Editorial Services
About the Practice
Over the years, I’ve developed a keen editorial eye in scholarly writing. I have a knack for moving between fine grained details and the bigger take aways of a project with empathy, clarity, and practicality.
At the beginning of 2023, I decided to take the plunge and build my own editorial practice from my desk in Berkeley, California. The practice is built on the principle that every book is as unique as the author who writes it. Different authors need different kinds of editorial, intellectual, empathetic, and artistic support to complete their writing projects and so our work together is tailored accordingly. I offer a range of developmental editing, manuscript review, and coaching services to meet you where you are at in the book writing process.
As a scholar who blends history and ethnography in my own writing and research, I am interested in how to bring interdisciplinary work to life on the page. I particularly enjoy working with early career scholars who are making the challenging but exhilarating transition from dissertation to first book. Subject area specialties include the history and anthropology of science, medicine, and technology, critical global health, and African history. I would love to work with you on bringing your big, bold, brilliant, beautiful book into the world.
Email me at marissa [dot] mika [at] gmail [dot] com to schedule a free discovery call. More about the services I offer below.
One on One Editorial Services
From Dissertation to Book Manuscript Evaluation: The transition from dissertation writing to book writing is daunting, exciting, and challenging. I offer full dissertation reviews along with an editorial letter laying out the major structural, stylistic, and scholarly revisions necessary to submit your manuscript for peer review and the academic publishing process.
Book Manuscript Review and Developmental Editing: I offer bespoke developmental editing services for book manuscripts in progress. Perhaps you have a chapter that you’re struggling with and need a second pair of eyes. Or perhaps the full manuscript is sitting on your desk and you want to know if it is ready to be sent out for review. I offer both full manuscript reviews with an editorial letter and targeted review services.
Book Proposal and Query Package Feedback: Book proposals are marketing documents. While they have some similarities to research proposals, they serve dramatically different purposes in selling and articulating the vision for your book. A well-crafted book proposal also serves as a road map for the entire book. The book proposal is only one component of a broader publishing query package. I offer targeted reviews of query packages and book proposals.
Managing Peer Review and the Revision Process: In the best-case scenario, you will receive extensive and constructive reader reports that light the way towards creating a better book. Integrating that feedback into the manuscript and tackling revisions in a timely fashion is its own unique challenge. I am available for brainstorming sessions and manuscript review services that target some of the sticky areas of the revision process.
Writing and Project Completion Coaching
I am here to support you in writing a brilliant, bold, and big book. My aim is to make the (scholarly) book writing process less lonely, less black boxed, and less exhausting by sharing what I know about the ins and outs of the academic publishing industry. I’m also here to share what I know about how to make writing itself more enjoyable, fun, and generative as a creative practice. You do not have to write alone.
One Time Big Picture Sessions: Tell me about your research. Tell me about your book project. Tell me about what’s going well for you. Tell me about your challenges. Let’s strategize and make a plan on how to remove writing and thinking obstacles.
Book Completion Coaching: Finishing a book can be lonely and filled with the noise of external factors from the neoliberal realities of precarious labor to the tenure clock to finding reliable child care to long distance partnerships to departmental drama. For authors who want a regular supportive check in, I am here to listen, plan, and strategize.
