Short forms are not easier than long ones: they are less forgiving. Every sentence has to earn its place, which is exactly why they are so hard to finish alone.
Most people with a story worth telling are not short of the story. They are short of the uninterrupted stretch it would take to get it onto the page, and every month that passes makes starting harder rather than easier.
The house keeps a range of writers rather than one house voice, so the person assigned to your story has worked in its register before. You talk to them directly, the value of a short project is mostly in how quickly the writer understands what you actually mean, and that happens in conversation rather than through a brief.
Which of these your story is determines almost everything about how it is written. Most people know the answer as soon as they see the list.
- 01
Creative story writing
Character development, plot construction, dialogue and world-building, for readers of any age. Imaginative narrative written to hold attention from the first line.
- 02
Narrative stories
Plot development, point of view, narrative voice, pacing and tension, and a climax and resolution that land. The classical toolkit, used deliberately.
- 03
Expository stories
Writing that informs and teaches, thorough research, an organised structure, supporting evidence, and language that stays engaging while being clear.
- 04
Descriptive writing
Vivid imagery and sensory detail, atmosphere and mood, so a reader is in the setting rather than told about it.
- 05
Persuasive story writing
Narrative used to move someone: emotional appeal, authentic characters, thought-provoking themes, and a case made through story rather than argument.
Four things that matter more on a short project than a long one.
- 01
You choose the writer
The house keeps a diverse group rather than one voice, and you pick the one whose work suits your story. Direct communication with them follows, not through an account manager.
- 02
Built to your brief
Each author's idea and requirements are different, and a short piece has no room to accommodate a template. The service is shaped to the story rather than the story to the service.
- 03
Detail at every level
Plot and character arcs down to dialogue and description. In a short form there is nowhere for a weak passage to hide.
- 04
Delivered when promised
Short projects are the ones that slip, because they are always the least urgent thing on someone's desk. The date agreed is the date it arrives.
Eight steps, and you see the shape of it before a word is drafted.
Initial consultation
A conversation about the project: the idea, what you want it to do, and who is going to read it.
Concept development
Ideas, plot structures and character profiles worked through together until there is a foundation solid enough to write on.
Outline and structure
Chapters, major plot points and character arcs outlined, so the narrative is cohesive before it exists.
Drafting
The outline turned into a complete storybook by the writer you chose.
Review and feedback
Your reading of the draft, and the revisions that follow from it. This is where the story becomes yours rather than the writer's version of yours.
Editing
A careful review for grammar, spelling, punctuation and overall coherence, by someone who did not write it.
Formatting
Layout and design so the finished piece reads as a considered object rather than a document.
Final delivery
The manuscript in the format you need, ready to publish or to use however you intended.
A few of the people the house has worked with, in their own words.
I had eleven years of notes and no book. What I got back read like me on a good day, my turns of phrase, my arguments, and none of the padding I would have added myself. The first chapter arrived and I stopped worrying.
Marianne ElleryIndependent author The structural edit was not comfortable reading. It told me the second half started in the wrong place, which I had suspected for a year and nobody had said out loud. Moving three chapters fixed a problem I had been trying to solve with better sentences.
Devon AlukoIndependent author What sold me was being told I did not need half of what I had asked for. I came in wanting the full package and left with a cover, a proofread and an honest explanation of why the rest would not have helped yet.
Priya RaghunathanIndependent author Three cover directions, all of them plausible, none of them the thing I had described. The one I picked worked at the size that actually matters, I could recognise it in a list of forty other books, which is more than I can say for my first attempt.
Tobias HearnIndependent author I own the book outright and that was written down before I paid anything. After two years of being quoted percentages by people who would not put them in writing, that was the whole reason I stayed.
Cecile MarchandIndependent author The audiobook took longer than I expected and they told me why each time rather than going quiet. The narrator they cast got my grandmother's accent right, which I had assumed would be the thing I had to let go of.
Nathan BoakyeIndependent author
The craft questions, answered straight.
Read widely in the form and pay attention to how the writers you admire handle structure: that is genuinely the fastest route, and it is free. Beyond that: give your protagonist something they want and something in the way of it, and make sure the ending answers the question the opening asked. If you get stuck, working with a writer who has plotted a lot of stories will usually unstick it faster than more reading will.
Give them psychological depth, a distinct way of speaking, and motivations a reader recognises even when they disagree with them. The most common failure is characters who exist to serve the plot; the fix is knowing what each of them wants independently of what the story needs them to do.
Specific detail rather than comprehensive detail. A reader builds a whole world from a handful of concrete, sensory specifics, and stops reading through a paragraph of description. Research the period or place enough that the details you do choose are the right ones.
An opening that earns attention, rising action, a climax the story has been building toward, and a resolution that closes what was opened. That is not a formula so much as the minimum a reader needs to feel that their time was respected, and a story can be structured very unconventionally as long as it delivers those.
Read a great deal, write regularly, and get feedback from people who will be honest rather than kind. Beyond that, style is mostly a matter of matching the register to the audience and the genre. If you want faster progress, working with an editor on your own draft teaches more in one pass than a year of reading about writing.
You do, completely. The author holds 100% of the rights to their work, in every format, for its whole life. The house is paid for the work it does, not with a share of the book. That is the arrangement the house reopened in 2008 to offer, and it does not change with the tier, the price or the point at which you come to us.
Yes. Your name is on the cover and in the record. Everyone who works on the book (writer, editor, designer) works on your book, and none of them is credited on it unless you ask for them to be.
Yes. Your story is yours, and nothing about the project leaves the house. We will sign your NDA before you send anything, or supply ours if you would rather use one.
No. Six disciplines are available and you take the ones you need. Authors arrive here at every stage (with an idea, a half-draft, or a finished manuscript that only needs a cover and a shelf) and the work starts where you actually are.
It depends on the work: length, how much research is involved, how much of the book already exists, and which disciplines you need. There is no list price for a book, and any firm who gives you one before reading your material is quoting something other than your book. Tell us where you are and we will price the actual job.
Move the marker. You do not need to know what to call it: you only need to know where you are.
Tell us where your manuscript is, where you want it to go, and we'll show you what's possible.