A middle-aged woman with light skin, blue eyes, and curly light brown hair standing outdoors in front of green foliage, wearing a beige sweater and turquoise earrings.

Hello!

Welcome to my website.

I’m a professional book editor and author, with more than 25 years’ experience in the publishing industry.

Sue … or Olivia?

Before you read on, if in fact you’re after my alter ego, Olivia Hayfield, author of historical retellings and romcoms (and I wouldn’t blame you if you were, she’s far more glamorous than me), then head over to Oliviahayfield.com. But if you’re after Sue Copsey, book editor and children’s author, then read on!

Book cover titled "Wife After Wife" by Olivia Hayfield, featuring a beach scene with champagne glasses, a rose, and a background of a tropical beach with palm trees.
Book cover for "Sister to Sister" by Olivia Hayfield showing two women with red hair in a swimming pool overlooking a city skyline at sunset.
Book cover featuring a woman in a green dress standing on a balcony with a city view.
Book cover for 'Queen, King, Ace' by Olivia Hayfield, referencing King Arthur and Excalibur.
Book cover for 'Tangled with the Wrong Guy' by Olivia Hayfield. Features an illustrated woman and man holding hands with a break in the heart-shaped background, a black cat sitting at the woman's feet, and a Paris skyline silhouette in the background.
Book cover titled "Rescuing Rosie" by Olivia Hayfield. The cover features a broken heart with a blue interior and pink exterior, with two illustrated characters: a smiling blonde woman wearing pink pants, boots, and a pink vest holding a pink water bottle, and a man with a beard dressed in outdoor gear holding a walkie-talkie. There is also a black dog sitting beside the woman against a mountainous background.

Editor

I have extensive experience as both an in-house and freelance editor. I trained at Dorling Kindersley in London, where I was a project editor then senior editor.

Since moving to New Zealand, I have been a freelance editor specialising in children’s/YA fiction, genre fiction, non-fiction (adult/children’s), and educational material. I work with local and international publishers and authors, and have edited more than 300 UK, US and NZ titles.

Author

My writing career began as a press officer at London Zoo. I also wrote a weekly travel and wildlife column for the UK national children’s newspaper The Early Times.

During my time at Dorling Kindersley, I wrote Children Just Like Me, which was an international bestseller and won several awards.

In New Zealand, Our Children Aotearoa (Pearson) was published in 2011, followed by my first children’s novel, The Ghosts of Young Nick’s Head. The sequel, The Ghosts of Tarawera, received a Storylines Notable Book Award, and the third in the series, The Ghosts of Moonlight Creek, was a finalist in the Sir Julius Vogel Awards in the Best Youth Novel category.

In 2020, my first adult novel, Wife After Wife, a modern retelling of the story of King Henry VIII and his six wives, was published by Penguin Random House in New York, Little Brown UK, and Hachette Aus/NZ. This was followed by Sister to Sister (2021), Notorious (2022), and Queen, King, Ace (2024).

If you’d like to find out about my editing services or my books, please head to the menu bar. Thanks for visiting!

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The cover of a children's book titled "When Bo Bimble Went Elsewhere" shows a person and a green bird sitting on a beach, facing a body of water (Milford Sound, New Zealand) with mountains and a full moon in the background.
A book cover titled 'The Ghosts of Young Nick's Head' by Sue Copsey features a spooky, rainy night scene with a full moon partially obscured by clouds, a large old house on a cliff, and rain falling over the scene.
Book cover featuring an erupting volcano with lava and smoke, surrounded by silhouetted ferns, with the title 'The Ghosts of Tarawera' and the author's name, Sue Copsey. The top text says, 'A haunting tale that erupts into adventure!'.
Book cover for 'The Ghosts of Moonlight Creek' by Sue Copsey, showing a full moon, dark twisted trees, and a creek reflecting the moonlight in a spooky night scene.
Cover of a book titled 'Our Children Aotearoa' by Sue Copsey. The cover features five diverse children, some smiling and one wearing ski goggles, with a statue and a drum in the background.
Cover of a book titled 'Children Just Like Me' featuring a smiling child in a colorful cloak and a display of diverse children in traditional clothing from around the world.