As an author and literary agent, I understand the publishing industry from multiple sides—and I’m happy to announce I’ll now be making my expertise available as a freelance editor. If you’re looking for well-trained, professional input to help develop your writing skills or polish your submission material, I’d love to work with you!

Testimonials

“ZR is excellent at identifying the heart of your story and helping it shine. His plethora of market knowledge has really helped my MS developmentally and structurally. I highly recommend him!”—Tiffany Elmer

“He’s streamlined multiple manuscripts for me and made them so much more vibrant. He found patterns in my work and me that fundamentally made me a better writer, and on top of all that, he has industry knowledge that revolutionized the way I could pitch my books. I’ve never met a person more aware of the industry.”—Briston Brooks, author of Reason Number One

Services

Query critique

Anxious about how your query will read to an experienced agent? I can help identify common mistakes and fine-tune your query letter to help the most important details stand out. For $35, you’ll receive in-line notes on your query, as well as a few paragraphs detailing my impressions of the project. I’m comfortable providing feedback on all genres of fiction and nonfiction and my turnaround time is 4 days from receipt of material.

Submissions package critique

Your query, synopsis, and opening pages should be tailored to grab the attention of editors and agents. I won’t just help you avoid the biggest query mistakes—I’ll give you expert feedback to help the heart of your story shine through. For $65, you’ll receive in-line notes on your query, synopsis, and first ten pages, detailing points that need clarification, correcting formatting errors, identifying the strongest elements, and outlining where material should be added or cut. I’m comfortable providing feedback on all genres of fiction, save picture books, and my turnaround time is 7 days from receipt of material.

Full manuscript edits

At all levels of an author’s development, a full manuscript edit can help take your work and your skills to the next level. Every writer has their own strengths and weaknesses, and my experience reading and evaluating dozens of pre-publication manuscripts helps me identify these in any given piece. My feedback strives to find and refine your vision for a project, instead of imposing my own ideas of what a work should be. For $350+$0.008 per every word over 80,000, I will read your MS and craft an edit letter to specifically address the strengths and weaknesses of your project. This will assess the plot, characters, worldbuilding, and style, as well as suggesting a roadmap for revisions. I am most comfortable working on YA (all genres) and adult SFF and thrillers. However, if your project falls outside these categories and you still think we might be a good fit to work together, please email me! My turn-around time is 14 days from receiving materials.

Interested?

If you would like to hire me, please send an email to zrellor.books@gmail.com, and I will respond promptly with my availability. Please include the genre and length of your project in your email, if you’re interested in booking a full critique.

Payment is due upfront for query and submission package critiques. For full manuscripts,  half your payment is due when you send pages and the other half is due when I send the edited materials back. All payments should be processed via PayPal.

Editorial Disclaimer

Editorial services I provide neither reflect nor assumes a future relationship—extending to page requests, representation, or publication—with any literary agency or publisher with which I am affiliated.