Shabnom is based in London and has a BA in English Literature from Oxford. She is an experienced editor who has edited novels across the commercial, literary and YA fiction genres with a warm, knowledgeable and detailed approach to manuscripts. She is particularly experienced with literary agent submissions with several years of experience as a submissions reader for agents and literary scouts. Shabnom reviews fiction for the Sunday Times, and she is a market editor.

Interests: adult commercial and literary fiction, historical fiction, women’s fiction, older YA, science fiction, fantasy, crime/thriller/mystery, genre fiction

Kathryn is course director and tutor for our online course, Edit Your Novel the Professional Way, and co-author of On Editing, the essential Cornerstones guide to writing and editing. She spent several years working for literary agencies before joining Cornerstones as managing editor and later co-director. Over nearly twenty years with Cornerstones she has worked with many of their authors who went on to achieve publishing success – including Kate Scott, Kim Hays, Alison O'Leary, Celia Bryce, and Sarwat Chadda. Kathryn is a Cornerstones industry editor.

Interests: children's fiction, fantasy, science fiction, literary, commercial.

Sarah is a professional editor and bestselling novelist. She has a DPhil in Literature from the University of Oxford and gained her editorial skills at Oxford University Press. She is a Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading, and has more than 20 years’ experience working with top literary agencies and publishers including Penguin, Random House and Prestel. Bestselling titles she has worked on include the groundbreaking exposé Emil Nolde: The Artist During the Third Reich by Cambridge historian Bernhard Fulda, and multiple publications by globally renowned MUJI art director Kenya Hara. Sarah has won numerous writing awards including the Commonwealth Short Story Award and the Raymond Carver Contest. Her internationally published novels have been shortlisted for the prestigious Prix Femina and longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. She offers a unique blend of professional and supportive editorial and proofreading skills along with a high sensitivity for a writer’s individual voice. Sarah is a Cornerstones copy-editor and proofreader.

Interests: literary, historical, contemporary, short stories, memoir, crime/thrillers, YA

Anna writes fiction, stage, screen, opera and journalism. She has won Writers Guild, Time Out and Yeovil Fiction awards and has been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and others. She has over 30 years’ experience in dramaturgy, creative writing teaching, coaching and mentoring, and has been a Royal Literary Fund Fellow since 2005, working across the UCLH Trust as a writer-on-call, and has been an editor and mentor at Cornerstones since 2010.

She is passionate about helping writers at all stages gain confidence to tell their stories and find their voice. Anna is a Cornerstones core editor.

Interests: short story, contemporary literary fiction, women’s fiction, historical, commercial, and anything quirky, unique, experimental

Nick has a wealth of editorial experience in trade publishing. He worked for over nine years at Bloomsbury Publishing on books by such authors as Kate Summerscale, David Kynaston, Magnus Mills, and Will Self, and more recently commissioned and published a range of non-fiction at Penguin Random House. An energetic and creative editor, he has a strong commercial instinct and a passion for a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction. Nick is a Cornerstones industry editor.

Interests: nonfiction, literary fiction, historical fiction, thriller/psychological

Paul is a writer and business consultant. He has a First Class Honours Degree in Creative Writing and Children’s Literature and a Master’s degree in Creative Writing. His first book was published by The Economist in 2007 and is now in its third edition. He has had several further books published by Kogan Page, forming part of their hugely influential ‘Business Success’ series. He is also published by Routledge, distinguished specialists in academic subject matter. He has written for magazines and professional publications as diverse as the Independent, Evening Standard, Maxim and Viz comic. He has also written for television. He has a novel nearing completion. As a reviewer, editor and teacher of creative writing, Paul has supported developing writers for many years. Paul is a Cornerstones core editor.

Interests: autobiography, memoir, travel, business and management textbooks, self-help books

Rowena is a journalist and a prize-winning short story writer, published by Andersen Press, with her debut novel out with Walker Children’s Books in 2018. She has a MA in Writing for Young People from Bath Spa University (passed with distinction). She’s appeared at the Bath Children’s Literature Festival, runs creative writing sessions on adult and young people’s fiction, and judges a south Devon short story competition. Rowena blogs about writing techniques and developments in the publishing industry on the Scattered Authors’ Society’s Awfully Big Blog Adventure. Rowena is a Cornerstones core editor.

Interests: Teen & YA, historical including military & wars, literary & commercial fiction including teen romance

Debz is an award-winning short-story writer and a published novelist. She has had over thirty short stories published, as well as being shortlisted in a number of writing competitions. These include the prestigious US Pushcart Prize 2013, the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2013, and Debz was the winner of the inaugural Bath Short Story Award 2013. Her firsts novel was published in 2013 and her short story collection was published in 2019. She has edited for Cafelit (online magazine) and edits and commissions short stories for Bridge House Publishing. She has been an editor and mentor with Cornerstones since 2014. Debz is a Cornerstones core editor.

Interests: short story collections, literary, psychological thrillers, YA

Kate’s first novel was published in 2007; since then she has continued to publish over fifty works of historical, romance, and women’s fiction. She has been published by Penguin, Hachette, Harper Collins, Lion Fiction, and Tule Publishing, and she is a USAToday bestselling author with over three million copies of her books in print. Some of her latest novels include: That Night at the Beach (2023), When We Were Innocent (2022), and The Angel of Vienna (2022). In addition to writing, she has taught creative writing workshops and guided retreats, and has participated in one-to-one online author mentoring. She has been appointed a Royal Literary Fund Teaching Fellow at Cardiff University for 2023-2024. She is passionate about helping readers to create compelling characters and powerful emotional conflicts, so their stories can come alive. An American ex-pat, she currently lives in South Wales with her husband and five children. Kate is a Cornerstones core editor.

Interests: historical, contemporary, and commercial fiction

Amanda has worked as a developmental editor since 2011, first within Strange Chemistry and Angry Robot and thereafter as a freelancer. Her clients for editing and proofreading include Angry Robot Books, Aconyte Books, Black Library, Orion Dash, Macmillan Kids and Wise Ink. She is also a literary agent with Azantian Literary Agency. Amanda is a Cornerstones market editor.

Interests: adult science fiction and fantasy, young adult of all genres

Nicholas Herrmann is a writer and editor based in Scotland. His fiction won the New Voices Award in the 2022 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize, and has been shortlisted for the Bath Novel Award. His non-fiction – featured in Places Journal, Ernest Journal and Little White Lies, among other publications – focuses on place, identity and culture. He has a decade of editorial experience with clients such as HarperCollins, Faber & Faber and Juilliard, and has worked as a developmental editor for six years, specialising in memoir, literary fiction and speculative fiction. He graduated with Distinction from the Creative Writing MA at Bath Spa University in 2017 and is currently studying for a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of St Andrews. Nick is a Cornerstones core editor.

Interests: narrative non-fiction and memoir, travel writing, writing with a strong sense of place, books with ecological themes, literary fiction, speculative fiction and science fiction

Barbara writes under the name of Bea Davenport. She has had five novels commercially published. Her crime/suspense novels, In Too Deep and This Little Piggy, are published by Legend Press. Her middle-grade children’s historical time fantasy, The Serpent House, was shortlisted for a Times/Chicken House award before being published by Curious Fox. My Cousin Faustina is a novel for reluctant readers, originally written as an interactive e-book for Fiction Express and now published by ReadZone Books. Her latest novel aimed at teenage readers, The Misper, was published by The Conrad Press in 2018. Barbara is a former newspaper and BBC journalist who holds a Creative Writing PhD from Newcastle University, UK. She is programme leader for the Open College of the Arts distance learning creative writing degrees and teaches journalism for Leeds Beckett University. She also tutors for the Penguin Random House Writers Academy. Barbara is a Cornerstones core editor.

Interests: crime/suspense, women’s fiction, children’s and teen fiction, historical fiction and creative non-fiction.

Rosie is an author and freelance copy-editor who has worked in communications and editorial roles for over a decade. Her first novel, Secrets of a Serial Killer, was published by HarperCollins’ One More Chapter in 2020, and her second is due for publication in 2021. Alongside her freelance work she is currently working on her third novel. She has a Masters in Creative Writing with distinction from the University of Edinburgh. Rosie is a Cornerstones core editor.

Interests: adult commercial fiction including book club, psychological thrillers, women's fiction, mystery, horror, contemporary romance

Lindsay is a former Sunday Times and Telegraph travel columnist. Her travel column “An Englishwoman Abroad”, began in The Sunday Telegraph in 2000 and ran for seven years. Her articles for The Sunday Times, “Have Kids Will travel” followed a year’s trip travelling solo with her two young boys around South East Asia. Their most recent trip, featured in a monthly column for The Independent called “The Rainbow Hunters”, took them around the world to find the origin of colour, raising money for the charity War Child as they travelled. She is also an accomplished fiction writer with numerous short stories published and in 2015 her first novel Jakob’s Colours, shortlisted for The Authors Club First Novel Award, was published by Hodder and Stoughton. Lindsay is currently an Associate Lecturer in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University and is writing her second novel. She is a Cornerstones market editor.

Interests: Travel, adventure and nature writing. All fiction especially literary, women's fiction, crime, thrillers, commercial fiction and experimental.

Craig is the author of twelve titles, most published by Penguin-Random House and Franklin Watts (Hachette). A graduate of Bristol University, Craig spent many years writing and reviewing medical-related material before turning his hand to fiction. His debut novel, Resistance, was shortlisted for the Branford-Boase Award. His second, Dogfight, won the Hampshire Book Award and was shortlisted for the Lancashire Book Award. His latest title, Daniel, was shortlisted for the Young Quills Award 2016. As well as having held events in venues across the UK including the British Imperial War Museum, Craig has hosted workshops in creative writing, and in the past has worked with students studying creative writing at undergraduate and post-graduate level at the University of Winchester. A number of Craig’s titles also form part of the ever popular EDGE series published by Franklin Watts. Craig is a Cornerstones core editor.

Interests: Thrillers, mystery, historical (special interest), action & adventure, general literary fiction, for adults and older YA

Edward is an author, former business consultant, publisher and commercial editor. His editing credits include two Man Booker contenders – one of which also won the Man Asia Literary Prize and the Walter Scott Prize for Best Historical Novel in 2013 – and a shortlisting for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for Best Thriller in 2011. He has an MA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics and was the founder and publishing director of Myrmidon Books from 2005–2015, where he personally evaluated, acquired, edited over forty fiction and non-fiction titles including Tan Twan Eng’s Booker-recognized The Gift of Rain (longlist) and The Garden of Evening Mists (shortlist) and other bestsellers. He has been an editor and mentor with Cornerstones since 2012. Edward is a Cornerstones industry editor.

Interests: literary fiction, commercial fiction, popular history, business, current affairs

Dan has worked for Macmillan, Hachette, Quarto and various other major publishers for over twenty years, developing and editing non-fiction and reference projects. As an author, he has written over thirty books for both adults and children. As well as a series of short biographies of great thinkers (which have sold some half a million copies), he has covered subjects as diverse as true crime, history, politics, economics, quizzing and Sherlock Holmes! Two of his most recent narrative non-fiction books have been nominated for the Crime Writers Association Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction. He is also a scriptwriter for the Short History of... and Real Dictators podcast series (produced by the British Podcast Award-winning Noiser Productions), which receive multi-million downloads each month. He graduated in English from Cardiff University and lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and two young children. Dan is a Cornerstones market editor.

Interests: narrative non-fiction, biography and memoir, sport, true crime, history, literature, politics, economics

Rachel is a literary agent with the Ben Illis Agency and the author of six books, published by Simon & Schuster, OUP, and Scholastic US. She has a first-class degree in English Literature and Language and a PGCE in Secondary English, which she puts to good use running creative writing workshops and events for both adults and children. Rachel also freelances as an editor, copywriter, and festival moderator to feed her need for new stories. Rachel is a Cornerstones market editor.

Interests: Middle Grade and YA fiction, especially action, mystery, diverse voices, and comedy. Also children's non-fiction

Anna is a children’s book editor with over ten years’ experience in the industry. She began her career at Scholastic Children’s Books, developing the illustrious lists for both Scholastic Fiction and the boutique literary imprint Marion Lloyd Books. In 2013 she moved to Orchard Books, managing a wide range of bestselling series, middle-grade and YA fiction. She was recently nominated for the Branford Boase Award 2019 for her work on the Grandma Dangerous series. Anna is a Cornerstones industry editor.

Interests: Young fiction, middle-grade and YA, particularly commercial fiction, literary fiction, tearjerkers, magical realism, quirky reality-benders, inspirational coming-of-age and overcoming-of-odds stories

Becky has over eight years’ experience in the publishing industry. She started her career grading and passing the more promising submissions through to a literary agent. Since then, she’s worked in both an editorial and PR capacity. On the PR side, she worked at two major publishers – Transworld (part of Penguin Random House) and Headline (part of Hachette). She worked with a variety of fiction and non-fiction authors, across a variety of genres. She helped launch the career of debut authors such as Shari Lapena and Karen Hamilton, as well as working with brand women’s fiction, crime/thriller and literary authors. She attended in-house focus and acquisitions meetings, so has a strong idea of what publishers are looking for on the industry side of things. Over the last two years, she’s been working on a freelance basis, in both an editorial and PR capacity. On the PR side of things, she works independently with authors, as well as for agencies such as Midas PR, working mainly with fiction authors across all genres. Editorially, she works with aspiring and self-published authors, as well as on a project-by-project basis with traditional publishers. She prides herself on giving thorough, in-depth reports, and loves to see the improvements an author makes with editorial feedback. She is also an author in her own right - her novel, ONE MOMENT, sold in multiple global territories and will be published in the UK in 2023 and the US in 2024, where it was pre-empted as part of a two-book deal in a six figure deal. She is represented by Sarah Hornsley at PFD. Becky is an industry editor.

Interests: Thrillers/psychological thrillers, crime, women's fiction, commercial fiction, contemporary literary fiction, YA of all genres