YOUR NEEDS: Authors The editor: your personal cheerleader Experienced writers know that working with a professional editor can often make the difference between having your book accepted by a publisher – or having to give up your dream of being published.

What They’re Saying: “I affectionately call Antonia my personal word trainer. She’s read almost everything I’ve ever written professionally, buffing and polishing it before the world saw it.” Natalie MacLean, author of Red, White, and Drunk All Over

Whether you’re a published writer or an aspiring one, I can help you in many ways:

• I evaluate your manuscript and assess your book’s chances.
• I help you to buff up a sample chapter to send to publishers.
• I fix your sentences, tidy your dialogue, mend your punctuation, query your word choices, point out possible errors, and generally “clean up” your manuscript.
• I give you a checklist of what to do, and the tools you need to do the job.
• I act as your mentor, coach, and personal cheering section.
• I make your book better, and your life easier.
• Most importantly: I teach you how to be a “self-correcting” writer.

Some editors specialize in either fiction or non-fiction. Personally, I’m happy to tackle either; and I bring an array of specific talents to both genres.

• Non-fiction books are very similar to the regular editing work I do for magazines, business reports, government publications, etc. They require all the usual attention to spelling and sentence structure, punctuation and grammar, layout and design, organization and style, and factual consistency – just over a much longer distance.
• Fiction books require all those skills, and also a keen literary sensibility as well. A good fiction editor must give guidance on matters such as characterization, plot, dialogue, style, pacing, structure, timing, and all the other vital details that go into making a good story. Above all, she must have an excellent ear for storytelling.

Why is my task so tough?

My decades of experience with literature, journalism and academia have given me the background, experience and tools necessary to transform a beginner’s novel into a real page-turner.

This means I have a much more difficult job than book reviewers. Unlike them, I can’t just point out what doesn’t work in your story. Instead, I have to work hard to figure out exactly what we can do to make it work.

Those watchful book critics are always in my mind when I work on your novel. When it’s finally published, neither of us wants them describing it as “sprawling, overwritten and self-indulgent” – and we certainly don’t want them to assess YOU as “a novice writer who can’t discipline his style or material.”

Instead, we want them to rave about your “crisp and tautly paced story,” your “well-described characters” and your “purposeful narrative, packed with memorable incidents.”

When the two of us work together, you can hope to avoid those negative reviews – and earn only praise and glory for all your hard work!