About Jon David Editing
Jonathan David editing:
--Developmental Editing and Consulting for Academic Writers and Authors of Non-Fiction in Social Science, Arts, Humanities.
--Independent Research and Writing Services
Many writers burn midnight oil for years at a time researching and writing their manuscripts without feedback or encouragement from acquisitions editors, prospective publishers, and most of all, from readers. Academic writers in particular face a distinct set of difficulties.
That is, the skills that an academically trained researcher learns in graduate school – collecting material, finding previously published works on a subject, becoming proficient with the ideas of a discipline, developing familiarity with the work of prominent scholars in the field – are often not by themselves sufficient to I offer writer’s help in preparing a manuscript for publication. In a dissertation a journeyman writer needs to prove her/his familiarity with experts in the field, in a book, the newly minted expert has to be the expert, and tell the compelling story of her/his research to an audience.
I can help writers develop their manuscripts before submitting them to prospective publishers and their acquisitions editors. I can help authors become more effective story tellers, help think through the overall organization of their manuscripts as part of a big picture, or generate reader-friendly sentences in the small picture. As an extra set of eyes, I can help writers write clearer topic sentences, define terms more clearly, use active voice and so on. I can be a cheerleader too: I often find myself encouraging writers to not underestimate what they know, and overestimate what the readers know.
The work of being a developmental editor is difficult and focused. It takes a skilled and sensitive reader to enter into another person’s writing, to engage with her/his thinking process for the purpose of helping develop a more clear and cogent exposition of ideas. This is what I will offer for those who wish to work with me.
Contact me at 215-729-3418
What I can’t offer: I want to make sure that those who contact me know that I cannot guarantee publication, be an agent, help with contracts or communicate with a publisher’s staff.