Professional book editing for powerful storytelling
Come on in the Cellar Door!
Unlock your story’s potential with top-notch editing for authors and publishers, both traditional and indie. Behind the Cellar Door, you’ll find an award-nominated book editor and a full range of services tailored to every stage of the revision process.
Cellar Door Editorial specializes in the following genres:
KIDLIT
Picture Books
Middle-Grade Fiction
YA Fiction
Graphic Novels
SPECULATIVE FICTION & ROMANCE
Epic & Urban Fantasy
Soft Science Fiction
Contemporary Romance
Romantasy
CREATIVE NONFICTION
Memoir
Personal Essays
How can I help you prepare your manuscript for publishing?
MANUSCRIPT EVALUATION
A detailed custom report assessing your premise, plot structure, character arcs, and other big-picture narrative elements. You will receive craft-based strategies to elevate your manuscript to its most potent expression.
DEVELOPMENTAL EDITING
Comprehensive scene-by-scene feedback throughout each chapter of your manuscript flagging problems in point of view, plot, pacing, characterization, plausibility, and more—and suggesting solutions to help you better reach your readers.
LINE AND COPY EDITING
A thorough sentence-level edit of your manuscript, sharpening your prose where it’s muddled and making each word count. Typos, grammar errors, inconsistencies, contradictions, needless fluff, and other oopsies will be cleaned up.
QUERY EDITING PLUS
Actionable feedback on your query letter, synopsis, book proposal, first 10–50 pages, and other submission materials. Make an irresistible first impression with a pitch that stands out from the slush pile and makes literary agents swoon.
The Editor Behind the Cellar Door
Hello out there! I’m Laura MacAulay, and I wear many bookworm hats: developmental editor, line editor, copy editor, proofreader. I help authors and publishers craft reader-ready stories that burn brightly, chapter by chapter, word by word.
Since founding Cellar Door Editorial in 2019, I have edited over fifty novels, children’s books, memoirs, personal essays, and short stories. I trained in Toronto Metropolitan University’s Publishing Program and also hold a BFA in Studio Arts and a certificate in English teaching.
Editors Canada describes me as “a brilliant editor” with “a great ear for the rhythm and flow of a sentence” and “a remarkably astute editorial eye.”
Past and current publisher clients include Scholastic Canada, Owlkids Books, FriesenPress, and Episode Interactive (the world’s largest mobile publisher of interactive teen fiction). Before coming to my greatest passion—stories!—I taught English to kids, teens, and adults.
Member of:
“In 25 years of writing, working with Laura has been the most rewarding editorial collaboration I’ve experienced.”
— Joseph Keon, memoirist and author of The Alzheimer’s Revolution
“Laura went above and beyond in bringing my story to life.”
— Susanna Oreskovic, author of Expedition to Mystery Mountain
“I couldn’t have found an editor who gets my characters like Laura does.”
— Naemi Tiana, author of The Lovely One
Portfolio
A sampling of books I have recently edited. For each, I provided both story-level and sentence-level support.
