My goal as an editor is to create a dialogue with the writer — one that leaves you feeling empowered, clearer, and reinvigorated in your revision process. I ask questions of the text/writer as well as make suggestions for clarity. I point out where, as a reader, I am confused, elated, laughing, crying, wanting more, wanting less. As an editor, I can make suggestions of revision options at the line level (from general to more precise—your choice) and give ideas of how to think of the piece as a whole and what it (or its characters) might be asking for. 

 

I work primarily by ear, heart, and gut, so if you want someone who can give you charts of plot arcs, I am not the person for you. If you want someone who is deeply invested in helping your piece become its most satisfying self from its overall structure to the clarity and musicality of its lines, I am all yours. I am very open to working with both more straightforward fiction and CNF, as well as pieces that test boundaries of structure and genre.

 

A note on confidentiality and AI:

• I will treat your work as confidential. I will not share your manuscript or any portion of it with third parties and I will not upload or input your work into AI tools or large language models currently in existence or to come. 

• I do not accept work that has been generated by AI. 

• In my editorial feedback, I focus on the writing on the page. In creative nonfiction especially, I am careful not to conflate the subject matter of a piece with the writer as a person.  

• At the end of our work, I will securely dispose of any printouts once you have confirmed receipt of my feedback.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How I work / how it works in general:

 

I read twice. 

 

On the first read, I make almost no notes and read the complete piece to feel and understand it as a whole. In that reading, questions and observations percolate up to the top of my consciousness, and in the second reading I will form cohesive questions and notes to return to you. I can work both on the line level and a more pulled-back, overall impression level. Either way, I will read your work twice. 

 

After I return your work, we will schedule  a brief time to meet virtually and go over any questions/comments you have. 

 

Offerings:

Developmental edit of essays or book-length works, includes: 

• overall themes

• what the piece is saying and how it is saying it (including structure, metaphor, etc.)

• where the piece might be doing too much or not enough

• where the piece seems to be headed, what its major strengths are, and where it could use more time and exploration

 

Depending on the piece, I can pay attention to an emotional arc and/or a plot arc. A developmental edit can be done with or without a line edit (next section), you choose. 

 

Pure line edit / copyedit with an eye on:

• continuity

• clarity

• excessive repetition and/or holes in information

• musicality of language (if wanted) 

• adherence to voice. 

 

This can also include an overview proofread (not granular) for grammar / spelling / syntax. 

 

Rates: $100/hour. 

 

Upon receipt of your piece, I will quote the estimated time frame and fee, on which you can place a cap. (In other words, if you only want me to spend two hours, I will do that, but the piece will most likely receive less attention and depth of feedback.) 

 

If you are unclear as to whether you’d like to work with me on a longer piece, I can do a sample edit of up to 10 pages of the project in question for $80.00. 

 

 

Deliverables:

• Developmental edit receives 2 to 4 pages of single-spaced feedback and occasional tracked changes comments on the piece itself in Microsoft word or google docs. (I can also happily work on paper and scan for any old school analog folks out there.) 

• Line edit receives tracked changes comments and in-line edit suggestions in Microsoft word or google docs. I will also send a paragraph or two of overall notes, as needed. (Again I can also happily work on paper and scan.)

• Developmental edit with line edits includes both deliverables listed above. 

 

For more information or to book, email me at robinpickeringwrites@gmail.com

 

My editorial experience: 

I spent many of my younger years as a content editor in educational publishing in English Language Arts, in particular student- and teacher-facing texts. I was continuously bathed in the building blocks of what makes great writing both artistically and grammatically (give me those sensory details, but, like, also use commas correctly). As a professional editor, I developed a keen and almost uncanny eye for continuity issues and an ability to work within each writer’s style and voice. I also have over 30 years of experience giving feedback in writers groups for short stories, essays, and book-length manuscripts, as well as being the in-house editor of all communications as a program and media director for a creative arts organization. I have written a novel and a memoir. The memoir, a finalist for the Kenyon Review Developmental Editing Fellowship, is currently out on query. My work has been published in sneaker wave magazine, a Soft Skull press anthology, and Esta Tierra zine, and I have essays forthcoming in an anthology and an online literary magazine. 

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Testimonials:

If you’re looking for an editor who combines craft intelligence with real care for the writer, hire Robin. She reads with uncommon attention—down to sentence-level precision—while also keeping an eye on structure, momentum, and clarity. What I value most is her integrity as a reader: she’s honest about how the work is landing, and she gives that truth in a way that’s constructive, usable, and never dismissive. She doesn’t just point out issues; she shows me where the draft might be losing the reader, what’s getting in the way, and what to try next.

Robin is also remarkably generous with her time. She will reread drafts without complaint, mark them up thoroughly, and stay with a piece through multiple rounds. She’s been just as meticulous with my book-length manuscript as she is with my essays, which is rare. I can honestly say that after her feedback, my writing is always better—clearer, stronger, and more me. I trust her completely, and I recommend her without hesitation.

—Aimee Seiff Christian, writer and editor

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Over the last 20 years, I have had the unique and remarkable fortune of working with Robin Pickering as a writer, editor, and producer across a vast array of creative projects in film, art, education, and literature. Robin’s intellect and creative capacity are enormous, as she is diligently attentive to detail, insightful and holistic in the breadth of her understanding, and bold and generous in her multidimensional input.

As a professional partner, she is a deep listener, harmonious, patient, honest, and inspiring. In particular, her openness and ability to perceive the array of voices, timbres, and the undulating soul of a story and its journey is a true gift to the receiving artist’s process, and an invaluable, deeply human asset to the creative outcome.

Robin’s personhood, in all aspects of her connection to her craft, and in such intimate engagement with another’s, heightens both the meaning and the greater consciousness of one's work as a whole.

 —Khahtee Turner, writer, musician, and Founder/Director of Studio Creative Play

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