Congratulations to Our utopYA Con Trip Winner!

Happy Friday, everyone! Jo here. So, over the last year, we had a little contest running for our editors. Tia and I will be attending utopYA Con in June of this year, and we thought it might be awesome to bring one of our own along to join in the fun. We put it out there, and now, we've chosen a winner.

Congratulations to:

Karen Robinson!

She'll get a ticket to the four day conference and a hotel room for the duration.

Here's a little about Karen:

Howdy! I’m Karen Robinson, and I’m excited to be joining the editing team at Indie Books Gone Wild. I’ve been an avid reader since I was in elementary school, reading anything I could get my hands on although my favorite genres are fantasy and dystopian fiction. In college, I majored in English and spent a couple of years as a copy editor for a financial firm and then a medical publisher. An opportunity led me to graduate school where I received a PhD in medieval literature (and graded many many freshman composition papers).

I decided to leave academia after having a child and to go back to my editing roots. Since then, I’ve been doing a wide variety of editing work from websites for plastic surgeons to eBooks about social media as well as fiction, which is where my editing (and reading) heart lies. I’ve had the pleasure of working with indie author Shane W. Shelton on his Believing Magic series and look forward to developing editing relationships with other authors. When I’m not reading (and even sometimes when I am), I can be found with two sticks and some yarn in my hands—knitting is my other passion.

Using The Chicago Manual of Style - 16th Edition, my goal is not to rewrite your book or create a book that I would have written. Instead, I aim to keep your voice—but just make it a cleaner version of your voice. Ultimately, you are the author and ownership of the book is yours, but working with an editor is a valuable way of strengthening your book and making it the best that it can be so that readers can get great enjoyment out of it.

Her clients love her! Check this out:

“Karen took on my 'MASSIVE' project and did a fantastic job taking my raw manuscript and turning it into a 'book.' She didn't alter the story line, or over edit, which was one of my key concerns. And at the same time she wasn't afraid to do what was just plain 'needed.' One of my problem areas (especially with my earlier writing) was with paragraphing correctly. She addressed that issue wonderfully, which means she not only read it and proofed it but had to 'digest' the material and make decisions as to flow and pace. All changes were made in a way that was 'tracked' and easy to review her edits and tweaks.”
–Shane W. Shelton, author of the Believing Magic series

If you're at the con, stop by the IBGW table and say hello to Tia, Karen, and me! We'd love to see you.

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo