About Me

Audra Gerber

I am a professional, efficient, meticulous manuscript editor with both education and experience. Whether you need a light touch or a heavier hand, I can polish your work without changing your style and voice. My favorite part of what I do is watching authors improve with each book and hearing their excitement when we collaborate well together.

Work Experience

My editing experience includes business, academic, and creative writing, but I have specialized in book and novel manuscripts as a freelance editor since 2015. These larger projects really help me get to know each author’s writing style and needs. I take the time to understand the difference between true mistakes and creative choices.

I also spent seventeen years in the corporate world, where I learned incredible discipline and dedication to customer satisfaction. I always meet deadlines, provide high-quality service, and respect my clients and their privacy. I live in Iowa but work with authors throughout the United States, from big cities to rural America. My portfolio includes an array of literature for children to adults, although I will reject inappropriate content.

Education

I earned my AA in Business Administration (EICC) and my BAS in Creative Writing (The University of Iowa). Major studies included fiction and novel writing, English grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, advanced sentence structure, classic literature, children’s literature, and lyrical techniques in poetry and prose. As an arts student with endless curiosity, I also explored a great variety of additional interests, such as psychology, film, the history of rock and roll, philosophy, and religion in ancient and modern literature.

Personal

My all-time favorite short story is “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, probably due to my own small-town experiences. I love too many novels to pick one favorite, but here are just a few that really inspired me: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee; The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway; Me and Emma by Elizabeth Flock; Girl in the Mirror by Mary Alice Monroe; Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult; The Green Mile and Needful Things by Stephen King; Maximum Ride by James Patterson; Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen; and The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein.

Children’s books hold a special place in my heart as well because I developed a lifelong love of fiction throughout my childhood, listening to my mom read us the Chronicles of Narnia series by C. S. Lewis, hanging on my dad’s every word as he told stories in suspenseful detail, reading aloud with my little brother anything from fairy tales to Dr. Seuss, and curling up in a cozy corner with some of my favorites by Beverly Cleary and Ruth Chew. In junior high, my amazing English teacher fostered that love and helped me channel it into speech club and creative writing, and I realized that even a shy girl can do whatever she sets her mind to.

In my spare time, I enjoy playing with my puppy, gardening, reading, writing, working on house projects, and being outside with nature. In other words, I’m an ideal editor: a low-key bookworm who cares about quality and shuns the spotlight.

Contact me to see if I am the right editor for you.

“I take the time to understand the difference between true mistakes and creative choices.”