
Edit Your Novel The Professional Way
Cornerstones’ online editing course
Learn how to Edit Your Novel the Professional Way on this new online course.
Over 18 weeks, leading UK literary consultants Kathryn Price and Helen Corner-Bryant will show you how to take your novel from draft to agent-ready submission.
They will introduce you to the techniques used by professional editors based on their time-tested approach to author development, as well as the skills outlined in their essential guide to editing, On Editing: How to Edit Your Novel the Professional Way (John Murray, April 2018).
You’ll need to put in up to 10 hours per week to make the most of the course (180 hours over the 18 weeks) — that includes reading and thinking, completing practical exercises, feeding back on your peers’ novels, and contributing to forum discussions. You can work at any time of the day (or night) — you just need to meet the final deadline in each class.
At the end of the course, you’ll have access to a niche go-to list of agents who are open to submissions from our course alumni.
NEXT COURSE
Start date: 3 June 2019
Duration: 18 weeks
Skill level: Intermediate, Advanced
Session length: Fortnightly
Sessions: 8
Special early bird price
(Ends 21 April 2019)
Price: £1,800 £1,560 (inc. VAT where applicable)
APPLY NOW
This course is for authors who have a complete draft of a novel — either a current work-in-progress or one you would like to revisit.
You may have completed a novel-writing course, or a writing masters, and are now ready to make the leap to the next level. Or you may be published and working on a new novel.
What we’ll teach you
We’ll introduce you to the key skills needed to edit a novel and show you how to use those techniques to diagnose and fix problems in your own work. We will also show you how to prepare your submission package to present to the trade.
During the course, there will be forum and chatroom participation, a moderator to answer day-to-day and technical queries, and a tutor overseeing your comments and posted work. You will receive individual tutor feedback on extracts from your novel on three occasions during the course.
What you’ll have at the end
You’ll have an edited and industry-formatted version of the first 10,000 words of your novel, together with a synopsis and covering letter, ready to send out to agents. You’ll also have a good working knowledge of the professional editing techniques you need to apply to the rest of your manuscript, and a plan to put those skills into action.
At the end of the course you’ll receive detailed tutor feedback on your first 10,000 words, synopsis and covering letter.
You’ll learn in Cornerstone’s online classroom, which is open 24/7 so you can balance your learning around your work, family and friends. You’ll work in a small group of fellow learners so you can discuss ideas, ask questions and share your writing as you progress through the sessions.
As this is an advanced course, each group is limited to 15 students or fewer.
You’ll learn from:
- Short audio and video files from your course tutors
- Online guidance notes and directed editing exercises
- Extracts to read, annotated with an editor’s notes
- Reading and viewing lists
- Online workshop sessions
- Online peer critiquing
- Tutor feedback via Skype, phone calls or online chats and forum posts
- The opportunity to share your work and give and receive feedback from fellow writers
- A dedicated resources area which is continually updated
You’ll need:
- Up to 10 hours per week to work through the course
- A notebook and pen or pencil, if you like to make notes by hand
- A laptop or computer* with:
- A reliable broadband internet connection
- Speakers or headphones
- The latest version of Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Edge, or Safari
- Microsoft Word. If you don’t have this you can download Open Office free
- Adobe Reader, latest version. Download free
- QuickTime Player, latest version. Download free
*You can access the course from a tablet or smartphone, but we recommend using a laptop or computer, as this makes it easier to share your work files with your writing group.
Helen Corner-Bryant – Course Director
Helen spent a number of years in editorial at Penguin before setting up Cornerstones Literary Consultancy in 1998. In 2016, she opened Cornerstones US, creating the world’s first transatlantic literary consultancy. Helen and Cornerstones are known for nurturing new authors through the editorial process, providing feedback on all types of genres, scouting for agents, and launching many writers. Helen is a guest lecturer at leading universities including UCL Centre for Publishing and the Columbia Publishing Course at Oxford. She is the co-author of the essential Cornerstones guide to editing and submitting a successful novel: On Editing: How to Edit Your Novel the Professional Way (John Murray, April 2018).
Kathryn Price – Course Director and Tutor
After achieving a first in Literature and Criticism at UCL, Kathryn worked for literary agencies and for a bookshop specialising in crime fiction, where she developed a taste for unusual and macabre stories. Following her true passions — editing and teaching writing skills — she joined Cornerstones as managing editor in 2005 and later became co-director. In 2014 she decided to focus on the editorial side of the business and now works closely with authors developing their manuscripts. She is Cornerstones’ editor-in-chief and co-author of the essential Cornerstones guide to editing and submitting a successful novel: On Editing: How to Edit Your Novel the Professional Way (John Murray, April 2018).
Join the Cornerstones alumni
After your course, you can join the online alumni where you’ll meet the growing network of past Cornerstones students. The alumni is a friendly group of writers who support each other as they continue to explore and develop their writing.
Within the online alumni area you can:
- Rejoin your classmates on a private forum and access an archived version of your course materials and forum posts
- Join in on discussions about reading, writing, editing and ideas on our general discussion forum. This is also where we share news and useful info
- Retain access to our resources area, which has interesting and informative links
- Chat with other people online using the alumni area live chatroom
Taking things further
If you’d like to continue on to another Professional Writing Academy course, we’ll give you a discount. Please get in touch for more details.
Recent titles and authors Cornerstones have worked with


How to apply for the course
It’s very important that we both agree that you and your manuscript are at the right stage to get the most out of this course.
As with all Cornerstones editing services, we like to review applications. You can apply online, by completing this form. We’ll review your application and get back to you within five working days.
If we confirm your place, we’ll email you payment options and the Terms & Conditions. Once payment has been received we will email you a receipt and confirm your place and the course start date. You will be emailed a login and link to the online classroom with how-to steps to get you started.
You can submit online through this site.