I'm a full-service editor for fiction and nonfiction authors. I bring 38 years of experience editing writers for publications and presses, including a specialization in memoirs. My services range from development editing, to line and copy edits, to a devoted proofread of a finished text. I also coach authors. I've polished skills at numerous publishers and periodicals, along with my training in Iowa, seminars at the first Tin House Writing Workshop, and my study with structure master Donald Maass and nonfiction guru Natalie Goldberg.
Full spectrum editing
My complete work experience is listed on LinkedIn. I'm a publishing editor whose background includes managing startup publications, so I can carry an author from book development to press production and into distribution. My Write Stuff newsletter and blog at my website workshopwriter.com keeps hundreds of authors up to date on skills, strategies, and industry news.
Authors who work with me arrive with books in several states, from early or unfinished drafts up to manuscripts in late drafts that need streamlining. I'm a writer's editor, calling on my personal experience publishing both fiction and nonfiction. At the heart of the work with an author, I supply them with improvement, instruction, and correction. The editors who serve an author best are teachers, supplying resources and suggestions to bring a book into the world. It's personal editing with professional results.
I've edited thrillers, mysteries, humor and parody, science fiction, women's fiction, YA and Middle Grade, and a picture book. Nonfiction books include memoirs, psychology and self-help, essay collections, and yoga. Specialization is often useful, yes. The best storytelling goes beyond formula and conventions, embracing structure that might flow from screenplays or the teachings of agent-editors. I'm a wide reader and a former actor with an ear for dialogue and an eye trained on character development.
I call upon current memberships with the American Copy Editing Society, the Author's Guild, the Writer's League of Texas, and Amherst Writers & Artists for writing, editing and training skills. My degree is from the University of Texas, earned on the GI Bill. I volunteer in Austin in literacy work through Austin Bat Cave.
Editing with me includes a thorough review at a story level, as well as a Zoom or phone call of our session where you'll get a transcript — and can even include a video recording where we step through changes and margin notes. I'm fluent in Microsoft Word's tracking and can teach an author to use it, plus I can use Scrivener as a development tool for those who already write inside it.
Some authors benefit from coaching in advance of their editing. I've delivered this complete range of author assistance. References are available on request, and my engagements often begin with a free test edit.