FAQ

  • Yes! I love working with first-timers!

  • Book a consultation. We’ll chat about your needs and experience working with an editor and your plans for publication (trad or indie or for personal use only). If I can, I’ll make a recommendation during our chat, otherwise I’ll ask to see a portion of your manuscript to make a better suggestion.

  • For a novel-length manuscript (75,000 – 90,000 words), for a developmental edit or line edit, about four weeks. If your manuscript is significantly longer, or contains a lot of errors, I’ll take longer but typically no more than six weeks.

  • Hopeful and scary is what my clients tell me. Hopeful because they can see how much better their work can be. Scary because they feel like they have a lot of work to do.

    We’ll chat in person or over Zoom so you can get to know me. After that, most of our communication will be over email and on your manuscript or editor letter.

    You email me your manuscript, and I use Microsoft Word’s Track Changes and Comments features to make suggestions. Suggestions include inline changes to fix dialog punctuation or to suggest a different wording and comments (or the editor letter) to describe a problem or inconsistency I see and suggestions for addressing that. In the early pages of your manuscript, I will leave a lot of comments explaining why I’m making a particular suggestion.

    While I work hard to preserve your voice when I make my suggestions, sometimes they may not sit right with you. And that’s OK. At the end of the day, my suggestions are just that: suggestions. You have final say on whether you accept or reject any of those suggestions. My feelings won’t get hurt. And if you agree there’s a problem but don’t agree on my suggested solution, then reach out and we’ll brainstorm something better.

  • Sure! If you live around Nashville and want to get a cuppa, I’m up for it!

  • My first loves are fantasy and science fiction, including dystopian, urban fantasy, and speculative fiction that doesn’t stray into horror. I also edit romance, young adult, and new adult.

    On the nonfiction side, I edit memoir, autobiography, and self-help.

  • A lot.

    But… “mess” means different things to different people. Is your timeline all over the place? Did you change the description of your main character halfway through writing? Are you worried about whether your red herrings are misleading enough or your MacGuffin is compelling enough? Do you struggle with spelling and grammar?

    It may take more than one editing pass to really whip your manuscript into shape. I’ll work with you to identify your particular type of mess and make recommendations on the type of service you need.

  • Nope. Not even a little bit. Sometimes my suggestions will resonate with you and sometimes they may feel wildly off base. In the latter case, I always hope my suggestions spur your thinking to come up with something even better.

    I study your work and ask questions if I can’t figure out where I think you’re going. I try to offer alternate suggestions. I always respect your voice. Because of that, I do tend to get a lot of feedback along the lines of, “I accepted 90% - 95% of your suggestions.”

  • Sure! But… I do require a nonrefundable deposit to reserve my time.

    If you do not yet have a consistent writing practice to use to estimate when you’ll finish, but you still want the accountability of a deadline, I recommend you look at my coaching services.

  • No. No no no no no. Voice is one of those ineffable things agents and readers are looking for. It is one of the strongest things that separates your writing from someone else’s.

    If you are new to writing, or you are writing in a new genre, your voice may not be fully formed yet and I will make suggestions to get that voice to gel, but I never ever ever want to change your voice.

    Also: any suggestions I make are just suggestions. You are ALWAYS able to reject anything you don’t like.

  • Absolutely. Zoom, Teams, FaceTime, carrier pigeon. We can work it out.

  • Sure! Using your spell checker helps A LOT with true misspelled words. I help with words that sound alike but mean different things (there, they’re, their). I also help with words that are spelled correctly but are the wrong word for the context. (Interestingly, there is a common misspelling of definitely that has Word autocorrecting it to defiantly.)

    When I notice a lot of the same type of grammatical error (dialog punctuation is a big problem for a lot of people), then I provide guidance to help you learn what’s supposed to be going on.

  • The only thing I care about is that you send me a Microsoft Word document. I’m not fussy about how you format it (font sizes and margins and such). I may make changes to that formatting to make it easier for me to read, but I also change it back before I return it to you.

  • I will work you in based on my current schedule. I can’t guarantee how quickly I’ll be able to do so as that will depend on how man people reserved their time before you.

  • Absolutely. I create spreadsheets and timelines and custom Word dictionaries and sometimes even tally sheets. I track character and location descriptions and names, timelines, seasons, how many of what finite item has been used, the current status of characters and locations (especially useful when you switch between POV characters), what new vocabulary you’ve made up, magic systems, fighting systems, ship strength...

    If it affects your story, I generally track it somewhere, and that allows me to spot continuity errors.