Editorial services
Are you struggling with a complete or in-progress manuscript? Are you struggling to begin a manuscript? Need a set of fresh eyes on your work?
As a writer myself, I know firsthand how vulnerable and delicate it is to entrust unfinished work to another person, and I will handle yours with deep consideration and care.
I can meet your writing on its terms, determine what it means to say from what it currently says, and help make its form and function legible to agents and acquiring editors.
I worked in editorial at an indie publishing house for several years and have a decade of experience editing short fiction and essays for literary magazines. Short works I've edited have been anthologized, featured as picks of the week on websites and podcasts, and won the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. Books I've acquired and edited have won the American Book Award, a Lambda Literary award, and the Maya Angelous Book Award, and have been glowingly covered in the New York Times, NPR, TODAY, Los Angeles Review of Books, Lambda Literary, Esquire, and the Wall Street Journal. (More details are available on my "Editing CV" page.)
At The Rumpus, where I edited fiction for four years, I was known for championing debut voices. In my years at Soft Skull Press, I acquired and edited an eclectic list spanning literary fiction, memoir, and poetry. My authors tell me they have felt seen, understood, and cared for throughout the entire publishing process.
If you need help structuring your memoir, line-editing and reordering your poetry collection, or deciding how to end your novel, let's talk! If you’re ready to reach out now, fill out the contact form (at the bottom of this page) to tell me about your unique project and needs.
Otherwise, let’s stay in touch! Subscribe to my Substack newsletter, Curiosity & Ritual, here.
Draft your book with me
Let me help you write your book!
If you’ve had an idea simmering but haven’t yet committed to setting pen to paper, I offer you recurring deadlines, accountability, and regular feedback as you progress from page zero through your final chapter.
This process includes:
a one-hour intro call during which we’ll discover together your book’s basic machinery
chapter-by-chapter feedback on a recurring schedule
a final full edit (for continuity, pacing, etc.) and wrap-up call once the manuscript is complete
agent/publisher recommendations (included with final feedback)
Full manuscript edit
For a complete draft of a novel, story collection, poetry collection, memoir, or hybrid work.
This includes a 15-20 minute intro call to discuss the current status of your manuscript and any specific concerns; line edits and questions/comments throughout the manuscript; an edit letter with suggestions for overall structure, pacing, and other big-picture elements; and a one-hour wrap-up call.
Getting un-stuck in the middle
Are you midway through a full-length manuscript you're not sure how to finish?
Whether you're slogging through the murky middle of a novel and unsure how it ends, need feedback on the structure of your memoir, or need help completing and ordering an essay collection, story collection, or poetry collection, I will assess where the manuscript seems to be going and help you with ideas toward a satisfying conclusion (for a single work).
This includes a 15-20 minute intro call, line edits and questions/comments on the completed portion of the manuscript, an edit letter addressing where the manuscript seems to be going and how it might deliver on or complicate its promises, and a one-hour wrap-up call.
Individual story/essay feedback
For a newer draft, I can help you assess what this piece seems to be about, where it seems to be going, the promises the narrative makes, and whether it delivers on them.
If you’re a few drafts deep, I can offer bigger-picture feedback on pacing/structure/tone/continuity as well as suggested line edits.
Testimonials
Sarah is one of the most attentive, insightful, and gifted editors I have had the privilege of working with in my career. With any writing project, she has the rare ability to see both the big picture and the smallest details. At Soft Skull, she shepherded my second poetry collection What to Miss When from concept to complete manuscript to launch. I trust Sarah's judgment and taste completely and can't wait for my next opportunity to work with her! —Leigh Stein, author of the poetry collection What to Miss When and the novel Self Care
Sarah was a delight to work with. I had a lot of anxiety going into writing my first book, but she always made me feel safe, supported, and like I had someone in my corner to back me up and answer all my panicky midnight emails. She’s generous with her time, provides insightful commentary, and I loved that she’s a poet and was able to use her sharp eye and attention to detail to edit my own words. I know for a fact that my book is better because I had Sarah on my team. —Edgar Gomez, author of High-Risk Homosexual
I'm so grateful Sarah edited my first novel for Soft Skull Press. Her ability to communicate clearly, quickly, and kindly throughout the process of revising, promoting, and marketing my book were invaluable. Sarah's ability to conceptualize my novel on both the holistic and line level helped me to see the project so much more clearly than I could have on my own. Throughout the year that we worked together, I was consistently impressed with her editorial insights as well as her ability to convey suggestions articulately and kindly. Sarah's keen editorial eye is supplemented by her own remarkable skills as a creative writer. She often offered the sort of generous suggestions that could only have come from a fellow creative writer. Likewise, her sense of the literary landscape and knowledge of on-going conversations in the industry are exemplary. The calm, organization, and extreme work ethic Sarah possesses guided my book through the pandemic and publishing delays. —Candice Wuehle, author of Monarch: A Novel
To work with Sarah is to have the extraordinary experience of working with someone who sees your work and illuminates it for you, showing you strands, details, themes, and connections you didn’t notice yourself. She deeply understood my manuscript and what I was trying to do—often better than I did. Her gentle, insightful comments and suggestions led me not only to a better understanding of my manuscript but to discover how I could make it work better on the page. Over the years, I’d drafted so many endings for my memoir that I lost count, and none felt right. Sarah helped me find my way to an ending of which I’m really proud. She also helped me to move through passages I desperately needed to write but had been afraid to start, with her wise, empathetic guidance. I couldn’t have dreamed of a better editor than Sarah—and she’s also one of the kindest and smartest people I’ve had the honor of knowing, with a great sense of humor, too. —Emma Bolden, author of The Tiger and the Cage: A Memoir of a Body in Crisis
Sarah's editorial style is a beautiful, hard-to-find balance of generosity and incisiveness. She has a sharp analytical eye, but is able to present notes with consideration and respect. When editing my work, Sarah was able to elevate my writing in ways that remained true to my voice and what I was trying to convey. She's also a phenomenal style and copy editor. I can't recommend her services enough! —Aiden Arata, author of You Have a New Memory
As an editor, Sarah offers careful, comprehensive line edits, and also pushes the structure of a story to be the purest and most compelling version of itself. In editing my first published piece, she helped me revise my ending into an expansion that was not just a fitting finale to the story being told, but also a porthole into the beginning of a new one. I've been wildly fortunate enough now to have my short fiction in Sarah's hands twice, and I could not ask for a more compassionate, collaborative, and communicative partner whom I implicitly trust. –Lauren Friedlander, winner of the 2018 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers
Sarah is an amazing editor. Her attention to details for line edits is immaculate, but her real skill is developmental and structural edits. She helped me shape an essay from a rambling series of thoughts on a subject into a persuasive piece around a theme. She also provided structural guidance on a piece of autofiction I wrote by really helping me to focus on important themes and cut out extraneous scenes. In addition, Sarah is a complete pleasure to work with and helps make the daunting process of editing seem both doable and fun. —Bailey Cook Dailey, writer
Sarah is a consummate professional who puts the best interests of the project first and quickly wins the rock-solid trust of her colleagues. The embodiment of calm expertise, Sarah is in control throughout the entire editing process, anticipating issues before they arise and never missing a deadline. An accomplished writer herself, she finds insightful solutions (re: issues with structure, tone, word choice, etc.) and shares them with unbelievable grace and tact. —Allison Claire Chang, freelance editor