Literary Fiction Editors
Popular fiction comes in many genres. Historical fiction, romance, and science fiction are a few examples of subtypes of fiction. Literary fiction does not encompass these terms, but stretches to include classics like Sherlock Holmes, which many would consider part of the detective or crime genres.
In literary fiction, the character is more prominent than the plot. Sometimes considered “serious fiction” that allows a slower pace, the modern reader wants a page-turning story as well as characters that play out the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of the human condition. The line between literary and genre can blur, and often it’s a matter of who you ask.
Our Fiction Editors
When you hire a literary fiction editor through the Book Editing Associates network, you are working with an experienced book editing professional with excellent credentials, verifiable references, and 100% positive feedback.
Ann Aubrey
Ghostwriter, Book Indexer, Copy Editor, Proofreader
Ann Aubrey has 30+ years of experience as a writer and editor, including fiction, nonfiction, medical, academic, technical, and college-level textbooks.
She began a career as a technical writer: geophysics, geology, and information technology. Then transitioned into journalism, working as Associate Editor/Editor of the Catholic newspaper of San Diego and teaching fiction writing at the university level.
James N. Bond
"James examines the symbols of language the way a biologist examines cells."
~ New York Times Review of Books
Beta readings, manuscript evaluations, proofreading, line editing, copy editing, developmental editing, query letters, book proposals.
Need some assistance with your manuscript? For twenty years I have joined forces with fiction and nonfiction writers from all over the world. I start by preparing a free sample edit of your work. I will be happy to talk with you in detail about your publishing needs.
Success in publishing results from keeping readers engaged. Unfortunately, though, many writers lose their readers. I excel at identifying precisely where in your manuscript that is likely to happen, and how to prevent it.
My education immersed me in the creative processes of the world’s great literary and pre-literate cultures. Earning my English MA, I studied the entire sweep of Western literatures, from Gilgamesh to flash fiction. For years, one of my own volumes, Derrida for Beginners, was the best-selling introduction to one of the century’s most influential voices in literary theory. I also studied under the able tutelage of Hugh Kenner, remembered best for his monumental masterpiece, The Pound Era. For my Religious Studies MA, I studied the ancient and diverse Indo-European tradition of visionary poetics illumining a broad range of literatures throughout Europe and Asia. Consequently I have edited not only novels and short stories, but nonfiction, including many books on spirituality.
Writers report that I bring to their manuscripts questions and insights that other editors never would have considered. These insights cause things to snap into focus. Writers then feel energized to proceed with new vision.
My own books have been published by William Morrow, Prentice Hall, Hosei University Press (Japan), Chongqing University Press (China), Pensamento (Brazil), Thassalia (Spain), Hans-Ulrich Möhring (Germany), and Orient Longman (India). I have also authored the most successful titles in the For Beginners series and written a volume cited by Library Journal as one of the Top Ten Business Books of the Year. My pillow book unveiling South Pacific coming-of-age customs ignited a much celebrated, nationwide slow love revolution in the zen-infused archipelago of Japan. In the realm of verse, I translated the poems of San Juan de la Cruz, illustrated by Group f/64 photographer Imogen Cunningham. I have freelanced as a script consultant for the film industry as well as an editor for Fielding University, True Pictures, Image G, and SendPoints (China).
I will be most happy to talk with you about your editing needs.
Lauren Humphries-Brooks
Literary Fiction, Young Adult, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Romance LGBTQ+, Crime, Detective, Academic Nonfiction, Film Scripts, Media Books
Lauren Humphries-Brooks has copy edited hundreds of novels, short stories, and nonfiction titles, including books by bestselling authors Jane Yolen, May McGoldrick, Paul Cornell, and Alyssa Palombo. She regularly works with large and small publishers, including St. Martin’s Press, Tor/Forge, Prometheus Books, Bella Books, Entangled Publishing, and Cobblestone Press.
She loves working with both first-time authors and established writers, from people looking for that final check to those who want involved editing and collaboration. She’s a writer herself, with a Master’s in Creative Writing from the University of Edinburgh, where she learned the art of constructive criticism, pacing, plot structure, and dialogue.
Theodora Bryant
Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Romance
Theodora Bryant has been editing professionally since 1994, ten of those with her fiction-only, award-winning publishing company.
She has been a member of the Book Editing Associates network since 2001. During that time her authors have garnered “Book of the Year” in science fiction, and “Finalist” and “Winner” awards in romance and mystery works. Her authors often receive outstanding reviews from Kirkus and Publisher’s Weekly.
She’s reviewed, evaluated, and edited thousands of manuscripts through the years and helps her authors navigate towards the “Top 100 Paid on Kindle” lists.
Carrie Cantor
Developmental Editing, Manuscript Evaluations, Line Editing
200+ books edited for major publishers and independent authors
Carrie Cantor, a published author and industry veteran, worked as an acquisitions editor at a New York publisher where she acquired and edited titles on a variety of subjects. As a free-lance editor, she has extensive experience performing diagnostic editing (critique), development editing, and line editing. Her clients are writers in the areas of memoir, history, current events, health, Judaica, women’s issues, how-to, and pop-culture, as well as romance, women’s fiction, and literary fiction.
She also helps authors write query letters and proposals that appeal to the market. Because she is an adjunct to a successful New York literary agency, she has the commercial savvy to advise clients with an eye to current trends and industry standards.
Carrie will meet you wherever you are in your writing process. If you need an objective assessment of what’s working in your book and what needs improvement in terms of structure (narrative arc, characters, pacing, etc.), she can provide a thorough professional critique. Her “bedside” manner is sensitive and respectful but holds nothing back.
If you need a line-by-line edit to polish the writing, Carrie is an expert at smoothing over any awkward moments in the narrative, helping you to be the best writer you can be without imposing her own style or taste on your prose.
Karin Cather
Apocalyptic Fiction, Autobiography, Memoir, Police Procedural, Narrative Nonfiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Thrillers, True Crime
Developmental editor, copy editor, and writer with a background in criminal law and martial arts
If your novel has fight scenes or involves police procedures or the law, Karin Cather is your specialist. She has accompanied police on search warrants, observed autopsies, and been to countless crime scenes. She has training in arson prosecution, search and seizure law, and the insanity defense. She can help add realism to your writing.
In creative nonfiction, as someone who spent over a dozen years as a prosecutor, Karin know how many stories law enforcement officers, other first responders, and prosecutors have to tell. Karin edits autobiography and memoir of these professionals—current or retired—who write under their own names or use pseudonyms.
Karin brings her rich and varied background to bear on crime thrillers, police procedurals, and true crime, as well as dystopian and apocalyptic fiction, science fiction, speculative fiction, and fantasy.
Ann Howard Creel
Congratulations on taking a step closer to achieving your writing goals. Even in today’s publishing climate, I believe it is still possible for new writers to enter the business and succeed. With little background, I was able to get twelve novels published including children’s middle grade fiction, young adult novels, and adult literature. I’ve worked with both small independent publishers, such as Roberts Rinehart and Brown Barn Books, and large publishing houses, such as Penguin Putnam and American Girl, and I’ve collaborated on a screenplay that took one of my novels to film for Hallmark Hall of Fame on CBS.
In addition, I’ve been editing professionally since 2007 and have helped numerous authors achieve their publishing goals. Writing is a creative endeavor done best when inspiration strikes, and I believe every writer has his or her unique story/stories and voice with which to tell it. That said, certain guidelines, skills, and techniques will make stories shine, and writers will always benefit from the help and support of experienced writers/editors.
I specialize in developmental editing of mainstream fiction, women’s fiction, historical fiction, science fiction, narrative non-fiction, and memoir and would love to hear about your project and goals.
Stacey Donovan
Award-Winning Book Editor, Author, and Ghostwriter
Former literary agent and advertising copywriter, published author, editor and ghostwriter of several bestsellers, Stacey Donovan helps guide her clients’ books to successful publication, whether traditional, niche, or independent.
Stacey Donovan has edited or ghostwritten dozens of published books for her clients, many of which have received critical acclaim and awards. Among them: New York Times Bestsellers (Mystery); International Thrillers Awards (Thriller); Florida Book Awards (Thriller); Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) Silver Medal Award (Memoir); Foreword Reviews INDIES Book of the Year (Memoir); Stories of Mighty Women Top Biographies (Memoir); Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) Ben Franklin Award, Bill Fisher Best First Book (Fiction); Chanticleer International Book Awards (Thriller)
As a professional editor and ghostwriter, Donovan is experienced in many genres: Contemporary Fiction and Nonfiction; Mystery; Crime; Suspense; Psychological Thriller; Literary Fiction; Women’s Fiction; Young Adult; Erotic Romance; Erotica; GLBTQ; Memoir.
Donovan is also a published author of both fiction and non-fiction. Dive, her first, critically acclaimed novel was published in 1995 (Penguin) and reissued in 2015 (Open Road Media). The Art of Loneliness, a sexy novella, is available on Kindle. Co-authored by Donovan, the four-book series based on Zalman King’s Red Shoe Diaries is also available.
Marlo Garner
Children's Books
Marlo Garner has been editing children's books and teaching writing since the late 1990s. She teaches Writing for Children’s Books (picture books), Writing Chapter Books for Children, and various other writing and revision workshops.
Her chapter book series---which contains numerous poems and rhyming verse—was released in 2010, and she is the author and/or illustrator of a number of other published books for children, including a picture book for Internet security giant AVG.
Marlo received first place in the "published" division of the New England SCBWI 2013 illustration awards. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA).
Andrea Robb
New York Times Bestselling and Award-Winning Book Editor
Literary Fiction, Historical, Mystery, Adult, Young Adult, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Erotica, Humor, New Age, Spirituality
Andrea Robb spent over a decade as an acquiring editor at Penguin Random House, working on key titles for Knopf, Doubleday, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor Books. She edited Jennifer McMahon's NY Times bestselling novels, The Winter People, The Night Sister, and Burntown; the NY Times bestselling Veronica Mars mystery series; and the Harvard Lampoon's NY Times bestselling parody Nightlight.
Steven Severn
Award-winning New York Times best-selling ghostwriter, book doctor, editor, screenwriter, and writing coach. Mentored by an Academy Award-winning writer. Ghostwriter and consultant for eleven #1 best-selling books, including five New York Times #1 Children's books. I'm here to make your deepest dreams come true.
I mentored under Oscar-winning screenwriter Stewart Stern ("Rebel Without A Cause"). I served as consultant for the #1 best-sellers TEARS FOR MY CITY by Dean Dimitrieski and THE REVVED LIFE by Pastor Jeff Knight, and for Robert Beatty's #1 best-selling Children's novels SERAFINA AND THE BLACK CLOAK, SERAFINA AND THE TWISTED STAFF, and WILLA OF THE WOOD. In addition, my ghostwritten screenplay based upon a #1 best-seller was winner of Best Adaptation at two international script competitions.
Dreams are powerful. Dreams can transform you. Dreams come from a Higher Power, and can take you to your highest place. If you have a dream, or a vision, your heart yearns to see it come true. My calling is to help you write the words that can make your deepest dreams come true. I love taking all that passion and fire burning inside you and transforming your life stories, your dreams, your visions, and the deepest yearnings of your heart from the first spark of imagination into fire-breathing reality.
I'd love to help deliver your creative visions to the world, using the fire and passion of imagination, and the life-transforming power of your dreams.
Thank you for sharing your dreams with me.
SJ Sutton
Book Editor, Script and Screenplay Story Consultant, Publishing Consultant, Television and Film Industry Veteran
S. J. Sutton has worked in the book publishing and the film industries for thirty years.
In the film industry she worked as a story analyst and development consultant on feature film and television projects for DreamWorks, Disney, Showtime, and Lifetime, including L.A. Confidential (Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published), Get On Up, Enigma, HBO’s Vinyl, and Defending Your Life.
Caroline T
Editor for three New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today bestselling authors
Caroline T. has been editing popular fiction for over 20 years and has 400+ novels under her belt.
Her particular expertise is fiction for women: she edits all sub-genres of Romance, as well as Suspense, Thrillers, and Mysteries. Carla Neggers, Karen Robards and Andrea Kane---three New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today bestselling authors---had their books edited by Caroline.
Marie Valentine
Copyediting and Proofreading Services | New Author Assistance
Marie Valentine helps first-time writers prepare their manuscripts for submission to publishers or in preparation for self-publishing.
Marie has worked for small, midsized, and academic presses, and helps authors who are new to the publishing process navigate the path to selling a book. She offers query letter and submission package review, and permissions assistance, and can answer questions you have along the way. She often blogs with her self-published authors to help promote their work.
Marie passed Book Editing Associates' rigorous proofreading test, so you can trust that her edits will also clear up any typographical errors in your book. She is fluent in the Chicago Manual of Style and AP Style.
Don White
Editor of 3 New York Times Bestsellers and 3 Los Angeles Times Bestsellers
Don White is an award-winning editor with more than twenty years’ of publishing experience. Among the notable writers he’s edited are Gore Vidal, Edward Albee, E. Lynn Harris, Edmund White, and Samuel R. Delany.
He’s equally at home in fiction (literary novels, commercial fiction, mysteries) and nonfiction (memoir, biography, general nonfiction). As an editor and writer he’s freelanced for Doubleday, Penguin, Bantam, Basic Books, and Beacon, among others.
Don has been singled out for distinction by the American Library Association, Publishers Weekly, and Out Magazine. As an independent scholar he's authored three books on African American history as well as several books for gay and lesbian readers. He's also an emeritus board member of the Lambda Literary Foundation. Don lives in New York City.
