Inkslinger Editing LLC

Nonfiction is the bread-and-butter of publishing.  Far more nonfiction gets published than fiction; indeed, the profits from nonfiction help support those far less profitable novels.  Publishers have a ready market for these books: libraries.  If you're having trouble finding representation for your fiction, this reality of the industry is possibly one reason why.

Agents and publishers are far more actively looking for unique nonfiction projects.  By nonfiction, I mean memoir, travel writing, cookbooks, self-help, academic textbooks, non-academic treatments of the humanities and sciences, examinations of politics and current events, and narrative nonfiction.

If you are a journalist, academic, or passionate devotee to something engaging to a wider audience, it's time to further hone your research skills, boot up the computer, and write a Nonfiction Proposal.  If you are a novelist with a few languishing volumes in a drawer, it might be time to try a new approach for breaking into the market.  Yes, write a Nonfiction Proposal.

For those interested in learning more about this process, contact me.  For those with Proposals that would benefit from review, see Nonfiction Proposals: The Initial Study in "New to Inkslinger?"

Developing Nonfiction

Once a proposal has been accepted by a publisher, research and writing begins in earnest.  Since the structure, purpose, and audience have already been developed, clients work largely on their own.  I offer support through brainstorming sessions and mini reviews of chapters but mainly hover in the wings.

Once chapters are drafted, however, I step in.  I edit prose for clarity, concision, and momentum.  Hooks should be honed within each chapter; arguments should be lively; pages should flow energetically, like with all good storytelling.  I develop these projects with the same level of attention as I develop fiction, using Comprehensive Line Edits to adjust prose and to make suggestions for revision.

In nonfiction projects, I regularly examine multiple versions of chapters, as well as review the final manuscript for unity.  Most projects develop in parts, so the cost of editing ranges widely.  To discuss cost for your particular project and needs, contact me.

Given the range of subject matter within nonfiction, I am selective in what projects I accept.  I take on the following subjects:

• art
• art history
• aesthetics
  
• history
• photography
• books in other areas of the humanities that are aimed at a general audience
• travel
  
• memoir
• current events (including politics)
• biography
• memoir 
  

If you have a project in a different category and are looking for a developmental editor, I can help you locate one more suited to your subject.

I work with the Chicago Manual of Style (15th edition).