My life as a romance novel editor
Did you know that I also edit other people’s books? Well, I do!
People often ask how I got into it, so I’ll share some of my background, as well as my number one tip for finding an editor.
She’s got a beat
My ADHD has led me to several career paths, but one thing stayed true through it all: writing and editing.
After getting my BA in English, I got my start at a small arts and entertainment newspaper right out of college. From there, I freelanced for several publications. My ghostwriting can even be found in Forbes! All in all, it adds up to (gulp) coming up on two decades of writing and editing experience.
Prior to editing romance novels, I worked within the Associated Press style guide, as that’s the dominant style for journalism. However, book publishing runs on the Chicago Manual of Style. I brushed up on my CMOS and have been editing romance novels since September 2023.
Sending love notes
In early 2025, I joined forces with friend and fellow romance author Jessica Booth to become Love Notes Editing! Jessica comes to Love Notes with over a decade of editing experience, and is a fellow veteran of the journalism industry. While I did fine on my own, I love having Jessica to bounce ideas off of, and now we tend to split editing jobs.
Both of us do developmental, line, and copy edits, but typically, I take the developmental edits, and Jessica does the line and copy edits. We’re skilled at either type of edit, but Jessica loves the details and I love helping with story structure and driving up the drama.
Split the difference
What are the different types of editing we provide?
Developmental edits look at story structure. I focus on pacing, hitting the different romantic beats, emotional depth, character arcs, and my personal favorite, cueing the violins.
What do I mean by that? I love working with my clients to figure out how to add more drama and build-up to the big romantic moments: first moment of vulnerability, first kiss, first . . . other things, and making connections between emotions and physicality. I often put in my margin notes, “Make the violins swell!” In romance, chemistry is everything, and the question that probably grates on my clients’ nerves the most is, “why?” Why do they feel that way about the other person? About themselves? What led them to believe that?
Line and copy edits focus on all the things we learned in school: grammar, syntax, spelling, and clarity. Many of us are accustomed to writing for business, which often leads to passive voice and clunky phrasing. You’ll always notice when writing is clunky, but when it’s smooth, it’s seamless. Our goal is to get your writing as seamless as possible without losing your voice.
My editing advice
Jessica and I can’t edit everyone’s work, but I will give you my best piece of advice for when you’re looking for an editor.
Keep your voice. You aren’t going to write like me, or like anyone else. That’s what makes human writing so special. No two stories are completely alike. You can take the exact same trope combination, give it to two authors, and get two entirely different books. If an editor is trying to correct your grammar, listen. If an editor is telling you something isn’t clear, listen.
But if an editor is telling you that you must do anything, that’s probably not a good fit.
The thing I tell my clients most often is, “If this advice isn’t true to the story you want to tell, ignore it.” I advise clients based on what I see on the market, and on common reader gripes. If you are hell bent on a raccoon stealing your main character’s lunch as the main conflict, you keep that raccoon, sweetie. Now, I might advise you to add a little more meat to those bones, but I’ll make sure your raccoon is the cutest little bandit you ever did see.
What questions do you have about editing?
