Eldes Tran

Eldes Tran – Editor

Experienced, international editor of fiction and memoirs, with a focus on Asia, culture, and identity. Communication and nuance are key.

Overview

An editor for more than fifteen years, I look forward to communicating with authors and helping them bring out the best in their writing. From New York to Los Angeles to Hong Kong, Singapore, and now Manila, I've worked on diverse teams and love the challenge of working with new authors from around the world, whether they are familiar with publishing or not. I'm Chinese, raised in New Zealand and California in a family of refugees from Vietnam, making me a suitable editor for today's global readers. I'll flag anything sensitive or potentially culturally questionable, and make sure your writing doesn't feel outdated in these fast-changing times. Attention to detail is important to me, but so is understanding where an author is coming from and where you want to go. Let's have a conversation first so we can map out a path together. Transparency and trust are also key, so I'm also happy to give you a sample edit so we can adjust as we go. No edit is too big to handle if we take one step at a time together. Your manuscript will be in good hands.
Services
Non-Fiction
Biographies & Memoirs Travel
Fiction
Cultural & Ethnic Literary Fiction Middle Grade Women's Fiction Young Adult
Languages
English (UK) English (US)

Work experience

Self-employed

Nov, 2020 — Present

I provide professional, common-sense editing services to help you reach today’s global readers. Versatile in American- and British-English editing, I’m interested in non-fiction projects, literary fiction, women’s contemporary fiction, thrillers, middle-grade fiction, young adult fiction, and memoirs.

My current clients include start-up and traditional publishers, including HarperCollins UK, Wildtype Media and Epigram Books, and independent authors who span the globe, including in Australia, Germany, United States, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa, and Britain.

Epigram Books

Sep, 2019 — Nov, 2020 (about 1 year)

-Oversaw a team of five editors and the list of 50 books a year for Singapore’s largest independent publisher known for its annual Epigram Books Fiction Prize
-Attended and spoke at the first conference of the Jieli-ASEAN Children’s Books Alliance in Nanning, China, attended by major Chinese and ASEAN publishers
-Spoke about editing, writing and publishing at Yale-National University of Singapore and LASALLE College of the Arts, and presented authors at book launches and Epigram titles at the biannual sales conferences
-Ran biweekly editorial meetings and Books In Progress meetings
-Managed house style guides, and manuscript submissions and evaluations
-Managed the summer and winter internship programs, including recruitment
-Worked on the editing and production of non-fiction, fiction and middle grade titles, and commissioned projects, coordinating with marketing, sales and design

Notable authors and titles included Pico Iyer, Jason Erik Lundberg, Boey Kim Cheng, Akshita Nanda, Paige Parker, Suffian Hakim, Ken Kwek, The Naysayer’s Book Club, The Parsis of Singapore, How to Cook Everything Singaporean and Homeless

Epigram Books

Nov, 2016 — Sep, 2019 (almost 3 years)

-Developed and edited non-fiction, fiction, young adult, middle grade, early readers, children’s picture books, and commissioned projects
-Duties included structural editing, line editing, proofreading, indexing, evaluating manuscripts, selling books and moderating talks

New York Times

Sep, 2013 — Apr, 2016 (over 2 years)

-Front-line copy editor on articles and breaking news from Asia for
-Designed and layed out pages for news and business for all Asia print editions
-Edited and managed the mobile apps for The New York Times and NYT Now

South China Morning Post

Aug, 2011 — Aug, 2013 (about 2 years)

-Edited original China and Hong Kong content, and world and business stories; extensive rewriting for Hong Kong news and youth sections
-Managed the home page and news sections based on real-time traffic analytics
-Monitored and coordinated with news desks on breaking news
-Developed style guide for, particularly rules dealing with social media

Los Angeles Times

Jun, 2006 — Aug, 2010 (about 4 years)

-Edited online and print content for business, metro, features and national sections

Portfolio

At the turn of the millennium, American-born Paige Parker and investment guru Jim Rogers spend three years—1,101 days to be exact—driving over six continents in their "sunburst yellow" coupe and trailer, ultimately setting a Guinness World Record. During the e... read more
Nimita's Place

Akshita Nanda

It is 1944 in India and Nimita Khosla yearns to attend university to become an engineer, but her parents want a different life for her. As she accepts her fate and marries, religious upheaval is splitting the country and forcing her family to find a new home.I... read more
No hotel is as inseparably linked to its city than Raffles Hotel, writes Pico Iyer, arguably the world’s greatest travel writer alive.Drawing upon numerous stays in Raffles over 35 years and the fast-ascending city all around it, Iyer—a lifelong global soul—re... read more
Diary of One Who Disappeared

Jason Erik Lundberg

The year is 2040 and an envoy of the North American Union finds himself a fugitive in the Southeast Asian nation of Tinhau.Lucas Lehrer is tasked with travelling from the North American Union to the island-nation of Tinhau to extend the offer of political part... read more
The Java Enigma

Salleh, Erni

A Fickle and Restless Weapon

Lundberg, Jason Erik

In his second wonderfully whacky children’s novel, Ken Kwek takes a hard—and funny—look at teens beset with academic pressures and technology overload.Kelly Mao has got quite the headache: her tiger mum is threatening to ground her, her tuition timetable barel... read more
For Emperor and Country, or Love and Family?Zimei (子美) is faced with a bleak future. Despite his great potential and hailing from an illustrious lineage, he serves his Emperor as a lowly Tang Dynasty official, having failed the Imperial Examinations twice.He s... read more
By the author of Playing Madame Mao, hailed by Time magazine as "one of the best novels ever written about Singapore".Ismael, a transplanted Singaporean, lives on a bucolic suburban Brisbane street. His job is to decide whether asylum-seekers get to stay in th... read more
Freddy finds out about the devastating 2015 earthquake in Nepal from his family and hears how his Dad had survived one in India. Moved by the plight of the earthquake victims, Freddy wants to contribute to his middle school’s fundraiser with the Singapore Red ... read more
18 Walls

Teo Xue Shen

This action-packed thriller follows a squad of 18-year-olds who must fight an army of Savages in a war they did not choose.Ren is an elite fighter who feels no emotions. That makes him the perfect soldier to battle the Savages, a feral army of half-animal, hal... read more
The Minorities

Suffian Hakim

Meet the four misfits living in one HDB flat.One is a Malay–Jew who is trying to get his father to come back as a ghost. Cantona is a promising Bangladeshi artist on the run from a construction company. Tights is a Chinese illegal immigrant with a Forrest Gump... read more

Eldes has 20 reviews

Professionalism

Quality

Value

Responsiveness

rorke C.

rorke C.

Dec, 2023

It was a pleasure to collaborate with Eldes! I am very new to this process and Eldes really help me understand the different steps. On top of that, they are very responsive and thorough! Their queries pushed and inspired me to think about different parts of my work.
Eldes T.
Thanks, Rorke! It was a pleasure working with you too!
F H.

F H.

Sep, 2023

Very thorough. Eldes corrects many errors in my story and makes excellent suggestions. A great help. Highly recommended.
Eldes T.
Thank you for sharing your novel! It was a great experience to work together.
Heritage P.

Heritage P.

Mar, 2023

Eldes was the perfect editor for our needs! She was professional, thoughtful, and insightful. She answered all my questions thoroughly and patiently. I was very satisfied with the constructive feedback she provided and highly recommend her to anyone who needs an editor.
Eldes T.
It was wonderful to see your diverse books, and I look forward to seeing future publications and products! Keep up the good work and I'm so glad to hear I was able to help.
Sumaiyya A.

Sumaiyya A.

Jun, 2022

As a first-time writer, I was terrified of the editing process. I had never written a full novel before. But when I began my editing process with Eldes, she was amazing. I had many concerns, and a lot of sensitive subjects. But she was nuanced in every aspect of the process. She took the time and effort to pinpoint every detail the reader will be aware of. I wrote a contemporary interracial rom...
Read more
Eldes T.
Thanks, Sumaiyya! This was a dream collaboration, so fun and fulfilling. I can't wait to see Katrina and Evan (and more characters from that world) meet more readers!
Peter N.

Peter N.

Mar, 2022

Always punctual and professional, Eldes provided solid editorial comments and suggestions and is open to hearing my reactions to them. I feel the carriage has two horses pulling it and will arrive at the destination in good shape and on time. Thanks Eldes!

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