Editor
Janet Laurence
Janet has written three series of crime novels and is currently working on the third in a series set in Edwardian England with American Ursula Grandison as a private investigator.
In her previous series, ten novels featured cordon bleu cook Darina Lisle, and three historical starred Italian painter Canaletto in mid-eighteenth Century London. Janet has also written contemporary women’s fiction as Julia Lisle, and food and cookery.
She was included in a Times list of 100 masters of crime writing and has been a Writer in Residence at the University of Tasmania. She runs creative writing courses, particularly on writing crime novels (Writing Crime Fiction – Making Crime Pay, pub Aber). She is a past Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association and is currently chair of the judging panel for the CWA International Dagger, awarded to both author and translator of the best crime novel of the year originally published in a foreign language.
Janet loves encouraging novelists, and aims to stretch each writer’s abilities and encourage their ambitions.
– E. Fleischaue
- C. Stibbe.
- Ginny D.
– John L.
– Paul B.
Janet's specialties
WHY WE LOVE JANET
We love Janet’s thorough and detailed reports, focusing on a chapter-by-chapter breakdown.
WHAT JANET SAYS ABOUT EDITING
When I first started writing fiction, it felt a bit like trying to find one’s way through a forest, not knowing which path to take, how to provide the right atmosphere, how much background, what to do with dialogue and much, much more. It was when I managed to create believable characters in an interesting setting for the first of my contemporary ‘culinary crime’ novels (A Deepe Coffyn) that I found my way to writing a publishable book.
Now I am writing the third in my third crime series, set at the start of the twentieth century and featuring an American girl who has teamed up with an ex-Metropolitan detective to provide an investigation agency.
I try to encourage each writer I work with to recognise the possibilities in their work. Publishing fiction today is a very competitive business and it needs a professional as well as a creative approach. Self-publishing offers opportunities. I have helped at least two writers successfully publish several of their novels.
What Janet works on
By purchasing any of these products, you'll have the opportunity to express your interest in working with Janet.
Perfect for authors with a finished draft
Manuscript assessment
Perfect for authors querying agents
Agent Submission Pack assessment
Perfect for authors querying agents
Post-editorial guidance
Janet's published books
