Writing a book is an incredible accomplishment. Taking the next step, being willing to trust your “baby” to a professional editor, elevates your commitment to your craft. It can be scary but should be exciting and encouraging.

I’ve been there. With my first book, when my editor said, “It’s not great … yet,” I cried. Then I got to work. And she was right. With work, it became great, something worth reading.

That’s my goal – to help your book be the best it can be. I’m passionate about what I do. I love to dive into developmental edits, identifying strengths and weaknesses while maintaining your voice, your story.

I offer editing services for fiction, non-fiction, and children’s books. I specialize in content editing, watching for:

• Plot holes
• Redundant information
• Flow
• Timeline issues
• General logic and readability
• Consistency
• Grammar

I proofread as I go (typos, missing words, proper use of quotation marks and commas, and so on), but that is not my primary focus. I’m more interested in elevating your story. You want to show your best work. I want the same.

If you would like more information, contact me about your specific project, and we can discuss it further. I offer reasonable rates, charging by the word, but I also offer an hourly rate when authors only want me to re-examine sections they’ve changed. As a personal preference, I’m not interested in reading/editing novels with graphic sex scenes. If there is sex, I prefer it to be implied not described.

If you would like references, I will gladly provide them. Or you can read what clients have said here.

My background: I have edited numerous books, many going on to win awards, and for a variety of writers, including a USA Today bestselling author.

I studied computer science in college, but I’ve been writing since I was ten. For various reasons, I ended up homeschooling three of my children through the middle school grades. Using a solid Mennonite press grammar curriculum that had us diagramming sentences, I was able to review and hone my English skills. Who knew at the time it would help me more than my children, especially going through it three times! Between that, the logical nature of computer science, and my own writing background, along with a lot of training and study, I’ve assembled some interesting tools to be an editor.

But to be honest, deep down, I just really want to help people, and editing allows me to do that. I love helping authors succeed.