CIEP category: Intermediate
Business Name: Alison Gray Editorial Services
Email: alisongrayeditorialservices@yahoo.com
Website: alisongrayeditorialservices.com
I am an Intermediate member of the Chartered Institute for Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) and trained with the Publishing Training Centre in copy-editing and with the CIEP in working in Microsoft Word. I edit both fiction and non-fiction.
Fiction:
My clients are independent authors and journals. I copy-edit Lumpen: A journal for poor and working-class writers and am the editorial assistant for the literary journal Skirting Around.
I work with authors at all stages from mentoring, through developmental editing to copy- and line-editing. In developmental editing and mentoring I specialise in historical writing, narrative non-fiction and memoir. I write too and bring my own experiences of the difficulties and joys of creative writing to this work. I am a published and award-winning writer.
Non-fiction:
My clients are publishers, independent authors and charities. My academic background is in feminism, world religions and Biblical studies. I have an MA in Religious Studies from the University of Lancaster, where I focused on women in religious traditions, and was copy-editor for the proceedings of the Center for Feminist Theology and Ministry in Tokyo for ten years and assistant editor for the newsletter of the World Council of Churches in Japan. I also edit related topics such as philosophy, in which I have a BA(Hons) from the University of London, and for NGOs and charities in areas from the environment and fair-trade to local history. I also work with students on theses and dissertations.
Other areas of interest include yoga and spirituality; I studied yoga from the age of sixteen and began teaching it at thirty-five. I also work in similar areas such as self-help and shiatsu. I am particularly interested in work related to Japan where I lived for eleven years.
Recommendations
‘There are many editors out there who can help you with grammar, punctuation and sense, but there are very few who can offer what Alison does – the ability to step back and take a broad overview of your work, advising on where it is not quite working, which areas need to be developed and improved upon, and where you should take it next in order for it to be the very best it can be. That is worth its weight in gold for any writer wanting to take their work to the next level.’
Elissa Soave, author of ‘Ginger and Me’,
forthcoming from Harper Collins, July 2022
‘I’ve been working through it [the manuscript for the self-published non-fiction book, ‘Grounding’] and have reached page 32 and I must say I feel so respected as an author in the way you have offered notes. I feel supported and understood, which is quite a gift when on this journey – there can be so many niggles of self-doubt.
So far, I love all the work you have done! It all makes sense and I feel levels up the work I have put in.
Thank you sincerely :)’
Tegan Rein,
founder of the Nourish Your Soul Movement
and author of ‘Grounding’
‘Alison can always put her finger on exactly what is bothering me about my work and doesn’t feel quite right. She has an innate sense for what a writer is striving to share. Her ability to truly hear the writer’s voice and help the writer maintain its authenticity has been invaluable for me.’
Kathryn Matsumura, writer