More than twenty years of trade book experience
Manuscript Editing
Copyediting
Proofreading
Story Mapping
Later Stages
Rush Projects
Contact
➤ LOCATION
North Shore of MA
☎ CONTACT
alison@akmpubservices.com
(617) 913-3045
Please see my extensive experience below. I cannot take copyediting/proofreading tests at this stage in my career, but I will happily provide references from editors, production editors, and authors, as well as a list of relevant titles edited.
My Background
I began my career at a university press, and after a move to Boston became a manuscript editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2000. For the next seventeen years I worked on books for adults and children as a full-time employee, then as a freelancer/employee hybrid (during this period I also freelanced for other publishers), and finally as a part-time employee.
I live on the North Shore of Massachusetts with my husband and our two boys, ages fourteen and eighteen.
General Interest Fiction
I love literary novels and short stories, but mysteries are fun, and I really enjoyed making a story map of The Da Vinci Code. General interest authors whose fiction I've edited include Lorrie Moore, Alice Sebold, Rick Bass, and Susan Straight.
In-House Experience
When I worked in-house I was in charge of hiring all freelance copyeditors, proofreaders, and indexers for middle grade and young adult books. I know what changes are appropriate to suggest for each stage, and what will drive a production editor bananas.
I will not drive you bananas.
General Interest Nonfiction
The memoir is my favorite genre; I have edited many, most recently Jenny Slate’s Little Weirds and A Good Country by Sofia Ali-Khan. Annotated nonfiction titles I have copyedited include The Bohemians: The Lovers Who Led Germany’s Resistance Against the Nazis by Norman Ohler and Full Spectrum: How the Science of Color Made Us Modern by Adam Rogers. I have experience with cookbook and lifestyle titles, and I'm especially interested in proofreading those.
Evolving Style
The style guides I have written over the years have been based heavily on The Chicago Manual of Style, but I am aware that language and style evolve. I follow the author's lead while serving the interest of the reader.
I was the manuscript editor for Ellen Jovin’s Rebel with a Clause: Tales and Tips from a Roving Grammarian, which, in providing an opportunity for an immersive, extended grammar discussion, rewired a few areas of my editing brain.
Middle Grade and Young Adult
When it comes to books for young readers I prefer realistic fiction, biographies and other illustrated nonfiction, poetry, and picture books. I experience "teenspeak" in my home, so I won't be baffled by it in a young adult manuscript, and I strive to respect the tone and voice the author is trying to achieve. I have had the great pleasure of editing the works of Lois Lowry, Gary D. Schmidt, and Kwame Alexander.
“Alison’s expertise has spared me
countless moments of literary embarrassment and has helped to craft a clearer, more
cohesive narrative. Her invisible but vital imprint is hiding on every page of this book.”
Contact me.
I'd love to know more about your books.