Erica Ferguson – Editor

I'm a former senior production editor who has worked in-house at two major publishing houses (HarperCollins and Penguin Random House). I started freelancing in 2008 and turned to full-time eight years ago, when I became a mom. I currently copyedit and proofread for eight publishing companies (including the "Big Five"), editing adult, YA, middle school, and children's books, and genres including (but not limited to) romance, mysteries, memoirs, nonfiction, and thrillers. I will not only edit your manuscript and provide the reasons for my changes/suggestions (adhering to "Chicago Manual of Style" and "Merriam-Webster"—quotation marks used only because italics formatting isn't possible here), I may leave a note or two why something resonates with me. Previous authors I've worked with have said my comments made it feel like a human was editing and taking interest in their hard work, as opposed to a robot just making changes. I also understand the importance of maintaining an author's voice and style and have been honored to be trusted to work on many books by authors of color and in the LGBTQ+ community, despite not identifying with either group.