About Reba

Testimonials

Reba is one of the best editors I have worked with. Her work is thorough, reliable and efficient. She is always a pleasure to work with. I would recommend her to even the pickiest of authors.

– Lora Gallagher, Production Manager Outskirts Press

WHY WRITERS HIRE EDITORS

It’s clear why writers should use an editor if they’re planning to self-publish a book. If they don’t have their manuscripts edited, their work will be published as is—typos and all. Writers who plan to self-publish can either hire an independent editor, purchase the...

COMMA SPLICING AND RUN-ON SENTENCES

One of the most common errors I see in manuscripts is comma splicing (also called run-on sentences)—a grammatical no-no. Comma splicing is the use of a comma to join two independent, complete sentences that can stand on their own. (I wrote a sentence, I used a comma...

MAKING TIME TO WRITE WHEN YOU HAVE KIDS

Making time to write is hard when you're a stay-home parent. My own kids are teenagers—busy, busy teenagers with jobs and social lives and cell phones and their own agendas. If I wanted to work on a novel, they’d probably be thrilled to have me out of their hair. But...

Dialogue Tags

One of the joys of reading short stories or novels is being transported into a different life, a different country, a different perspective. But when an author inadvertently makes his or her presence suddenly known, it’s jolting for the reader to be jerked back into...

The Realities Of Freelancing: Is It The “Free” Or The “Lance”?

Many people go into freelance work with wide-eyed optimism. Freelancing. Emphasis on the free. They imagine the freedom of setting their own hours, grabbing the laptop and jaunting off to work in a trendy coffee shop, being their own boss, enjoying more leisure time,...

Seven Bar Jokes Involving Grammar and Punctuation

Thanks to Eric K. Auld... 1. A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink and then leaves. 2. A dangling modifier walks into a bar. After finishing a drink, the bartender asks it to leave. 3. A question mark walks into a bar? 4. Two quotation marks “walk into” a...

In the late ’80s, I landed my first job out of college at a PR firm in Seattle. I wrote press releases and sponsorship proposals, and I was responsible for proofing all copy—posters, brochures, and promotional material.

From there, I moved into technical editing. I was working in document control for an engineering company, putting together huge reports and studies for clients, when a coworker—a technical writer and an ex-newspaper editor—realized I had a knack for good copy and quickly became my mentor. He taught me proofreading skills, quizzed me constantly on tricky grammatical issues and issues of style, and eventually started dumping half his workload on my desk. And I relished every moment of it.

Eventually I decided to go freelance, but I wanted to work in fiction. I spent years reading writers’ forums and writer-related websites, and I surfed the Internet ad nauseam to learn more about the industry. I studied the Chicago Manual of Style, countless grammar reference books, and the Writer’s Market obsessively, slowly building up a client list and honing my skills.

Today, I consider myself extremely fortunate to do what I love best—reading terrific manuscripts, and helping writers improve their craft and increase their odds of publication.

It’s imperative to have a true and profound love for the written word in order to succeed in this business, and it helps to be a lifelong, voracious reader. You need to have a solid grasp of the rules of writing and combine that with an instinct for what reads well. You don’t want to work at a snail’s pace, agonizing over the smallest decisions, and you must be confident in order to stand behind your suggestions and changes.

As a freelancer, my clients are my number one priority. A writer’s work is extremely personal, so I take my responsibility seriously, from meeting deadlines to maintaining good communication and respectfully offering suggestions for improvement, and I stay current on the trends in the publishing industry itself. I have a sincere desire to help writers get their work published, and with my reputation on the line, I want their work to be in the best possible shape it can be—technically and stylistically. Drop me a line using my contact form if you’re a writer who could use a little help too!