Helen Armalas

Helen Armalas – Editor

efficient, collaborative, and agile editor | indie authors, traditional publishers, and university presses | nonfiction and fiction

Overview

A lifelong reader, I started my editing career after working as an accountant and then executive assistant for over ten years. Disenchanted with the business world and the strictures of the nine-to-five routine, I quit my job and enrolled in the Editing certificate program at the University of Chicago. Since then I have worked with university presses editing scholarly journals, traditional and indie publishers editing book manuscripts, museums editing exhibition text, and select other clients editing anything and everything thrown at me.

While I copyedit, line edit, structurally edit, and proofread all different types of work, from middle school novels to self-help books, my expertise and passion resides in literary fiction, biography and memoir, history, cultural criticism and popular culture, and art titles. (I also have a background and degree in art history.) Please refer to my portfolio for a selection of my editing work.

I would love to hear from you if you need help with any one of these genres!

Services
Non-Fiction
Biographies & Memoirs History Political Science & Current Affairs Psychology
Fiction
Contemporary Fiction Literary Fiction Women's Fiction Young Adult
Languages
English (US)
Certifications
  • Editing certificate, the University of Chicago

Work experience

Self-employed

Jan, 2023 — Present
—Provides developmental editing, book coaching, copyediting, line editing, and proofreading services to traditional publishers, university presses, independent authors, and museums as well as select business clients. —Clients include Hachette, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, Seven Stories Press, Simon & Schuster, and Yale University Press.

Portfolio

Copy Editing
The One Day You Were My Husband: A Novel

Walsh, Rosie

Pamela Dorman Books

Proofreading
Copy Editing
Proofreading
Proofreading
The Savage Mind: An American Legacy

Treuer, David

Little, Brown and Company

Copy Editing
Copy Editing
Dear Dealer: A Memoir

Bowers, Nadia

Gallery Books

Proofreading
Copy Editing
The Definitions: A Novel

Greene, Matt

Henry Holt and Co.

Proofreading
Under Water: A Novel

Menon, Tara

Riverhead Books

Proofreading
Big Kiss, Bye-Bye: A Novel

Bennett, Claire-Louise

Riverhead Books

Proofreading
A Killer in the Family: A Novel

Ahmad, Amin

Henry Holt and Co.

Proofreading
The Black Cats Bookshop: A Novel

Pulixi, Piergiorgio

Flatiron Books: Pine & Cedar

Proofreading
Driven

Wolff, Susie

Henry Holt and Co.

Proofreading
Proofreading
No Such Thing as Monday: A Novel

Hughes, Siân

Henry Holt and Co.

Proofreading
I'll Follow You: A Novel

Wang, Charlene

Mindy's Book Studio

Copy Editing
Heavy Cream: A Novel

Blakley-Cartwright, Sarah

Simon & Schuster

Proofreading
Copy Editing Proofreading
Copy Editing
A Line You Have Traced

Dunnett, Roisin

The Feminist Press at CUNY

Copy Editing
Copy Editing
Proofreading
Mean: The Psychology of Female Rivalry and How to Break the Cycle

Vaillancourt Ph.D, Dr Tracy

S&S/Simon Element

Copy Editing
Everything She Didn't Say: A Novel

Casey, Jane

Atria Books

Copy Editing
Find Me Where It Ends

Khaw, Cassandra

Tor Nightfire

Proofreading
Copy Editing
Made with Reedsy
Everybody's Brother: Our Journey

Clancy, Tommy

Independently published

Copy Editing
The Lonely Girl's Vegetable Patch

Plunkett, Genevieve

Amethyst Editions

Proofreading
Baseball's Shining Season: America's Pastime on the Brink of War

Sandler, Martin W.

Bloomsbury Children's Books

Proofreading
Copy Editing
Copy Editing
Renaissance Men: Agents of Medical and Cultural Modernity

Washington, Harriet A.

Little, Brown and Company

Copy Editing
Eye of the Monkey: A Novel

Tóth, Krisztina

Seven Stories Press

Copy Editing
Copy Editing
Copy Editing
Anthropause: The Beauty of Degrowth

Cox, Stan

Seven Stories Press

Copy Editing
Daddy Was a Number Runner (55th Anniversary Edition)

Meriwether, Louise

The Feminist Press at CUNY

Proofreading
Return to Fukushima

Bass, Thomas A.

OR Books

Copy Editing
Proofreading
Copy Editing

Helen has 1 review

Professionalism

Quality

Value

Responsiveness

Tommy C.

Tommy C.

May, 2026

In today's society, there are fewer professionals that exceed expectations. However, Helen did exactly that with our collaboration. She is very timely with her responses and explains in detail how she derived at the answer. Helen also understood the deadline, prepared several meetings between inc...
Read more

Most recent contributions

When is a proofreader necessary after a copy edit, and how does this process differ from the editing phase?

I often see indie authors who want to skip copyediting and go straight to proofreading, who want to bundle the two as if they are one, or who wants to skip proofreading altogether. Both copyediting and proofreading are essential, separate steps in the editing process that are vital to producing a...
Read more

What style guides do you primarily work with?

The main style guide that I use while editing books in the Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition. This is the style guide that all the publishers that I work with use. However, if the book touches on certain topics, say psychology or medicine, I also might use APA Style or the AMA Manual of Style...
Read more

Professionals similar to Helen

Get a range of offers by requesting quotes from multiple professionals.

Louise S.

A detail-oriented proofreader with experience in basic copyediting. I specialize in fiction, creative non-fiction, and memoirs.

Somerville, NJ 08876, USA

100% reply rate

View profile

Kimberly G.

Experienced book editor with more than one hundred titles in my portfolio. Master of Arts in Publishing. Voracious reader.

Chester Springs, PA

95% reply rate

View profile

Staci F.

Developmental & copy editor for 10+ years working with indies and NYT bestselling authors. Specializing in memoir and contemporary fiction.

San Francisco, CA, USA

100% reply rate

View profile