Jillian Bray

Jillian Bray – Editor

Experienced grammar fiend specializing in children's and lifestyle nonfiction. Reliable, professional, and meticulous.

Overview

You’ve devoted countless hours to your craft. You've sacrificed and overcome obstacles, and it's all culminated with a manuscript you've proudly published for the world to see. Congrats! Just one thing: you accidentally typed "poop" when you meant to spell "pop." Facepalm.


Sound familiar? Don't let this happen to you. Instead, prevent such a faux pas from happening by partnering with me.


Clients benefit from my:

*Breadth of experience,

*Hawkish attention to detail,

*Relentless pursuit of errant punctuation and grammatical mistakes, and

*Unwavering resolve to submit projects ahead of deadline.


For 12+ years I’ve worked with publishers such as Simon & Schuster, Capstone Publishing, Skyhorse Publishing, W. W. Norton & Co., and ABDO. I've copy edited and proofread for #1 New York Times bestselling authors such as Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Dr. David Agus, Sheila Johnson, Michael Uslan, and more to ensure their published manuscripts are worthy of readers’ eyes. I endeavor to do the same for you.


I've provided top-tier editing services on more than 1,000 projects, including memoirs, guidebooks, picture books, and more. And I’m a pleasure to work with, or so I’ve been told:


"Thank you so much for all your great work over the last few years, and for being such a pleasant, flexible, professional person to work with." — Yvette Grant, Simon & Schuster (previously at Penguin and Skyhorse)


Ready to put the finishing touches on your manuscript? I am. Let’s connect!

Services
Non-Fiction
Children’s Non-Fiction Health & Wellbeing History Self-Help & Self-Improvement Sports & Outdoors Travel
Fiction
Middle Grade Picture Books
Languages
English (US)
Certifications
  • Certificate in Editing - University of Washington

Work experience

Self-employed

Jun, 2012 — Present

As a thorough, knowledgeable copy editor, my main objective is to correct spelling, punctuation, and usage and grammar issues, including subject-verb agreement, redundancy, and passive voice. For Capstone Press, I specialize in nonfiction titles for young readers. For W. W. Norton, I line edit textbooks, test banks, and instructor's manuals. I review academic manuscripts for clients such as Princeton, Harvard, Cornell, and Duke University Presses. In my role, I adhere to publisher-specific style guidelines, ensure consistency, review notes and bibliography entries for proper formatting, and code documents for typesetting.

Self-employed

Jun, 2011 — Present

As a proofreader, I exercise my innate need to polish copy to perfection. For publishing houses such as Simon and Schuster, Skyhorse, ABDO, Crabtree, Rosen, and Capstone, I read and mark up works of fiction and nonfiction for a wide range of audiences and reading levels. With an eagle eye for spelling, capitalization, and grammar, I've reliably provided fast-turnaround services on hundreds of manuscripts. As standard practice, I cross-reference and reconcile front and back matter against main texts; inspect for bad breaks, widows/orphans, and word stacks; and check running heads and feet for accuracy, including pagination.

Self-employed

Jun, 2016 — Present

Through contracts with Capstone Press and Abdo Publishing, I have published two juvenile nonfiction titles: Famous Ghost Stories of Asia and Komodo Dragon: Toxic Lizard Titan, respectively. On the digital front, I compose 500-word blog posts for clients on a monthly schedule and craft effective SEO content for new Web pages.

Portfolio

World War C

Sanjay Gupta

CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, MD, offers an accessible, data-packed answer to our biggest questions about Covid-19: What have we learned about this pandemic and how can we prepare for—or prevent—the next one?As America’s favorite frontline Covi... read more

Jillian has 53 reviews

Professionalism

Quality

Value

Responsiveness

Rose G.

Rose G.

Oct, 2024

Wonderful! :) Jillian was professional, supportive and enthusiastic about my unique project throughout the entire collaboration! She was honest and very helpful with her comments and suggestions. This is the first book in a series of four, so I would definitely contact her again for her services. Thank you, Jillian!
Jillian B.
Thank you, Rose. I appreciate your thoughtful review and look forward to collaborating on future books in your series. Thanks again for hiring me! :)
Katie K.

Katie K.

Aug, 2024

This is the second project I have worked with Jillian on, and I will continue hiring her for future projects. Jillian is excellent at what she does, which for me is copy editing. Her "corrections" always come as suggestions with very positive feedback, which I appreciate as a new author. Her responsiveness is very timely, and what she charges for her professional work is very fair.
Jillian B.
You're the best, Katie. Thanks for the kind review. It's always so great working with you. Best wishes with publication!
Katie K.

Katie K.

May, 2024

This is my second book in a series and my second project with Jillian. Jillian is such an asset to my team and is vital to my writing process. Her editing skills are impeccable, and I greatly appreciate her willingness to offer suggestions in areas where I lack knowledge. I look forward to more projects together in the future.
Jillian B.
Katie, you're awesome. I appreciate your kind, honest review. It's always a pleasure working with you...thanks for hiring me for book 2. Next up, book 3! :)
Amy N.

Amy N.

Apr, 2024

This was my first experience using Reedsy and Jillian was wonderful to work with! I appreciated her prompt responses and enthusiasm for my project. Her review was thorough and she completed the project before my deadline which was a bonus. I'm grateful to have a go-to copyeditor now for future projects and can't wait to work with her again!
Jillian B.
Amy, your book is incredible and I hope to be a part of the publishing process for the rest in the series. It was lovely working with you—thank you for hiring me! Best wishes for successful sales. :)
Lois C.

Lois C.

Mar, 2024

I was very pleased with Jillian's work. Her editing skills are excellent. She was very pleasant to work with. I would definitely use her again.
Jillian B.
Oh, thank you, Lois! I appreciate the review and wish you all the best with your book. It sure taught me a lot! I hope to work together again as well. :)

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