About me

I am a freelance editor with a background in trade publishing, having worked as an editor for non-fiction at Oneworld, an award-winning independent publisher based in London. As a freelancer, I have worked with publishers and authors, both published and unpublished, for almost ten years on a wide variety of books, ranging from history to popular science in non-fiction, and from crime to literary fiction. Whatever the project, my aim is always to help ensure that it ends up being the best possible version of itself. So whether you’re looking for general editorial feedback, developmental editing, line editing, copy-editing, proofreading, or some combination of these – or if you’re not exactly sure what you need to do next – please email me at jon@jonbentleysmith.com.

Testimonials

‘If you think your work is done when you put a full stop to the manuscript you have been working on and proudly send it off to your publisher, you are in for a surprise. The text that you have read and re-read, and know almost by heart, still contains numerous small and big errors and omissions that you will not be able to pick up, even if you were to read it again and again. I have been fortunate to work with Jon for some three years. He is exceptional in what he does – hawk-eyed, consistent, and rigorous. The slightest misspelt word, awkward punctuation, lack of clarity, grammatical slip-up, inconsistency, and incomprehensible sentence is picked up and redressed. If you wish for a clean and immaculate text, he is your man.’

ALI RAHNEMA, PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF ECONOMICS, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF PARIS

‘In sum, my book would not be as enjoyable to read if it were not for my copy-editor, Jon Bentley-Smith. Jon was responsive throughout the process – at the beginning when I was figuring out whether he was a good fit and when he was figuring out what kind of edits my text needed. Once we had decided to work together, he told me his timeline and he kept to those deadlines. He was also happy to answer any questions I had about his edits to my manuscript. All in all, I could not be happier with his work.’

MARIA BACH, UNIVERSITY OF LAUSANNE