Your partner for better editing
Precision non-fiction editing services with a nuanced human perspective. Helping you to publish clear, credible work on time and with ease.
Supporting NGOs, charities, businesses, publishers and authors across the UK and beyond.
‘Hazel has been my secret weapon for more book projects than I can remember.’
Paul Choy
International documentary photographer and author
Meticulous editing with a whole-process view
You’re responsible for publishing a report, book or multi-author project that needs to win over readers and stakeholders.
The ideas are strong, yet inconsistencies, unsettled style choices and production pressures keep pulling your focus. You need an editorial partner who holds the wood and the trees in view.
That’s what I do. I provide editorial services that ensure accuracy, speed up your timeline and help everyone involved feel good during the process.
Editorial services at a glance
I offer all four of my editorial services across six topic areas: art and art history, history and genealogy, UK charities, climate and ethical business, and peace and security.
Developmental editing, copyediting and proofreading
Meticulous, context-aware edits that your team can sign off quickly, with decisions that protect voice and leave the text ready to publish.
Editorial project management
Calm, accountable leadership, under deadlines, with joined-up decisions across edit, design and proofreading checks.
Referencing support
Accurate, consistent citations, with a system that fits your publication and a bibliography that reconciles cleanly.
Style guide development
Clear, practical standards your team can apply under pressure, with examples that scale across titles.
Support for editors
The Edit Better Letter
The Edit Better Letter is a monthly newsletter for editors, proofreaders and other wordy people who set no limits on editing – and running their editing businesses – better.
Tools for editors
Use the materials I rely on in my own non-fiction editing practice. Each tool is practical and flexible, designed to help you spend less time on tedious admin and more time on the editing you love.
Specialist editorial training
The Better Edit’s courses are designed to help you stand out from the crowd. Build beyond your core editorial skills, tackle new challenges, and achieve greater success and fulfilment in your editorial career.
My approach is simple
Precision with perspective.
I’m Hazel Bird, editor and editorial project manager at The Better Edit. After nearly two decades in the industry, I’ve edited and managed hundreds of publications, including several that ran to over a million words.
I am an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading and a PRINCE2® Practitioner, with a first-class degree in English Literature from Durham University, UK.
I care deeply about protecting the author’s voice and keeping the wood and the trees in view, so that decisions stay accurate and projects feel calm.
‘Hazel is an exceptional editor. She has an incredible eye for detail and makes suggestions for cuts and amendments to the texts which vastly improve the flow and strength of the prose. It’s been a pleasure to work with someone as skilled as Hazel.’
Emily Pedder
Director of The Book Edit and The Academic Edit
I’m proficient with…
Projects: multi-author reports, books of any length, policy and research outputs, art-history and museum publications, and large reference works such as encyclopaedias and catalogues raisonnés.
Language: UK or US English, aligned to your readers.
Style: I apply a clear house style or create one that your team can use with confidence.
Consistency: I keep decisions consistent across a single title or an entire series.
Ready to move from ‘complex draft’ to ‘ready to publish’?
Tell me what you’re working on and when it needs to go live.
I’ll send a plan and get you from draft to done – calmly and collaboratively – to a standard that will impress your team and readers.
