It’s time to invest in an editor.

Scary, right? You’ve spent months or even years working to bring your book to life. These are your words, your ideas—your baby. It’s perfectly natural to be anxious when you think about handing your manuscript over to a critic. Even a friendly, constructive one.

Finding the right editor is a bit like online dating.

How can you tell if this is someone you can trust, who truly gets you and your vision for the project, who can help you make your work the best it can be? Sure, I look great on paper—all the skills and passion you’re looking for—and my past clients have good things to say. But what about chemistry? Communication? What is it really like to work together, especially on something you’re so personally invested in?

I understand those concerns—because I have them too!

I give my all to every project I touch, so I will be investing a great deal of my time, creative energy, and expertise in you and your manuscript. A good fit is just as critical for me as it is for you. I’m looking for work that lights me up, and partners who share my view of editor and author as a team in service to the book and its readers.

My approach holistic and intuitive. I can see the polished final draft in the manuscript, at whatever stage it comes to me, and ideally we work together until we achieve that end result. This means that in a single manuscript, I may provide everything from copyediting to ghostwriting, depending on what any given sentence or paragraph or scene may need.

The First Date is your chance to see that process in action. We get to know each other’s work and communication styles, you get to see exactly how I would handle your material, and we can both make sure our approaches mesh.

The First Date delivers a shitload of valuable feedback.

Whether you ultimately proceed with editing services from Red Pen for Rent, decide to go a different direction, or discover that you want to do more work on your manuscript before handing it over to a professional, it’s well worth the investment.