From editor to adviser: How to read what the client isn’t saying

11am – 11.55am BST, 12 September 2026 ‐ 55 mins

Session 2 – breakout (running concurrently)

Editors are often brought in to work on the text, but much of the real work sits just outside it. 

Clients don’t always know exactly what they need. They may be unclear about their audience, be working with competing priorities, or be under pressure they haven’t fully articulated. What shows up on the page is often only part of the picture. 

This session focuses on how to recognise and respond to that wider context. It explores how to listen for what isn’t being said, how to identify the real problem behind a brief, and how to shape your editorial input to align with the client’s underlying goals. 

Drawing on experience across publishing, book coaching, teaching and research communications, the session combines practical examples with short exercises to help delegates develop a more intuitive and strategic approach to their work. 

Delegates will leave with: 

• a clearer sense of how to identify unstated needs and priorities
• practical ways to ask better questions at the start of a project 
• approaches to giving feedback that move beyond correction into guidance 
• more confidence in navigating unclear or shifting briefs.

The session is designed to help editors move from reacting to what’s on the page to understanding what sits behind it, and to use that insight to build stronger, more trusted client relationships.

Speakers

Nikki Laine

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Nikki Laine

Nikki Laine (formerly Nikki Owen) is an internationally published novelist with HarperCollins (HQ), a book coach and freelance editor and proofreader working across fiction and nonfiction, and a lecturer in creative writing and English literature at the University of Gloucestershire. 

With over twenty years' experience across publishing, journalism, editorial services and research communications, her work focuses on helping writers and organisations clarify what they are trying to say and how best to say it. 

She has worked as a writer and editor for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and has supported writers whose work has gone on to receive wide recognition, including the Laurie Lee Short Story Prize.