Editorial Services for Children’s Books and YA
Do you need advice about creating authentic child and teen characters? Guidance on how to make your writing engaging and age appropriate for your audience? A fresh pair of eyes to help with conscious language usage?
Sounds like you could use an editor.
With specialized training in books for young readers, I provide manuscript evaluations and editing services to publishers and authors of picture books, early readers, middle grade books, graphic novels, and YA.
I am also pleased to work with aspiring authors to help craft books that young readers will be excited to have on their shelves. Whether you plan to self-publish your novel or pitch it to literary agents or publishers, I can make your manuscript shine.
Services at a Glance
-
Manuscript Evaluation
An editorial letter providing a bird’s eye view of how the major craft elements are currently working within your manuscript and how to make them even better.
-
Developmental Editing
A big picture edit that will help you revise, reorganize, expand, or even cut certain elements of your manuscript in the service of developing a stronger story.
-
Stylistic Editing
A paragraph-by-paragraph and sentence-by-sentence edit creating a seamless narrative thread that will literally keep your readers hanging on your every word.
-
Copy Editing
A word-by-word edit dealing with grammar, spelling, punctuation, continuity, and minor fact checking to create a polished, professional document.
My name is Erin Della Mattia and I’m a freelance book editor from Brampton, Ontario, Canada.
As an award-winning editor, I take pride in supporting authors through their creative journeys from early drafts to polished books.
Drawing from trauma-informed and anti-oppressive editing practices, I use a consent-based framework to create a collaborative editing environment that prioritizes encouragement, curiosity, and transparent communication.
What this means is that I sometimes have to ask tough questions of a manuscript in the service of making it stronger. I offer explanations for my suggestions and am happy to have open discussions about tricky topics. And I always remind the author that they are in control of their book.
About the Editor
What I Edit
I edit fiction and nonfiction for young readers, including: picture books, early readers, middle grade, young adult, and graphic novels.
To date, I’ve edited everything from alphabet books to biographies for middle grade readers to dystopian YA.
I have a particular fondness for speculative fiction: fantasy, dystopian novels, gothic novels, horror — if you can dream it up, I can edit it!
Rates
My rate varies by service and the complexity of the manuscript at hand.
Please fill out my webform to request an estimate for your project.
Land Acknowledgment
I live and work in Brampton, Ontario, in an area located within the bounds of the Ajetance Purchase (also know as Treaty 19) which was agreed upon, under complicated circumstances, by the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and the British Crown in 1818. In addition to being the Territory of the Missussaugas of the Credit, this area is also the traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat, Neutral, Petun, and Haudenosaunee Nations.
Originally a landscape of forests and wetlands, European settlers began using the fertile soil to establish permanent farms starting as early as the 1600s. The 1970s saw the rise of suburban development, and within my own lifetime almost all of Brampton’s farmland has been developed into housing subdivisions and shopping centres.
Given the history of this place and my own position in it as a settler, I believe it is my duty to honour the land itself by planting native flora and supporting pollinators; to learn about Indigenous histories and engage with Indigenous creative and intellectual work; and to uphold non-discriminatory, supportive editing practices.
