Please permit me to brag, or “Why should you work with me?”
I got started in publishing at Heyday Books, a nonprofit book publisher in Berkeley, CA. I wrote grant requests for money to support the publication of children’s books about Japanese internment. Having just returned from three years living and working in Japan, it was especially poignant work.
After that I moved to New York City and joined Listening Library, the children’s audiobook imprint for what was then Random House (now Penguin Random House). We read and acquired titles from all of the big and medium publishers in the US and Canada and from most literary agencies as well. It helped me develop a complete picture of the children’s book publishing landscape. It also put me on the front lines of the just-about-to-boom digital book market. So I was delighted when I had the opportunity to move to Scholastic Book Clubs and help them launch their proprietary e-reading app and their first ebook list.
While at Scholastic, I edited five books in a series called Complete and Explained. We selected documents that were on the Common Core exemplars list. These included the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights, The New Colossus (poem on the Statue of Liberty), the Gettysburg Address, and the Emancipation Proclamation. These are docs recommended be read—and understood—by eleven- and twelve-year-olds. Even the briefest of these docs, however, are pretty dense and use archaic English, so we “translated” them. First, we included the text verbatim, then section by section, we re-wrote it, using modern language. Then we explained the context of the document and the reason the words were chosen. As an example, we explained what “we hold these truths to be self-evident” means using words today’s students understand, then we gave some background about why the writers of those words felt it was necessary to say so—that they wanted to make it clear that the rights they were claiming weren’t up for debate, but were inherent to the human race, no matter your country.
Since then I’ve edited books for all ages, from novelty books and board books to YA novels and everything in between. I work with independent authors and publishers of all sizes and do all levels of editing, including proofreading, copyediting, and developmental editing.
Some highlights include:
The Next Great Paulie Fink, by Ali Benjamin
On the Field with...Tom Brady, by Matt Christopher
The Revolution of Birdie Randolph, by Brandy Colbert
A Season of Doubt, by Jeannie Burt
Plant Trees, Carry Sheep: A Woman’s Spiritual Journey Among the Sufis of Scotland, by SA Snyder
Princess Lessons (Sofia the First Smart Pad)
Animal Travel (Mickey Mouse Club Smart Pad)
Like the Red Sky at Morning, by Brielle Skye
I taught children’s book publishing as part of Portland State University’s Master’s in Publishing program, and have spoken at a variety of writing conferences and workshops, including SCBWI and Willamette Writers. I mentor new editors as well, through the Northwest Editors Guild’s mentoring program.
But that's just the professional stuff. I have other interests as well.