Jessica Spencer | Non-fiction Editor

I am an experienced, versatile editor specialising in general non-fiction, children's non-fiction, education and careers. I currently offer development editing, proofreading and copyediting.

Experience
As a freelance editor I have worked with publishers on general non-fiction, children's illustrated non-fiction, activity books for pre-schoolers and books for students, teachers and practitioners. This work has included development editing, copyediting, proofreading and fact-checking.

I have worked on the following projects:

Ladybird Books (Penguin Random House Children's)

• Everything Under the Sun: a curious question for every day of the year (freelance proofread)
• A Ladybird Book series - freelance proofreading for the following titles: Insects and Minibeasts, Animal Habitats, Sea Creatures, Baby Animals, Trees, The Solar System, Electricity, Trains, Weather, The Human Body, The Ancient Egyptians, The Stone Age, and The Romans

Ladybird Education (Penguin Random House Children’s)

• Did You Know series (freelance fact-checking for 8 titles)
• Learn with Ladybird series (freelance proofreading for 14 activity books for children aged 3-7 years)

Penguin Random House

• Penguin Readers – answer keys for numerous titles (freelance proofread)

Jessica Kingsley Publishers

• Creative Ways to Help Children Regulate and Manage Anger (freelance proofread)
• When Teens Self-Harm: How Parents, Teachers and Professionals Can Provide Calm and Compassionate Support (freelance proofread)
• The Simple Guide to Emotional Neglect (freelance proofread)
• The Autistic Guide to Adventure (freelance proofread)
• Goal Processes in Music Therapy Practice (freelance proofread)
• Letters from the Grief Club: How we live with loss (freelance copyedit)
• College on the Autism Spectrum: A Parent's Guide to Students' Mental Health and Wellbeing (freelance copyedit)

Summersdale Publishers

• How to Romanticize Your Life (freelance structural edit)
• The Little Book of Auras (freelance proofread)
• The Little Book of Astrology (freelance structural edit)
• Scams and Swindlers: Shocking True Stories of the World's Most Daring Con Artists (freelance structural edit)
• You the Daddy (freelance structural edit)
• The Little Book of Wine (freelance proofread)
• The Little Book of Keto (freelance structural edit)
• The Little Book of Pasta (freelance structural edit)
• The Cat Lover's Puzzle Book (freelance structural edit)
• The Dog Lover's Puzzle Book (freelance structural edit)

Gill Books

• Milly McCarthy and the Christmas Calamity (children's fiction, freelance proofread)
• The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Irish Lighthouses (freelance proofread)
• Evil Duck and the Feather of Fortune (children's graphic novel, freelance proofread)
• Lugs: The True Story of Ireland's Legendary Lawman (freelance proofread)
• Show Me the Science (freelance proofread)

In-house experience
I have also worked in-house as a commissioning editor and development editor for Trotman Publishing, working on careers titles for the education and trade markets.

Some titles I was responsible for were:

• You’re Hired! How to write a brilliant CV (commissioning and development)
• You’re Hired! Tips and techniques for a brilliant interview (commissioning and development)
• Careers – an annual careers information title for schools (development of the title and commissioning updates)
• Heap: University Degree Course Offers – an annual directory of university courses and their entrance requirements
• Getting Into… – guides to getting into different university courses, updated annually or biennially depending on the title (development of titles and commissioning updates)
• How to write a winning UCAS personal statement (commissioning and development)

I began my editorial career at Routledge, first as an editorial assistant to the Routledge Education team and then as a development editor on the Major Works list.

Subjects
My main focus is on children's non-fiction, general non-fiction, education and careers but I am happy to discuss other projects. I have experience working on the following:

• Children's non-fiction (text-led and illustrated)
• Activity books for children and young people
• Education titles for pupils and practitioners (primary, secondary, careers)
• General non-fiction
• Self-help, health and wellbeing titles for adults and young people
• Literacy (KS1 and KS2)
• Career guides – getting into university, career choice, writing a CV, interview skills etc. (schools and trade markets).

Clients

• Penguin Random House Children's
• Jessica Kingsley Publishers
• Summersdale Publishers
• Gill Books

Editorial Training

• CIEP Introduction to Fiction Editing, 2025
• CIEP Editing Digital Content, 2024
• How to Mark Up PDF Page Proofs, 2023 (Denise Cowle Training)
• CIEP Copyediting 2: Headway, 2022 (Merit)
• PTC Essential Grammar, 2019
• SfEP Editing with Word, 2019
• PTC Basic Proofreading, 2017 (Merit)
• PTC Copy-editing by Distance Learning, 2014
  

Qualifications

• BA in English and French (University of Southampton)
• MA in Publishing (Oxford Brookes University)
  
  Testimonials
  Jessica is a skilled and thorough proofreader. She has worked on many education and children’s non-fiction titles for me over the years, and her work is always careful and queries thoughtfully worded. She has recently proofread titles from the Ladybird Trade list, including Everything Under the Sun and the A Ladybird Book series, and activity books from the Ladybird Licensing list, including colouring and sticker formats. Her work was excellent as usual. I would happily recommend Jessica’s proofreading skills to other publishers. (Philippa Neville, Editorial Project Manager, Penguin Random House Children's)

• Editor
• Proofreader

• Non-fiction
• Body, mind & spirit
• Children & young adult
• Diet & nutrition
• Education & training
• Food & cooking
• Games & activities
• Health, fitness & wellness
• Humanities
• Narrative non-fiction
• Publishing
• Self-help
• Social sciences
• Sport & leisure

• Book publishers
• Indie authors
• Packagers

• Acquisitions/commissioning