Black Cat Editorial Services

Fiction editing for publishers and independent authors

Hello!

My name is Hannah McCall, and I am the person behind Black Cat Editorial Services. I’m a freelance fiction editor based in the UK.

In a previous life I was an administrator (IT and vehicle services) and service desk analyst (IT). I’ve also worked for one of the UK’s largest supermarkets as a stock controller. I hold a BA (Hons) in Politics, which I gained from Royal Holloway, University of London.

Today, I have the immense pleasure of working on and with words.

Specialisms and interests

My fiction editing work with publishers is predominantly on general commercial fiction, particularly British contemporary fiction. However, I do work across many other genres, including historical, fantasy and crime fiction.

My personal interest is in speculative and fantasy fiction and I read widely within and around these genres. The works of authors such as Becky Chambers, Natasha Pulley, and Martha Wells are among my favourites.

I am not your go-to editor for romance or erotica; I don’t tend to read novels in those categories and I would not be well placed to advise on genre expectations or quirks.

Recent reads

If you’d like a flavour of the sort of thing I read for fun, here are some of the books I’ve enjoyed recently:

  • Long Live Evil, Sarah Rees Brennan
  • The Bear and the Nightingale, Katherine Arden
  • The Last Hour Between Worlds, Melissa Caruso
  • One of the Good Guys, Araminta Hall
  • The Last Murder at the End of the World, Stuart Turton
  • The Phoenix Keeper, S. A. MacLean
  • Voyage of the Damned, Frances White
  • Bookshops & Bonedust, Travis Baldree
  • Her Majesty’s Royal Coven, Juno Dawson
  • The Cat Who Saved Books, Sosuke Natsukawa

Experience

I’ve been a professional proofreader, and later a copy-editor, since 2015. In that time I’ve worked on more than 300 projects, most of which were books. To put that in perspective, as of April 2025, the texts I have edited come in at a combined length of more than 22 million words.

Training and qualifications

I take training and continuing professional development very seriously. Here are some of the courses I have completed:

  • An Editor’s Guide to Editing Fiction (Publishing Training Centre), 2021
  • Copyright for Editorial Professionals (Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading), 2020
  • Introduction to Fiction Editing (Society for Editors and Proofreaders), 2019
  • Basic Editing by Distance Learning (PTC), 2018
  • Basic Proofreading: Digital Skills (PTC), 2017
  • Mentoring scheme (SfEP), 2016
  • P2: Proofreading Progress (SfEP), 2015
  • Grammar at Work (PTC), 2015
  • Basic Proofreading by Distance Learning (PTC), 2015

In addition to the above, I have passed the SfEP’s Basic Editorial Test, and I am an Advanced Professional Member of the organisation (now the CIEP), meaning I have demonstrated a high level of professional competence and substantial experience to an expert panel. I now serve as a tutor on the CIEP’s Proofreading Headway and Progress training courses. You can read more about the CIEP here.

When I’m not working

If I’m not editing, I’m likely to be catering to my cat’s latest demand, making my way through my to-be-read pile, walking a dog, or thinking about what to have for dinner. I also spend time riding horses in a very amateur capacity.