reid tang – Editor

I'm an editor with four years' experience at Math Paper Press, an independent small press publishing literary and genre fiction, short story collections, and poetry collections and anthologies. Since 2020, I've been a freelance editor through Reedsy.

I'm especially excited about—and have additional expertise editing—experimental, genre-transgressive & hybrid work. Nothing's too weird for me; I grew up on the 90s internet and experimental poetry of questionable merit.

In the past, I've worked on Victor Ocampo's The Infinite Library (sci-fi short stories, International Rubery Book Award shortlist) and Madeleine Thien's Simple Recipes (short stories, author shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker for a different title). I also edited and wrote the foreword for Alvin Pang's What Happened (collected poems, and Alvin's poetry is in the Oxford Companion to Modern Poetry in English, 2nd Ed!).

My approach to editing begins with acknowledging that everyone needs a fresh eye on their writing, however accomplished and great the work. I am committed to an editing process that is as gentle or as frank as the manuscript requires at its current stage of development. I don't condescend to authors, I don't sugarcoat, but I don't believe in cruelty or harshness or canceling entire pages out with red pen.

-

Here is a quick breakdown of the differences between the editing services I offer:

Developmental editing is the most thorough and in-depth service. I provide both big-picture and zoomed-in, scene- & paragraph-level feedback on your manuscript. Where the work falls within the realm of my specific interests, I can also offer more involved industry- or genre-specific comments. No line or technical edits are offered with developmental editing services.

Copyediting focuses on the mechanics of your writing: grammar, spelling, and punctuation. No creative feedback is offered with copyediting services.

Proofreading is the final stage of editing, taking place after the manuscript has been laid out by a designer. I’ll tackle typos, formatting errors, and grammatical mistakes. No creative feedback is offered with proofreading services.

Editorial Assessments are manuscript evaluations, with no inline editing work on the manuscript. I read the manuscript and you get a written assessment that tells you what areas of it need further work. If you’re not sure what kind of editing service you need, an assessment will show you the areas your manuscript could use some help, and whether that help should be comprehensive or minor.

-

Please include a 10-15 page sample of your work with your request. For prose, provide the manuscript's full, specific word count. For poetry collections, provide the page count of the manuscript, and indicate the total number of poems. Thank you!