Author of There’s Something I Have To Tell You published 2023

When I handed the first draft of the first novel I had ever finished over to Sally, I felt it had potential, but knew it was nowhere near good enough to send out on submission. While I knew what the problems were eg pacing, lack of tension, building suspense, I had no idea how to fix them, and was feeling totally lost.

Despite the many issues that needed work, our Zoom conversation and Sally’s comprehensive report were both hugely positive and gave me the confidence and encouragement I so badly needed as I began work on my second draft. Facing into that draft was so intimidating, but Sally’s support (and her report and annotated manuscript) was like a GPS, guiding me at all times in the right direction.

Sally has helped me to bring my writing and my book to a whole different level. She pushed me, in her lovely warm, jolly way, to really stretch myself further than I knew I was capable of. Before I sent my first three chapters out on submission, I got Sally to look at them again and improved them further by making the changes she suggested.

Within weeks of sending my debut novel There’s Something I Have To Tell You out to agents in January of this year, I had a request for a full manuscript from Penguin Ireland, followed by numerous full requests from agents. I was offered representation by Faith O’Grady from the Lisa Richards Agency in Dublin in February and offered book deals by Hachette Ireland (two book), Penguin Ireland (one book) and Poolbeg (digital only, three book), and signed a contract with Hachette Ireland on August 2nd.

I’ll be pinching myself for a long time to come as this has been a lifelong dream of mine, but I do believe that the reason my book was picked up, and so quickly, was in no small part down to Sally’s input. I cannot recommend her highly enough, particularly to debut authors.