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 69 reviews

Professionalism

Quality

Value

Responsiveness

Ramballoo L.

Ramballoo L.

Sep, 2026

This was my 3rd time working with Jillian, and as usual she's wonderful! Very thorough, detail-oriented, prompt, and helpful. I'll happily work with her again!
Elizabeth W.

Elizabeth W.

Sep, 2026

I had such a wonderful experience working with my copy editor on my children’s book. From the very beginning, she was thoughtful, encouraging, and incredibly knowledgeable. She took the time to understand not only my manuscript, but also the heart and message behind the story. Her feedback was d...
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Jillian B.
Thanks for the review, Elizabeth. I'm so glad my review helped you strengthen your sweet story. I hope many young readers get the chance to meet your characters and learn from their life experience...
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Kelsey R.

Kelsey R.

Sep, 2026

Jillian was an absolute delight to work with! As someone entering this world for the very first time, she made the entire process completely painless. Jillian was patient, responsive, and willing to answer all of the questions I had, even if they strayed slightly from the project and/or initial q...
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Jillian B.
Oh my, Kelsey, what an incredible review! Please accept my heartfelt appreciation not only for that but for the opportunity to work with you on this fun and meaningful project. I wish you the best ...
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Doug F.

Doug F.

Aug, 2026

This was my second time working with Jillian, and once again, she did a fantastic job. She improved the manuscript while carefully maintaining my voice and the core concept of the book. Her questions were thoughtful, and her suggestions consistently made the manuscript stronger. Jillian also sai...
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Jillian B.
Doug, you're so good with words and show such strength of voice in your writing. It's a delight working with you. Your content is inspiring and I always learn something (and better yet, something I...
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Chris W.

Chris W.

Jul, 2026

Jillian was everything that I hoped to find in a copy editor for my book. She understood the story I was telling and recommended edits to make sure I told it clearly. Through her personal knowledge of the subject, she identified a few places where clarifications would be beneficial to readers. Sh...
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Jillian B.
Wow, what a thorough and thoughtful review, Chris! Thank you so much, for it and for choosing me as your copyeditor. I'm so pleased that you found value in my services. I truly enjoyed working on t...
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