You can choose from any one of thousands of editors currently seeking clients. Why would you want to hire me?
1. My first priority is making sure that my client comes away from the edit feeling good about the experience he just had and more confident in his own ability to write. If I've done my job correctly, the client will feel edified.
2. As I edit, I explain why I've made the changes I have. This does two things. First, it helps the author to feel confident that the change is correct. Then it acts as a tool to educate the author and to strengthen their own understanding of the English language and the nuances that exist within it. My clients often comment that they learn more from one of my edits than they ever did in school.
3. It's important to me that my clients have fun. Grammar and punctuation aren't the most exciting things in the world, and it's always upsetting when someone pulls apart your work and tells you to fix it. But I try to make it as painless as possible.
4. Language is a beautiful thing to me. I'm not only interested in making sure that words are spelled correctly - I look at the connotations of the words and evaluate their usage to see if that particular word is really the one that most suits the author's true intent.
5. I tap into the author's voice and make suggestions that are most in line with the tone and style of the story. An editor should be invisible. The reader should never be able to read a paragraph and know where the author left off and where the editor's suggestion began. My clients often comment that my suggestions "sound like them."
6. I am accessible. If a client has any questions about a comment I've made that didn't quite make sense, or concerns on any other topic, he can e-mail me and I'll respond in a timely manner, always within a day (except for Sundays).
