A full-time freelance editor-writer and owner of a.k.a writer in Denver, Jesaka Long works her word magic for small publishing houses and authors, especially non-fiction writers and memoirists. Let’s see how Jesaka answers the same questions she’s used for everyone in the “Meet the Editor” series. Afterward, you can ask some of your own in the Comments section. When did you first notice you were hung-up on typos? My first love was a typewriter – I loved it so much that I would do anything to type. My grandfather even let me type up his reports for work. It was when I started working for my high school newspaper that I realized that I had a thing for typos. I loved scrutinizing the waxed layouts, marking the last of the errors with a blue pencil that wouldn’t show up at the printer. What advice would you give someone interested in becoming an editor? Practice! I had the privilege of mentoring a few aspiring editors. It was so much fun to help them learn things like the in-house style...

The late  Helen Ginger  (1952-2021) was an author, blogger, and the Coordinator of Story Circle Network's Editorial Services and writing coach.  She was also a former mermaid.  She taught public speaking as well as writing and marketing workshops. Helen was the author of  Angel Sometimes ,  Dismembering the Past , and three books in TSTC Publishing’s TechCareers series. Helen Ginger is a freelance editor and book consultant, with an informational and interactive blog for writers and a free weekly e-newsletter that has gone out to subscribers around the globe for ten years. She coaches writers on the publishing industry, finding an agent, and polishing their work for publication. You can also follow her on Twitter . Let’s see what kind of advice Coach Ginger has for us as she answers my questions. Afterward, you can ask some of your own in the Comments section. When did you first notice you were hung-up on typos? Actually, I don’t consider myself hun...

L.J. Sellers is an award-winning journalist and editor and is the author of the Detective Jackson mysteries, The Sex Club and Secrets to Die For. She also loves to edit fiction and works with authors to keep her rates affordable. Contact her at: L.J. Sellers Write First, Clean Later 1. When did you first notice you were hung-up on typos? After I became an editor! I was a journalist first, but most jobs in publishing require you to write and edit, as well as plan publications, read/screen submissions, layout pages, and more. So I learned editing on the job from senior editors. Once you train yourself to look for errors at work, you can’t turn it off. 2. What advice would you give someone interested in becoming an editor? Find a starting position as an editorial assistant and learn everything you can from seasoned editors around you. Buy and read Strunk and White Elements of Style, The Careful Writer, and APA Style Manual (Chicago lite). 3. What's the best advice you have ever rec...

Meet the Editor, Marvin D Wilson Marvin is the author of three books, I Romanced the Stone , Owen Fiddler , and the just-released Between the Storm and the Rainbow . He is a prolific blogger, with an internationally popular and award-winning blog at Free Spirit (http://inspiritandtruths.blogspot.com/) Marvin is a full time writer, is on staff at All Things That Matter Press as an editor, and also does freelance editing. When did you first notice you were hung-up on typos? In college, in an English composition class. My instructor had a hissy fit if we students handed in anything with a typo in it. And back then, they were “type”-ohs – we were still using typewriters, remember those? It was so tempting to leave a “little” mistake in the last paragraph on a page rather than try and go through the pain of fixing it, or even worse re-type the entire doggone page. She would mark us down a whole grade for each and every typo. And nowadays, with the word processor and all the marvelous Word...

You know her as: Shelley Thrasher is a consulting style editor for an up-and-coming book company. She teaches an online fine-arts course at the college where she retired and posts a poem weekly on her blog. Shelley has just completed a memoir/historical novel set during World War One and looks forward to publishing it. When did you first notice you were hung up on typos? After I became an editor, I could no longer read a book for pleasure because the typos began to leap out at me, and still do. What advice would you give someone interested in becoming an editor? Know the basic rules of composition and grammar, and know when to break them. Before I became an editor I earned a BA, MA, and PhD in English, taught English on the college level for many years, and attended many writers’ workshops. After picking up my editor’s pen, I still had to rely on the more experienced editors at our company for tips about how to edit fiction. Be prepared to realize you don’t know everything a...

Shon Bacon is an author, editor, and educator whose biggest joys are writing and helping others develop their craft. She has published both creatively and academically and interviews women writers on her popular blog ChickLitGurrl: high on LATTES & WRITING . You can learn more about Shon's writings at her official website , and you can get information about her editorial services at The World According to ChickLitGurrl . See what Shon dishes out about editing with our Meet the Editor column. When did you first notice you were hung-up on typos? I think I've always been hung-up on typos; however, it became an obsession about eight years ago when I pursued my MFA/MA in creative writing and English. As a graduate teacher, I had to instruct students on how to write effective essays, and grammar, mechanics, sentence structure, and cohesion became paramount components in those instructions, not only for the students but also for me. What advice would you give someone interest...

You know her as: Maryann Miller is an author and freelance editor. Her latest books are One Small Victory and Play it Again, Sam. Visit her Web site for information about her books and her editing services. If you have a good book, she can help you make it better. When she is not working, she loves to play "farmer" on her little ranch in the beautiful Piney Woods of East Texas. Let's find out more about Maryann in our second Meet the Editor interview. When did you first notice you were hung-up on typos? I started editing for a slick, quarterly magazine about ten years after I started writing freelance articles. I was hired to work with other writers to get new stories assigned, written, and edited. But I didn't do copy editing or proofing at that point. There was another editor for that. Which is good, because copy editing has never been my strong suit. I am better at working with an author to get a story right, or improve a piece of fiction. Later, I discovered that...

You know her as: Dani Greer runs the Blog Book Tours group at Yahoo! , is a founding member of The Blood-Red Pencil. Most days you'll find her in the virtual realms or buried under manuscript submissions, blood red pencil in hand. Now see what we got Dani to spill with our Meet the Editor column. When did you first notice you were hung-up on typos?

 4th grade. This is in part because English is my second language and I had a real need to learn it as best I could. Plus, Mrs. London would have failed me because she didn't like foreigners. It was a matter of grade school survival. What advice would you give someone interested in becoming an editor?
 Read many of the classics including punctuation and grammar books, plus all the new language books being published. Know what the style books are and look at them. Practice for free with your author pals. If you can stand to do it for nothing, you can probably do it for a living. But know your stuff. Don't just hang o...

We’ve had such great responses to our “Ask the Editor” feature that we’ve created “Meet the Editor.” Now you can learn more about the editors and contributors who are sharing their tips and helping you sharpen your writing. We also have a spin-off (already!) called “Meet the Specialist” to learn more about our contributors who specialize in particular areas, like publishing and marketing. More will be revealed about this at a later date, so stay tuned. Be on the look out for subject lines with “Meet the Editor.” That’s your signal that you have an opportunity to discover the person behind the pencil. ------------------------------------- A full-time freelance editor-writer and owner of a.k.a writer in Denver, Jesaka Long works her word magic for small publishing houses and authors, especially non-fiction writers and memoirists. For more information email her at jesaka (at) jesakalong.com or visit www.jesakalong.com .