My career in book publishing started with a brief internship that morphed into a fourteen-year foundational season.

A lifelong lover of books and stories, I began my professional journey into the world of book publishing in June 2009, working as a catchall intern for multiple nonfiction departments at Thomas Nelson Publishers in Nashville, Tennessee. From printing and manually binding hundreds of manuscripts for publicity mailings, to writing press releases and comparing proofreader marks, to sitting in on marketing and editorial meetings, to ordering lunches and supplies, I started at the bottom. A couple add-on internships later, I became a full-time employee in March 2010 (thanks to a fabulous boss!), and less than two years after my very first day, I transitioned into my (then) dream job: Editorial Assistant on the Fiction team. (It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that involved simply switching positions with a colleague. True story!)

I worked hard. So hard. Reading proposals, managing the publisher’s calendar, arranging travel, summarizing financials, overseeing contract files, making sure authors got paid . . . And I loved it. Every bit of it. (I mean, I was working with the team that published some of my teenage self’s favorite novels! How cool is that?!) As I became acclimated and proved myself, I was trusted with more and more responsibilities and I was hungry to learn as much as I could. When HarperCollins bought Thomas Nelson in 2012, and I received my first promotion to Associate Editor.

Everything sped up then, and I learned a very important life lesson:

The only constant in life is change.

Soon the longtime fiction publisher moved on and a new leader joined our team, other colleagues left and new teammates arrived, Zondervan fiction titles joined our list, internal systems changed, authors were acquired, books published, conferences attended, and I slowly rose through the ranks, promoted to Editor in 2017 and Senior Editor in 2021.

Throughout this time I continued working hard and learning all I could about the publishing industry and fiction and business and editing. I created P&L reports, initiated and monitored the team’s data integrity, managed myriad schedules and shepherded book interiors through production, vetted and hired proofreaders, orchestrated catalog development three times each year for sales conferences, contributed to titling and acquisitions meetings, and dealt with rights reversions. I worked alongside some lovely people—colleagues and authors and freelancers. My team experimented with e-first novellas and eventually launched a new imprint we were so excited about! I discovered this gem and read craft books and studied editing, shadowing developmental edits and analyzing line edits. And I fell in love with the process of line editing and helping authors polish and strengthen their narratives. In 2017, I began performing in-house line edits for some of our authors, starting with this beautiful story. (Visit my Portfolio to see other books I’ve edited!)

My fourteen years at this company gave me a solid foundation, valuable skills, a strong network of book people, and prepared me for my next transition. Because, as I learned earlier in my career, life is full of change and sometimes that is exactly what a person needs. I resigned from corporate publishing in April 2023 and embarked on a new adventure: Freelance Editing (#solopreneur). Now I’m available to share my expert editing skills and insider publishing knowledge with you!

Contact me today and let me know how I can help you on your journey to publish your book!