Testimonials

“Anna and Louisa both give insightful and thoughtful feedback. It is obvious they have taken time and careful reflection because they respond about the piece as a whole while also focusing on the minutiae. Their clear love of the written word drives them to want to make your work shine. I would highly recommend both Anna and Louisa as being generous and expert wordsmiths who will work with you to make your writing the best it can be.” Ruth Estevez, Author of ‘Jiddy Vardy’, ‘Erosion’ and ‘The Monster Belt’ (September 2021) Project Coordinator of The Portico Sadie Massey Awards for Young Readers and Writers

“Whenever I write something new, my first port of call is Anna. I’m immensely grateful for her contribution to the genesis of Orphan Monster Spy and for her insightful work on Devil Darling Spy.” Matt Killeen

“Anna was a wonderful mentor for my YA novel. From larger structrual points to finer line edits, her constructive feedback really helped to make the whole novel stronger. She completely understood what I wanted to achieve and was encouraging every step of the way.” – Georgia

“Louisa Reid selected me to mentor during the #WriteMentor summer programme 2020 and I could not have been luckier. She was able to quickly grasp the concept of my book and help me to see what I needed to focus on. Initially, my verse novel was written in sonnets with a direct quote from “Macbeth” in each one.  Louisa encouraged me to have the confidence in myself to drop these unnecessary gimmicks. At the start of the process, she gave me an editorial letter. We then moved through several drafts which involved removing some characters entirely, killing others and unkilling the lucky few. Finally, she worked on line edits with me – selecting bits that just didn’t feel right. This resulted in a polished final draft that we were both proud of. I’ve since signed with an agent and, because of Louisa’s rigorous editing, I have had very little to do to the MS before it goes on submission to editors.  Louisa is kind, knowledgeable and easy to work with. I was always surprised by how quickly and thoughtfully she got back to me with suggestions. I hope that we get to work together again in the future”. Jess Birch

“Anna is an amazing support, and she gets to the heart of what you really want to say as a writer, and gives you the tools to do that more effectively. She’s very approachable and genuine in her care and attention to detail in your work. She helps you to see the bigger picture, but also the zoomed-in level of words and sentences. You get to a point with self-editing where you hit your limit of what you can achieve, and how objective you can be. Anna’s fresh perspective energised me to go back (again), but this time to breathe new life into my MS so it became the best it could be. I’m so grateful for her input.” Sophie Toovey

“I’ve had the benefit of being in SCWBI critique groups with Anna and Louisa for over five years. Both of them wear lightly the fact that they are published and award-winning writers. They are constructive and generous with their comments.

Anna has been extremely helpful at seeing the overall structure of chapters, the bigger picture  and at identifying key points/turning points/images  and changes of tone within chapters. Some of her suggestions have stayed in my drafts and made significant impacts.

Anna’s workshop on Voice was the best, most concrete and pragmatic help I have had with this nebulous but vital foundation of any story.

Both Anna and Louisa have the huge benefit of being in close touch with teenagers through their English teaching and families and are invaluably helpful at word level about the sort of language contemporary teenagers use/don’t use.

I have found both very respectful of the story I’m constructing,  being prepared to make specific suggestions to build on the narrative, without bombarding with too much detail.” Jen Burkinshaw

“Anna and Louisa have critiqued parts of my YA manuscripts for over 5 years now. They have a superb up-to-date knowledge of English literature, decades of experience teaching English to teenagers in secondary schools and, added to that, their own experience of years of writing and publishing YA and teen novels. They are charismatic and perceptive teachers who understand the age group they teach and write for inside out; immensely useful for SCBWI critique groups over the years. In addition they have always been very generous in passing on their up to date industry knowledge.” Cathy Johnson

“Louisa provided me with an invaluable perspective regarding how I could improve my first novel. She understood my protagonist and expertly urged more from me than I thought I had. There were gaps in the narrative that were irritating and frustrating me and Louisa identified them with ease and authority. Louisa is all and more I had hoped for in an editor; the ideal combination of critical, forensic eye and a graceful, literary approach.” Juliette Tomlinson

“Over the last two years I have had the pleasure of having samples of my young adult manuscript critiqued by Anna Mainwaring and Louisa Reid and have found their input perceptive and helpful in guiding me to producing a much tighter and more focused work. As they are published writers who work with young people they have a great awareness both of what teen readers want to read and the process of getting a book to publication  standard.  They are extremely encouraging and supportive of fellow writers regardless of where they are on their writing journey and I have every confidence their new service will be of the highest quality. ” Teresa Taylor