I’m a freelance editor from central New York State. I was an English major throughout school and my reading level was always advanced for my age. I read the dictionary for fun! Weirdo, right?
For years I struggled to find a job that made me happy, that made me feel satisfied every day when I left to go home. I never found it. A few years ago I saw that a friend of mine had published her own book. I read it and, being the grammar addict that I am, noticed many simple errors that could have been avoided with an editor’s read. I contacted my friend and told her that I’d edit her book for free so she could re-release a cleaner copy. She agreed, and the rest is history. I’ve exclusively been her editor for her entire writing career and after a bit, I started editing for writer friends of hers and other friends of ours that have come to me for help with their writing.
Books are my passion. There is nothing better than getting so wrapped up in a story you’re reading that reality fades away around you and you find yourself standing on a cobblestone street next to shabby orphans, in a magical school for witches and wizards, or in a speak easy surrounded by women in flapper dresses and men in sharp suits and fedoras.
“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.” J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
I do not take for granted that I can ask those questions that people always wish they could ask the author. I’m occasionally met with “You’ll have to wait and see,” or “The answer is in the next book,” but the fact that I’m even given the opportunity to ask is incredible. As an editor I take great pleasure in being one of the first people allowed to interact with new characters, new situations, and new worlds. It’s my dream job.