Karen Francis - Editor

I'm an experienced copyeditor and proofreader with a background in writing and a penchant for coffee and pains au chocolat. I worked in construction and engineering from graduation in 2007 to 2020, first as a design manager, then as a technical writer and finally as a bid writer and proofreader.

As such, I have lots of corporate experience in the building industry, but am also skilled in editing academic books, which I did part-time from 2015 to 2020 (when I went full-time freelance). I have a Classics degree, so arts, literature and philosophy are a passion – and I'm a qualified Tai Chi instructor! A lot of my work has been in the fields of physics, maths and tech, but more recently it has also included fields as varied as Eastern European history, self-help and maritime history. Basically, as long as it's non-fiction, I'm good to go – I've proven time and again that my skills apply, whatever the subject matter.

I've worked extensively in tender submission environments, so I'm happy with tight deadlines and thrive under pressure. I like to work directly with the author to review copy sentence by sentence to make suggestions that ensure absolute clarity of meaning, while of course checking and refining spelling and grammar. I've been lucky to work with some great clients so far, including Oxford University Press, Pearson, Brill, Edinburgh University Press and Watkins, among others – see my website and the titles below for more information!