Support Services

Pluto Q is a Glasgow-based Community Interest Company providing specialist writing support to neurodivergent and/or disabled individuals. We offer editing, proofreading, and “Witchwriting” (our ethical alternative to ghostwriting) to writers facing barriers to publication and professional practice, and to creatives of all stripes who write as part of their work – whether that be applications, cover letters, or project monitoring reports.

We are here to help you to understand questions and interpret guidance notes, to frame your responses and articulate them clearly and concisely, and to proofread completed text to the highest standards.

We are a non-profit organisation – meaning all of our revenue goes into the delivery and expansion of our services and mission. Our Community Reading Room venue, our publishing strand, our open support work drop-ins, and our free manuscript review offerings are all funded via our paid services.

Meeting the Costs

There are a number of initiatives that allow people to pay for this kind of support work.

The government Access to Work scheme provides grants to offer practical support to people with disabilities or health conditions, and if you are self-employed, this can absolutely cover support to secure project funding, commissions, or other sources of income.

Major funding bodies such as Creative Scotland and the National Lottery Community & Heritage funds have resources available to support individuals to complete applications, which can include covering reasonable support worker costs.

In addition to these schemes, we offer a free support work drop-in every Friday afternoon 1pm-3pm and every Sunday morning 10am – 12pm at the Community Reading Room on Albert Road, Govanhill. Our drop-in programme begins Friday 13th September 2024.

We offer a three-stage editing process to help you make your manuscript the best that it can be. Most manuscripts will benefit from undergoing all three stages, but you are free to choose which elements are right for your project.

Stage 1: Developmental Edit – £250

Stage 2: Line Edit – £0.05 per word

Stage 3: Proofreading – £0.02 per word

For Developmental Edits, we specialise in picture books, children’s literature, poetry, and atypical text-based forms such as oral storytelling and video and tabletop games.

Our team of Copy Editors are able to accept written text in any genre and of any length for Line Editing and Proofreading.

In addition to these paid services, we review a certain number of manuscripts per month free of charge – exclusively by Scotland-based writers with lived experience of marginalisation.

If you would like to make use of our editorial services, please contact us to discuss your needs.

Witchwriting

Witchwriting is the term we have coined to describe ethical and inclusion-driven alternatives to ghostwriting. While Ghostwriters act invisibly in the background, a Witchwriter engages with you one-to-one to find the exact magical concoction of support that is right for your needs.

We understand these practices as a vital genre of Support Work that can allow writers who are neurodivergent and/or have a learning disability to realise their ideas in defiance of the barriers that so often prevent them from doing so.

Witchwriting services include:

1. Scribing

2. Body doubling

3. Project coaching

4. Support to develop, frame, and articulate your original ideas in writing.