Joseph Staten - Editor
Freelance copyeditor for magazines and books, specializing in longform journalism, fiction, history, memoir, criticism, and more.
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Overview
I'm based in New York, and copyedit for a variety of publications. My primary employer is Rolling Stone magazine, for whom I regularly copyedit cover stories and features, collaborating with editors and fact-checkers to collate all changes and finalize each piece for publication. I also frequently copyedit articles for the architecture magazine Architect's Newspaper. Additionally, I have a longstanding relationship with Amazon Kindle Singles, for whom I have copyedited numerous ebooks in the genres of memoir, history, fiction, and biography.
I love professional copyediting, because it means I get to read all the time. I highly value the great diversity of books and stories that come my way, from late-in-life travel memoirs, to histories of Winston Churchill's early days as a soldier, to in-depth profiles on rock stars. I also love copyediting because nothing pains me more than finding mistakes in a book that's already been published—this way, I get to correct them! I have a very sharp eye, extensive knowledge of grammar, syntax, vocabulary and the major style guides, and a deep commitment to making sure everything I work on turns out perfect.
Perhaps most of all, I love to work with authors, communicating and querying back and forth to collaboratively produce a clean manuscript they're thrilled about. And authors, as I've been told countless times by clients, feel the same way about working with me.
I love professional copyediting, because it means I get to read all the time. I highly value the great diversity of books and stories that come my way, from late-in-life travel memoirs, to histories of Winston Churchill's early days as a soldier, to in-depth profiles on rock stars. I also love copyediting because nothing pains me more than finding mistakes in a book that's already been published—this way, I get to correct them! I have a very sharp eye, extensive knowledge of grammar, syntax, vocabulary and the major style guides, and a deep commitment to making sure everything I work on turns out perfect.
Perhaps most of all, I love to work with authors, communicating and querying back and forth to collaboratively produce a clean manuscript they're thrilled about. And authors, as I've been told countless times by clients, feel the same way about working with me.
Services
Non-Fiction
Architecture
Art
Biographies & Memoirs
Design
Entertainment
History
Music
Photography
Political Science & Current Affairs
Travel
Fiction
Literary Fiction
Mystery & Crime
Women's Fiction
Work experience
Copyeditor
Architect's Newspaper
May, 2016
–
Present
(about 4 years)
Copyeditor
Rolling Stone
March, 2016
–
Present
(over 4 years)
Copyeditor
Amazon Kindle Singles
June, 2015
–
Present
(about 5 years)
Portfolio (10 selected works)
Crowd of Sorrows (Kindle Single)
Nahid Rachlin
"The writing captures the gasping panic…beautifully…a story about the flipside of love: the consuming fear of loss." – Chicago TribuneZora, just separated from her American husband, with a six-year old daughter, Anar, has had a highly unsettled life so far. After her marriage falls apart, she moves with Anar to a row-house in Cambridge, MA, that shares a backyard with several young families. S... read more
"The story of a city-to-country transplant isn't new, but Mitchael is funny enough to rejuvenate the narrative… a colorful, laugh-out-loud portrait of rural life." —Chicago TribuneAnna Mitchael imagined she would always live in cities. Big cities. She loved the hustle and bustle, had a great job a major advertising agency and wrote fiction on the side. Then she met and fell in love with a man ... read more
Wild River Blues (Kindle Single) (A Vintage Short)
Sarah Menkedick
In her early thirties and an aspiring literary journalist, Sarah Menkedick joins her baby brother Jackson and his precious Honda, the ”Jackwagon,” for fourteen transformative days on an east-coast backpacking adventure. The two cross mountains and by the end—exhausted to the core and unshowered—they reflect on the trajectory of their lives, the music they make and listen to, the principles to ... read more
Churchill in the Trenches (Kindle Single)
Peter Apps
November 1915: Disgraced and stripped of high office, Winston Churchill heads to the trenches to fight.A quarter of a century before his "finest hour" in 1940, Britain's future Prime Minister faced a very different kind of crisis. As First Lord of the Admiralty at the start of the First World War, Churchill found himself blamed for the catastrophic military fiasco of the Dardanelles. Thrown fo... read more
Free the Man: Official Rules (annotated) (Kindle Single)
Robert Repino
For years, the boys at St. Bernadette School have proven their mettle by playing a highly addictive and occasionally violent schoolyard game known as Free the Man. In a daily ritual barely tolerated by the teachers, the Runners and the Catchers battle for supremacy and settle old scores on a cratered patch of asphalt. The game becomes so popular that the undisputed king of Free the Man, local ... read more
The Syrian Tragedy (Kindle Single)
Carsten Stormer
All the conflicts I have been to, from Afghanistan to the Congo, from Somalia to Iraq, Uganda, East Timor, Darfur, and the Nuba mountains, the violence in Syria beats it all. The brutality of this conflict is impossible to stomach. The memories of the dead, the wounded, the fear, the blood, the suffering steals your sleep, it occupies your mind. The corpses. The dead and traumatized civilians.... read more
Die Hard: An Oral History (Kindle Single)
Brian Abrams
In the late 1970s, long before an optimistic era of popcorn fare invaded theaters with the likes of steroidal heroes such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, a young bartender from south Jersey named "Bruno" had worked the service bar at Cafe Central on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Eventually, the barkeep-turned-actor would grace the small screen opposite Cybill Shepherd in t... read more
Keller's Fedora (Kindle Single)
Lawrence Block
In this brand-new novella, Keller, everyone’s favorite assassin for hire, is Chicago-bound on Amtrak's City of New Orleans, ready to do what he does best. But it’s complicated. Usually there’s someone ready to point him toward the target. Or he’ll have a photo, say. Or, bare minimum, a name and address.Not this time. When he gets to Baker’s Bluff, Illinois, he’ll have to play private detective... read more
The Girls, Alone: Six Days in Estonia (Kindle Single)
Bonnie J. Rough
A resurfacing writer hits the sauna, bares it all, and learns the true meaning of saga. In her latest work, award-winning author Bonnie J. Rough separates from her family for a surprising journey into the difficult past and precarious present of Estonia, the former Soviet state of her heritage. Embarking on a journey to learn the fate of her great-great-grandmother Anna, she encounters World W... read more
Your Soul is a River
Nikita Gill
This is a book about the journey of healing from trauma and becoming whole again. Directions: apply to your soul gently, whilst sitting under the stars.
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