Rebecca Brewer – Editor

I'm a former editor from Ace at Penguin Random House who has worked with many bestselling and award-winning authors. I specialize in speculative fiction, from the literary to commercial, and edit things as short as flash fiction to long epic novels. I think of myself as a professional geek!

I love almost all fantasy subgenres, including historical fantasy, epic fantasy, dark fantasy, horror, fairy tale retellings, contemporary fantasy, LitRPG, progression fantasy, and urban fantasy. In science fiction, I love great worlds and concepts, whether it is in space opera, post apocalyptic, military SF, time travel, and high concept science fiction.

I'm always looking for books that have something I haven't seen before, amazing characters that I love to follow, and creates a strong emotion in the reader, whether that is joy, humor, sadness or rage. I admit it's hard for me to say no to books that mix genres! You can sign me up for books that are quirky, unusual, dark, queer, or ones that I need to read the fanfiction for.

My editing philosophy is to help the author make their book the best it can be, while remaining true to their voice and vision. As an editor, I like to be the author’s “first” reader and fan, which can sometimes include writing comments such as “LOL”, “Oh no!” and “[Insert reader crying here]”, as well as making suggestions that could improve the novel. I hope to encourage the author to embrace their strengths, and help them learn to improve others. I want to use my sharp eye, and compassionate heart to help an author any way I can.

I consider myself a solutions focused editor. When something doesn't work, I come up with some ways that could improve the book. Perhaps my favorite part of the job is collaborating with the author on how to best revise their project, and make it the best that it can be.

At age sixteen I determined that editing science fiction and fantasy novels would be the best job in the world, so I set my sights on how to accomplish that! At Emerson College, I received a BFA in Writing, Literature, and Publishing. While there, I took a number of publishing classes and racked up 6 publishing internships, before heading to New York City. I started an internship at the worlds oldest science fiction imprint: Ace at Penguin. After that, my jobs included working at the Science Fiction Book Club, being an author's assistant, and a bookseller. When an opening appeared at Ace, I officially jumped on board full time and worked there for over 7 years. I edited dozens of books, and worked with even more authors.

In 2019, I officially put out my shingle as a freelance editor and have loved it! Since then, I've worked with New York Times Bestselling authors, Fortune 500 companies, established authors, and writers that are just beginning their journey.