Editor · Writing Coach · Writer

Someone to read your manuscript closely, and tell you the truth about it.

I'm Ann Wicker. I spent years as a writer and editor in newspapers and magazines, and I've worked with dozens of writers on novels, memoirs, mysteries, and business books — some headed to agents, some to small presses, some self-published.

Making Notes: Music of the Carolinas Refuge by Dot Jackson The Smoke of You by Amber Jensen
70+
Published books edited or coached
30+
Writers worked with
MFA
Creative writing, Queens University

Ways we can work together

Most manuscripts need more than one kind of attention. We'll talk first about where yours actually is.

Line editing

Grammar, spelling, and the formatting a publisher expects — indentation, spacing, consistency, line by line.

Copy editing

Line edits plus fact checking, so nothing in the book trips up a reader who knows the subject.

Manuscript critique

My honest read on the ideas and their execution: flow, chapter order, plot, characters, tone.

Developmental editing

The big picture only: structure, form, characters, plot, pacing — usually before the sentences get polished.

Read the longer explanation of each →

“Any editor or reader who looks at your work may have a different opinion. It is up to you, the writer, to use or discard these opinions.”

Ann Wicker

A few from the shelf

Glow
Glow Morgan Brice
Refuge
Refuge Dot Jackson
Murder at Folly Beach Creek
Murder at Folly Beach Creek Cathy Pickens
Renegade Mage
Renegade Mage Nancy Northcott
The Herald of Day
The Herald of Day Nancy Northcott
My Ticket to Ride
My Ticket to Ride Janice Mitchell
Falling Off Horses
Falling Off Horses Karen Donley-Hayes
The Smoke of You
The Smoke of You Amber Jensen
Meow!
Meow! Ann Moses with Ann Wicker

The full list, author by author →