Kate Mueser
Author of “The Girl With Twenty Fingers”, published by Blackwater Press in January 2023.
David has the rare ability to recognize a buried literary gem and brush off the dirt, which he did in his development edits for my first two novels. He fully grasped the heart of each book, despite their initial weaknesses, and keenly sought to preserve and enhance my vision in his edits. He gave plenty of positive feedback, encouraging me in my strengths, but didn’t mince words when it came to my flaws. That was exactly what I needed to hone my skills and shape my manuscripts. His thoughtful and very detailed edits focused on character development, dialogue, plot, plausibility, and voice. David didn’t just point areas that needed improvement, he offered creative solutions that were fully aligned with my writing style and intention for the books.
In addition to his professional expertise, David was always friendly, prompt and professional — a pleasure to work with. As an added bonus, both of my books focus on music, so David’s experience as a fellow musician was particularly valuable. I will definitely be turning to him when my third novel is ready, and I highly recommend his services to anyone who wants their novel to be the best it can be.
Helena Schrader
Author of “Moral Fibre”, winner of a Maincrest Media Award, five stars from Feathered Quill, a star from Blue Ink and other accolades & “Cold Peace”, recently published to genuine critical and award-winning acclaim.
Nowadays, editors are more essential than publishers. After all, it is possible to self-publish a book, but no one can self-edit. As the author of more than twenty books, eight of which have won literary awards, I have worked with many editors over my writing career. None of my other editors compares to David Imrie. David was willing to challenge me, question me, and make me justify my writing decisions. He got absorbed in the story, he cared about the characters, and he looked for ways to enhance the reader’s experience. As a result, I developed my novel beyond the original concept and produced a superior work. David didn’t just take money for services, he invested his time, skills and reputation into my book. I highly recommend his services — but only if you’re prepared to accept constructive criticism and want to go stretch your own skills to a new level. Helena P. Schrader, PhD author of Moral Fibre, ed. David Imrie, which just won the Maincrest Media Award for Military Fiction.
David Palin
Author of “This Changed Everything” and “The Armistice Killer”, published by Nine Elms Books in the UK.
David edited my two novels for Nine Elms Books, ‘This Changed Everything’ and ‘The Armistice Killer’. He has that key attribute of helping writers to lower their defensive shield and be open to suggestions for improvement, while at the same time allowing their artistic endeavours to flourish. He accepted totally those occasions when I stood my ground about certain ideas or intentions. These instances were more than offset by prompts that convinced me to review, reconsider or rephrase my thoughts and wording. As a result of the process, I found enough material hidden away in the mists (or cobwebs) of my creative process to add several thousand words to what I had considered to be completed works, both of which I consider to have been improved immeasurably as a result.
Finally, he has, of course, a great eye for detail; key to any editorial process.
I cannot recommend David highly enough.
Claire Stibbe
Author of “No Good Lie”.
Finding a professional editor is one of the hardest things for a writer. A year ago, my book NO GOOD LIE won the 2021 PageTurner fiction writing award, and it was here I met David Imrie. I knew the book needed work and with David’s suggestions I learned what a developmental edit entailed. David is a consummate professional and can grasp the mindset of a writer so well. He is the ideal person to turn to for help with a manuscript. He also has the rare ability to refine and polish sentences to better capture the essence of what I was trying to say. I accepted all the insightful suggestions he made. Now my book is more consistent and razor sharp, while still allowing the voice to remain intact. Authors often blur the lines between logical syntax and creativity, and David was the right editor to guide me through. He is also a pleasure to work with and clearly loves what he does. In short, if you want your writing to reach the highest possible level to attract agent and publisher attention, then I can’t recommend David more.
Greg Coonen
Author of “The Fat Finger”.
I consider myself lucky to have met David. He is an excellent, thorough, highly gifted editor. David did not rest until the text was as good as he could make it, as he likes to say “why do it halfway if you can get it right”? His professionalism was a beautiful surprise. David’s rarest quality is finding a way to make a text take on that extra zip. Beyond the editing of mistakes, David worked on the story’s inconsistencies, the characters’ voices, and many more details that brought the text to another level. I recommend David most heartily, you will consider as lucky as I do today if you work with him.
Paula Wynne
Author of “Flying Without Wings”, “Elixa” and “The Luna Legacy”.
After seven non-fiction titles and two novels I have finally found a fantastic editor – David Imrie! David has just finished editing my historical mystery thriller and throughout the manuscript has shown incredible attention to detail, constantly picking out small inconsistencies that mean a lot to a reader and rounding off the edit with an excellent standard of English. He did line edits where he improved sentence structure, but when he got his teeth into the plot, he started fine tuning and suggesting improvements to the storyline. To top that, David quickly embedded himself into the characters, and in the tracked comments, he started suggesting dialogue that the character would say and actions they would do. So much so, that I asked David to make these suggestions directly in the tracked line edits. Previously I have had editors highlighting problem areas in the story, but never offering much more than that. With David, I got that too, but even better – I had him giving me real solutions, i.e. actual suggested improvements, not try this or that but giving me sentences that he thought would work better. Of course, with tracking a document it was my choice to accept or reject. I accepted everything David suggested. This kind of high-quality editing that genuinely adds value to an independent author is hard to come by, especially someone who wants to publish an outstanding novel in an excellent extraordinarily competitive marketplace! I would be happy to show any new authors edit samples, or you can check out a sample of the end result – The Luna Legacy on Amazon. Forget 5 stars, David is a 10 star editor!