“Ellen Tilton-Cantrell is a brilliant editor on multiple fronts. As a line editor, she is an elegant and efficient prose stylist. When tackling structural editing, she is an incisive reader who excels at separating the ‘wheat’ from the ‘chaff’ across complex chapters. As a developmental editor, she has the uncanny ability to discern the most promising contours of an emerging argument—in my case, across a ponderous manuscript—to excellent effect. When working on complex monographs on these fronts, she is also a gracious taskmaster, an insightful editorial guide, and a terrific interlocutor (even beyond her field of scholarly training).
Ellen saw my first book through multiple stages of the drafting and revision process (amidst the COVID pandemic, no less) and she was an incredibly generous editor and resource for me as a first-time author. I cannot recommend her services enough, and I liberally mention her name to fellow colleagues preparing their first monographs.”
— Dr. Annette Lienau, Harvard University
“I was a bit nervous about letting someone ‘into’ my text, but it was amazing to have Ellen do work that I know would have cost me blood, sweat, and tears. Ellen was not ‘attached’ to the material in the way that I was, but just wanted to figure out what was necessary to the argument. Working with her made it much easier to let go of some material that wasn’t serving the book. After Ellen helped me to reorganize the overall argument, write a book proposal, and prepare sample chapters, my book was swiftly contracted by Johns Hopkins University Press. One of the peer reviewers noted that the book (based on my PhD dissertation) is accessible to ‘an informed wider audience.’ I think this is to a large extent due to Ellen’s contribution.
Ellen is clear and easy to communicate with, efficient, and thorough—and she was genuinely interested in the content of my book in a way I really appreciated. I particularly liked how easy and fun the process of working together was. ”
— Dr. Sara Polak, Leiden University
“I worked with Ellen during the final stages of revisions to my book manuscript. By then, I had already received reader reports and completed six months of editing. What I needed was an outside perspective to guide me through a series of challenging, yet crucial, organizational decisions. I was simply too deep in the weeds to make those calls confidently. Some of these choices also involved making major cuts.
Ellen is exceedingly generous and supportive of authors...In our developmental consultation, we had a conversation about the core themes and explored strategies to highlight them. She also integrated my written reflections and feedback during the editing process, providing an opportunity for me to be in dialogue with her during editing, and, in turn, refining my analysis. I highly valued the cooperative aspects of her editing style. I am profoundly grateful for her contributions to this manuscript; it is considerably strengthened by her dedicated work.”
— Dr. Heather Lee, NYU Shanghai
“Ellen’s combined skills as an incredibly sensitive reader and literary critic made her the perfect editor for my book manuscript. I needed someone to help streamline prose, but to also suss out any potential gaps in argument. Ellen helped retain my voice while consistently improving the text’s tightness and clarity. Her professionalism, prompt and substantive communication, and probing questions about any unclear sections were all welcome...The book is unequivocally better as a direct result of her thoughtful suggestions for revision and her precise proofreader’s eye.
Based on the superb work she did for the first project, I immediately sought her services for my next book and would happily keep her on retainer if I could! Simply put, Ellen has become my go-to editor for all serious academic publishing projects moving forward. I’m grateful for all her conscientious efforts and feel lucky to have the benefit of her editorial expertise.”
— Dr. Reginald Jackson, University of Michigan
“I have been immensely impressed by Ellen’s professionalism and expertise. Ellen’s comments on my manuscript are incisive, thoughtful, and help me to ‘see the forest’ again instead of the trees. No one has read my work with such care and generosity of spirit since my days as a student. The experience has been so different from the academic peer review process where people offer all sorts of advice on one’s work but not always with the intention of making the project better. I had a deep sense from Ellen’s comments that she wanted to help make the project better and that has made all the difference (plus her formidable editorial skills as well!).”
— Dr. Rachel Pang, Davidson College
“Working with Ellen was my first time working with a developmental editor. My scholarship benefited greatly from her insightful and razor-sharp close reads. I worked with her over the course of 8 months. During this time, her comments arrived in my inbox in a timely manner and she always made herself available for follow-up questions. In addition, the advice she gave enhanced various aspects of my academic writing life, including rethinking the book proposal, drafting a conclusion, and honing my argument. I couldn’t have kept up the pace and stamina needed to complete my writing project without Ellen’s partnership each step of the way.”
— E.B., City University of New York
“I was blown away by Ellen’s manuscript assessment—I don’t think my work has ever been read so carefully before. She showed me multiple potential ways to articulate central arguments both for individual chapters and for the book as a whole, finding coherent threads and a narrative arc where I had been afraid I had none. She pointed out the gaps between my stated aims and what the book and its chapters actually achieved, and gave great, concrete suggestions about what it would take for the book to do what I said it would do, or—even better—to accomplish something on a wider scale, with a more coherent intervention and a broader potential readership.
Ellen pointed towards places throughout the manuscript where I’d been engaging with the same issue, something I wouldn’t have realized just reading through it myself. And along with extensive comments on the book’s central thesis, ways to frame my broader project, and which key concepts made sense to center, she also gave thorough consideration to each individual chapter and the best way to shape the argument of each. I was definitely stuck looking at the trees; with Ellen’s help, I can not only see the forest, but a path through it that has already been making my revisions more focused and efficient—the project is progressing far more quickly than I expected!”
— Dr. Andrew Campana, Cornell University
“Thank you so much, Ellen. Your thoughtful notes have been extraordinarily helpful, and I’m looking forward to digging into the work as soon as I can. And that in itself is a gift. ”
— D.T., University of Alberta
“I had to trim my contracted manuscript, but didn’t know what [to cut] or how to begin pruning. Ellen’s manuscript assessment offered extremely useful advice in this regard. With a keen eye to making the future book more inviting to all readers, her in-depth review identified the manuscript’s essential concepts and related areas that require clarification. It also offered concrete formulations—from thesis presentation and chapter structure to word choice and writing style—that I could work on to launch my revisions. Most importantly, the assessment helped me discover the big-picture edits I needed to implement & the chapters that would benefit from structural editing.
For the chapters on which Ellen performed structural editing, I particularly appreciated her incisive suggestions on re-organizing sections within the chapters. Identifying alternatives I could not have diagnosed on my own, Ellen helped me to streamline content and foreground key ideas. Her personable working style was also very reassuring. Attentive to mutually agreed schedules without being inflexible, she checked in whenever necessary to discuss schedule adjustments or major structural revisions and always made herself available for follow-up questions. These traits testify to her impeccable professionalism. Thanks to Ellen’s expert editing skills and insights, I am confident that my manuscript is thoroughly and carefully processed in the most ideal manner for the next stage of publication.”
— C.T.C., National University of Singapore
“Working with Ellen saved me six months of confusion on the revision of my dissertation. What she was able to identify—with clarity and precision—as my manuscript’s over-arching argument is something that would have taken me, on my own, several drafts and a lot of frustration to see my way to. After I got back my assessment, I kept joking to my friends that my manuscript felt ‘seen,’ but truly, that’s how it felt! As I continue to revise, her notes, chapter title suggestions, and questions to provoke more thinking are my foundational guides. I wish everyone could have this experience!”
