Ghostwriting & Manuscript Development, Book Cover Design, Self-Publishing/Print-On-Demand Consultant
Ghostwriting, collaborative writing, and developmental restructuring for the following subject categories:
Art: As a lifetime artist (oil painting, drawing, graphic design, and photography), I have a deep appreciation for art, the art world, aesthetic philosophy, and creativity. I have had shows in France, Brazil, Vermont, and Pennsylvania. I am also a lifelong student of communications media and media technologies (old, new, and emerging media tools).
Business: I have written strategy plans, business continuity plans, marketing plans, and various kinds of sales copy and proposals. My corporate clients include: Merck, The Vanguard Group, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Unisys, Devon Consulting, Lumina Americas, The Franklin Mint, The Devereux Foundation, and many others.
Ethnic / Culture/ Sociology: Special focus on social psychology and cultural change.
Nonfiction (general): Special focus on new ideas, philosophy, media, and social change.
Politics / Government: Special focus on international and public affairs.
Religion / New Age / Spirituality / Inspirational: I am interested in books that explore the relationship between consciousness change and social change and have studied all major religions extensively.
Science / Medical: I edited two substantial medical monographs, The Acid Monograph and The H2 Receptor Anthology, and wrote the Chemistry and Manufacturing Control section of the New Drug Application for Modafinil (Provigil). I also wrote several software and system development documents related to pharmaceuticals and healthcare procedures.
Self Help / How-To: I have written many technical manuals, such as software user guides and other how-to descriptions. I also have a deep interest in psychological self-help works.
Technical / Computers/ IT: I worked as a technical writer/ business analyst/ project manager in the IT field for many years and have written over 200 book-length technical and business documents. I have developed strong modeling and diagraming skills.
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!
Award-winning writer and editor H. L. BELL is committed to helping other writers make their work the best it can possibly be. Intimately familiar with the thrills and insecurities of the writing process, she empathizes and works especially well with other writers. Clients have praised her as an editor with an engaging manner, a meticulous attention to detail, and a consummate skill with language.
She has edited a broad range of acclaimed fiction and nonfiction titles, including Bonnie Jo Campbell’s American Salvage, finalist for the 2009 National Book Award in fiction. Her own fiction and book reviews have appeared in Jane, Salon,The Women’s Review of Books, and the Chicago Reader.
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.
D.J. BRUNO works closely with authors to develop, liven, and perfect their books and articles. She provides manuscript critiques that offer extensive feedback on every aspect of a narrative, as well as ghostwriting, developmental editing, copy editing, proofreading, and marketing (proposal, query, and synopsis development and agent contact).
A fiction writer herself, she was an editorial assistant and reader at Ploughshares, had her fiction published in various literary magazines, taught literature and grammar, and edited a range of material from memoir to erotica, biography, short fiction, poetry, travel writing, personal essays, and literary and commercial fiction. She specializes in film and photography, food and wine, nutrition, travel, psychology, memoir, and literary fiction.
Copyediting, proofreading, developmental editing
Ghostwriting
Manuscript critiques
Mentoring and writing instruction
Submission materials: book proposals, query letters, synopses, agent/publisher research
Non-fiction: marketing & business communications travel, creative nonfiction, cookbooks, psychology, diet/nutrition, health, memoir, biography, self-help, alternative medicine
Entertainment: photography, film, art
Poetry and screenplays
Manuscript Submission Services:
Your initial contact with an agent or publisher is your first impression; therefore, it's crucial that you put your best foot forward when drafting a letter.
What I can do . . .
Read your manuscript and write or edit the materials required for submitting to agents and publishers, including proposals, queries, synopses, and bios.
Research agents or publishers that are appropriate for your market, provide resources, and offer guidance.
Research the legitimacy of agents or contacts you've already made. (Don't ever take for granted that anyone calling themselves an agent actually is one.)
Prepare your manuscript for submission (i.e., format according to industry-standards).
Review and critique the manuscript to determine if it's ready for submission.
"Thanks for your flexibility, great attitude, and hard work. It was a pleasure working with you on this project." - Sarah Yezzi, Senior Technical Editor, Prentice Hall
LINDA HINES critiques, rewrites, and edits novels, business manuscripts, self-help books, short stories, essays, articles, biographies, and literary fiction. She has edited over 100 fiction and non-fiction works and wrote and produced articles as managing editor of a subscription-based, B2B newsletter. She specializes in subjects such as humor, mystery, business, current events and politics, psychology, holistic healing, organic gardening, nature and the environment, weight loss, fitness, health, diet and nutrition, spirituality, alternative healing.
Book editor, developmental critique
Fiction: genre fiction, young adult literature, literary fiction, mystery, suspense, psychological, crime, supernatural, action, adventure, short story
Nonfiction: business, self-help, self-improvement, how-to, memoir, personal essay, biography, alternative medicine, holistic healing, diet, nutrition, spirituality
"[F]riendly and professional. ... Any writer knows how important it is to have an editor who is approachable. Linda also displayed marvelous editing skills that enhanced my work and prepared it for the competitive publishing market. I used Linda's skills a second time, I was that impressed. It pays to have an editor who has updated knowledge about the publishing market. Most of all, I enjoyed working with Linda because she saw our partnership as a team."
SANDRA JUDD is an editor, proofreader, and indexer with more than 20 years of experience in the publishing industry. Her clients have included university presses, large, mainstream publishers, and smaller presses and professional organizations. She has edited or proofread over 300 published books, on topics that include politics, history, business, literary criticism, ethnic history, anthropology, science and medicine, industry manuals, memoirs, Christian and inspirational, parenting and relationships, humor, and fiction.
She has edited 20+ volumes in the Health Reference Series published by Omnigraphics, all published under her name as editor.
She has also edited professional journals and newsletters, business plans, scholarly articles being prepared for publication, economic plans to be distributed to the state legislature, and a number of dissertations.
She has prepared indexes for more than 30 published books.
She strives for precision in language and is devoted to making the author's voice heard.
Nonfiction: Inspirational, self-help, business, science and medicine, ethnology, history, political science, memoirs, scholarly/textbooks
"While I have never met Sandy Judd face to face, I have used her services as a copyeditor since 1997. She is easy to work with, extremely competent, and has helped me improve my writing skills. I will continue to use her services as long as she is available." -- Lewis C. Forrest, Ed.D., technical writer and published author, North Carolina
"As senior editor of a book publishing company, I used Sandy Judd’s services for several years as a proofreader and copyeditor. Her detail-oriented skills and her unfailing ability to meet deadlines kept her at the very top of my list." -- Kathryn Deering, Ann Arbor, Michigan
"I kept Sandra Judd as busy as she’d let me while I was senior editor at Servant Publications (1995–2001). She produced high-quality work on time and at reasonable cost. I highly recommend her." -- Heidi Hess Saxton, former senior editor, Servant Publications
JO-ANN LANGTREE writes and edits books, stories, and articles in the following fields: business, medical, insurance, health, holistic health, spirituality, religion, psychic phenomena, young-adult fiction, children's books, mystical experience, self-help, New Age, nutrition, diet, exercise, saints & masters, gurus, theosophy, Christianity, homeopathy, vitamins & minerals, herbs, and food supplements. She was a writer and editor for Aetna Life & Casualty. As editor of Life NEWS, she had sole responsibility for finding, developing, writing, editing, and proofing all articles. Topics included new products, sales campaigns, insurance-agent interviews, accolades, seminars, Company acquisitions and policies. Jo-Ann also edits personal and business sites.
LORNA LYNCH has over twenty-five years of developmental editing experience and has worked on more than a hundred books to date. She also co-owned a monthly newspaper and wrote hundreds of articles. She has a tremendous instinct for what "works" and what doesn't in both fiction and non-fiction, and has guided numerous authors to publishing success. Her primary goal is to see that writing with some potential becomes writing with great potential, and she works closely with authors to achieve that goal.
Her area of expertise is character-driven fiction; however, she has edited books of all stripes, including political commentary, how-to books, humor, mysteries, romance novels, children's books, young adult fiction, detective novels, and psychological thrillers.
Developmental editing
Fiction: young adult, contemporary/mainstream, detective/crime, humor, literary fiction, mystery, romance, women’s fiction, short stories, thriller/espionage
"I was very happy with the job Lorna did for me. The edit was very sharp and the critique very detailed. She broke down the manuscript from top to bottom and all of her points were excellent. She not only focused on technical structure, but also the substance of the story. She pointed out many things that I would not have discovered on my own and she looked at the manuscript not only as an editor, but as a reader--which is very important. I would definitely use Lorna again as my editor." – Derek Lively, Diary of the Devil's Son
DON McCLAIRE uses forty years of editing and writing experience to help both fiction and non-fiction writers polish their work for publication. He’s spent his career as a magazine editor (11 years), award-winning public relations executive (six years), head of his own marketing communications firm (21 years), professional editor, and writing instructor. He’s written and placed hundreds of press releases and trade magazine articles, and has produced three non-fiction “how-to” books, two young-adult novels, and four Donna McClaire-bylined romance novels, all published. McClaire’s work won him The Public Relations Association’s highest award, the Silver Anvil, plus two Golden Trumpets from the Chicago Public Relations Associarion.
McClaire knows firsthand, after editing for others for years and judging numerous writing contest entries, the many mistakes unpublished writers make. He spreads this knowledge by conducting workshops at weekend writing conferences and teaching two online writing classes: Editor-Proof That First Chapter for WriterUniv.com, and 21 Steps to Fog-Free Writing, at WritersOnlineClasses.com.
He'll edit your manuscript, correcting
things you may have been doing wrong your whole writing career. Areas of focus include appearance, hooks, plot, motivation, dialogue,
setting, point of view, research, conflict, and voice. He'll also edit weak verb forms, strip away
author intrusions, identify character filters, ban redundancies, eliminate
foggy phrases, correct passive voice sentences, slash misused and
overused words, and correct other writing bugaboos. These are all
problems an acquisitions editor or literary agent won't take the time or effort to tell you about, but they could keep
you from being published!
"I’m going back and redoing everything I’ve everwritten…ever! When you edited the first chapter of my latest manuscript, you opened my eyes to a whole new world—and that’s way too cheesy to be an exaggeration! I can’t thank you enough for the
profound impact you’ve had on my work. I don’t think it was coincidence that I received my first contract hardly a month after you set me straight!"
Amber W. Shedeck,
w/a Amber Leigh Williams,
Fairhope, Alabama
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
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
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."
ARLENE ROBINSON has developed and edited 450+ full-length manuscripts in a variety of genres since 1996. Her clients include women's fiction author Angie Daniels, sociology professor Joyce Tang and college-success guide author Josh Richardson. The true crime memoir The Twelfth Man Standing received Turner Broadcasting Network's Trumpet Award in 2002, and 'PRESSIONS: Memoirs of a Southern Cat by Edith M. Holmes won the YOUnity Reviewers Guild Top Honor Award. Arlene welcomes new or published authors as clients, and enjoys helping journalistic, business and academic writers transform their writings into marketable, polished products for mainstream readers.
While not a professional humor writer, she could be. Arlene lives in the Deep South with her probation officer/journalist husband and two almost-adult sons, and looks forward to the day when her human offspring venture into the world as independently as she envisions her writings springing onto bookshelves.
Substantive and developmental editing, copyediting
Fiction and nonfiction critiques
Book layout and graphics
ESL Style Conversions ("Americanization")
"Arlene is everything you want in an editor: thorough, timely and accommodating. If it weren't for her, I certainly would not have landed a publisher for my manuscript. Not only was her editing topnotch, her advice on everything about publishing was very helpful. Arlene really cares about the work she does and it shows!" — Josh Richardson, Ahead of the Pack: Balancing Your Way to Personal Success in College, Thomson Delmar Learning
You may send your initial submission to all addresses to make sure it's received.
Required:
Submit the first 50 pages of your manuscript (Word/DOC or RTF
attachment preferred). Large files
should be zipped. Attachment not required if writing has not started
(e.g., because you're looking for a ghostwriter).
A sample is required to receive an estimate
for editing services
Along with a sample, the following information is required. Ignore questions that do not apply to your
project (e.g., footnotes).
(01) Word count of complete project (under "Tools" in MS Word):
(02) Put your 100-word (approx) synopsis/description here (or attach):
(03) Describe your genre and topic (e.g., nonfiction/self-help, science fiction,
horror, romance, mystery, Western, young adult, children, poetry, Christian, creative nonfiction, literary):
(04) Deadline date, if any, for return of complete project. (Please be realistic. Remember that professional editors usually have a project in process.):
(05) If you have no immediate deadline, when do you want to start the editing process?: (For instance: within 30 days, within 60 days, within 90 days, 4-12 months)
Copyediting / Proofreading / Line Editing (e.g., English corrections, typos, paragraph and sentence structure, word use)
Developmental (e.g., help with the big picture, such as flow/pacing, telling the story, characterization, structure, style)
Rewriting / Ghostwriting
Critique / Evaluation
(07) Number of charts/tables/pictures (if any):
(08) Writing style/format manual (e.g., Chicago Manual, APA, MLA), if applicable:
(09) Number of footnotes/references:
(10) Do you have a contract with an agent or publisher?:
(11) Do you plan to self-publish?:
(12) What is your budget for the entire project?
$ ________________
(Note: The editors will quote their regular rates, but having an idea of your budget allows the editors to tell you what services they can provide to stay within that budget.)
(13) Your name:
(14) E-mail addresses:
(15) Day/evening phone numbers (required -- in case the response to your e-mail bounces or the editors need clarification
regarding the scope of service needed, deadline, etc.):
(16) City, State, Country (or time zone):
(17) The name(s) of the editor(s)/writer(s) you'd like to contact.
(If no names are selected, your e-mail will be sent to several consultants chosen by the coordinator):
(18) Do you want the coordinator to reroute your submission if you requested editors/writers who (a) are not available by your deadline date, (b) do not handle the type of material you submitted, and/or (c) do not perform the service(s) you want?
(19) How did you learn about our service?:
(20) Attach the first 50 pages of your manuscript (include prologue/preface, proposal, query)
Notes:
No hidden charges
We won't quote you one price and charge you another. When possible, we'll provide you with a per-word or per-page rate so you'll know up front exactly
how much your project will cost. (Of course, we ask that you fairly represent the scope of your project.)
It is a mistaken notion that freelance editors work "on spec" (speculation) with no payment to the editor. It is basically asking the editor to work for free. There's no guarantee that a book will see a profit (or even be published). The editors posted here do not work on spec.
Note:Questions about price and turnaround times cannot be given over the phone or via chat.
To obtain a price quote please follow the procedures listed on our quotes page.
Contact live support if you do not receive a response within three hours (M-F, 9a-7p central). Expect longer response times if you submitted after U.S. business hours or on weekends.
You may also send your submission to our alternate e-mail addresses if you do not receive a response within three hours M-F:
Help2012 at Airmail.net
editingnetwork at gmail.com
contact at editing-writing.com
You may also leave voice mail for the network coordinator: 469-789-3030. This number is for verification of e-mail submissions only.
Please be as complete as
possible in representing your project's scope and size so you will receive
the most accurate estimate.
Disclaimer: Your agreement, whether oral or written, is with your editor or publishing consultant, not with the editing network as a whole or its coordinator.