My Writing Matters

admin

  • Karen Vermeulen

    Book Cover Design
    Print Layout
    Illustration
    Teaching Illustration, Design and Creative Thinking

    I’m an award-winning illustrator, art director, and designer with over 20 years of experience. I’m also a published author, so I know the industry from both sides. I can help you with your book cover from concept to print-ready file, provide book mockups, design marketing materials, illustrate and design kids’ picture books, or teach you to do it yourself! I have over a hundred 5-star reviews on Google because, when it comes to my work, I’m a perfectionist who loves what I do!

    Preferred genres: Kid’s picture books, fiction, memoir, genre fiction, mystery and thrillers, African literature, romance, humour, YA, and middle school.

    Contact Karen at hello@karenvermeulen.com

    Karen’s Website with portfolio & contact form
    Karen’s Instagram

  • Kim Mathurine

    Book Cover Design
    Print Layout

    I’m a print designer with over 20 years experience in graphic design, both in an agency and freelance setting. My speciality is in print publications, logo design, annual reports, magazines and book design, with a strong passion for all things typographic.

    Contact Kim at: printdesignerza@gmail.com

    Portfolio link available on request.

  • Sigrid (Sirith) Kenmuir

    Proofreading
    Copy Editing
    With a focus on marketing materials

    My speciality is marketing materials. I’ve been a writer in marketing for most of my career and am really good at putting together the email streams, flyers, and other marketing material for anything that has to be sold.
    I’ve been a writer for business for the better part of 20 years. I’ve written, edited, proofread, and published 1000s of articles, social media captions, email newsletters, sales funnels, and all the marketing paraphernalia of businesses all over the world. From non-profits to global digital agencies, veterinary compounding to wine estates and travel, I can work with it. I’d LOVE to help you get your book to the publishers, polished and as perfect as possible. My aim is never to standardise or erase voice, but to smooth out and remove errors and inconsistencies. The ADHD pattern recognition is strong in me!

    Preferred Genre: I read mostly fantasy & science fiction, but can and will edit and proof any genre at all.

    Contact Sigrid at: skenmuir@gmail.com

    Sigrid’s website

  • Daniël Hugo

    Illustration

    Daniël Hugo is a freelance illustrator and artist from Cape Town and has been part of the comix scene in South Africa since the early 2000s. Apart from book covers, his illustrations and comix have appeared in a few independent and underground anthologies, most recently The Interpreters: South Africa’s New Nonfiction, edited by Sean Christie and Hedley Twidle. He is currently working on a series of self-published, silent comix set in a dream version of South Africa.

    Preferred Genres: Sci-fi, Fantasy, Horror

    Contact Daniël at danhugo75@gmail.com

    Daniël’s Website
    Daniël’s Instagram: @DanielHugoIllustration

  • Masha du Toit

    Ebook Formatting

    Masha du Toit is a writer of Science Fiction and Fantasy, living in Cape Town, South Africa. They specialize in converting manuscripts into elegant, future-proof ebook files compatible with all platforms and reading devices.

    Contact Masha at: masha.dutoit@gmail.com

    Elegant Book Formatting site

  • Nerine Dorman

    Reader’s Reports
    Editing
    Writing Coach

    Nerine Dorman is a South African author and editor of science fiction and fantasy currently living in Cape Town, with short fiction published in numerous anthologies. She is a contributor to the Locus Award-winning Afro-Centered Futurism in Our Speculative Fiction edited by Eugen Bacon (Bloomsbury, 2024), which was also the winner of the 2025 Ignyte Award for Outstanding Creative Nonfiction. Her novel Sing down the Stars won Gold for the Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature in 2019 and The Percy Fitzpatrick Award for Children’s and Youth Literature in 2021. Her YA fantasy novella, Dragon Forged, was a finalist in the Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature in 2017, and she is the curator of the South African Horrorfest Bloody Parchment event and short story competition. Her short story “On the Other Side of the Sea” (Omenana, 2017) was shortlisted for a 2018 Nommo award. Her novella The Firebird won a Nommo for “Best Novella” in 2019. In addition, she is a founding member of the SFF authors’ co-operative Skolion.

    While she will take on select non-fiction works, her primary focus remains on commercial fiction, with a preference for science fiction, fantasy, horror, romance, erotica, and historical fiction. She is proudly LBGTI friendly, and will also take on short story collections, provided they are supplied in one document.

    Preferred genres: Speculative Fiction, Romance and Historical, LGBTI+ friendly. No religious, memoir or inspirational.

    Contact Nerine at: nerinedorman@gmail.com

  • Alexandra Dodd

    Reader’s Reports
    Fact Checking
    Proofreading
    Developmental Editing
    Copy Editing
    Guidance & Input on Book Cover Design

    I am a multi-genre writer, editor, and researcher.
    I have contributed texts to numerous books, art catalogues, monographs, and
    exhibition projects that bring together visual, literary, and archival
    cultures—particularly in ‘post’-colonial, ‘post’-Apartheid, and ‘post’-traumatic
    contexts. These include The Interpreters: South Africa’s New Non-fiction (Soutie
    Press, 2025); Johannes Phokela: Only Sun in the Sky Knows How I Feel (A Lucid
    Dream) (Zeitz MOCAA, 2023) and An Anthology of Non-Conformism: Rebel Wom!n,
    Words, Ways, and Wonders     (DIO Press, 2024).
    I am the author of David Goldblatt: The Last Interview (Steidl, 2019), the editor of
    Nicola Brandt’s The Distance Within (Steidl, 2025), and a co-editor of Stockholm
    Cosmologies     (Liljevalchs, 2025) and Radical Solidarity: A Reader (Zeitz MOCAA,
    2023), among others.
    I’ve edited numerous novels, memoirs, non-fiction essay collections, and academic
    journals. I excel in structural and non-mother-tongue English language editing. As a vegan, I’m inspired by speculative fiction and narrative-led culture change.
    I hold a Bachelor of Journalism from Rhodes University, a Master of Arts (Creative
    Writing) from Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, and a PhD (Literature) from the University of Cape Town.

    Preferred genres: Narrative non-fiction, Novels, and Memoirs with an essayistic, philosophical, or speculative bent.

    Contact Alexandra at thisalexandradodd@gmail.com

    Alexandra’s Instagram: @thisalexandradodd
    Alexandra’s LinkedIn

  • Anoshi Saretzki

    Reader’s Reports
    Proofreading
    Developmental Editing
    Copy Editing
    Ebook Formatting
    Print Layout
    Illustration
    Manuscript Critique
    Writing Coach

    Anoshi Saretzki is a published YA fantasy novelist with 20 years’ experience shaping stories – from long- and short-form corporate brand narratives to full-length fiction. Combines professional editing expertise with hands-on publishing experience, offering authors practical guidance from first draft through publication and launch – including manuscript critique, writing coaching, developmental/structural editing, line editing, copy editing, proofreading, novel layout and publishing production and launch support.

    Preferred genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Adventure, Contemporary Fantasy

    Contact Anoshi at: anoshi.saretzki@gmail.com
    Anoshi’s website

    Anoshi’s Instagram

  • schadefox

    Book Cover Design
    Ebook Formatting
    Print Layout
    Illustration

    Children’s book illustrator and Book designer with a fun art style and a love for educational or rhyming stories.

    Preferred Genres: Children’s Literature

    Contact at: schadefox@gmail.com

    schadefox’s site

  • Lynn Schwartz

    Proofreading

    Lynn is a seasoned subeditor from Cape Town who’s worked in the newspaper and magazine industries (both print and digital, local and national) for more than two decades. In recent years she’s had the privilege of proofreading fiction manuscripts across romance and fantasy and is keen to branch out into other genres. She’s also a published poet, with works published in several South African anthologies. “Words are my first love, my passion. Whether I’m sculpting and polishing them for newspapers, magazines or any other form of publishing, this is where I’m in my element. I take pleasure in getting the written word to shine.”

    Contact Lynn at: lynnely24@gmail.com