Literary Consultants

For Aspiring & Published Authors.

Marginalia Manuscripts

Turning writers into authors.

With our team of highly qualified literary consultants, our range of editorial services has helped countless fiction writers make it onto their best-loved bookshelves.

A word from our founder.

Marginalia Manuscripts was founded by a published author with a long history of working as an editor for independent publishing houses. Driven by an ambition to empower writers of all backgrounds to make it in an industry that can sometimes seem exclusive and impenetrable, she launched the Marginalia Manuscripts literary consultancy.

Marginalia Manuscripts was founded on the belief that with the right attention, time, and mentoring, anyone can write a book deserving of publication. We offer services led by honesty, encouragement, and a sense of community—because writing may feel like a solitary act, but it doesn’t have to be lonely.

Literary consultants for every writing journey.

Your novel is only ever as strong as its foundations.

Plot problems aren’t simple fixes and are often responsible for time-consuming edits, complete re-drafts, and a lot of frustration. A plot assessment provides you with a comprehensive report on where your synopsis could be improved upon—so you can start as you mean to go on.

Book a manuscript assessment now and be the best author you can be.

Our most popular service! Send your manuscript to one of our highly experienced, specialist fiction editors to be thoroughly assessed. You’ll receive a comprehensive structural report on your manuscript’s areas of weakness, with actionable advice on how improvements can be made.

One step further than a manuscript assessment, for serious authors.

Like our manuscript assessment service, a developmental edit includes a comprehensive structural report addressing the strengths and weaknesses of your manuscript. It is also accompanied by extensive in-text feedback, to provide detailed guidance for your next draft.

What our customers are saying about us…

★★★★★

“A detailed and technical analysis of my fourth novel. I found my literary consultant friendly, helpful, and able to ‘get me’ (i.e., foresee my artistic objectives beyond the page). For an author, this was an invaluable experience as it helped with the structural and developmental edit before even completing one’s manuscript, saving time and costs in the future during the arduous redrafting and editing process. I highly recommend the editorial services provided by Marginalia Manuscripts for both new and experienced writers.”

Ivy Ngeow, Award-Winning Author of Cry of the Flying Rhino

Who Are Our Literary Consultants?

  • carefully selected editors

    Selected by our founder.

    We’re firm believers that it takes an expert to know an expert. Each of our literary consultants is chosen by our founder — we don’t use recruitment agencies. Our senior team gets to know candidates personally before choosing to enlist them.

  • qualified editors

    Highly qualified.

    All our editors and literary consultants are highly qualified; many are professional members of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) and have ample experience working with traditional publishers and helping authors make it onto the bestseller lists.

  • gifted consultants

    Uniquely gifted.

    Each member of our team was chosen because they are uniquely talented and have a natural gift for literary consultancy, to accompany their experience. Most have a specialist contribution that they bring to the team, usually in the form of genre expertise.

  • experienced literary consultant

    Extensive experience.

    We value experience extremely highly. All our literary consultants and editors have been around the block and then some. They’re specialists in their genre, veterans in their field of expertise, and have been working in the book industry for years. We only work with consultants who have demonstrable experience in helping authors succeed.

  • A unified team.

    Although all of our literary consultants and editors work 100% remotely, affording them a healthy and happy work-life balance, we stay in close contact and manage all projects centrally. We act as your intermediary, to ensure you always receive the unrivalled customer service you deserve. We’re a team, so when you work with one of us, you work with all of us.

  • Our postivity policy.

    At Marginalia, we’re all about positivity and motivation. We believe that great editorial feedback is grounded in encouragement and is actionable. That’s why we only choose editors and literary consultants who subscribe to the same view. Our consultants provide practical support by recommending achievable solutions and shining a light on your writing’s strengths as well as its weaknesses.

  • feedback

    Valued and heard.

    At Marginalia, no voice goes unheard. Our literary consultants bring valuable insights to the table and we are always looking for new ways of nurturing avenues for feedback. Our literary consultants are experts, and we’d be doing our customers a disservice if we didn’t take that expertise into account by ensuring that our team’s voices are heard.

Literary Consultancy FAQs

  • Literary consultants provide support services for aspiring and published authors. These author services might include manuscript appraisal, developmental editing, or writing mentoring. The purpose of a literary consultant is to help writers not only publish their work, but to achieve long-term success as an author. As publishing and editing experts, literary consultants can provide support at all stages of the writing process.

  • Literary consultants provide valuable publishing, editing, and market expertise. Authors who work with a literary consultant increase their chances of publication and of securing household name publishers like Penguin, Random House, and Harper Collins.

  • The answer to this question entirely depends on your experience as a writer. Literary consultants can offer support throughout the writing process, according to each writer’s individual needs. If you feel that you need support with the foundational elements of your plot, for example, you might need the support of a literary consultant as early as the ideation stage of writing.