Make your writing the best it can be with insightful feedback reports, line editing and tailored mentoring.
Feedback Reports
Get an in-depth feedback report on your novel, memoir or short fiction collection to revise an early draft with tailored, professional advice on the best way to take it to the next level. The editor assigned to you will read your manuscript and give you feedback on plot, pace, character, world-building and more to show you what’s working well and what you still need to develop.
Short Story / Flash Fiction Critiques
Get detailed comments with main points for development along with mark up directly on your short story or flash fiction to help you make it shine.
Copy Editing
If you’re self-publishing, you’ll need a thorough copy edit of your final draft to ensure your prose shines and that your book will be the best it can be. It will correct grammar, typos and highlight any last issues that need to be ironed out.
Costs
Price will depend on word count and the type of editorial service you want.
Our Editors
All of our editors are publishing professionals with experience of writing, editing and publishing novels, short fiction, memoirs and non-fiction. We’ll assign the most suitable editor for your project once we receive your booking.
Amanda Saint
Amanda is an award winning author and publisher who founded Retreat West in 2012. The author of two novels, As If I Were A River (2016) and Remember Tomorrow (2019), her short stories have been widely published and listed and placed in international prizes, including Mslexia Flash Fiction, Fish Flash Fiction, Ink Tears Short Story Prize and Flash500. She has been designing and teaching online courses, and live workshops, for many years and has worked as an editor on hundreds of manuscripts. She is passionate about helping writers get to the heart of their characters to create memorable narrators that really come alive for the reader.
Gaynor Jones
Gaynor is an award winning short fiction writer whose work has been widely published. She won first prize in the 12th round of the prestigious Bath Flash Fiction Award, the 2018 Mairtín Crawford Short Story Award at the Belfast Book Festival and was named Northern Writer of the Year at the 2018 Northern Soul Awards.
Mary-Jane Holmes
Mary-Jane is a widely published flash fiction writer and poet. A Forward Prize nominee and Hawthornden Fellow, she has won many prizes including the Bath Novella-in-Flash Prize, the Bridport Poetry prize, and Mslexia Flash prize. In 2020, she was shortlisted for the Beverley International Prize for Literature and longlisted for the UK National Poetry Prize. Mary-Jane’s debut poetry collection Heliotrope with Matches and Magnifying Glass is published by Pindrop Press. Her novella in Flash ‘Don’t Tell the Bees’, will be published later this year by Ad Hoc Fiction.
Amanda Huggins
Amanda Huggins is the author of the forthcoming novella All Our Squandered Beauty and three collections of short fiction. Her prize-winning story from the Costa Short Story Award features in, Scratched Enamel Heart. In 2020 she won the Colm Toibin Short Story Award, the Saboteur Award for poetry, and several of her stories were broadcast on BBC Radio. She is an award-winning travel writer, a creative writing tutor and competition judge.
Matt Kendrick
Matt Kendrick has had stories published in Bending Genres, Craft Literary, Fictive Dream, FlashBack Fiction, Lunate, Splonk and elsewhere. He has been listed in various competitions and won the Retreat West “Abandoned” flash fiction contest in June 2020. Previously the flash fiction editor for Lucent Dreaming magazine, he currently runs the Betas & Bludgers writing groups as well as facilitating online workshops with an emphasis on “writing outside the box.”
FJ Morris
FJ Morris is an award-winning writer and her collection ‘This is (not about) David Bowie’ received a special mention in the Saboteur Awards for Best Short Story Collection in 2019. She’s been published in numerous publications in the UK and internationally, and shortlisted for a variety of awards. She often judges and sifts for competitions, and has been on various editorial teams for literary magazines.
Jesse Payne
Jessie Payne writes novels, short stories and flash fiction. She is working on a speculative novel, drawing on her scientific background to create a recognisable world with a twist. Her love of gardening and nature inspires her work.
Her novella-in-flash was a finalist in the Black River Chapbook competition. Her work was shortlisted for the Cambridge short story prize and has appeared in Ambit and Popshot Quarterly, amongst others.
Her fiction is represented by Sara Langham at David Higham Associates.
Isabel Costello
Isabel’s debut novel Paris Mon Amour was published in 2016, to be followed by Scent in 2021 (Muswell Press). Her short fiction includes the title story of Retreat West anthology The Word for Freedom. She has run the Literary Sofa blog for nine years, where her most exciting discoveries are often from small presses. Isabel is an experienced writing mentor, tutor and book doctor who has worked with Word Factory, Jericho Writers, Mslexia and individual clients.
Kathy Hoyle
Kathy’s work has appeared in a variety of publications including Spelk, Virtual Zine, Lunate, Cabinet of Heed, Ellipsis Zine and Reflex Fiction. She has been listed in several competitions including The Exeter Short Story Prize, the Fish Memoir Prize, Ellipsis Zine Flash Collection Competition, Flash 500, LISP, TSS Publishing and Retreat West Quarterly Flash Competition. She holds a BA (Hons) and an MA in Creative Writing. She is currently working on her first Flash Fiction collection.