It was like removing layers of crumpled brown paper from an awkwardly shaped parcel,
and revealing the attractive present which it contained.
—Diana Athill
Editorial Services…
Developmental Editing
content editing + structural rework
Manuscript Consult/Coaching
tailored to wherever you are in the process
Project Management
part and parcel of any project
My process…
Whether as a coach or an editor, I mastermind a process full of time to brainstorm and test out ideas with clear manageable jobs between us. I help you see what’s not on the page (and should be) and instill a method of only keeping the good stuff.
My focus is on getting your project ready for prime time as well as helping you breath into and through the process. Together, we get your manuscript—and your confidence—to its apex.
Fear not, I get you!
I am an editor, yes, but I am also a writer, so I know what it’s like on both sides of the red pencil. Writing can feel like a solitary business, but you are not alone. Whether you need a partner to get your manuscript out of your head, a coach to guide you chapter by chapter, or an editor to smooth out a fully formed offering, let me meet you where you are. I know what makes a good book, and can translate the publishing world while propelling you into the process ahead.
Cookbooks
Recipes tend to have an origin story. I am keen on teasing out this tale and then connecting a creative headnote to clear directions so a reader-baker can replicate the entire experience for themselves.
Big Blue
My people are bakers. Meaning that I can choose from an abundance of time-honored family recipes to fulfill my frequent desire for baked goods. Yet, the ribbon of this blue book-clothed bestseller remains forever placed to mark the peerless Zucchini Bread with Crème Fraiche within.
Picture Books
My first love: illustrated picture books. Be they quirky, beautiful, or full of heart, the individual little worlds of this wide-ranging stack set me on a path to do what I do across sensibilities: specialize in the writing and editing of words for use within any highly designed interactive layout.
Rocky III
Away from the bright lights of NYC for the first time, nine-year-old Rockwell Kent III is captured in a fictionalized account of his real-life adventure in the wilderness of Alaska a hundred years ago, visually depicted through vivid and whimsical scratchboard illustrations.
Passion Projects
Be they memoir or biography, poetry or a lifetime’s obsession, passion projects require equal parts curiosity, compassion, and knowing when to say “cut the cord” lest the book never get printed. All worth it when you hold that finished book in your hands.
Ted Talk
This wise man’s creative logic finds me at opportune moments to help me do what he did best—fix things. He and I put this collection of his poems and stories together when he was still alive, before I knew the crush of the great oak tree fallen on the landscape. A sampling for your edification:
Two ways to get better:
1. Do things better.
2. Do better things.
How-to Books
Gorgeous how-to books and inspiring journals were a natural Act 2 for me after years of writing and editing interactive kids books. Making things with your own hands and using the written word to inspire self-actualization are two of life’s great revelations.
Sew Happy
That time when a picture book author is also a craft book author and you get to work with her again, witnessing her creativity while learning more about the stories that motivated her to take pen to paper and scissors to fabric in the first place.
