Editors

Sarah Anderson

SARAH ANDERSON is a freelance editor and writer, experienced in fiction and nonfiction. Her work has been called outstanding, and she was solely responsible for editing the three most successful romances published by Banbury Books and distributed by Dell. Her recent nonfiction projects include A Loving Guide to These Shifting Times and Biography of A Time Traveler: the Man behind the 2012 Phenomenon. Recent fiction projects include The Apprentice and Sisters of War. Sarah is an acknowledged contributor to The Wisdom of The Enneagram, published by Bantam. She has self-published a relationships handbook, Relationships Made Easy: How to get along with all kinds of people, and has written articles on the psychology of personality.

Clients are particularly impressed by her ability to make their text sparkle while maintaining their voice. She is flexible, personable, and highly proficient. As one client noted,

Sarah is clearly a gifted, disciplined editor. It was obvious that she took great care to preserve my voice, and not to change meaning when structure needed adjusting. Her art is subtle – at first glance, I wondered what she'd done . . . but the changes added power, conviction, and flow to my thoughts. I am so glad I found my way to Sarah!

Specialties:

• Copyediting
• Line editing
• Rewriting
• Developmental editing

Genres: women’s fiction, literary fiction, memoir, biographies, religion, new age, spirituality, inspiration, self-help, how-to

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DEANNA H. 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.

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ALICE DAY has been an editor since 1988. After earning a graduate degree in creative writing at Brown University, she has worked at the book publishers Henry Holt and Company and Carroll & Graf Publishers. Writer Don Smith, whose awards include 19 regional Emmys, said of Alice Day, "She's the kind of editor every writer should be so lucky to have." Alice Day is an award-winning writer with four collections of poetry and a novel that have been published by nationally-recognized publishing houses. Kathleen Wakefield, whose novella won the 2008 Cleveland State University novella contest, said "that [Alice] has been an editor at a major New York publishing house gives her insight into that complicated world; that she is a poet, I believe, gives her the sensitivity to find the beauty of a writer's individual work." Alice Day has the skill and experience to focus on a writer's vision and help the writer realize it. She's a hands-on editor who's not afraid to cut words and offer insights. And she has a poet's sensitivity to language.

Fiction editing specialist
Fiction editor for numerous award-winning authors--Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, and the PEN/Faulkner Award--and first-time novelists.
She does detailed manuscript evaluations, as well as developmental/substantive editing, and is also a skilled copy editor.

Her fiction specialties include short stories, novellas, literary fiction, historical fiction, commercial fiction, women's fiction, chick lit, thrillers, mysteries, and detective/crime novels.

"After researching many, many book editors, I chose Alice because I was impressed with her extensive list of accomplishments, both as an editor with top publishing houses and as a poet and author in her own right. [That she] actually managed to exceed my (already sky-high) expectations was quite a feat! She took a manuscript that had completely gone off the rails in terms of pacing and focus, and put it squarely back on track – somehow she was able to see through all the extraneous, meandering subplots and envision the work as it was meant to be. As my editor, Alice not only extracted (read: rescued) the core story from its runaway cast of supporting characters and sub motifs, but went on to cultivate the roots of that core story until it transformed into a road map of the simply but poignantly plotted, character-driven literary novel I had sat down to write more than two years before. In addition to several such fundamental plot fixes, Alice also provided a meticulous list, complete with page numbers, of every chronological inconsistency, every mix-up of a character’s name or background, and every oversight in which I had unintentionally and prematurely revealed plot twists and other information to the reader. I was blown away by how thoroughly she knew every detail of each and every character and minor event of the novel inside out, in just two weeks – in this way too, she had become more versed in my own novel than I was at that time. Throughout the editing process, Alice was very generous and patient with me in answering my millions of questions about her invaluable feedback and suggestions. I feel confident that I’ll not only be able to rewrite the novel in accordance with the new, cogent outline Alice helped me create, but also, to use this restructuring to push the narrative, and the writing, to its fullest literary potential."
- - Carrie Wharton-Hanford, first-time novelist

"As a novice, writing my first novel, I was amazed by Alice's ability to visualize my entire novel and make succinct comments that were specific to a particular sentence while referring to the structure and narrative of the entire work."
--Erik R. Brown, first-time novelist

"Alice is very professional, knows writing, knows the business. I hope she’s available for my next project. I not only received a professional editing of my piece, but peace of mind as well."” - Barbara Wade

"Alice Day is a clever, intelligent, thoughtful, and thorough editor. She is nurturing yet highly professional, with keen eyes and ears. She hones in on the heart and matter and delivers the goods…a goldmine for any writer."
--Taylor Barton, author of Hotheaded Saints and lyricist

"Alice Day is a joy to work with and someone I recommend most highly to other writers. She is a skillful, sensitive editor with excellent judgment and tremendous respect for an author's voice. Whether she's commenting on the overall arc of a story or zeroing in on a specific phrase or line of dialogue, her comments are always insightful and instructive."
--Amanda Filipacchi, author of Nude Men and Vapor

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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.

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MARK ORRIN, M.A., Johns Hopkins (Teaching Fellow, 1971), has authored ten published books, scores of articles and poems, and taught writing on college and university levels. A seasoned publications editor, he has also mentored numerous successful American and international authors and poets. During a career in fund raising, Mark was considered one of America's leading copywriters, copy chiefs and creative/strategic consultants. He has been listed in Who's Who In the West, Who's Who In America, Who's Who In Entertainment and The Dictionary of International Biography.

• Ghostwriting, mentoring, developmental editing, line editing
• Manuscript critiques and evaluations
• Book proposals
• "Self-agenting" your book
• Fiction: science fiction, fantasy, sword-and-sorcery, Westerns, mysteries, adolescent and children's books, action-suspense
• Non-fiction: memoirs, inspirational, public issues, self-help.

"Throughout our work and rework on my manuscript, Mark was encouraging and kind, and he never made me feel like the rookie I am (was). He never left me feeling like he knew more about the publishing industry than I did — he just continued to teach me in an incredibly thoughtful and gentle way, fine-tuning my work and imploring me to be the best I could be. ... At the moment there are ten agencies and two publishers who have responded favorably to my query (which you taught me how to write, I might add) about my novel. " – Gary Kaschak

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