Behind The Scenes With A Book Editor

BEHIND THE SCENES WITH A BOOK EDITOR

You know me as a fitness, beauty, and even a fashion blogger. I am all of those things. I love all of those things. I spent years training, and teaching Pilates, and even owned my own studio for several years. I have danced professionally, I have sold cosmetics at a beauty counter, and worked in a high end accessories store. There is, however, more to me than that. I actually graduated from film school with a BFA specialization in screenwriting, and I’ve written most of my life. Now I’ve embarked on a new path as a book coach, and book editor.

You might already be familiar with my fitness book FITWISE: Straight Talk About Being Fit & Healthy. It is the result of twenty years of being in the fitness industry. The tips that I provide are ones you can come back to year after year, and they’ll never get old.

My other book, Tell Me What You See, came about after a bad bout of writer’s block. I was desperately trying to write but couldn’t get the words to form on the page. It was then that I realized that I am a visual learner, and that I need images to spark my imagination. So, I went through my phone and started matching words to pictures.

Then a few years ago, I decided to write a book. I wanted to tell my family’s story and braid it with my adventure of semi-spontaneously moving to Warsaw Poland.

I knew I wanted to try to get it published traditionally, so I had to keep thinking about how I was going to make it accessible to a wider audience, and not just my family and me. One of my pet peeves is reading a memoir that is written for the author and not an audience.

All too often memorists write for themselves without thinking of their audience. As my brilliant editor said, “there’s a big difference between expressing yourself and communicating.”

With that in mind, I knew that I had to find someone who was also passionate about WWII, loved family stories, and could understand my views and opinions. I found Susan Scott at a writing workshop. It was a random meeting but clearly fate had stepped in.

While we worked, we realized that many people have questions about what it’s like to work with an editor, and if it’s really that important (it is). So we decided to create bite sized videos where we answer a writer’s most pressing questions. Welcome to The Stylish Pen.