Welcome to the Path to Peaceful Publishing. Where Are You on Your Journey?

Maybe you’ve written your first draft and aren’t sure what to do next. Maybe you’re already published but find yourself spending more time writing social media content than your actual content. Maybe you’re just getting started. For whatever reason, you landed here, because something is unclear, stressful, or feels unaligned in what you’re trying to do as a writer.

Writings on Craft and Publishing Have Been Featured In:

Here’s a Glimpse into My History in Publishing:

I entered the publishing scene, honestly by accident, in 2010 when one of my creative writing professors saw something in me and invited me to work at 42 Miles Press as an editor and submission reader. I quickly found my stride and became the Managing Editor for 42 Miles Press and became the lead Poetry Editor for the university’s literary magazine, Analecta. I was hooked. I loved reading submissions, thinking about how they worked, and pondering the thought the writer behind those pieces put into choosing which pieces to send to Analecta, or when they thought they were ready to send a complete collection to 42 Miles Press. I thought about how poems spoke to each other, where some plots fell flat around the middle while others soared, and what a quality writing life looked like. I thought about what I wanted for my own writing life while I spent time rooting for others’. 

When I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in English with a Concentration in Creative Writing and Publishing, and a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Secondary English Education, with certifications in Reading and Developmental Psychology, I was accepted to Western Michigan University to complete my MFA (Master of Fine Arts) in Poetry while I began my teaching. Within days of arriving, I was invited to join Third Coast Literary Magazine, again as a Poetry Editor, and New Issues Poetry & Prose, this time as a submission reader, event planner, web content writer… and to my surprise, as the Interior and Design Editor for their two annual book series. I had worked with Adobe Photoshop minimally before that and was excited to learn more about it and to dig into InDesign so I could really “make books.” To this day, interior design work is now one of my favorite aspects of the writing and publishing process. I love thinking about how a design can make the biggest impact in a work: what word or phrase will make the reader turn the page the fastest, or what design on the page will really make a poem sing. 

During my MFA, I started freelance editing on the side (theory papers, my first few romance novels, and multiple poetry chapbooks and anthologies), as well as diving into the dissertation world. I learned what took a dissertation from completing an assignment to being a profound study, a resource for fellow researchers, and a book that would tempt readers to pull it from the shelves. In my third year of my MFA, things really started to shift, as I not only was starting to get regular editing clients and felt like it could grow into a business I could love, but I also announced to my writing community that I wanted to start writing book reviews and to interview authors. While a lot of readers review the books they read on Amazon or Goodreads, I wanted to dive into long-form, detailed reviews and have thoughtful and meaningful conversations with authors about their work beyond what their writing routine looks like. As if I wasn’t already attached to the literary world, my intense study of books followed by commenting on them publicly was the cherry on top, the book that made the whole TBR tumble off the nightstand onto the bed—in the best way possible. 

From 2010 to now, I’ve unapologetically thrown myself into every possible scenario and role I could in the literary world—beta reading, different forms of editing, web design, social media, event planning, being a personal assistant to multiple authors, and so much more—and I honestly cannot say that I disliked any of them. There’s importance to every step, from the initial spark of an idea to the book being put on the shelf, from writing the social media post to planning the booked-out reading event, for making a book happen, for enriching the literary community, and for making a writer’s life meaningful far beyond the success of publishing a book. 

My approach is rooted in kindness, intentionality, and creativity. I am not shy about celebrating your wins or the things that are working on the page. I’ll, of course, talk about what needs to be reworked, as well, but I’ll do that in the context of how to make the good stuff even better. Whether I’m beta reading your book, scan-editing your book just for how you’re using independent clauses, or formatting your book for publication, I’ll communicate the steps I’ll have to take to demystify the process for you, I’ll explain my reasons behind my choices to decrease your decision fatigue and stress, and I’ll celebrate you and your work when we cross our finish line together. The publishing process, wherever you are on your journey, is a lot of work, but it does not have to be stressful to the point of making you question why you did this in the first place. It can be peaceful. It can be gratifying. And it can motivate you to grow your writing life into something you weren’t sure you thought it could be.