Consulting

Part of my work over the years has involved being a contract manuscript advisor, a substantive editor, photo researcher and book project coordinator.

Manuscript Advisor
I have read and evaluated book manuscripts for both private and corporate clients. In most cases, this involves providing detailed notes and discussions about how to improve a manuscript so it is either attractive to a trade publisher or presentable for self-publishing. Having evaluated hundreds of manuscripts while on staff at Harbour Publishing, I have a well-founded understanding of what publishers want and how book proposals and manuscripts should be presented.

Substantive Editor
My strongest editing skills are substantive editing. I’m not shy about diving into a manuscript that needs extensive revisions and working with the author so their book “works.” I have been hired to do this by several publishers and individuals. A number of the private projects I have worked on have been subsequently published by trade publishers. My recent contract work for trade publishers include substantive editing/re-writing Barrie Farrell’s Boats in My Blood: A Life in Boatbuilding (2015) and overseeing major revisions to four volumes of Anne and Laurence Yeadon-Jones’ Dreamspeaker Cruising Guides to British Columbia (2015-16). Because of my long experience with the BC coast and it’s history, geography and oceanography, I am also often called upon to use my local knowledge for fact checking.

Book Project Co-ordinator: Trade Publishers
Most of my work is contract project management/project editing for established publishers. In 2020 I was project editor Dublin Gulch: A History of the Eagle Mine [Yukon]. Another notable project was project managing Wade Davis Photographs (Douglas & McIntyre), a spectacular visual treat from a former National Geographic Explorer in Residence. I researched, selected and compiled Raincoast Chronicles 23. I was project manager for the 400-page, multiple-award-winning book The Sea Among Us: The Amazing Strait of Georgia, which involved coordinating with ten authors. In 2010, I project managed the redesign and the addition of significant new content to the KnowBC website, home of the Encyclopedia of BC and other major reference works published by Harbour Publishing.

Book Project Co-ordinator: Private
I have worked with dozens of editors, designers and printers. This has enabled me to guide private individuals through the process of writing a book, having it professionally edited, designed, and printed. In 2020 I oversaw the editing and production of Carol and Rick Blacklaws’ books The Fraser: River of Life and Legend and, in 2015, In the Footsteps of Alexander Mackenzie, Other projects include Vickie Jensen’s Totems of Stanley Park and How to Build an Underwater Robot as well as project managing the 770-page book, Underwater Robotics: Science, Design & Fabrication for Monterey Peninsula College in California.

Photo Researcher
I was photo editor for the book The History of Metropolitan Vancouver by the late Chuck Davis, which won two BC Book Prizes: the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize for best book about British Columbia and the Bill Duthie Bookseller’s Choice Award for best book published in 2012. I compiled the photography for Andrew Scott’s Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names. I was the lead photo researcher for the Encyclopedia of British Columbia. Over several years my staff and I collected and examined over 100,000 images and selected and catalogued several thousand for possible use in the encyclopedia. I also helped write captions for the photos used in the encyclopedia. During my years with Harbour Publishing I oversaw the photography for a number of other important books.