Editing
I am an experienced and conscientious editor of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and memoir. I mostly work with full length manuscripts, but also work with shorter pieces. My services include full critiques, developmental editing, line editing, and proofreading. I bring a fresh eye to your work and am completely honest with you about its quality. Seventy books I edited from 2012-2023 have been published or are forthcoming, including ten books which won major prizes.
In poetry, I mainly work with chapbook and full length manuscripts, but will also work on smaller groups of poems. I will be honest with you about your poems, will advise you which should be dropped, which should be kept, and which ones need revision. I will line edit your poems, showing you exactly which parts need revision and why. I will help you order your poems and organize your book into a coherent whole, and will help you make it as good as it can be. I also offer advice on how and where to look for publishers.
For fiction writers, I offer advice on plot, character, structure, language, pacing, and anything else that needs to be addressed, like a need for compression or expansion. I keep up with dozens of literary magazines and publishers, and offer advice on where to send your work.
For writers of nonfiction and memoir, I edit for factual and emotional accuracy. I can help as little or as much as you need, from grammar to structure to overall coherence. I'm a very careful reader who takes a creative approach to editing at any level.
My clients have had their poems, stories, and essays published in The New Yorker, The Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, The New England Review, AGNI, Verse, Denver Quarterly, and dozens of other magazines. My clients' books and chapbooks have been published by presses such as University of Massachusetts Press, Ohio State University Press, Carnegie-Mellon University Press, Copper Canyon Press, Plume Editions, Slope Editions, Akron University Press, Salmon Press, Antrim House Books, Black Ocean Press, and others. I served as editor-in-chief of Quarterly West for two years, where I edited and published poems by Larry Levis, Stephen Dunn, and Elizabeth Spires, and many others. I have spoken frequently about publishing at literary conferences and festivals. I serve on the Board of Directors of Slope Editions.
I charge $80 an hour, and offer free consultation. For more information, email me at wyncooper@gmail.com.
See the What My Clients Say page for testimonials about my editing.