Editorial & Book Coaching Services
If you’d like to develop your voice, create unforgettable characters, craft page-turning tension, or polish your story to a shine, E A Carter is here to help!
“Having E A Carter as my developmental editor has been the best investment for my work and myself as an aspiring writer.”
“E A Carter did a fantastic job guiding me through writing and publishing my non-fiction book on how I healed my ulcerative colitis with the power of food. I not only achieved all the goals I hoped to achieve, but I felt understood and my needs were met. I 100% recommend working with Elizabeth. It was a very positive writing and publishing experience for me.”
Hi! I'm Elizabeth Anne Carter. If you're looking for an editor who also knows the ups and downs of what it’s like to turn a story idea into a published book readers love, you're in the right place!
What It’s Like to Work With Me
You’ve written a book! Go you! Well done! Did you know only about 3% of people who start a novel actually finish it? So give yourself a pat on the back, you are in a rare minority.
Even so, you’ll probably be feeling frissions of hope, knocked down every few minutes by a mountain of doubt. This is totally normal for writers. In fact, did you know that Vonnegut was so filled with doubt about his work that on his deathbed he made his best friend swear to burn everything he wrote? Thank god his friend didn’t keep his word or we would have lost a literary legend to the flames.
But let’s talk about you and what I can do for you!
What I Offer
I work with fiction writers who want to hone their craft. If you care about the art of storytelling and giving your characters the best chance to take readers on a journey into the soul of your story you’re in the right place. I offer several services: developmental editing, manuscript evaluations / editorial review, and story coaching.
I also offer clarity, encouragement, and honest feedback. I’m here to help you see your story from the outside, understand what it’s doing, what it’s missing, and what it’s capable of becoming. I also make a pretty big deal about all the things you are doing right, so you can keep doing more of that!
What You Can Expect
A Thoughtful Read
I read like a writer and a reader (who has editorial experience). I ask myself what the story is trying to become, and how it can be shaped to get there in the tightest, tensiony-est way possible (yes, I did just make up that word).
Kind, Clear Feedback
You’ll receive editorial feedback that reflects the strengths and blind spots of the manuscript. I’ll point out what’s working beautifully, what needs deeper attention, and how to approach those areas with focus and clarity.
Practical, Prioritized Advice
You won’t get vague notes like “tighten this up.” You’ll get practical, prioritized steps. Where to begin. What to focus on. What to leave for later. The idea is to move forward, not to overwhelm. I even give you a list of things to do in priority order for you to have the quickest result so you have zero overwhelm and lots of positive momentum.
A Partnership
I’ll never tear down your work. But I will be honest with you, always. That’s part of respecting the story and respecting you as its author. If something doesn’t work, I’ll tell you why. If something sings, I’ll help you see how to do that more.
What Stage Should Your Book Be At?
It doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to be complete and taken to the furthest point you can take it, otherwise I might end up pointing out things you would have already figured out yourself during a self-edit. You are paying me to help you with what you don’t yet know or see, so take the time to really self-edit your book until you know you’re as ready as you can be to hand it over and get valuable feedback that will help you to skill up.
What Happens After I Read Your Book?
You’ll receive:
Detailed editorial feedback outlining the major structural and emotional arcs of your book
Specific feedback on characters, pacing, narrative momentum, themes, and more
Line-level examples (if relevant) to illustrate points
A one-hour follow-up call to talk through questions or next steps
If we continue working together, I can support you through revisions or multiple drafts, depending on your goals.
Who My Services Are Right For
You’ll get the most out of working with me if:
You’re ready to receive professional feedback that will help you grow as a writer
You’re open to seeing your work from a new angle
You want a partner who values your voice, but isn’t afraid to softly challenge you in service of the story
Still Not Sure?
You don’t have to decide everything right now. If you’re simply curious, or want to ask questions, you’re very welcome to drop me a message or book a free 15-minute chat to discuss where you’re at and where you’d like to go. If you don’t want to work with me, that’s totally fine, I’m just happy to have met one of the rare 3%!
Remember, your story matters.
And so does the way it’s told.
Together, we’ll make it everything you want it to be.
Elizabeth Anne Carter
Editor, Author, Book Coach, Writing Ally, Friend
LET’S TALK ABOUT YOUR BOOK!
Book a free 15-minute call to discuss your book project, writing needs, and goals.
Prefer to get in touch by email? Shoot me a message and I’ll reply within 1 business day.
E A Carter is a Partner Member of the Alliance of Independent Authors. Her self-publishing services are vetted by ALLi and follow their Code of Standards which aims to encourage the highest standards of ethics and excellence across the self-publishing community. You can read more about my committment to giving you my very best here.
DEVELOPMENTAL EDITING
Snapshot of one of E A’s developmental edits.
A developmental edit looks at the overall structure and content of your book, the changes you can make to improve it, along with helpful feedback to make those changes with confidence. It does not involve making corrections to spelling and grammar, reorganizing or cutting content, and rewriting awkward passages (that happens in the copyedit).
Every writer comes to me with different areas to address depending on where they need to strengthen their craft and what they want to achieve with their story. I focus on these areas to help you develop the skills to break through what’s holding you back.
Your developmental edit will give you comprehensive feedback on your strengths and highlight any areas for attention, complete with examples of issues extracted from your book and ways to improve it with helpful pointers, guidance. All structural issues are addressed, including pace, tension, story and character arcs, plus how to get your story beats working best for your genre.
Once you receive your developmental edit, you will have an indexed and easy-to-reference in-depth document of everything you need to see where the story needs work and crucially, clear suggestions and ideas to fix it. Your feedback will not only give you an excellent overview of the story’s structure, but it will encourage, inspire, and motivate you, and give you the direction and clarity to take your story across the finish line with confidence.
Every developmental edit includes a one-hour coaching call after the edit is returned to discuss anything you wish about the feedback.
COPYEDITING
Copyediting is the final step before production. It should be done after all other edits take place. Do not pay for this until you are ready to publish. This is the final stage!
In your copyedit, I will read through your book line by line and check for and correct:
Technical consistency in spelling, capitalization, font usage, numerals, hyphenation. For example, is it e-mail on page 26 and email on page 143? Or do you use both British and American English spelling variations interchangeably, such as favourite vs. favorite?
Continuity errors and make sure that all loose ends are tied
Inconsistency within the story. This includes character description, plot points, and setting. Does each character stay true to his own description throughout the story? Are there conflicting descriptions of the house? For example, have you described the setting as “a yellow brick home” on one page but “a weathered wooden home” on another page?
It is highly recommended that you run your manuscript through an online grammar checking tool such as Grammarly before submitting to your editor for its copyedit, otherwise there will be an additional fee for proofreading.
BOOK COACHING
My book coaching service offers you the opportunity to have an experienced author and self-publisher help you through every stage of writing and publishing your book. I work closely with you by understanding your needs and goals, then tailor my support and guidance to exceed your expectations.
For fiction writers, I help with idea development, plot structure, character creation and arcs, dialogue, story arcs, themes, description, editing, cover design, interior print design, and much more.
For non-fiction books, I help writers and coaches generate and create a framework for their content so that it moves from one point to the next in a streamlined, engaging fashion, plus how to write a compelling blurb and use their book as a powerful lead generator to attract clients to their business.
I pride myself on giving writers powerful tools they can use and reuse in their writing career, which enable them to take control over their progress, and build on the skills they’ve gained working with me. Clients gain fresh insight, get excited for the release of their book, and gain the marketing skills necessary to transform their idea into a finished, polished book they can be proud of.
Who Am I and What Can I Do For Your Story?
My Journey as a Writer
Once upon a time, I wanted to write a book. A really good book. The kind of book that people talk about years after they read it. I wrote the first draft more than twenty years ago.
It was appalling.
At the time I didn’t know that. I thought it was an interesting story and was excited about it. Full of dreams of success, I sent it away for an editorial review (not a dev edit, just some expert feedback).
Considering what I have learned about storycraft and writing in the meantime, I feel sorry for the woman who had to run that review on my book. There was just so much to unpack.
About two weeks later, I received thirteen pages of typewritten notes that highlighted a total lack of story arc, beats, themes, motifs, with a particularly scathing bit of feedback about wooden two-dimensional characters I treated like puppets (to be fair, I deserved it).
The list of things I needed to learn before I could even write an actual book shocked me. I didn’t realize there was so much skill needed to writing a book!
I read the review twice, my tears blurring the words. Deflated and demotivated, I set the review aside to allow myself time to digest and think about what was really the problem.
I knew my story had a good premise, but what I also learned from that review was that I didn’t know how to tell the story as a writer to a reader.
And learning to do that in the early days of the Internet took some time. Over the next decade, I learned how to create an outline, and develop my characters as real people with goals, needs, and wants. I consumed every bit of learning I could get my hands on. Then I practiced until the wee hours of the morning.
In 2015, after five years of historical research and visiting museums in Paris, Copenhagen, London, and Cairo, and getting up close and personal with New Kingdom Egyptian tombs and temples with an archeaologist friend, I had totally re-written my story. It was nothing like the first version. The only similarity was the historical period: the late Bronze Age. Everything else was new. I had taken the seed of the original story and cultivated a tree.
I had gone as far as I could go on my own. Now I needed an expert hand to help me climb over the hurdles I couldn’t yet see.
Why a Great Editor Matters
This time, I searched for an editor with far greater care. This time, I was willing to invest in a developmental edit, not a review. This time, I wanted to hear what I still needed to learn, even if it meant more work.
Through a writing site I trusted, I found an editor who was the perfect guide, who had the experience to help me develop my voice, my craft, and my story. She appreciated my determination to learn, to fail, and start again. She took me under her wing, celebrated my strengths and gently revealed my story’s weaknesses.
She stayed with me for four years through three books and a half million words. We became friends. We sent each other gifts: I from Sweden and she from Wales. We shared photos of our cats. We cheered each other’s successes.
It was a long path. Under her expert eye, I wrote an additional forty thousand words to flesh out the main character’s backstory. The manuscript went back and forth three times.
Each time I learned something new and the story emerged word by painstaking word.
I hit a wall with dialogue. I wanted to incorporate action with speech. So, to practice writing dialogue, I wrote another book, (Daughter of Azeroth), and published it on Wattpad before returning to the final edit. It took sixteen years from the first word of the first draft to seeing my book in print.
In all, I wrote and re-wrote five full drafts before The Lost Valor of Love was ready to share with the world. Since then, it has won multiple awards, was optioned for a full-cast audio dramatization by Alibaba, and was nominated for Book of the Year in 2024.
What I learned during those years were skills I never would have gained alone. The best investment I could ever have made into my writing was working with an editor I trusted, who believed in me and in my story, and who wasn’t afraid to let me know what I needed to do to write it to trade standards.
Without Kath’s support, perhaps my stories would be alright, but they wouldn’t be memorable. I would have missed out on so much of the architecture of storycraft. Of vital components that take a story from good to unputdownable. Of the invisible supporting the visible.
Storycraft is, if anything, an art. But writers need the tools to shape their art. Editors can’t wait to hand them to you.
My goal was to write books readers would remember. Today, years after its publication, readers write to me to tell me they still think about my books and re-read them often. Some even say The Lost Valor of Love is the best book they’ve ever read, even after years of reading other books. That made all the hard work worth it.
What I Offer You as a Client
Whether you have a story that you want to self-publish or prepare for submission, I am here to help you. I offer first-hand experience gathered over four years of full editorial support and mentoring from Katherine Stansfield, an award-winning novelist and poet. She teaches fiction development at Faber Academy and is represented by RCW Literary—home to a host of legendary authors including Kazuo Ishiguro, Steve Cavanagh, and Zadie Smith.
I remember how easy it looked when a fellow writer’s story hit the shelves as a published book. Selling. Making money. Getting great reviews. The ultimate validation. But to get there is a bit of a grind.
When folks look at your book, they don’t see the years and tears behind the world you created out of thin air neatly packaged up between two covers. But you know.
Working with an editor who can see what you cannot, who can help you open up your story to its deeper levels, and who will guide you into gaining the skills to become a confident storyteller, means the support you receive becomes dynamic—growing with you as you grow. It’s lonely work writing and editing so it’s an amazing boost having an expert in your corner because there will be days of doubt.
When you have a good editor, you’re never alone, they build you up when uncertainty stalks you.
No matter how much we would like it, stories don’t just fall out of the sky and magically land on our keyboards (if only!). The fate of storytellers is to live with stories inside of us that want to get out. All stories can be perfected, deepened, and filled with tension, but it takes effort and determination to take the clay of an idea and sculpt it into a thing of beauty.
A good editor becomes a part of your writing journey, your growth, and at times, your success. They are invested in you as a storyteller and in your story.
They show you ways to breathe life into your words so readers will keep thinking about your characters even when they are away from your book. And they live to hear that readers tell you that your book is so immersive that maybe, just maybe your story could be real.
Ready to Connect?
If you’ve read this far, it’s likely you are looking for an editor who sees your story not just as a product but as a part of your journey
A good editor will be a person you can trust and rely on, a core member of your book team. I’ve felt all the feelings you may be facing because I’ve been there: the uncertainty, the doubts, and of course, the hope. Will my book be a bestseller? Will readers love my book? How can I make that a reality?
I’m here to help you do that. Feel free to book a free chat or drop me a note if you want to ask about anything that’s on your mind.
It’s a leap of faith to hand over your book to an editor, and it’s an honor for us to be trusted with it.
When you are looking for an editor, you need to know you are picking the right one. So, if you want to just pop in and say hi, you are welcome anytime. I love writing and writers so I’m always happy to have a chat about the craft of storytelling!
Thanks for reading. I appreciate you, fellow storyteller! Here’s to you, your story, and your success.
Elizabeth Anne Carter
LET’S TALK ABOUT YOUR BOOK!
Book a free 15-minute call to discuss your book project, writing needs, and goals.
Rather get in contact by email? Shoot me a message and I’ll reply within 1 business day.
PRICES, PAYMENT PLANS & DISCOUNT PACKAGES
Choose between having a one-off edit or copyedit, or save money with discounted packages that give you the opportunity maximize your investment with access to bundled services for up to 9 months.
Not ready to pay everything up front? No problem. Interest Free Monthly Payment Plans are available!
I get it - editing doesn’t come cheap and the longer the book, the pricier the bill. Ouch! I know what it feels like having to pay out to an editor in one go - sometimes several times before the book is done. It’s a struggle for most of us. That’s why I offer monthly payment plans with zero interest.
I’m here to help you get what you need, not break your back financially. The most important thing is getting your book out there on the bookshelves. Editing is crucial, but it doesn’t have to be a dealbreaker for your bank account. Whatever you need, we’ll work it out.
Investing in a professional editor not only helps to improve your story, but you gain new forever skills and develop as a writer!
Get a feel for what editors charge by genre.
Want to learn more about the costs of editing and what to expect? Reedsy has a great resource including a handy calculator you can use to give you a feel of what experienced editors charge for different genres of fiction and non-fiction.