WEST COAST EDITORIAL ASSOCIATES - Key Persons
Amy specializes in copy editing and proofreading non-fiction materials, with a focus on business and technical communication and academic writing. She also helps clients with graphic design, website development, and social media management.
As a kid, Audrey loved working-and playing-with words, so when she landed a summer job at Harbour Publishing during her university years, she knew she'd found her niche. After more than a decade working in-house for Harbour, New Star Books, and Self-Counsel Press, editing books on a vast range of subjects, she moved to Victoria and began freelancing.
Trade books and scholarly monographs make up most of Audrey's projects, but she has also worked on annual reports, online courses, textbooks, and art gallery catalogues. She writes indexes and does developmental and substantive editing, copy editing, and proofreading. In 2007 she received the Tom Fairley Award for Editorial Excellence from Editors Canada, and in 2018 she received the Ewart-Daveluy Award for Excellence in Indexing from the Indexing Society of Canada.
When she's not working, Audrey still loves to read books and magazines that other people have edited. She volunteers with the Victoria Book Prizes and and Sidney LitFest, and when she needs to get away from books and computers, she explores the Saanich Peninsula on foot and horseback.
Audrey specializes in developmental editing, copy editing, proofreading, and indexing of trade and academic books.
Barbara was working as a researcher for the Canadian Centre for Studies in Publishing at Simon Fraser University when she realized that life as an editor would be the perfect match for her skills and interests. She studied editing and writing at SFU while working there and launched her own freelance business a few years later.
Barbara has broad editing and publishing experience, having worked for educational, health-care, Indigenous, and legal organizations and publishers. Given her long-standing connection with SFU, it was perhaps inevitable that she should teach editing there for 13 years.
Barbara loves the collaborative process of publishing, working with authors to develop their ideas, talking with experts to confirm facts, and working with artists and designers to bring all the elements into a cohesive whole. She's worked on books, journals, educational materials, reports, websites, graphic novels, and infographics-and is always up for the next challenge.
A long-time member of Editors Canada, Barbara serves on the executive of the BC branch. For several years, she was a board member of BC's Children's Heart Network and the Family Advisory Committee for Western Canada Children's Heart Network. She enjoys hiking, running, yoga, movies, and coffee, and travels the globe whenever possible. She lives in Port Moody with her husband (also an editor), two daughters, and their shaggy dog.
Barbara works at all stages of publishing, from research, writing, and rewriting to editing and publication management, for individual, corporate, and public sector clients.
Job Titles:
- Certified Professional Editor
Lana was working at an international consulting firm when she listened to the voice inside her telling her to explore a career as an editor and writer. She completed an Editing Certificate from Simon Fraser University in 2004, left her job as a consultant, and never looked back.
Today, as an editor and indexer, Lana specializes in non-fiction books, including cookbooks, art books, scholarly works, business titles, and general trade books.
As an instructor, Lana has delivered plain language, clear writing, and editing workshops for a variety of corporate, non-profit, and public sector clients. She is on faculty for Simon Fraser University's Editing Certificate program and for the Foundation of Administrative Justice.
And as a writer, she has planned, written, and done photo research for numerous personal and corporate history books, including for the descendants of second Vancouver mayor David Oppenheimer and for Wendy McDonald of BC Bearing.
Lana is a Certified Professional Editor. She is also a member of Editors Canada and Plain Language Association International (PLAIN).
Lana lives in Vancouver with her husband and son. A history and genealogy buff, she is a member of the Vancouver Historical Society and the BC Historical Federation, and she blogs about BC's bookselling history at agreeableplace.com. She also makes cards and stationery products in her spare time, all for the love of words, typography, and the feel of paper in her hands.
A Certified Professional Editor, Lana edits, indexes, and writes non-fiction books and other publications. She trains and coaches workplace writers and teaches editing at SFU.
Lucy edits and proofreads non-fiction books and other publications for publishers, non-profit organizations, and educators. She works extensively with complex illustrated projects.
Job Titles:
- Certified Professional Editor
Merrie-Ellen, a Certified Professional Editor, had several other career plans-including athlete, rock star, surgeon, and midwife-before a chance encounter with a magazine editor sealed her fate. She wrote for national consumer magazines for several years before moving from Toronto to Victoria, where another chance encounter led to a long series of provincial and federal government contracts.
Merrie-Ellen works in many subject areas and for a range of audiences, from children to adults and from the general public to technical experts. She specializes in translating complex material into clear, accessible language.
Since her true love is for books, Merrie-Ellen has in recent years pursued more work in the publishing world. Her first book for young readers, the acclaimed What's the Buzz?: Keeping Bees in Flight, was published in 2015. It was followed in 2018 by After Life: Ways We Think About Death.
When Merrie-Ellen is not at her desk, she can often be spotted in her garden or with her nose in a book.
A Certified Professional Editor, Merrie-Ellen writes, edits (substantive, stylistic, and copy), and proofreads materials ranging from books and manuals to websites and reports.
Rowena got her start in editing while studying biology at Laval University in Quebec City. She edited her francophone classmates' written English and discovered how much she enjoys working with words. After a few more years as a biologist, she pursued a writing degree and editing classes, and in 2004 launched her freelance writing and editing career.
Starting with articles and reports about aquatic sciences and the environment, Rowena slowly expanded her range to include health, business, museum, education, and other non-fiction publications, as well as select fiction manuscripts. She particularly enjoys editing non-fiction trade books, children's books, and magazines. She specializes in stylistic and copy editing projects, and she also does photo research and permissions.
Rowena edits books, magazine articles, reports, and educational materials. She trains and coaches writers, teaches editing at SFU, and does photo research and permissions.
Job Titles:
- Certified Professional Editor
Ruth, a Certified Professional Editor (Hon.), began her career with Vancouver book publisher Self-Counsel Press, working her way up from editorial assistant to managing editor. After several years she took the leap into the world of an independent consultant, affording her the opportunity to work on a broad range of projects, from cookbooks to practice standards for professional associations to articles on distance education in the developing world. She relishes the collaborative process of working with clients, writers, and designers to reach the common goal of turning the prose of content experts into appealing audience-targeted reading.
Ruth has taught a variety of editing courses for Simon Fraser University, and offers customized workshops for any organization keen to improve communications. She has also served on several national committees of Editors Canada.
Ruth, a Certified Professional Editor (Hon.), works at all stages of publication: writing, rewriting, and editing at all levels. She delivers workshops for editors, writers, and communicators.