Rates: Initial reading and consultation $1 per page

Future work $75 an hour

Structural editing, line editing

I worked as an editor at Penguin USA for over 25 years on a variety of fiction and non-fiction books. One of my specialties is romance, and I am the recipient of the 2005 Melinda Helfer Fairy Godmother Award for aiding the careers of romance authors.

Authors whose manuscripts I edited who are New York Times best selling authors include Stephen King, Ken Follett and Catherine Coulter.

Recommendations:

"Hilary Ross is an outstanding concept editor -- She has the special ability to make a book qualitatively better with the minimum amount of work on the author's part. Any author she edits is very lucky indeed."
Catherine Coulter

"I have been fortunate in my writing career, and one of the best pieces of fortune was having Hilary Ross as my first editor. Her sharp eye for a good story and her willingness to allow a writer to push boundaries helped me develop my own voice. Hilary was my full-time editor for ten good years, and we had a continuing editorial relationship for seven more years after that. All writers should be so lucky!"
Mary Jo Putney

"Hilary Ross was my editor for many years and for more than fifty novels and novellas. I valued her work in every possible way. However, the one skill for which I appreciated her more than any other was her unerring ability to take a manuscript and within a few days explain to me exactly where its strengths and weaknesses lay and exactly what I needed to do to put the latter right. Always, without exception, I would discover when I made the changes that the book was infinitely better than it had been before. Ms. Ross's perceptive genius with a manuscript is something from which every writer, new or established, could benefit."
Mary Balogh

"As an editor, Hilary Ross has a sharp eye for excellence, and the skill and knowledge to work with all levels of experience."
Patricia Rice

"Hilary Ross knows just how to fix a manuscript. She always unerringly puts her finger on just the place in the story where it needs work, whether with characters, motivation or plot. She's also great about then helping an author do the job right. She has a quick eye and is clear in her explanations. Hilary was my first editor and I can honestly say that though I thought I knew everything then, I sure didn't. I learned so much from Hilary and still use her remembered comments as a guideline."
Edith Layton

Penguin USA