Editors

Deanna Brady is a highly versatile freelance writer and editor with more than two decades of experience. Known as an "editor's editor," she ghostwrites, rewrites, develops, and copyedits a wide range of material, including self-help/how-to books, novels (both literary and genre fiction), creative nonfiction, biographies/memoirs, proposals, cover and query letters, articles, essays, scripts, business communications, and Web content. She has written and edited marketing and advertising copy for Fortune 500 companies and is adept at editing ESL and translated text, as well as scientific/technical material. In addition, she specializes in projects concerning spirituality, ecology, Native American Indian culture, psychology, allopathic and complementary medicine, and health, and she particularly enjoys working with& fantasy, science fiction, historical, romance, adventure, mystery, and young adult literature.

Deanna spent more than a decade as a magazine editor. She also taught at California State University for a dozen years, has written several children's textbooks, and is an award-winning author of short fiction and poetry. Her many happy clients greatly appreciate her expertise, gentle guidance, and ability to preserve their individual voices and help make their manuscripts shine.

more

The award-winning writing of KAREN DAVIS prompted one of many loyal clients to call her his "secret weapon in attaining communications supremacy." She earned magna cum laude degrees in English and history and world-class journalism credentials from the London Times and Regional Newspapers. Since 1976 she has been an international correspondent and author of hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles; publishing house editor (several books won American Library Association Outstanding Reference Source awards); acclaimed advertising writer (First Place in the Pacific Northwest, direct mail campaign) and technical writer ($10,000 First Place in North America, engineering paper); director of publications and marketing; author of style manuals; university lecturer in writing; and published lyricist and poet. She brings clarity and conciseness to confusing language and organization to chaos..

• Copy Editing & proofreading
• Technical editing
• Business, marketing, and advertising writing
• Screenplays
• Journalism and reporting
• Writing instruction
• Fiction: historical, mainstream, literary
• Nonfiction: history, creative, literary, business

"You are a magician with language. The ms. reads much better now, which is amazing because it had already been revised at least thirty times and professionally edited. I've learned a great deal from you and it's been a pleasure working with someone so pleasant, extremely talented, and knowledgeable.... Now I don't think I'd want my agent to see anything you haven't seen first! Thank you for doing such a marvelous job. Don't be surprised if you get some referrals. You're brilliant."— Linda Dennis Richmond, author

More >>

CAROL HEGBERG is an internationally published, award-winning writer and content editor. Her novel is entitled Pen Pals. Her poetry, scripts, short stories, and articles have been published in many magazines and books. Carol knows the endurance, tenacity, and patience a writer must possess to become published. Beginning writers, published authors, agents with needy clients, and publishers who need developmental editing for their writers use her services. She helps rewrite speeches, short stories or collections, articles, essays, and manuscripts. She helps develop inspirational, Christian, and picture-book manuscripts, children and young-adult fiction and nonfiction. She's available for writing help with manuscript submissions, query letters, and book proposals.

• Developmental editing, rewriting, mentoring
• Juvenile & young adult fiction/nonfiction, Christian topics

"Carol breathed life into my top-selling children's story with her wonderful way with words." Nancy S. Mure, author of Irregular Joe

Read How To Write a Non-fiction Book Proposal.

Read The Little Problems that Count in Writing.

For more information about Carol Hegberg, read her self-interview.

More >>

STAVRA KETCHMARK has edited more than 200 fiction titles while working for major publishing houses, as well as numerous medical, technical, and scientific trade, academic, and professional titles. She specializes in a variety of fiction genres, including romance, historical, mystery, suspense, crime, horror, fantasy, science fiction, and young adult. Her nonfiction specialties include all medical disciplines, nursing, allied health, alternative health, political science/politics, history, journalism, religion, parenting, and cooking.

Stavra has also helped a broad range of corporate clients fine-tune their annual reports, advertisements, websites, and other marketing materials to achieve the image they are seeking.

Her edited manuscripts have been published by Wadsworth, Mosby, Signet, Roc, NAL Trade, Thompson Delmar Learning, and Onyx.

• Developmental editing
• Line editing
• Rewriting
• Copyediting, proofreading
• Critiques
• Submission materials (query letters, synopses, cover letters)
• Fiction: romance, historical, mystery, suspense, crime, horror, fantasy, science fiction, literary
• Nonfiction: Medical, nursing, alternative health, politics, history, journalism, religion/spiritual, parenting, business, cooking

"Simply put, Stavra is a PRO! She has been editing my work for over a year and I find her professional, accurate and easy to work with. Quite frankly, I don't know what I would do without her." —John Bishop, Executive Director, Accent On Success, www.TeachingMoments.com

More >>

Pulse-pounding high adventure, painstaking attention to detail, carefully drawn characters who step off the page and into your life ...
STEPHEN and ANNE MacEACHERN are the authors of over 81 internationally published novels (with sales in the tens of millions of copies) and numerous short stories. As a science fiction author, Stephen is best known for his postapocalyptic series, The Survivalist. Their books have been published in English (USA, Canada, Great Britain), French, Japanese, Spanish, German, Serbo-Croatian, Russian, and Portuguese, as general fiction, adventure, and science fiction and fantasy. They were commissioned by Dino DeLaurentiis to write two screenplays (unproduced). Their Horror Writers Award nominated short story, “Silent Pace,” was twice optioned as a film property and—the third time the possible charm—they have just inked another option deal for this property. Stephen has also written over a thousand articles, columns, features, and interviews for magazines and newspapers. He is considered a leading expert on concealed-carry techniques, personal small arms, and personal-edged weapons. He has lectured extensively before general audiences, police, civic and writing groups on these and various other topics. His articles have appeared in magazines such as Gun World, Satellite Orbit, Writer’s Digest and over 20 more.  

As book editors, they look at the book as a whole and as a series of inter-related parts. It’s not uncommon for a writer to be strong in one area (e.g., character development) and weaker in another (e.g., setting).

• Is the hook at the beginning?
• Is the action shown/lived rather than told?
• Is the dialogue realistic?
• Is each character's motivation logical?
• Are you engaging the senses?
• Is the point of view consistent and clear to the reader?
• Is the plot moving well or do you have places that drag?
• Does each chapter end with a page turner?

The MacEacherns' goal is the same as the writer's: to get the manuscript inside the publisher's door and to get the royalty check in the writer's hands.

When they are not editing books, writing books or writing magazine articles, they are reading books, from biography to science fiction and everything in between. They have interacted with some of America’s most well-known authors and been published with many of New York’s top houses. They’ve been around the block, you might say—but always with a book!  

Specialties: science fiction and fantasy, action/military/adventure, speculative fiction, thrillers/espionage, horror/vampires, detective/crime.

More >>

JAMES POWELL is "a good literary surgeon," as one of his accomplished clients noted. As an editor of fiction and non-fiction, he views manuscripts with a broad, comprehensive vision and an eye for detail-for "the right word in the right place." Powell's editors will tell you that his books need no editing, as Powell is, himself, an editor. He will read your fiction with an eye to making it believable and your non-fiction with a knack for making it both convincing and engaging. His books and short stories have been translated into many languages and are known throughout the world. His list of publications includes The Tao of Symbols (Morrow 1982), Energy and Eros (Morrow 1985), The Prentice Hall Global Employment Guide (Prentice Hall 1983), Mandalas: The Dynamics of Vedic Symbolism (Sterling 1980), Derrida for Beginners (Writers and Readers 1996), Postmodernism for Beginners (Writers and Readers 1998), Eastern Philosophy for Beginners (2000), and Deconstruction for Beginners (2005), and Slow Love: A Polynesian Pillow Book (2008). His short story "The Silence of the Hummingbird" was published in Spanish in Revista Katharsis in Malaga, Spain and his journalism has appeared in the Santa Barbara Independent and Montecito Journal.

• Books, memoirs, theses, and dissertations
• APA and MLA formats

"The turnaround time was excellent. The work was fabulous!!" Nova University student.

"His editing really streamlined my ideas. Mr. Powell's service offered much needed support."

More >>