Spring Update

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I wanted to pop on here today to say the publishing world is still spinning, and I have my hand in many different projects right now. I am grateful for the continued work in spite of these crazy pandemic times.

Here are a few of my most recent projects:

  • A personal narrative written by a retired professional (editing)
  • A doctoral dissertation on psychotherapy (copyediting)
  • Articles for Healthline (writing)
  • Journal issues for the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, Jazz and Culture, and the Journal of Animal Ethics (copyediting)
  • Permissions projects for several nursing and medical textbooks (publishing administration)

Please reach out if you need any publishing services. I enjoy working with a variety of clients, from individuals to large publishing companies.

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2020 in Review

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I plan to close up shop tomorrow until 2021. After this particularly exhausting year in a global pandemic, I’ve vowed to rest and recharge in the final days of December 2020 to head into the new year with as much vigor as possible. I hope you are also able to do the same.

Despite massive shifts in how we live in 2020, I am thrilled that my freelance publishing business could keep chugging along this year. I began Silver Scribe Editorial Services in May 2013 after leaving my job as managing editor at a book publishing company to find a better work-life balance with my young children (who are now well into elementary school and learning virtually next to me as I write this post). Thanks to loyal clients and new opportunities, I’ve been able to “have it all” in my eyes — keeping a career going while also balancing the demands of parenthood.

Thank you to everyone who has sought out my services over the last seven-plus years. It’s my hope that I’ll be able to continue working in this capacity for many years to come.

I always like to review my work by the numbers, so here’s the brief summary of 2020:

  • 40-plus articles for Healthline (writing, including articles on some pretty gnarly animal bites, including the blue-ringed octopus, the venomous box jellyfish, ball pythons, chiggers, and carpenter ants, oh my!)
  • 10 academic journal issues (copyediting)
  • 6 books for self-publishing authors through Reedsy or this website (copyediting and proofreading)
  • 5-plus permissions projects for a large textbook publisher

These numbers remind me again how lucky I am to work on a variety of projects. I am truly never bored in this line of work!

A final remark I wanted to make is about changes in editing and publishing in 2020. Changes to grammar, usage, and style evolve over time, and this year had a few seismic shifts, in my opinion. Mainstream style guides embraced the move to a singular “they” and shifted the treatment of racial terms in the wake of our national conversation on race. Where I was once a stickler on using “him or her” or something of that effect when a singular pronoun was ambiguous, I now openly embrace the singular “they” and believe it is a great compromise to our language’s lack of a gender-neutral singular pronoun. Also, I am now in regular conversation with editors and authors about whether to capitalize racial terms. I think this is a positive move forward, as it opens up a dialogue about how to address these issues in our culture and offers an opportunity for authors, editors, and publishers to be more intentional in the conversation surrounding race.

Again, thank you to everyone who supported my work in 2020, and I look forward to a productive and successful 2021!

A Recent Collaboration

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Parenting Teens in a Digital World

Rachel Simmonds, author of the newly released Parenting Teens in a Digital World, and I collaborated on her work back in September. I copyedited this informative, concise handbook for Rachel and was impressed with her knowledge and strong beliefs in how to introduce children to various technologies and manage them in their teen years.

Rachel is a teacher and parent who brings real-life experience to her topic. She is also a dream author to work with. I wish her well in getting this book into the hands of parents who need her wisdom!

Fall 2020 Update

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In spite of these unusual times, I am here to report that the written word still lives! Of course 2020 has taken more twists and turns than we could have ever anticipated, but in spite of these circumstances, we continue to produce, publish, and read.

In the last six months I have worked on the usual projects with longstanding clients, but self-publishing authors have also approached me to work on their books as well. I recently edited works on topics including infertility as well as parenting and the digital age.

Earlier this summer I marked five years as a writer for Healthline. I write more than fifty articles a year for this site, and some recent ones include:

Should You Go to Bed Hungry?

Self-Assessment: How Much Do You Know About Managing Asthma?

What to Do If You’re Stung by a Venemous Box Jellyfish

This sampling of articles shows the variety of topics I get to research and write about. Life as a writer is never boring, and I am always learning.

In closing, I want to thank my one-time, sometimes, and regular clients who continue to keep me in business. I have been working as a freelancer now for seven years and am eternally grateful for the opportunities to contribute to so many publications.

Thoughtful Praise from a Recent Client

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Hello there! It’s been a few months since I posted, and boy has the world changed! As a small business owner, life has turned upside down in many unexpected ways during this time of COVID-19. These days, I am still taking on work, but I am also editing second- and third-grade writing too, since my kids have been out of physical school since March 13.

Even though the last few months have been unpredictable at times, I have been able to complete several work projects. One of them is with an individual who is publishing a book on Erroll Garner, the jazz pianist. Early on, the author and I established a great rapport, which resulted in a very successful editing process.

I recently wrapped up the project with him, and I received this touching note in the mail from the author today, including this praise:

Please accept my sincere thanks for the great job editing my book on Erroll Garner . . .

The letter’s envelope even featured Erroll Garner stamps!

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Thanks to this author and so many of my clients for making our collaborative process so fulfilling and enriching.

A Recent Collaboration

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I recently finished a flurry of projects. While most of them were excellent academic works or health articles, I had the joy of proofreading a trade book on parenting a few weeks ago: The New Mom’s Guide to New Dads by Andrew Shaw.

new-moms-guide

Andrew found me on Reedsy, a freelance site I began collaborating with last year. His instructional book for new moms (and dads) is both humorous and insightful. My kids are now far removed from the baby phase, but many of his anecdotes reminded me of those crazy first years of parenting. Andrew is a dad blogger who is doing an excellent job at creating awareness of what a dad experiences when he welcomes a child. (He is also very quick to point out the demands of motherhood, too.)

Andrew left me some complimentary feedback after I proofread his project:

Natalie was prompt and thorough in her proofreading. She worked within my deadline and made it easy to collaborate!

It was equally rewarding to work with you, Andrew.

This book is available on Kindle.

 

 

 

2019 by the Numbers

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Another twelve months have passed, and it’s time to take stock of what this year brought in terms of editing and writing work. This year proved to be my best and busiest freelance year to date, so thank you to my clients for keeping my business afloat for another year. I am very lucky to work with such great people and also balance so many varied projects. Here’s what I turned out in the Silver Scribe Editorial Services factory in 2019:

  • 57 articles for Healthline (writing)
  • 7 marketing case studies for a consulting firm (writing)
  • 11 projects for a health care textbook publisher (project management, editing, proofreading)
  • 11 journal manuscripts (copyediting)
  • 10 books or dissertations (copyediting and proofreading)
  • Numerous other projects that are too difficult to categorize but are nonetheless very important to keeping me in business!

I continue to be humbled by the amazing minds churning out written work to be edited and published. I am honored to be in this profession and feel very fortunate to work in a field that informs and challenges me intellectually.

Here’s to a new decade of content!

 

Recent Work

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Despite my absence here on the blog in the last few months, I am still working away on both editing and writing projects! I’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with some individual authors lately on large-scale publishing projects, particularly books and dissertations. Here are a few words of praise I’ve received recently, in the event these hearty endorsements convince you that I am capable and easy to work with for your own project.

“Great job, no complaints. I would be happy to hire Natalie again.” —Barbara, author of a forthcoming book on writing for academia

“Natalie does great work and it was a pleasure doing business with her.” —John, author of a forthcoming book on tuning instruments

“I am reviewing the editing and it is wonderful. . . . Thank you so much.” —Michael, author of a forthcoming book on boating and sailing

Mid-Year Update

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July 1 marked the halfway point of 2019, so I thought it would be a good time to take stock of my freelance work so far this year. Professionally, it’s been a very rewarding year for me, and I hope the trend continues this summer and fall.

Here are a few highlights from the first half of 2019:

  • I continue to write articles for Healthline, an online medical and wellness website. So far my most-read article of 2019 is “Bleeding After Hysterectomy: Is It Normal & When to Call a Doctor” with 52,924 user sessions. My articles range from these very detailed medical articles to topics that are a little less intense like “Why Is Water Important? 16 Reasons to Drink Up.” I just finished an article called “Is My Baby Having Night Terrors?” and I hope it is helpful to parents.
  • I am now collaborating with a few new clients. One client has hired me to write case studies to help a company market products in the higher education field. I have also found new clients via Reedsy and have been helping authors with their works on gestational diabetes, jazz, and instrument tuning (so far). I always say that I love my job because I come into contact with and learn about such diverse material. It’s a great fit for a lifelong reader and learner!
  • I still edit several academic journals each year. I have now copyedited several issues of the Bulletin for Research on Music Education, the Journal of Animal Ethics, Process Studies, and Jazz and Culture. The work going on in these fields is fascinating.

In addition to these highlights, I wrapped up a long-term ghostwriting collaboration with someone, copyedited/proofread a few upcoming trade books, and used my permissions-acquiring skills with a large medical-educational publisher.

Please let me know if there is anything I can help you finish as the year enters its second half.

Do I Need a Writer, an Editor, or Someone Else?

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If you are unfamiliar with the publishing process, you may wonder how a writer, editor, copyeditor, or proofreader can help you. I have worked on projects in all of these roles, and here’s my brief overview of how they serve a publication.

Writer: You may need a writer if you have a lot of ideas but you can’t seem to get them down on paper. A writer can take your stream-of-consciousness thoughts or interview you to create the document you intend to publish. That may be a website, a book, or something else. Writers can also create documents with prompts you give them or a research topic to investigate. I write for many different clients and some of my projects have included writing articles, ghostwriting books or blog posts, summarizing case studies, and more.

Editor: This is a very general title and I would lean toward putting the word “developmental” in front of the title as it concerns an individual seeking help. This person can look at your work so far and give you ideas of how to reshape or retool it to meet your intended audience. A developmental editor can also help you work on flow and ask probing questions to help you dig deeper into your document. At a publishing house, an editor may also be a managing or acquiring editor. A managing editor coordinates all aspects of the publishing process and an acquiring editor finds content to publish.

Copyeditor: This person will copyedit a document that is in very good shape and almost ready for publication. This person uses a style book or style guide (and a dictionary!) to correct grammar, usage, and style errors. A copyeditor may also point out sentences that need clarification or suggest adding headings to improve readability. A copyeditor will also format references in a bibliography or notes section as well as inquire about permissions for artwork or long passages that you borrowed from another source. Your copyeditor may also be willing to fact-check a document if you request it.

Proofreader: A proofreader looks at a nearly published document usually set in its final form. A proofreader will only correct egregious errors like misspellings or the odd (or missing) punctuation mark. The proofreader ensures that everything looks clean and tidy to avoid embarrassing mistakes appearing in the final publication.

There are of course other roles in publishing like typesetters, designers, agents, reviewers, fact-checkers, translators, and more. Before you get too far with your work, however, consider whether you need one (or more) of these types of people involved in your document. Feel free to contact me to chat about your project, and I can provide you with an assessment of what I think you need.