Kathryn Taylor works with non-fiction and fiction writers both as an editor and as a coach. She can provide any of the following services:

Developmental editing: As a development editor she works closely with an author in the early stages of writing a book, ranging from helping to plan the overall structure of a book to coaching the author through drafting the chapters. If a full draft already exists, she works with the author to identify gaps, to revise chapters, or (if necessary) to restructure the book.

Line editing: Line editing addresses the creative content, writing style, and use of language in a manuscript, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph. It is not looking for errors (see copy editing) but rather for the effectiveness of the writer’s communication in the context of subject matter and anticipated audience. Among other things, she focuses on word choice, sentence structure, and clarity.

Copyediting: Copy editing gets down to the technical level: finding typos and correcting grammar, syntax, spelling, and punctuation. She will look for inconsistencies and discrepancies as well as ambiguous sentences or even factually incorrect statements.

Coaching: As a coach, she has worked with a variety of writers and projects, including a short story writer pulling together a collection for publication, a researcher writing a series of essays that might turn into a book, a young artist hoping to write and illustrate a children’s book, a memoirist looking for “another set of eyes” before sending a manuscript off to a publisher, and an award-winning humorist compiling an anthology. She helps writers identify their goals and organize steps to the goals, and she encourages them as they progress toward those goals. In addition to offering specific writing advice, she provides an objective perspective and serves as a sounding board.