Sue … or Olivia?

Before you read on, if in fact you’re after my alter ego, Olivia Hayfield, author of historical retellings (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!

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!

Links to profiles:

Wikipedia

Read NZ Writers’ Files

Reedsy.com (editor)

NZ Society of Authors

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