Renée Layberry – Editor

A publishing professional with over twelve years of editorial experience in both self-publishing and traditional publishing settings. I offer manuscript evaluation, substantive, line, and stylistic editing, manuscript preparation, proofreading, and project management. In recent years I've been both freelance and an in-house editorial coordinator with a traditional print publisher. I currently work in a directorial capacity in a digital content creation environment. I've worked on guidebooks, cookbooks, short stories, mysteries, and memoirs that have been acclaimed locally and nationally and have been featured on the BC Bestseller list. I am sensitive, responsive, and supportive of the writer's perspectives and needs, not only as an editor but also as a writer; my own non-fiction writing has been published online and in a national newspaper. Author testimonials:"Renée shepherded my novel through the editorial process, and what a great job she did. She demonstrated her dedication to the project throughout all its stages. The project included a few phrases from languages that use a non-Latin alphabet and she was enthusiastic about finding solutions and meticulous about making sure they worked. She was diligent, knowledgeable, resourceful, patient, and solution-oriented, but, best of all, she shared my passion." —Peggy Herring, author of Anna, Like Thunder"It was a pleasure to work with Renée on my manuscript of short fiction. She has a keen editorial eye and a strong sense of both the micro and macrocosm of a project. I also appreciated her compassionate and direct communication and would jump at the chance to work with her again." —Julie Paul, author of The Jealousy Bone, The Pull of the Moon, Meteorites, and the poetry collection The Rules of the Kingdom."It was a real pleasure to work with Renée. She’s a pro with the necessary eye for detail that is needed in editing books that span natural and cultural history, bouncing between Latin and SENĆOŦEN names and European and Indigenous references." —Briony Penn, author of A Year on the Wild Side"Renée’s patience and sense of humour made working with her a pleasure and a privilege. Her insight and sharp eye gave me confidence; I knew my book was in the best of hands." —Julie Roorda, author of A Thousand Consolations"It was a pleasure to have Renée as the editor for Island Craft. Her encouragement was always welcome and her expert advice very helpful. Her contributions made this a better book." —Jon C. Stott, author of Beer 101 North: Craft Breweries and Brewpubs of the Washington and Oregon Coasts, Beer Quest West, and Island Craft."Renée’s expertise and positive energy contributed greatly to the success of First, We Brunch. She was not only professional and positive during the creation of the book—she provided wonderful support from the sidelines as the book was introduced to the world. It is clear that Renée cares deeply about her authors and the success of their publications." —Rebecca Wellman, author of First, We Brunch"I was lucky enough to have Renée edit my first six books. A kind, generous editor who has an extraordinary ability to intimately know the characters, details, and nature of any given book, and whose goal without fail was to help make it the best book it could be. She helped me become a better writer. A real joy to work with!" —Iona Whishaw, author of the Lane Winslow series"I should like to record my gratitude to Renée for her significant contribution to the publication of my book In Nature’s Realm; Early Naturalists Explore Vancouver Island. Renée was the publisher’s editorial coordinator for the project—an illustrated, hard-cover book of 282 pages with an index, bibliography, glossary, endnotes, list of illustrations with sources, and a foreword. Throughout the editing and production processes I found her most professional, knowledgeable, skilled, thorough, and pleasant to work with. I have no hesitation in endorsing her competence for future projects of this kind."—Michael Layland, author of A Perfect Eden, The Land of Heart's Delight, and In Nature's Realm.