A quick chat with my current freelance editor.
Hi Everyone and Welcome to my blog, I’m calling it Tracee Tips and Types. I’ve got a brand new blog layout to go with my new website and it’s a brand new year and here we are, it’s already February.
If you’re not familiar with my blog, here’s a couple of things I’ll be doing here:
- First, I’ll always have some great content with interviews, how-to, writing, marketing and every day live tidbits as an author/side hustle specialist (for now); every Friday I hope to have an author/artist share their newest book or work in progress, and
- I’m adding one more day of content with ‘Tip Tuesday’ – that will also have an awesome guest and their post, officially starting in March-
If at any time you’d like to be a guest here, you just have to sign up so I will know. I have a calendar here for you to select a date. The calendar is best at Sign Up Genius but if that doesn’t work for whatever reason, just e-mail me Tracee@Teegarner.com
I look forward to hearing from you and thank you so much for stopping by.
Here’s the first post for my new blog, it’s with my lovely editor where she answers some questions and shares this and that.
I’ve had a total of three editors over the course of my career but Amber Leima is with my longest editors of the most books. I say most as I’ve mentioned, I had other editors that I know and love, and I’m actually still in contact with all of them. I hope over the coming few weeks and months, they also will stop by here to tell us about their process and editing style. But due to schedules and such, an editor can’t always take your work. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s all about timing and your output. I also admit to sometimes not writing fast enough and it has to be the standard for editors to keep accepting and finding work to pay their bills. If they wait on me, they’d be broke. It’s the God honest truth. I may seem prolific to some but honestly, I write very slow. Enough about me, let’s here more about Amber.
I met Amber Leima, Best Words Editing, at my local community college. She kept appearing in similar classes that I was also taking and it would turn out when I kept seeing her, we would strike up a conversation. Turns out we were both pursuing a certificate in Non Profit Management at the time and she would also end up working for a nonprofit, and I’ve been in the nonprofit world for more than ten years. I honestly don’t know what prompted me to not only strike up a conversation but also compelled me to ask her to edit one of my novels but I simply did and the rest is history. Amber does have a lovely accent and I think I secretly loved how the English language sounded from her, surely she could correct some very bad prose and make it that much better with her accent and all. LOL
I’ve always told people I’m a good story-teller and what happens between what I submit and the final product is probably almost miraculous
It’s been several years since Amber and I have seen each other face to face. As a military wife, she’s edited while in Germany, in Virginia where I currently reside, but I’ve so enjoyed our connection over five + books now and more than six or so years of knowing each other and keeping in contact. I think she’s somewhere now on the West Coast.
Enjoy this short snippet into a freelance editor’s world with a few random questions and see you next week.
How did you get started?
I’ve heard it said that a fulfilling career means getting paid to do something that you would usually choose to procrastinate with. For me, that’s always been editing. I’ve been known to proofread the backs of cereal boxes over breakfast!
What is the best part of editing?
I love transforming a passionately told story into a finely written one. I really enjoy helping authors to find the perfect word for something they’re trying to describe. I want to give the reader that itch-scratching, blank-filling-in, “ahh – EXACTLY!” moment when they read a passage.
Who are your dream clients?
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Danielle Steel, or Jodi Picoult. I so admire prolific writers! I would love to be their editor simply because they put out SO MUCH work.
What makes a great client?
I have the privilege of working with some amazingly creative people. I appreciate writers who have a strong sense of their characters’ identities, yet are nonetheless open to considering how they might behave differently to give the story a different shape or take things in a different direction.
What are common issues you see in an author’s writing?
There are a number of levels to the editing process. I’ll go through some (or all!) of these levels within each project I edit. Often, when crafting their story’s plot, authors can get so caught up in the initial rush of ideas that their grammar might start to wobble. Another issue I see a lot is that sentences start getting ever-longer and more intricate as the story progresses: you can tell that more and more ideas have piled into the author’s mind along the way. This absolutely comes with the territory of being a passionate and creative author in the fertile first-draft stage, but can leave readers struggling to stay with what you’re trying to say.
What are stories you read most frequently?
I love novels. I’m a nineteenth-century literature buff (yes: huge nerd!). I also love 20th-century and contemporary fiction. At the moment, I’m reading a lot of Tom Wolfe.
If you could do anything besides editing, what would you be doing now?
Playing my cello, listening to very loud music, going to parties, baking, traveling the continent of Asia – ideally all at the same time. I like a challenge!
Amber is a joy to work with and to reach out to Amber, please have serious queries before making contact, you can reach her through her website at Best Words Editing or Email her at amber@bestwordsediting.com
