Editing and sensitivity reading are, at their core, about improving a text through providing another set of eyes and ears on it. These services are available for both English and Finnish texts.
Click on the description to read more about each type of work.
Literary editing
Literary editing is wide-scale editing of a literary manuscript. This may be a novel, a non-fiction book, a collection of poetry or short stories or even a single story or poem. (Click on the description for more information.)
To make an already good manuscript better, the tools of a literary editor are restructuring (on a sentence, paragraph, chapter and even manuscript level), cutting (to remove excess or repetition), and adding or rewriting (to clear up any confusion). I do also check your grammar and spelling. The aim of using these tools is to improve the flow and sharpen the points of your text in order to make it into its best self, not for me to take over or remake your manuscript for you. In the end, all edits are suggestions and the final word remains with the author. In general, I am a rigorous and encouraging editor who really enjoys working on a text together with the author. My editing style includes making a lot of suggestions and giving compliments liberally.
You should note that a literary text usually benefits from several rounds of editing. This way the editor can focus on different things on different rounds and notice new opportunities for improvement once the topmost issues have been straightened out. Before we start, it is therefore important for me to know how many rounds of editing you have planned for, what you hope to get out of the process, and what your budget is, so that I can prioritise my work accordingly.
I am available for literary editing commissions for publishing houses and private persons alike. For example, people looking to self-publish a book often find working with an editor a worthy expense, because a fresh, professional look at the manuscript usually has more to give to the text than they might have expected. If you contact me as a private person, I will work for you directly; I cannot act as a contact to a publishing house. If a traditional publisher accepts your manuscript for publication, they will assign you an editor to work with.
Non-literary editing
Besides literary texts, other texts usually benefit from a round or two of editing, too. Be it web content, internal documents or informational leaflets, it can and probably should be edited. In this category, though, the extent of the work can range from so-called proofreading to wide-scale editing similar to what literary editing entails. I am, however, not available for machine-translation post-editing commissions. (Click on the description for more information.)
It is up to you as the client to decide how thorough of an edit you want. Merely proofreading a text means only correcting for grammar and spelling, whereas wide-scale literary-style editing looks at the text as a whole and employs a range of techniques to improve it (see above). Typically non-literary editing is one-round only, but I am happy to work on your text for as many rounds as you think necessary. Multiple editing rounds may be particularly useful for longer texts.
I like to spend some time getting familiar with the topic of your text in order to make accurate and appropriate improvement suggestions. The extent of the edit reflects on the necessary research, however: pure proofreading generally requires little topical understanding.
Sensitivity reading
A sensitivity reader comments on a text through the lense of a certain topic on which the reader has expertise through either experience or formal training. The reading can focus on a single topic or on a combination of topics. The goals generally include respectful tone, correct terminology and avoiding hurtful and inaccurate stereotypes and misinformation in the final text. If, after reading the below descriptions, you wonder whether I would be the right sensitivity reader for you, please get in touch! I will evaluate honestly whether I have enough expertise for you. (Click on the description for more information.)
Queer/LGBTQIA+ themes
I offer sensitivity reading first and foremost regarding the following identity categories:
- queer
- trans masculine
- non-binary
- agender
- asexual
- bisexual/biromantic
- pansexual/panromantic
I am also available to sensitivity read general introductions to gender diversity and/or LGBTQIA+ themes.
Fatness
Sensitivity reading for fatness assumes a fundamentally anti-diet culture position. The writer does not need to know what it is like to live as a fat person – that is what sensitivity reading is for – but they must have a principal understanding of fat people as deserving of fundamental human dignity and autonomy, access to which being restricted behind a requirement for weight loss is wrong and unjust.
Illness and disability
I offer sensitivity reading for certain physical and mental health conditions and neurocognitive differences, many of which are or can be disabling.
I will note in advance that I believe in the neurodiversity paradigm, meaning that I believe neurocognitive differences such as autism, ADHD or traumatic brain injury are differences in the wide variety of human experience, and that framing them as disorders to be cured is fundamentally wrong and violent.* I also believe in claiming agency through identity-first language (e.g. saying ”I am autistic” or ”I am disabled” rather than ”I have autism” or ”I am a person with a disability”). This is the framework through which I will be reading your text. If you already know my approach to be fundamentally in opposition to your beliefs and the perspectives advocated for in your text, I am not the right sensitivity reader for you.
Physical conditions
- asthma
- acne, including in adulthood
- psoriasis, only the skin manifestation
- symptomatic hypermobility**, meaning joint hypermobility that causes symptoms outside of the hypermobility itself, such as:
- chronic pain
- joint ”looseness”, subluxations and dislocations
- posture changes and consequent musculoskeletal pain
Neurocognitive differences and mental health
- ADHD, particularly inattentive type
- autism, mainly with low support needs
- AuDHD, the particular experience of being both autistic and ADHD
- anxiety, particularly social anxiety
- depression
* This does not mean that neurocognitive differences cannot be disabling – they can – or that needing or wanting accommodations and support for such a disability is not valid – it is. If you would like to learn more about the neurodiversity paradigm, I warmly recommend Dr. Nick Walker’s essay collection Neuroqueer Heresies. Some of Dr. Walker’s work is also available to read and watch on her website.
** Hypermobility is often caused by either HSD (hypermobility spectrum disorders) or hEDS (hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome). These are connective tissue disorders and as suchm affect several or all systems of the body. Depending on your needs, I may direct you to find a sensitivity reader with more experience of the specific type of connective tissue symptoms present in your text.
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