Jo Morton

Jo Morton – Editor

A seasoned editor/project manager (25+ years in house) in social sciences/humanities, I'll work with you to maximise your book's potential.

Overview

I took the decision to go freelance in 2018 after amassing over 25 years’ project management, copy editing and proofreading experience primarily working on academic, legal and general non-fiction publications, first for Jordan Publishing (now part of LexisNexis), and then for award-winning independent publishers Policy Press (now Bristol University Press). My aim was to diversify the types of work I do, and expand into new subject areas that particularly interest me - biography, and social and family history - and to have more time to undertake collaborative work directly with authors.

I always aim to make the production process a positive experience for authors and have been delighted therefore to receive such acknowledgements as 'You have been amazing. I have never been involved in such a stress free book' (from a historian and senior academic at The Open University) and 'Jo is a joy to work with - very efficient and very responsive and a great colleague' (a comment from one emeritus professor in social work to another whose typescript I'd been assigned to work on). When copy-editing, I try to tread gently, guiding, shaping and suggesting alternatives rather than imposing hard-and-fast rules (except where prescribed by the publisher), and recognising an author's individual style.

My BA in French has been a great asset when working with authors who have French as their first language; I have recently worked with Jean-Philippe Robé (Sciences Po Law School) as project manager on 'Property, Power and Politics', and with Charles Devellennes (University of Kent), as copy editor and project manager on 'The Gilets Jaunes and the New Social Contract' and as copy editor on 'The Macron Régime', all for Bristol University Press.
Services
Non-Fiction
Biographies & Memoirs Education & Reference History Law Philosophy Political Science & Current Affairs Sociology
Fiction
Children's
Languages
English (UK) English (US)

Work experience

Self-employed

Jul, 2018 — Present

• Pre-submission consultancy work on draft manuscripts
• Development editing
• Line and copy editing
• Proofreading (onscreen or hard copy)
• Managing outsourced publishing projects within time and budget, liaising with in-house contacts and engaging other professional freelance services as necessary
• Instructional design, making suggestions for formatting and layout of textbooks and other educational materials
• Legislation checking on legal texts
• Fact-checking

Bristol University Press/Policy Press

Jun, 2005 — Jul, 2018 (about 13 years)

• Managing and coordinating book production throughout pre-press stages, taking responsibility for up to 40 titles per year
• Seeing through to publication projects as diverse as The Human Atlas of Europe (Dimitris Ballas, Danny Dorling and Benjamin Hennig); The Passionate Economist (a biography of Brian Abel-Smith by Sally Sheard) and Democracy Under Attack (an analysis of the influence of the media on social policy by Malcolm Dean)

Self-employed

Mar, 2005 — Dec, 2012 (almost 8 years)

• Occasional copy-editing or proofreading commissions undertaken for publishers including Hart Publishing and Puffin, and for non-profits such as SCIE (Social Care Institute for Excellence) and the Joseph Rowntree Fund

Jordan Publishing Ltd

Apr, 2002 — Apr, 2005 (about 3 years)

• Managing production of all new book titles and revised editions
• Supervising a small in-house team
• Devising and implementing house style guidance

Prior to this I was a Desk Editor with responsibility for managing projects varying from monthly law reports to multi-volume looseleaf works on legal practice, also taking on directories and legal packs, in addition to books.

Portfolio

Copy Editing Proofreading
Copy Editing
Proofreading
Developmental Editing Copy Editing
Copy Editing
Proofreading
Copy Editing
Lawyers usually describe a revolution as a change in a constitutional order not authorized by law. From this perspective, to speak of a ‘lawful’ or an ‘unlawful’ revolution would seem to invol... read more
Copy Editing
Money was already tight for UK families living on a low income before the COVID-19 pandemic, but national lockdowns made life much harder. Telling the stories of these families, this book expo... read more
Copy Editing
Copy Editing
Copy Editing
Copy Editing
Airman

Colfer, Eoin

Copy Editing
Copy Editing
Copy Editing

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