We are an editing and author services company who aim to give our authors the personal touch to help them to succeed. We work closely with our authors and enjoy building a trusted relationship.

When you work with us, you will get a personalised service. No two authors have the exact same approach to their work and we recognise this within our services. We work closely with our authors to establish their visions and goals for their manuscripts and this is always at the forefront of our minds when working with them.

About Lor

Lor is the lead editor and owner of Calico Editing Services. Having several publications to her name including scientific journals and picture books, Lor now devotes her time to assisting others with their publishing dreams. Being a mother of three young children, two of which are neurodiverse, gives her a special insight into children’s books and diversity. With a degree and diploma in counselling and psychology, an artist in her spare-time and a devoted mother, Lor is insightful, creative, an excellent communicator and cares passionately about each author she works with. Several years ago Lor underwent brain surgery and since then her devotion to helping others achieve their dreams has grown even more, making her the perfect lead editor. 

About Our Services

We offer a variety of editing services and tailor them specially for each individual author. These include:

Developmental edits and critiques – this enables us to look at the manuscript as a whole and establish which areas require more work and which areas are already working well. We create a report with our findings on, this is usually 2-3 pages long and will provide the author with valuable feedback, advice and tips on how to enhance their manuscript. This is usually most valuable in the earlier stages of writing a book, although some authors request this edit at various stages of their manuscript.

Line-by-line edits – this is where we look at the individual words and sentences of a manuscript. We check for errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar. We also help to polish the manuscript too (edit for repetition, smooth sentences so they flow better, ensure the words used are relevant to the audience). Line-by-line edits are crucial when writing and we recommend that these take place after the developmental edit has been completed.

Pre-print proofreads – when your book has been written, edited, illustrated, formatted and is waiting to be printed, it is important that it undergoes a proofread. This is the ‘last stop’ for catching any errors that may have crept in. Sometimes, inconsistencies happen – the illustration may not match the writing, the layout of the text may have caused a punctuation issue, a simple typo may have created a spelling mistake. The pre-print proofread offers you the reassurance that your book is good to go!

Ghostwriting – perhaps you have an idea for a story but don’t have the ability or time to write it. Maybe you have written a story but would like an expert to rework it so that it is the best it can be. We love working with authors to help with creating stories and the ghostwriting relationship is a very special one. We will gather as much information as possible from the author before we begin writing the first draft. We provide regular updates and value the author’s feedback during the ghostwriting process. Once the author is happy with the manuscript, we carry out a full edit and then hand it back to the author – who retains full copyright – and they are ready to then take it to the next steps to getting it published. You can find out more about our ghostwriting services here:

We also offer beta reading, follow up editing services, advertising advice, blurb writing, press release writing and support on social media.

All work that we carry out is done so in a professional manner, we treat all manuscripts with the confidentiality they deserve but, to give our authors peace of mind, we draw up a legally binding contract too. This contract describes what our services will entail and also explains that we will never share the contents of the author’s work with anyone else, it protects their privacy and their copyright. We feel it is very important that authors are comfortable and have full trust within our services.

Areas we specialise in are

• Children’s Books
• Young Adult Fiction
• Historical Fiction
• Romantic Fiction
• Psychological Thrillers
• Crime
• General Fiction
• Modern fiction
• Science
• Health and Medicine
• Arts
• Business
• Research

If you are a children’s author, we can help pair you up with award-winning illustrators that we work closely with too.

We are an editor based in Cheshire, UK, but we work remotely so take on clients from around the world.

We edit to either British English or American English.

Keywords: children’s book editor, ghostwriter, historical fiction editor, novel first reader, beta reader for novels, research editor, cheshire proofreading, picture book editor, editing services, freelance editor