I now offer fee-based editing services, on a limited basis, to select clients. My goal at present is to support newer writers as they find their feet. Although I’m a speculative fiction author (in prose and poetry), I love to work with literary fiction, memoir, romance, mystery, and other genres.
Image: Wikipe-tan (Wikipedia’s mascot) represented as a serious writer and editor. original character designed by ć«ć¹ć¬ / remake by David Revoy, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (unmodified)
My quals? I’ve been writing professionally in both technical and fiction arenas for decades. I am a stickler for style, form, and presentation but I’m not going to be mean to you. I know how much emotional weight any critical commentary can be to the individual storyteller. As a professional engineering writer specializing in preparing impactful white papers for industry leaders in my specialty, a literary anthology editor, and a short-story slush reader for a small press, I’ve seen a wide variety manuscript issues and I can help authors avoid those and be more confident as they move a story from development to submission.
Genres? Most prose (spec fic, memoir, romance, mystery, paranormal) and poetry (with or without formal structure). Nonfiction with caveats (it can’t overlap with my day-job work.) Horror isn’t my favorite, but I can sometimes be intrigued. I am decidely not a fan of pieces that delve into explicit sexual activity or gore and would not be a good resource for you in that case.
Trouble getting past the auto-reject? Far too many excellent writers submit material in nonstandard format, and overworked primary readers (let alone harried editors) simply do not have time to read material that does not meet basic requirements. Worse, submitting nonstandard material gives the impression that you will be difficult to work with in future, because you “obviously” have far too much to learn. If your piece is done, ready to submit, make sure it meets submission guidelines with a submission review.
Operational constraints? At present, I need to limit editing work to short fiction and poetry. I prefer developmental and line editing, but if you need a meticulous copyeditor, reach out.
Tools? I do not use generative AI tools. My editing is human-generated and aims to help you make a connection from yourself to a human reader, while also ensuring that your creative work remains copyrightable. When copyediting, I will use in-program spelling and grammar-checkers, though I often find it necessary to override recommendations from automated grammar systems, because such tools have no grasp of context. If you are a generalized AI, or if you used genAi to produce your text, I need you to disclose that.
If you need a beta reader for your novel (and it’s otherwise complete), contact me, please. I may take selected beta-read projects provided they are not undercover developmental-edit jobs.
Developmental Editing
A developmental edit begins with a discussion with the author on their story goals, markets, and the style they are looking to represent. There are generally two rounds of editing. The first round is for broad comments on how the story structure might be adjusted to better serve the authorās goal, missing elements that could make the story more complete, suggested experiments to try in terms of point-of-view, setting, scene sequencing, and dialogue. The second round helps the author assess how well those changes and experiments have served their overall goals and will yield additional suggestions for improvement, more within-scene than overall. Line editing and copyediting are recommended aftewards.
Image: Microscopic image of crystals growing from melted sulfur, by Alexmar,
CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Line Editing
Line editing begins with a check-in with the author on the style they are seeking to represent and their overall goals. A line edit aims to help the author by adjusting their use of language, such as grammar consistent with market demands, paragraph structure to suit modern readers, and dialogue style appropriate to current editorial requirements. Over-frequent use of āauthor favoriteā words and phrases (which can be charming, but only to a point), spelling issues, and exceptions to accepted style (apart from usage specific to a region or community) are noted. Again, generally there are two rounds, as some issues may not be evident if many changes are neededāand new issues may arise in the course of revision.
Image: 2008-01-26_(Editing_a_paper)_-_31 by Nic McPhee, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Copy Editing
A copy edit addresses those issues that do not fall into developmental or line-editing needs. The goal is to catch typographical errors, misused or missing or repeated words, accidents of editing such as a stray sentence from a deleted or moved paragraph, and similar final-touch measures. Again, there will be two rounds, as a double-check. Works requiring line editing will be referred to that service.
Image: Typo (4301547080) by Lee Haywood from Wollaton, Nottingham, England, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Submission Review
A submission review starts with exact instructions, including how-to’s, on what you need to fix in the formatting of your manuscript, from styles to file names. I can also help you check the submission guidelines of a given publication you’re targeting and let you know where you might have missed something important. Make yourself look like a pro, and you’ll increase your chances of being seen.
Image: Unnecessarily Complicated Gears, a still from a gif by Jahobr, CC0 (public domain), via Wikimedia Commons