Your Inspired Editor, Ghostwriter & Proofreader

How I Support My Writers

This is how I work with my writers: I am on your side, cheering you on. I help, encourage, and challenge you to shape your manuscript into its most compelling form. I understand that it can be daunting to share the manuscript you’ve painstakingly toiled over for so long. You can expect both empathy and a friendly toughness on my part in our work together. I am here to help you with your text, so together we can further sculpt it into its superlative form, and I do so with determination and warmth.

What I consider my specialty—how I can help you, so together we can ensure your writing is a moving, convincing, cohesive piece of magic—is the work we do on your content itself. My aim is to ensure your text is not just comprehensible, but energetic, moving, and 100% united. Every single part of your text must serve a single purpose: to support its main message (if nonfiction) or to contribute to the narrative in a meaningful way (if fiction). My job is to make sure both that it’s happening and that it’s happening optimally.

I provide extensive feedback, observations, suggestions, and sometimes even direct changes to your content. If I notice inconsistencies, sentences that don’t make sense, transitions that are unpolished, unclear, or confusing, ideas that need greater development, or other ideas that you didn’t address but really must be included, I voice that. I am careful to explain thoroughly my thinking and to offer potential “solutions.” If I determine that I have the information necessary and that I can match your voice and style, I will write in content myself, which you can later keep, tweak, or delete. I should add that because I use Word’s “track changes” mode, my work in your manuscript itself is clearly visible.

Additionally, after the first run-through, I send you a 5- to 10-page feedback letter where I offer my observations on the strengths of your manuscript as well as recommendations for changes. I explain what I see as potential problems, and I offer a variety of solutions for resolving those issues.

You always have the final say about my corrections, additions, suggestions, and recommendations because you are the creator.

Because your satisfaction with my editing is of paramount importance to me, you only pay me after you have reviewed my work.

Please contact me at editor@zoowrite.com, so we can discuss how I can support you to ensure your writing glows.

Portfolio & Words of Praise

  • Searching for an editor for your book? Do yourself a favor and hire Nancy Pile. Nancy helped me with my non-fiction book last year, and I could not be more pleased with her service. She outlined how our relationship would work, communicated clearly, didn’t hold back with questions or comments, and made thousands of helpful improvements to my manuscript that helped me reach #1 best seller in my Amazon categories. One section of my book got deep in the weeds in some tax talk, and she helped me simplify the topic so that it could be digestible by a wider audience. She helped keep my grammar in check and gave me so many helpful pointers along the way. All of her work was done in Word via Track Changes, which made it easy for us to work together. 10/10 Nancy is the best editor!

    —Chad Holmes, fiducary, financial adviser, CPA & author of The Inheritance Playbook: Helping Your Parents Pass the Torch, Not the Tax

  • Insightful, intuitive, and direct. Nancy has all the qualities of an excellent editor! Nancy helped me as a firsttime book author in so many ways. She gave excellent feedback and support with the questions that I had during the editing process. She is insightful and intuitive in her review of my material. I could always count on Nancy to be direct and honest in her feedback. She quickly called my attention to areas where (after feedback from others) my authentic voice as a writer was not shining through and helped me to remedy this. I am GRATEFUL beyond words for her support. She was always very accurate in giving me an estimate on timing for turnaround with my manuscript and very dependable. I now know that I love writing and I believe having an EXCELLENT editor reinforced this. I am looking forward to working with her again on my future projects.

    —Nydia Darby, licensed healthcare professional, therapeutic yoga pioneer and reseacher & author of Therapeutic Yoga Works: A Gentle Approach to Eliminating Back Pain and Improving Functional Mobility for Life

  • As a newly minted non-fiction author, I knew I needed an editor who could help me from a copy perspective. I was also searching for someone who would be able to connect with the spirit of my work, and help me with balance, soul, and relatability. I found her and her name is Nancy Pile. Not only does Nancy make my writing better, she also takes the time to show me how my work resonates with her, which in turn, makes me a better author. We’re now two books in and I’m working on a third. If you’re looking for a partner in your authoring and editing journey, you won’t find better than Nancy.

    —Daryl Dittmer, carpenter, sales professional, business owner, builder, landlord, real estate investor, consultant & author of When I Stop Fighting: The Unexpected Joy of Getting My Head Out of My Ass

  • Nancy’s clarity, insight, creative instruction, and precise control of grammar, word choice, and structure pushed my book to another level. I'm blown away at how she helped transform what I thought was a great book into something beyond my expectations. Nancy is extremely precise in her attention to detail, and she has an amazing ability to connect thoughts seamlessly. I'm significantly prouder of my book now than before she worked her magic on it. Working with Nancy Pile was an absolute pleasure. It was both easy and enjoyable, and her editing contribution to my manuscript was extraordinary. I can't wait to work with her again on my next book.

    —Erik Seversen, speaker, adventurer, educator & author of many books, including Ordinary to Extraordinary: Stories of Exotic Places and Remarkable People & How Belonging and Purpose Can Transform Your Life

  • My superior copyeditor, Nancy Pile, employed her great skill to big quality improvements in the text. The readers will benefit from her persuasive insistence that the [book] needed more summations, conclusions, and explanations—and her imaginative and creative ideas for what the text needed. The copy as a whole owes a large improvement in clarity to her understanding.

    —Charles Tiefer, law professor at University of Baltimore, former Solicitor of the House of Representatives, former Assistant Senate Legal Counsel & author of The Polarized Congress

  • I thought I had written a self-help book, but Nancy told me right away that this was a memoir. She urged that instead of hiding behind famous people’s quotes, I should put more of my own words out there. She encouraged me to speak in my own VOICE, to be totally me, which helped me let go of the need to have a lecturing authoritative voice. I worried that my writing was childish and stupid, but she got my humor, she got my message. No—she helped me understand my own message! She dug deep into my world alongside me and encouraged me to explore further. Nancy transformed my book. She also transformed me.

    —Nina Nam, author of Transformation Champ: The Story of My $80,000 Six-Pack

  • Writing, I’ve learned, is a very solitary process. But only up to a point . . . [My] book was initially ideas and concepts put together. The magical flowing of thoughts came as a result of Nancy’s coaxing me to provide the connectivity between them. Her brilliant editorial work and wonderful additions have made my passionate writing sparkle. Thank you, Nancy!

    —Kathy Archer, leadership development coach & author of the bestselling Mastering Confidence

  • To the editing wizardry of Nancy Pile, who so eloquently captured the essence of my message and encouraged me to pull out the stories and references of my responsibilities and give my process order and coherence

    —Susan Burlingame, author of Kick-Ass Corporate Wife

  • As we authors know, it is a highly involved process to transmit our ideas, hopes, and dreams into a manuscript. An integral player in my book-writing journey was my editor, Nancy Pile. When she received the initial draft, she realized that something incredibly important was missing--stories about me. With both professionalism and warm encouragement, Nancy persuaded me that I must include stories about myself to make the star of my book—an amazing friend of mine who survived the Holocaust—shine. Nancy showed me all the places in the book where particular stories about how my friend influenced my life would make my book more engaging. I'm private, perhaps even shy, but I saw her point and came to agree with her. She helped me a lot to transform my "pretty good" original draft of the book into a piece that I'm really happy with. I'm writing this post to highly recommend Nancy as a book editor, especially if you're a first-time writer with a story that's very meaningful to you.

    —Theresa Eppich, teacher & author of A Legacy of Love: How a Holocaust Survivor Inspired Me to Live with Greater Freedom and Purpose

Services

Copyediting

Copyediting addresses a book mostly on the “medium”-picture level. When I receive the manuscript, the overall message and supporting messages are, for the most part, already well wrought (but I could still offer some big-picture support if necessary). Much of the copyediting happens on the chapter- and paragraph-levels, where I look for ideas that need further development, that aren’t necessary, that should also be included, that need better integration, or that are confusing and need to be addressed. I do a blend of 70% copyediting and 30% developmental editing when I copyedit. Here’s the process:

  • I do two complete run-throughs of your manuscript.

  • When I return the manuscript to you after the first run-through, I provide a detailed feedback report, explaining what’s working well and what needs further work (and why), as well as changes and comments in the manuscript itself (recorded in Word’s “track changes” mode).

  • You revise your manuscript, responding to my first run-through editing and feedback. You return it to me.

  • I do a second run-through to evaluate the manuscript a second time with the changes you’ve implemented. I return it to you with further observations, commentary, and recommendations.

  • After the two run-throughs, for any remaining areas in the manuscript that we’re continuing to figure out, we exchange the manuscript a number of times in “spot-checking” rounds.

  • For a manuscript of ~50K words, the timeline is generally 4 to 7 weeks total.

  • The fee is $0.0375 USD/word

  • You pay me after you’ve reviewed my work. Payment is in two installments:

    • The first 50% you pay after you’ve received and reviewed the first run-through.

    • The final 50% you pay after you’ve received and reviewed the second run-through.

Developmental Editing

Developmental editing focuses on the big picture of the book: the big message, the supporting messages, sequencing, transitioning, and developing of related ideas. When a manuscript is chaotic in terms of its focus, development, and sequencing, it needs “pure” developmental editing (as opposed to copyediting where I do a mix of 70% copyediting and 30% developmental editing). Here’s the process:

  • I read your manuscript and take notes.

  • I determine the main message of the manuscript as well the principal supporting messages. I send you a letter with my findings.

  • We discuss my findings.

  • Once we agree on the main and supporting messages, I create a detailed, logically sequenced outline. Another option is that I reconstruct a new manuscript from the original one you gave me. The focus of the new manuscript would be presenting your main message and supporting messages in a simple, streamlined way.

  • We discuss the outline or new draft and make further plans.

  • It is an iterative process where we each do work with your writing on our own and then we come together to discuss our findings and make further plans. We do this until we’ve created a first rough draft that we’re satisfied with.

  • After this, your manuscript is ready for copyediting.

  • For a manuscript of ~50K words, the timeline is generally 4 to 9 weeks.

  • The fee is $75 USD/hour.

  • You pay me at regular intervals only after reviewing a detailed timesheet and finding satisfaction with my work.

Proofreading

Proofreading looks at the small picture of a text: sentence, words, grammar, and punctuation. Proofreading is a correction of grammatical, spelling, and formatting errors. It is the final stage in editing a book. While the copyediting I do includes proofreading (as I copyedit), if a writer has the time and budget, I always recommend they opt for an exclusive proofreading run-through as well. Here’s that process:

  • I do one complete run-through of your manuscript.

  • I use Word’s “track changes” mode, so you can follow all of my work.

  • The timeline is generally 7 to 10 days total.

  • The fee is $0.0125 USD/word.

  • You pay in one installment after you’ve received the proof-read manuscript and reviewed it.

I am also available for beta-reading as well as writing coaching. Please contact me at editor@zoowrite.com to learn more about all my offerings.

My Background

I grew up in rural Kentucky in a farming family. In high school, I was able to attend Groton School in Massachusetts. That’s where I was introduced to Latin, fractals and chaos theory, and rowing (crew). I graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor’s in British and American language and literature. I earned my master’s from the University of Memphis in secondary English teaching, i.e., high school English.

I love to travel and teaching allowed me to do so. I lived and taught English literature and writing in rural Mississippi (with Teach for America), Memphis, Tennessee, and Washington, DC. I served as a Peace Corps volunteer, living and teaching in a village in Mauritania, West Africa. Later, I taught for several years at a small international school in the highlands of Guatemala.

In 2014, I began working as a full-time editor: editing books, supporting people in applying to universities and new jobs, editing web content, ghostwriting, building indices and bibliographies, and supporting graduate students in their research. Since then, I’ve worked with writers on texts including PhD dissertations, web content, and more than 300 books, both fiction and nonfiction. 

I am really into bicycling and cyclo-touring. I’ve bicycled all over Alaska, including the 500-mile unpaved Dalton Highway from Fairbanks to the Arctic Ocean. I visited the French Pyrenees to cycle the famous Tour de France climbs. In 2009, I did a year-long bicycling adventure, cycling across British Columbia and Alberta, and then I followed the Great Divide south, through the USA, Mexico, Belize, and into Guatemala. I ended up stopping in Lago Atitlán, Guatemala, to take a month studying Spanish while waiting for some bicycle parts, and that’s where I’ve been living ever since. You can read about this adventure and see great photos in this travel journal.

When I’m not working with writers, I enjoy bicycling, doing yoga or HIIT, jogging the local trails, making ice cream, baking fabulous desserts, and traveling.

Contact me.

Tell me about your book or book idea, its main message, your target audience, and any special concerns you have about your writing, and ask me questions as well. I’m available to support you so that together we can ensure your writing is moving, convincing, cohesive, and engaging.