I’m a freelance content editor who has worked as a copy editor for a publisher of manuals for computer networking professionals, for a major medical/health sciences publisher, and for a Catholic communications publisher. I’ve been working as an editor since 1998 and have been freelancing since 2002. Since 2013, I’ve been building my own client base as an independent content editor. Although I’ve mainly edited technical material the majority of my career, after editing my second motivational book, Rob Floyd’s The Playbook, I realized that I wanted to be working on more nonfiction and fiction books for self-publishing authors. Being able to transform 90 pages of stream-of-consciousness writing into a structured, focused book that effectively presented Floyd’s point of view sparked a passion in me.

My number one priority as an editor is to let the author’s voice shine through. My job is to make the material into complete sentences structured into a logical sequence while keeping an author’s unique voice, style, and point of view. As a book editor, I can help structure the book into clear chapters that highlight the main points. By recommending changes in the content where I see weaknesses or incomplete material, I collaborate with the author and put him or her in the driver’s seat when it comes to major changes. I help bring out the strongest, most focused content from the author. Once any major rewrites or reorganization of content are done, I go through the whole book with a fine-toothed comb to correct any grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors and to make the writing consistent and in parallel structure. I can also provide a clean layout of the book, including headers and footers, styles for chapter headings and subheadings, and building a table of contents.

Besides books, I can edit any material to be published, whether it’s website content, pamphlets, mailings, presentations, manuals, or in-house communications. Spell-checker gives a false sense of security, but it can’t tell when you’ve used the wrong “there”, “their”, or “they’re”. I’m the one who remembers those seemingly random rules of grammar from 7th grade and knows how to use a semicolon correctly. You’re the professional, and your materials should be professional too, right down to the last comma. Materials edited by the Comma Queen provide credibility and professionalism to your writing.