PTC. She has always read voraciously, and enjoys helping authors to restructure their books into a good read. When working in-house Gale specialised in children's fiction, but now spends much of her working time editing all kinds of fiction for self-publishing authors and publishing houses, with a little bit of non-fiction, academic proofreading and training thrown in for variety.