Alicia Young – Editor

I work with authors to help them develop technical, industry-revered content for reports, e-books, and articles on a variety of topics in technology, business, and design. I specialize in software architecture & development and business, with additional projects across a variety of technical areas.

For the imprint Bedford/St. Martin’s, I developed and revised cutting-edge educational resources, including books in literature, composition, business and technical writing, and basic writing. In addition to helping authors write about these topics, I also learned what people want to read in these fields, particularly in literature -- I learned what's hot in the current literature market and regularly assessed short stories, plays, essays, and poems. My authors often requested specifically to work with me on subsequent projects, and I edited three of the company’s top 20 selling titles from a catalog of over 700 products.

I worked with senior-level editors to develop a range of professional resources and higher-education tools. Highlights include working with a senior executive editor who had 30 years of experience developing texts for the literature market and developing the ESL and multilingual content for the bestselling Hacker handbooks franchise (which includes A Writer's Reference, the bestselling college reference text of all time).

I provided assistance to four English editors working on readers and handbooks, including researching and writing annotations for online resources, writing scripts for interactive tutorials, preparing manuscripts for print and digital production, and managing book questionnaire and review programs ranging from 10 to 100 respondents. I also helped to update documentation guidelines for MLA, APA, CMS, and CSE styles in titles across the company's list.

I made an editor’s life easier by reading and commenting on unsolicited manuscripts ranging from trade fiction/nonfiction books to auto repair manuals. I wrote synopses and coverage comments and recommended books for publication or rejection.

I became a trained writing teacher and coach as part of this elite teaching/tutoring program. I learned effective, in-depth writing techniques and worked one-on-one with students across a range of disciplines and class levels. I gave structural and stylistic feedback on papers in history, English, neuroscience, economics, biology, and communications, and I met regularly with professors to discuss class writing goals and best practices.