Judith Kern – Editor

I was an editor at major publishers including Doubleday/Random House for many years. My interests and expertise include health and diet (Including cookbooks), spirituality, psychology, memoir (often with a prescriptive element), and working with experts in a particular field (such as medicine) whose goal is to deliver their message in a way that is most accessible and useful to the average lay reader. For the past 20+ years I have been an independent editor whose goal is always to help the author make his or her voice as compelling as possible. This is a collaborative process. I generally edit in Word (although I can also use Google docs) using the tracking mechanism so that the author can see what changes I'm making and what questions I'm asking. At various points in the process, I send the manuscript to the author to review and respond to the comments. We confer, either by email or on the phone, so that we are always on the same page editorially (and also so that I can actually "hear" the author's voice.) In the end, the author receives a completely edited, finished manuscript that we both believe is ready to submit to an agent or publisher. The author's success is how I judge my own.