What I Can Do for You

I can help you bring your ideas into being—whether they are for books, articles, Web sites, proposals, advertisements, essays or stories. We can begin at the beginning, or polish what you already have. I can help you prepare pieces for publication, or strategize with you about your career. We can also discuss your social-media presence and how to drive up traffic and visibility that will support your work offline.

Joelle is the only editor with whom we've ever worked who felt like a co-author from the very beginning. Not only could she anticipate changes we might want to make, she often revised our sentences to sound better than the originals. We begged to have Joelle as an editor for the fourth edition of our book, FieldWorking: Reading and Writing Research, because her work on the third was so remarkable. She is a top-rate editor and a sensitive listener.

—Bonnie Sunstein, Director of Undergraduate Writing in English / Program Chair of English Education, University of Iowa
—Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater, Director of Composition / Director of the Graduate Program in Women's and Gender Studies, University of North Carolina- Greensboro

Joelle just about the best editor I'd ever hope for. She's smart and has a knack for language—like any good editor—but she's also imaginative, compassionate, and firm when she needs to be. She has a sense of humor about the work, herself, and the world. She's calm and diligent, and as a result she's a rock in the face of unexpected complications—a hallmark of any publishing project. I look forward to the day when I'll work with Joelle again.

—Jason Tougaw, Writer / Associate Professor of English at Queens College, CUNY

Acumen, sensitivity, inquisitiveness, and respect. Joelle has all of these qualities as an editor and more. She is a natural, and a true gift to a writer.

—Amy Touchette, Writer / Fine-Art Photographer

Services I offer (in print and online formats):

  • Substantive editing: for making important projects the best they can be.
  • Copy editing: for cleaning up copy before it goes public.
  • Copy writing: for creating clear and effective text for marketing and expository projects.
  • Proposal shaping: for finding the right direction for book projects, pitches and posts.
  • Manuscript review/book structuring: for arranging your ideas in the best order possible.
  • Social-media consulting: for expanding and supporting your readership through connected blog posts, Facebook updates and tweets.
  • Ghost writing: for getting down great ideas that you can’t get to yourself.

… and much more.

I work via all mediums (phone, email, Skype, and in person), and will always offer you a written opinion as well as a verbal assessment of your work.

Read more about me here. Browse my writing clips here.

Experience & Education


Connect with me on Linked In

For eight years, I worked in educational publishing in New York, rising to Senior Editor at Bedford/St. Martin's, a press that leads industry standards for quality and innovation. I have also worked as a magazine editor, and guest-edited for Web sites, blogs, music labels, videos, artists’ projects and translations.

Educated at New York University’s top-ranked graduate writing program, I have taught composition and creative writing at NYU and Rutgers University, and have edited fiction writers, poets, artists and scientists at all stages of their careers.

Integrity, coherence, experience and insight are the qualities I bring to my work---and yours!

To discuss projects and rates, contact me at: joelle at waxpoetic dot org.