Alison Cherry – Editor

I have years of experience doing copy editing and developmental editing, and I can't wait to help you make your writing as clear, beautiful, and effective as it can be! I especially love working on books for kids and teens—I've published nine middle grade and young adult novels of my own, so I'm intimately familiar with the world of children's books. I'm currently employed as a copy editor by ABRAMS, Candlewick, Algonquin, Sourcebooks, Astra, and Scholastic, specializing in books for kids and teens, and worked for several years for DAW Books, which specializes in science fiction and fantasy for adults. I do not work on picture books.

If you hire me as a developmental editor, I will write you a thorough edit letter detailing how you can improve your manuscript in ways large and small, from the emotional arcs of your characters and big-picture world building to small continuity issues. This service doesn't include line edits or copy edits—I won't comment on word choice or fix your commas—but I will return your manuscript to you full of margin notes asking smaller and more specific questions that occur to me as I read. If you're looking to tighten up your manuscript, I'm excellent at suggesting cuts. If you have further questions after you've read my initial letter, I'm happy to exchange a few emails with you to brainstorm or clarify.

If you hire me as a copy editor, I'll return your manuscript to you with all spelling, punctuation, and grammar issues corrected in track changes. I won't fully rewrite sentences for you unless you specifically ask me to, but I’ll suggest ways to rephrase if something is unclear, awkward, or redundant. I use The Chicago Manual of Style and Merriam-Webster as my style guides.

If you hire me to edit a query letter, I'll look at as many drafts as you'd like over the course of one week; I want you to feel 100 percent confident about your finished product! I'm also happy to edit your synopsis and provide feedback on your first few chapters before you submit them to agents.

My superpower is making books shorter—if you're looking for someone to trim unnecessary clauses and streamline your writing, I'm the editor for you. I once cut 40,000 words from an epic fantasy novel without removing any plot points, and I'm ready to help you do the same!

Please reach out if you feel my services could be useful to you! I look forward to seeing what you've written and helping your stories reach a wider audience.