Hello, I’m Gary Dalkin. Whatever your writing needs, given my 30 years as a published writer and editor, it’s likely I can help. This page serves as a directory to the rest of my site, from where you can find out about my services, what my clients think about me, and what else I have done besides editing books. Explore the site and see what I can do for you, then get in touch. I’ll look forward to hearing from you. For regular updates join my To The Last Word group on Facebook.
Editing Services

Here you’ll find an introduction to my editing services.

I specialise in editorial assessment, but provide a range of others services for writers, including: developmental editing, copy-editing, line editing, fact checking, as well as mentoring, support and guidance.

The need for an expert opinion.

References

Discover what my clients have said about my work for them. Below is one example, from Mark deMeza, author of the international bestseller, The Thirteenth Child.

The Thirteenth Child being my debut novel, I was somewhat apprehensive about my first interaction with an editor. I needn’t have worried. Gary performed an exceptional structural edit for me. He was able to highlight a number of minor improvements as well as some significant changes to the balance and content of my manuscript. His feedback was always concise, professional, and delivered in line with our agreed timeframes. There is no doubt that Gary returned my manuscript in a much better condition than he received it. I am very much looking forward to working with Gary when I have the draft manuscript for the sequel to The Thirteenth Child ready. I have no hesitation in recommending Gary’s skills and services to other writers.

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Mark deMeza, author of the bestselling The Thirteenth Child (read my blog post about The Thirteenth Child - the novel currently has a 4.4 rating from 2000 customer reviews on Amazon)
Books I Have Worked OnExplore a cover gallery of some of the many books I have edited or otherwise worked on. Below are six of the most recently published titles.

Dark is the Night, by Rachel Evans (Matador, November 2025)

A Dream Come True: The Collaboration of David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti, by Stephan Eicke (Bloomsbury Academic, November 2025)

The Revenge of King Charles, by D. Lawrence-Young (Holand Press, October 2025)

Wiilda and the Troll Trials, Linda Liebrand (Treetop Media, July 2025)

The Heroine of Auschwitz, Mark deMeza (Tauk Publishing, June 2025)

There is no Finish: The Backyard Ultra Story, by Stephen Parker (Running Forever, October 2024)

Bournemouth Writing Festival & Romance Writing Festival Bournemouth I have been a speaker every year at the Bournemouth Writing Festival to date. Here is a gallery of photos from my talk Organising Chaos: Turn a Messy Draft into a Publishable Book, with the director of Cadence Publishing, Sophie Beal. The talk turned out to be the bestselling event, other than the two big evening performance galas, of the entire three days. Click the link for a Facebook post in my To The Last Word group about my three days more generally at the festival this April. I also chaired a panel with the bestselling authors Sue Moorcroft, Phillipa Ashley and Janet Gover on the theme of A Sense of Place at the first Romance Writing Festival Bournemouth in October.

Find out more about my appearances at the Bournemouth Writing Festival.

Read my blog about the 2024 festival and see a gallery of photos from the 2024 launch celebration.

Here is my blog post about the first BWF in 2023, plus a gallery of photos from that festival.

Festival director Dominic Wong introducing Sophie Beal and myself at our 2025 Bournemouth Writing Festival talk: Organising Chaos

Organising Chaos: Sophie Beal & Gary Dalkin, Ocean Theatre, Bournemouth Writing Festival, 26 April 2025. Photo: Solid Imagery

Organising Chaos: Sophie Beal & Gary Dalkin, Ocean Theatre, Bournemouth Writing Festival, 26 April 2025. Photo: Solid Imagery

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Chairing a panel at the Romance Writing Festival Bournemouth with bestselling authors Sue Moorcroft, Phillipa Ashley and Janet Gover (18 October 2025 - Royal Bath Hotel, Photos: Solid Imagery)

Writing Magazine / Writers Online Here is where to learn about my work for Writing Magazine. I’ve contributed to every issue since April 1999. Following the success of Organising Chaos at the Bournemouth Writing Festival, Sophie Beal and myself recently gave an extended version for Writers Online.

Writing Magazine featuring my article Organising Chaos: Turn a messy draft into a publishable manuscript

Promo image for Writers Online webinar version of Organising Chaos: Turn a Messy Draft into a Publishable Book

Cadence PublishingI am the Senior Associate Editor with Bournemouth-based micro-publisher Cadence Publishing. Find out about my work for Cadence here.
As Senior Associate Editor for Cadence Publishing, Gary was a helpful fresh pair of eyes on the final draft of my YA novel Sold – What will it take to find freedom?His insightful and honest comments, suggestions for improvement and attention to detail acted as a prompt for me to hone various aspects of my plotline and double-check my research.Since publication, Gary - with his vast experience and knowledge of the publishing industry - has also suggested helpful ideas and advice on marketing which has been much appreciated.I can thoroughly recommend his services.

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Sue Barrow, author of SOLD(Read more about the reception of SOLD)
Current and Recent ProjectsHere you’ll find details about books that are coming out from my clients, as well as other general news about what I have been working on or will be doing soon. However, I don’t often have time to update this page, so the best way to follow what I’m doing is to join my To The Last Word group on Facebook, where I put updates almost every day about what I’m doing, my writing friends are doing, as well as links to interesting articles, occasional humour and other odds and ends.
BlogI don’t update my blog often, but you can read it here. I usually now put news on my current and recent projects page (see above).
WriterExplore some of my work as a writer, including the books Literary Wonderlands and Literary Landscapes.
InterviewerI have conducted many interviews over the years, with everyone from Sir Arthur C. Clarke to the Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer. This page contains links to some of those interviews.
Amazing StoriesFor several years I wrote for the new online incarnation of the classic magazine, Amazing Stories. This page gives an introduction to that work, and a link to some of my features for that site.
Older ProjectsHere you can find out about some of my work from longer ago.
Satisfied ClientsMany of my clients keep coming back to me time after time, from a small project like a short story for a competition they are entering, to editing a full-length work of fiction or non-fiction. I can only think this is because I provide a friendly, professional, honest service at a fair price. How much? Every job is different, so my rates are by agreement based on your requirements. I will always provide a fixed quote before beginning work so that you will know exactly what you are paying. Find out more about editorial assessment here, or about the importance of an expert opinion. Check out some of the references I have received from more than satisfied clients, then contact me to see how I can help you make your writing as good as it can be, ready to send to an agent or publisher, or for self-publishing.
contact
Gary Dalkin is a thoughtful and highly professional editor whose keen eye for detail is underpinned by many years’ experience. It’s been a great pleasure to work with him and I recommend Gary to anyone looking to sharpen up their work.
Tricia Sullivan – Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author of Dreaming in Smoke
Featured
On the Radio with Sophie Beal & Steve Couch
On the Radio with Sophie Beal & Steve Couch
Next Wednesday (27 Aug) I’ll be joining author Steve Couch and publisher Sophie Beal on Hope FM’s arts show, Livewire Live, where we'll have two hours to talk about writing and publishing. That’s everything from Sophie and Steve’s podcast, Beneath the Page, Steve’s writing (including the excellent novel Dead Man Singing), my editorial work as both To The Last Word and Sophie’s Cadence Publishing (where I'm Senior Associate Editor), and the online version of our talk Organising Chaos…
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From Chaos to Creativity, and the Value of the Bournemouth Writing Festival
From Chaos to Creativity, and the Value of the Bournemouth Writing Festival
I’m absolutely delighted to receive the following reference from my client Sacha Hughes. Not only did I really enjoy working on Sacha’s manuscript, and look forward to seeing how her novel has developed in response to my editorial report, but what she writes here is a fantastic endorsement of the Bournemouth Writing Festival and of the value of such events. My co-speaker Sophie Beal and myself are of course especially delighted that Sacha was so inspired by our talk. So much so that she hired me to edit her novel! Here is what Sacha had to say:

I hired Gary to edit the first book in my ‘Soho Summers series’ after seeing him present at the Bournemouth Writing Festival in April 2025. His session, Organising Chaos: Turn a Messy Draft into a Publishable Book, co-hosted with Sophie Beal, Director of Cadence Publishing, was fantastic. I loved their friendly, down-to-earth approach and deep knowledge of what it takes to get a book publishable…
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Linda Liebrand’s Wiilda and the Troll Trials is now available
Linda Liebrand’s Wiilda and the Troll Trials is now available

Last year I provided a developmental edit for Linda Liebrand for her then work-in-progress, Wiilda and the Troll Trials. This is a wonderfully imaginative children’s novel inspired by Linda growing up near a traditional Swedish farm in the middle of a forest, as well as by Swedish and Scandanavian folklore. Like all the best children’s books, you certainly don’t need to be a child to enjoy it.

This is what Linda had to say about hiring me:

‘Working with Gary on my middle grade novel Wiilda and the Troll Trials was one of the best decisions I made for the book. When he first saw the manuscript, it was, let’s be honest, a bit of a scruffy draft. But Gary treated it with care and insight, delivering a developmental edit that was both encouraging and to the point. His feedback was invaluable…

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Romance and Frankenstein
Romance and Frankenstein

I have a new guest post on The Write Path blog, part of bestselling psychological thriller author Alex Stone’s recently launched Author Events Substack. It was a lot of fun to write, encompassing much of my literary world, from being asked to chair a panel at the Romance Writing Festival Bournemouth, to Mary Shelley and Frankenstein, via my talk Organising Chaos with Sophie Beal, director of Cadence Publishing at the Bournemouth Writing Festival, and how for a brief while I thought I’d been published by Princeton University Press and didn't even know it. And if you want to know how that happened you'll have to read the full post…

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