These guys leave me with very little that I actually have to say for myself, part of the reason I love working with writers.

Stephanie Zvan is one of the finest editors I have ever worked with. As a professional writer working in Fantasy, Science Fiction and science curriculum development, it has been my good fortune to be gently corrected and guided by many, many people, including a number of magazine editors, several college professors, and dozens of my fellow writers, the majority of whom have been professionally published. Only one or two of them have been anywhere near as helpful as Stephanie has.

In addition to being excellent at the more straightforward and mechanical tasks of editing for grammar and spelling, she has a fine grasp of pacing, elegance of language, plot, character, and all of the other higher-order editing skills needed to render a work of fiction publishable.

In editing a recent book of mine, WebMage, she averaged three corrections per page for three hundred pages. Perhaps two thirds of these corrections we're of the mechanical nature mentioned above, and after only a chapter or two I realized that her judgement in that area was impeccable and that I could adopt her changes wholesale. Where she had broader language issues I almost always agreed that a change was needed, and I often adopted verbatim the alternate sentences which she always provided. Her comments on plot, character, mood, description, and scene were also valuable, and brought a number of flaws to my attention, many of which had not been noticed by my other first readers. At the end of the process I submitted the novel to one of the better known agents in my field, and he accepted me as a client based on the book. It is worth noting that though he often asks new clients for revisions in their first books, he accepted this one with zero changes. It is currently being reviewed by a major publisher.

Stephanie has also edited a number of short stories for me and in the process has demonstrated a fine feeling for the adjustments in level of detail and pacing that one needs to make for short form fiction vs. novel length works. I can say with complete confidence that those manuscripts of mine which she has reviewed are the better for it, and that I am confident that they are going in for submission looking more professional because of her help. I would highly recommend her to anyone looking for an editor of any sort.

I have worked extensively with Stephanie for over two years and would recommend her as a writer and editor without hesitation. She is both talented and productive, and she has a far better grasp of business essentials than any writer I have ever worked with. She always makes sure that she understands why she is writing what she is and usually has suggestions that improve the content or the organization of her material or both.

Stephanie has a particular strength for writing proposals, even for what are sometimes highly technical services. She can take material from many sources and compile it into a coherent whole that addresses all of a particular customer's stated questions and suggests and answers more without being wordy or obtrusive. Her talent is enough that I have asked her to edit proposals prepared by our corporate proposal team. The last proposal she wrote for me helped us to land a $2.5 million account.

I have also routinely had Stephanie edit my correspondence. Having been in one business for a number of years, I have had a tendency to adopt the jargon of the industry, and Stephanie is very good at translating jargon back into plain English or at making the meaning of specialized or technical terms plain from their context. Needless to say, her vocabulary, grammar and organizational skills are excellent.

Anyone hiring Stephanie's services as a writer or editor should find no cause to be anything other than completely satisfied.

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