Mel is here.
My love of reading is what I remember from when I was fifteen and learning to drive. Sounds odd right? When my mother asked me to drive us to the mall so that I could practice, I remember telling her I didn’t know how to get there. The reason: I always read books in the car. Didn’t matter where we were going; if it was ten minutes away or three hours, I always had at least one or two books with me on every trip.
My passion for reading led me to jobs in three different bookstores over a number of years. It has also given me the opportunities to beta read the books of author friends as well as volunteering as the Young Adult Author Coordinator for the Wordstock Festival in Portland, Oregon. It recently prompted me to enroll and complete the Certificate of Editing course at the University of Washington.
My love of the written word is the compelling factor for helping authors by offering editing services pre-publication.
My specialties include:
- Beginning reader
- Middle-grade chapter books
- Young adult
- Contemporary romance
- Women’s fiction
Don't hesitate to contact me if your book doesn't fit into one of the above categories!
As your proofreader and copy editor, I will polish your work and help you to refine your spelling, punctuation, and grammar.
Contact me with your editorial needs. I would be thrilled to discuss your project and explore how we can work together!
Mel is a savvy and trustworthy reader and editor. She approaches manuscripts with enthusiasm and curiosity, and is invaluable in improving the work.” —Martha Brockenbrough
Mel is fast and efficient, yet still manages to keep her editing suggestions within the authors tone and voice. She is a trusted go-to editor for me and a pleasure to work with.” —Lish McBride
Mel helped me out with an ongoing copywriting project for a small business blog. She offers great insight, catches even the trickiest of typos and grammatical errors, and never ceases to meet a deadline. She's definitely someone you want in your corner to help you polish your content before distribution!” —Stef Valle
Mel's eagle eye for detail helped turn my novel into a book ready tobe published. I couldn't have self-published my YA novel without herhelp. She's doesn't know it yet, but I'm now her client for life.” —Danielle Dreger
Experience
- Copyedits of chapters for an author to publish on their Patreon page: November 2017 to Present
- Copyedited young adult novels for the same author: July 2016 - May 2019
- Intern with Entangled Publishing March: March 2017 to November 2018
- Social Media Panelist for PNBA 2016 in Tacoma, Washington
- Certificate of Editing: University of Washington 2015-2016
- Edited the first chapter for an author working on a dating book: April 2016
- Developmentally edited a beginning reader kids book: March 2016
- Created a character spreadsheet for a young adult book: February 2014
- Author website/social media workshop for The Next Level Professional Series by SCBWI Oregon
- Young Adult Author Coordinator for Wordstock Festival in Portland, Oregon
- Edited multiple college papers
Services
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Website critique
I will look over your website and give page by page feedback. I look for items that Agents, Publishers, Readers, and Booksellers will look for and give ideas on how to add these.
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Social media
Walking you through the different ways to connect, and helping you figure out which ones will work best for you. This includes one-on-one help navigating Goodreads and various apps that best work to manage the social media you use.
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Beta reading with feedback
I will read the full manuscript and look for any items you are specifically wondering about and give feedback from a reader’s perspective. This includes plot holes, problems with continuity, characterization, and believability.
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Copyediting
I will go through the entire story checking for correct punctuation, grammar, and spelling. I will also create a style sheet to keep track of character names, capitalized words, and special words.
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Substantive editing
A substantive edit is a structural edit of your work in the form of a written analysis and in-manuscript notes and commenting. Combined, these constitute a conceptual, content, and structural review of your work that will allow you to make a substantive revision of your manuscript if such a revision is desired.
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Line editing
A line edit is a line-by-line edit of your manuscript. It is an edit for tone, style, and consistency and is done only after you have gone through the manuscript a few times. For example, you would only enlist my services as a line editor after you have already written several drafts, have had beta-readers give feedback, and have perhaps received a substantive editing critique from me as outlined above and then revised the manuscript yet again.