Dave King

An archive of Dave’s posts can be found HERE.

In addition to editing everything from YA to harrowing memoirs, with romance, mysteries, and historicals in between, Dave King is the co-author of Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, now in its second edition, with more than 100,000 sold. An independent editor since 1987, he’s a former contributing editor at Writer’s Digest. Many of his magazine pieces on the art of writing have been anthologized in The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing and in The Writer’s Digest Writing Clinic.

He shares a small home in the hills of western Massachusetts with Ruth Julian, his wife of twenty years. They often watch bears, beaver, deer, ducks, muskrat, fox, wild turkeys, and the occasional bobcat wander around in the yard and pond. No moose yet, though the occasional young male wanders through their town. They grow many of their own fruits and vegetables, keep a couple of chickens, and manage their forest to provide wood for heat. In spite of the limits of satellite internet access, Dave can keep editing without ever having to move away from the wood stove.

He’s also the organist at a local church, which gives him the chance to explore the connections between writing and baroque music. The independent musical voices of a fugue act in much the same way as the characters in a novel — intertwining to produce an artistic whole. Being able to hold several musical threads in his head at the same time has helped him untangle more than one complicated plot.

His dream for the future is that all of his clients’ books will sell so well that they can quit their day jobs. But his goal every day is to make sure that he helps his clients become better writers.

You can learn more about his editorial services on his website, or on Facebook.