What my customers say about working with me

I try to be a sensitive editor in a world where the red pen is a powerful weapon. Of course it is important to maintain standards, but I believe it is also important to let you speak in your own voice.

Here is what some of my customers have said about working with me:

"I still marvel at the sharpness of your eye in finding the errors. I appreciate your comments – some of them make me smile … All your comments make me think and you make very sensible suggestions. … Once again, Sue, thank you so much for your work. I am confident in publishing this one knowing that errors and inconsistencies will not mar the writing so giving the book a chance to be read without distraction."

"You actually add real value to what I do, are so professional, never make demands, and add a large touch of humanity to the isolating activity of writing. And I love your asides in the comments you make and deeply treasure when you say you like the book."

Ted Dunphy

Author of Rowing Down the World to Auckland (Canaan-Star Publishing, 2015) and Don't Poke the Fire (Canaan-Star Publishing, 2015), The Devil to Pay (Canaan-Star Publishing, 2015), and Snuff O'Brien's Private War (Canaan-Star Publishing, 2017, A View from the Boiler House Door (Canaan-Star Publishing, 2018), and the Teachers Count trilogy (working title), August 2021)

"WOO HOO!  I’m done! Thanks again for your very careful reading/copy-editing, Sue. Like I said, you found omissions where previous book and journal editors did not, and I’m grateful for that (as future generations of scholars, will also be, hopefully)."

John R Rickford, author of Variation, Versatility and Change in Sociolinguistics and Creole Studies (Cambridge University Press, 2019)

"On behalf of the editors, I would like thank you for the excellent job you have done as copy editor. We couldn’t have asked for a better one, and on occasions you ’saved our bacon’ (well my bacon then!) and in doing so helped us to avoid some glaring errors. We couldn’t have asked for a better copy editor.  You were truly outstanding."

Brian Hopkins

Editor of Cambridge Encyclopedia of Child Development (Cambridge University Press, 2017)

"Sue provides excellent, proactive copy-editing services. She just completed work on a new book of mine, and was fast, thorough and easy to work with. A particular characteristic of her work is that she not only identified problems, but also suggested solutions that were always completely consistent with the style and content of the book. Great work, and I'm certain the book will be much better as a result."

David Cropley

Associate Professor of Engineering Innovation at the University of South Australia

Author of Creativity and Crime (Cambridge University Press, 2013)

"Sue is an extremely dependable and highly skilled copy-editor. She supports Out of House with excellent copy-editing work across a range of subject areas and always delivers on schedule."

Jo Bottrill

Managing Director, Out of House Publishing Solutions (now Newgen)

"I found Sue to be extremely professional, efficient, competent and helpful. … she picked up points in my manuscript which were really outside her instructions but in the event impacted upon the story, and I remain grateful to her for that … You develop a relationship with someone who is working on your manuscript that you have spent months or years creating.  You need to know that this person will respect your efforts, be interested in your work and help you to produce a final manuscript that you can be proud of.  That is what I felt Sue would do for me and she did not disappoint me."

Kenneth Ballantyne

Author of Another Dawn Another Dusk (Laundry Cottage books, 2009), All the Things You Are (Laundry Cottage Books, 2012), First Wave (Laundry Cottage Books, 2013), and Holding the Line (Laundry Cottage Books, 2017)

"In your respect for the detail, and careful consultations with me on
everything, you have been confidence-instilling at every turn. I
have 3 other things at proof-stage at the moment, and can say without hesitation that yours is the most reliable and sensitively attuned copyediting I have encountered."

Judith Buchanan

Author of Shakespeare on Silent Film (Cambridge University Press, 2009)

"I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your hard work. Also, you can be assured that if I need proof reading services again I will look no further than yourself. I would be happy to recommend your good value excellent service to others."

Robert le Normand
Author of Kendulla (Willow Bank Publishers, 2008)

"Sue has the right blend of professionalism and congeniality; she realises what a tortuous process writing can be, and is sympathetic, without compromising her standard of work."

Tony Sheppard
Author of Splinters (published September 2006)