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 66 reviews

Professionalism

Quality

Value

Responsiveness

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...
Read more
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...
Read more
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...
Read more
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...
Read more
Ramballoo L.

Ramballoo L.

Jun, 2026

Jillian did proofreading for my children's book - she is wonderfully attentive to detail! and I absolutely recommend her. I thought my book was in a great place but she caught many things like names of places that needed hyphens or even a comma that was improperly italicized. She was also very re...
Read more
Jillian B.
Thank you so much for the kind review! Your book was an absolute delight to review and I can't wait to see the finished product. Kiddos (and their parents) are going to enjoy it immensely while the...
Read more
Teresa K.

Teresa K.

Mar, 2026

Jillian was great to work with. Her editing skills are excellent, and her feedback was positive and helpful. She responded quickly and finished ahead of schedule. I would use her again:)
Jillian B.
Thanks, Teresa! I sure hope you write another children's story so we can work together again...it was a pleasure! Your story is a delight and I wish you the best in your next steps to getting it pu...
Read more
joni P.

joni P.

Feb, 2026

I very much enjoyed working with Jillian. She was thorough, detailed, and patient with my computer skills. I would recommend her highly!
Jillian B.
Thank you so much, Joni! It was wonderful working with you on this special project that offers a wealth of guidance for art teachers. Your expertise shines; I learned a lot from your book—great job...
Read more

Sign up to read more reviews

Create a free Reedsy account to connect with Jillian and thousands of other publishing professionals on Reedsy.

Professionals similar to Jillian

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

Michael Z.

Editor and writer of books, reports, and media in science, health, wellness, and more. 29 years editing, 12 as a scientist, and 6 writing.

New Paltz, NY, USA

100% reply rate

View profile

Crystal B.

I'm an editor with over nine years of experience in copyediting and proofreading, specializing in children's, middle-grade, and YA fiction.

Bozeman, MT, USA

100% reply rate

View profile

Jennifer R.

Children's Book Editor of Picture Books, MG and YA, including the Hunger Games! My passion is helping writers create, grow, and inspire.

Pittsburgh, PA, USA

100% reply rate

View profile