Services
I offer editorial support to writers at all stages of the process. I strongly believe that it’s more important for an editor to highlight the author’s unique voice and talent than to enforce specific editorial standards.
I can also assist with shorter-term projects such as short stories, essays, cover letters, and CVs. For more information about my academic editing (applications, dissertations, theses, essays), please visit Scintilla Tutoring and Test Prep here.
My rates depend on the time commitment of your project and the services you request. Please contact me to discuss your project.
Editing Services Include
- Copy-editing
- Proofreading
- Line editing
- Developmental editing
- Book proposals
- Manuscript critiques
Book Proposals and Idea Development
If you’re in the early stages of developing your ideas, I will be your personal sounding board and idea-generator. With regard to works of fiction, this might include developing plot, tackling tone, and fleshing out characters. In the case of nonfiction, we’ll work together as you organize your research and develop your book proposal. I also assist with contacting agents or publishers and writing query letters.
Manuscript Development
If you already have a full or partial manuscript, we’ll work together to bring your next draft to a new level. This might include anything from a single read-through with line edits and detailed notes to close consultation through several drafts. If you’re working on a nonfiction manuscript, I can help with research, transcripts, and the challenges of converting raw information into a compelling story.
The Deadline
If you already have an agent or editor and are working on a deadline, I offer my traditional editing services in conjunction with a disciplined action plan.
I also accept direct referrals from agents and editors.
Additional Services Include
- Query letters
- Synopses
- Private writing coaching
- Editing for businesses and nonprofits (fundraising materials, brochures, reports)
Bad writing does nothing, changes nothing, educates no emotions, rewires no inner circuitry - we close its covers with the same metaphysical confidence in the universality of our own interface as we did when we opened it. But great writing - great writing forces you to submit to its vision. You spend the morning reading Chekhov and in the afternoon, walking through your neighbourhood, the world has turned Chekhovian; the waitress in the cafe offers a non- sequitur, a dog dances in the street.
Zadie Smith
Fail Better
2007
Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them!
Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Atlantic Monthly
December 1866