About MandaWaller

About MandaWaller – So who am I?

I started out with an English Literature degree, planning a sparkling career in publishing. I imagined champagne book launches and meeting famous authors, or living on a shoestring as a funky young journalist with ink-stained fingers. Sadly, I was quickly re-illusioned.

However, as Managing Editor for Butterworths Law Directory, I witnessed its transition from a heavy tome present in every legal office in the UK to a purely online resource. I was there when law firms began their foray into the online world. I know how to write copy for VERY formal websites.

And now I spend my time doing what I love. Reading drafts of novels and finding ways to make them even better.

The me of today is a mother of teenagers. I communicate by text, using 🙄, gifs and acronyms.

I love love love our crazy English language. With its weird and wonderful rules that never seem to quite work. (Apologies for the split infinitive.) I sympathise with anyone trying to learn it as a foreign language. And I feel blessed to have grown up with a mother who corrected the chalkboard notices in the greengrocer’s shop and scored restaurant menus out of 10 for spelling and punctuation.

Tomb, womb, bomb. Thorough, tough, though, through, thought.

Don’t even get me started on idioms. How can fat chance and slim chance mean the same thing?

I love the nuances that different words can provide. How changing one word for another with almost exactly the same meaning can change a sentence from being slightly aggressive to slightly friendly. Or how a well-placed, unexpected (!) exclamation mark can make me smile.

My favourite thing? Suggesting revisions that will improve the flow and readability of a manuscript. Revisions that will turn a good book into a great book. I also believe this can be done in an honest, supportive space that brings positivity and encouragement. And absolutely no judgement.

Contact me today for a copyediting quote. I’d be delighted to help you.

Manda