Wilcox Editing Services

It’s been a year since I struck out on my own as a freelance editor, and I still love the challenge, the freedom, the ability to help an author articulate her/his vision. After seven years of editing, I am still most attracted to copyediting. It’s like being the relief pitcher in baseball or the glaze artist brought in to finish a piece of tile work. The author has brought the piece 95% of the way home, and I get to step in and help buff it up just that last little bit. What a privilege to do what I do for a living.

Developmental editing taps other strengths, the sticktuitiveness and faith that I utilize in my own writing life. Faith may be the biggest trait that comes into play with developmental editing, because I often don’t know exactly what form the text will end up taking, yet I must trust both my own instincts and the author’s vision on how this story wants to evolve. The rewards of working with an author at this level are perhaps the very greatest—a true relationship forms between us, and trust tends to grow over time. But I cannot take more than two or three manuscripts at once for developmental editing (which, currently, I have). These projects can last months or even years, and I need to balance this kind of work with the kind of satisfaction and sense of completion that copyediting and proofreading bring me.

The proofreader is the goalee, the last set of eyes to look over the page proofs before they go off to print. It’s a lot of pressure, and while I charge less for proofreading on the rationale that it requires less discernment (only outright errors are changed), I don’t think it’s any easier, in the end, than copyediting. The proofreader must also look out for typographical issues and layout errors such as widows and orphans, with which a copy editor doesn’t concern herself.

These are the three types of editing in which I have experience. I have joined Live Journal because I aim to specialize in editing Sci-fi/fantasy books.  Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, wisely says that when one is on her true path, traveling becomes easier. Of all the jobs I’ve taken in the past year, it was copyediting Camille Picott’s camillemulanRaggedy Chan that gave me the most joy. The book has elements of the mythical and fantastical, as well as realism in the tale’s outer frame. I feel that, in addition to the quality of the writing and illustrating, it was the genre that felt like home to me. This is no wonder after I grew up reading and watching Sci-fi/fantasy, and appreciating the value of myth.