Editorial Services

Sarah Franklin - Editorial Consultant

Sarah has worked across book editing, marketing and agenting for over eleven years, in Ireland, the UK and the US, giving her a unique perspective on global success.

Sarah's publishing career started in London at the Pearson Group  (owners of Penguin and the Financial Times), where she was instrumental in the conception and launch of key new book imprints as well as working with authors to enhance their online presence as early as 1999. Sarah took market-leading book brands and increased their market share by identifying key trends. She also developed close relationships with retailers such as Amazon and Waterstones to gain key visibility for her authors.

Following a move to Seattle in 2003, Sarah worked for leading literary agent The Wales Literary Agency, preparing fiction for submission to publishing houses in New York and overseas. Sarah continued her in-house work with Sasquatch Books, one of the US's strongest independent publishers. Here Sarah forged liaisons between authors' work and non-traditional markets, forming lucrative partnerships and author speaking opportunities with everyone from the Microsoft Corporation to Holland American Cruise Lines. Books on the Sasquatch list regularly appeared in the New York Times, NPR and national TV coverage.

In 2007, Sarah relocated to Dublin, where she accepted a position with Blackhall Publishing, working with authors on everything from short fiction to self-help titles. During this time she also chaired a panel at the Irish Publishers' Association conference, established opportunities for her authors with the Easons, the Irish Independent and more, and delivered a guest lecture to the NUI Galway Publishing MA programme. 

A graduate of Cambridge University, Sarah has taught on writing and publishing courses in the US, UK and Ireland. She currently splits her time between Ireland and the UK, where she is an Associate Lecturer on the Oxford Brookes Publishing MA, and a consultant on the acclaimed 'Write Lines' radio series, aimed at getting budding authors to publication.

Sarah's areas of specialisation are commercial and literary fiction, and all areas of non-fiction. Her global publishing background enables her to advise authors where and when to submit their book for international success.  Sarah is available for structural editing and story plotting as well as for copy-editing across British English, American English, and Hiberno-English (you'd be surprised!).  She is also available for consultancy on book promotions. Her freelance clients  include authors who have appeared on Irish Book of the Decade list as well as first-time writers, many of whom are now published authors. Please contact Sarah on sarahefranklin@gmail.com

Nora Pelizzari - Editorial Consultant

Nora spent five years as young adult and children's editor in New York. At HarperCollins Children's Books, she worked on a variety of age ranges and formats. She developed and edited middle grade, young adult and adult commercial fiction for Alloy Entertainment, the industry's leading fiction packager. While at Alloy, Nora worked on everything from the bestselling Luxe series by Anna Godbersen to a series of paranormal adult thrillers. She’s conceptualized, outlined and edited numerous novels, series and television and film concepts while working with every major house in New York. She specializes in commercial fiction and helping new writers find their unique voices. She has also worked as a consultant with Penguin Ireland.

A graduate of Boston College and the NYU Summer Publishing Institute, Nora is currently finishing her MPhil in popular literature at Trinity College Dublin, studying dystopian young adult fiction. She will begin her PhD research at Trinity this autumn, focusing on the connections between Victorian and contemporary publishing. She is available for line-editing, content development, story plotting and building non-traditional marketing and sales strategies. Her particular focus is on the youth market, but she is happy to work on projects for any audience. For more information, please contact her at nora.pelizzari@gmail.com.

I'm writing to thank you SO much for recommending that Sarah Franklin edit my second novel. We are nearing the end of the process now and it has worked out exceptionally well.

Sarah is a truly excellent editor! I have worked with half a dozen in the past but no one has come even close to her standard of work. She has, in my opinion, the rare gift of noticing tiny little typos, grammatical errors and textual inconsistencies as well as being able to stand back, look at the overall structure and confidently suggest how things might be moved about to make the story flow better. She was so engaged with the book from the outset, marked up the text extremely carefully, clearly and with great detail and above all she was fantastically encouraging about my efforts. She seems to have a genuine love of words so she makes an ideal reader for new work.

I had struggled with this book for nearly two years but thanks to all the incredibly helpful feedback and encouragement Sarah has given me over the last month, I feel excited about it for the first time.

Sarah was also an absolute joy to work with from start to finish - funny and cheerful and dedicated, despite having two small boys and being about to move country!  I only met her for the first time yesterday but she is as lovely in real life as she is on email. I would be delighted to work with her again and would happily recommend her to anyone.