Editing and Consulting for Writers
I have taken one workshop, one writing class and just finished an intense tutoring session with Marjorie. We discussed her critiques of several of my short stories and her comments were encouraging and insightful; her suggestions are useful and valuable to me. She is an excellent teacher and I look forward to working with her again.–Barbara Kenyon
First Consult
Get Help with your Book! I review your one-page synopsis and first chapter up to 15 pages. I respond with thoughts and we decide whether I’m a good fit for you. The fee is deducted from consult fee if we do decide to continue. Fee: $145
- Alternate program for writers on a budget: We sit and look at your material together for an hour. I give you my best advice.
Fee: $75. - Special deal for current students in my Kitchen Table Workshops: 1 hour review of whatever you bring to the table: $35
Quick Read for Drafts
$4 per page doublespaced for a quick read and a short letter, marking what I see—editing for phrasing, illogical connections, missing material, general issues to work on. I am good at finding the structures you are working with and helping you make a plan to develop them. Minimum: 20 pages
Intensive Manuscript Review
$5/page for reworking, suggesting rewrites—pacing, layering, metaphor, ways to bring the heart of the story, coaching for rewrites. Includes detailed, page by page comments, a letter, and individual meeting by phone or in person. Minimum: 20 pages
- For writers on a budget: you may ask for a $4.50 rate. 50 page minimum.
Mentoring – the Low Cost Alternative to an MFA Program
Even Low-Residency MFA Programs charge $8,000 or more for a semester of mentoring. Skip the residency and get the mentoring! Following the Low Residency MFA mentoring model I learned at top-rated Warren Wilson College MFA Program, I will review your creative material per packet, via email or postal mail (you provide SASE packaging). I respond with editing, advice, assignments for craft essays, reading assignments, and random useful projects. This is an incredibly effective way to make quick progress in your mastery of craft.
- Fiction, creative nonfiction, or memoir Packets: 20 pages
- Poetry Packets: 15 pages
How it works:
- Each packet includes a program of assigned reading and craft study.
- I assign you short essays on how writing works. I provide a detailed letter with each packet review.
3 packet exchanges: $1,000
- A packet exchange includes your first packet and my response, including assignments, coaching, letter of response, editing, and suggestions for further study.
- Each consult includes a detailed letter with page by page queries, plus overall thoughts about structure and opportunities for improvement
5 packet exchanges: $1500
Notes on Editing Method
- Option 1: I provide a file edited on line with Word’s Comments tags and revision marks. I use Word 7.0
- Option 2: I work on your printed copy, which you send with an SASE.
I actually prefer the latter—I’m an old school editor, the pencil helps me think!
My qualifications:
- 30 years of professional editing and writing for trade and university publishers.
- 10 years creative writing teaching and consulting.
- An uncommon “sixth sense,” honed over years of experience, reading, and study, that tells me the shapes and solutions that will serve the heart of a story, essay, or poem.
- 30 years of published writing, numerous awards, including the prestigious PEN/Hemingway Honorable Mention for Distinguished Fiction and an NC Arts Council Fellowship (2012)
- MFA, Warren Wilson College
Past Institutional Clients / Staff Work:
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, Harper Collins, Duke University Sanford Institute for Public Policy, UNC Institute of Government Publishing Division, Duke University Chronicle, Capital News Group, TeleSpan Publishing Company, National Parks Magazine, and many more.
Published Writing: 2 literary books, 5 anthologies, more than 50 stories, articles, poems in Story, Storytelling Magazine, West Branch, Yankee, Garden & Gun, Wildlife in North Carolina, American Land Forum, and many more.
