Freelance Services: Nonfiction

I am not like (almost) any other writer or editor today. I exist almost entirely outside the modern marketplace—by design. I exclusively work with authors, thinkers, creators, and high-level professionals who expect the writer or editor they work with to exhibit true mastery of his field.

Most of the clients I work with aren’t looking for help in places like Reedsy, LinkedIn, Contently, Freelance Writing Gigs, Indeed, Upwork, or Fiverr (and if they are, they’re deeply frustrated because they are looking for expertise in places where it is nearly extinct).

If you’re writing something for real people, not for algorithms, “engagement,” or fame—and if you refuse to settle for anything less than excellence—we may be a match.

Here are the kinds of clients and collaborators I work with most often:

• Novelists who value mastery of craft over tropes and trends
• Writers who need a top-tier editor or development partner for works of deep personal or professional significance
• Business owners who recognize the unmatched power of clean writing to clarify one’s own thinking
• Professionals (lawyers, doctors, historians, philosophers, etc.) working on career-defining books or articles that demand world-class clarity and precision
• Speechwriters who aspire to maximize both intellectual and emotional impact
• Educators and technical experts who require an editor with the ability to understand, analyze, and improve large bodies of text at exceptionally high levels of abstraction or complexity
• Retired people who have led rich lives and now want to write an excellent and impactful memoir (not merely a memoir)

This is not an exhaustive list; its purpose is only to indicate my basic standard and approach. If you need a writer or editor who can hold you (gently but firmly) to a high standard with respect to some other project, we may work well together.

Since 1996, I’ve written and edited a combined total of more than twenty million words. (If you’re curious, that averages out to about two thousand words per day, every single day, for twenty-eight years.) I’ve written ten books and published five of them, including a multi-award-winning novel. I’ve published more than one thousand nonfiction articles and essays—some independently, many in professional journals. I’ve edited books by psychologists, economists, philosophers, and historians—books that may not appear on bestseller lists but nonetheless constitute major milestones in both the author’s career and personal life. I’m also a contributing editor at a quarterly journal of culture and politics, and I’ve been a staff editor at two gaming websites.

Since 2009, I have deeply studied classical, Scottish Enlightenment, and early American rhetoric. My teachers include:

• Corax
• Aristotle
• Cicero
• Quintilian
• Marcus Aurelius
• Montaigne
• Hugh Blair
• George Campbell
• John Quincy Adams
• … and many others

I have mastered the Chicago Manual of Style (the best and most widely used style guide for most kinds of professional nonfiction). I have an exceptionally deep understanding of grammar and sentence structure; I can help you say exactly what you mean to say, correctly and clearly, according to sensible, teachable principles. At a broader level, I have a well-honed ability to understand the full context and purpose of a given work and to frame my approach to that particular work accordingly. I use incredibly powerful writing and editing processes rooted in clear thinking and first principles; if it’s untrue, unimportant, uninteresting, or irrelevant, it doesn’t get past me. I do not use AI in my writing or editing; when you hire me, you get my fully human knowledge and skills, cultivated over three decades of study and practice.

“Full-service editing” is a broad and somewhat ambiguous term. I offer the following services individually and/or bundled together:

• Developmental editing: In my experience, 90 percent of editing happens at this level in 90 percent of cases. This is where we’ll deeply analyze your writing as a whole, paying close attention to theme, structure, target audience, precision, strength of arguments, and internal consistency. Developmental editing is the longest and most difficult stage by far—and the most important. It will test your patience, but if we skip it or rush it, your book or essay is guaranteed to be dead on arrival.
• Line editing: Here, we’ll edit primarily at the level of individual paragraphs and sentences, emphasizing clarity, flow, and effective use of language. If developmental editing is the house’s foundation and frame, line editing is the wiring, plumbing, flooring, and so on.
• Proofreading: In terms of the manuscript itself, this is the last step before publication. Proofreading is concerned exclusively with spelling, grammar, style guide adherence, and (in some cases) formatting. This is the paint, carpet, and furniture—things we don’t worry about until the house itself is perfect.

Please note that, although I offer these services individually, it is very difficult (often impossible) for an editor to perform effective line editing if he has not also edited the same manuscript at the developmental level.

No matter what kind of support you need, I’ll help you smelt your writing down to raw ore, figure out exactly how to say what matters most, and reforge it into something stronger than you ever thought you could make.

I don’t mimic or pander, and I don’t write anything meant to accummulate clicks or shares at the expense of real, human value. I ghostwrite articles, essays, and books for people who refuse to settle for half-truths, half-measures, or half-good writing. Some people have critically important things to say but simply aren’t writers. I’ll bring the words if you bring the spark.

I don’t write filler. I don’t pad articles with unnatural keywords. I don’t chase trends. I write principled, useful nonfiction for no-bullshit businesses—the kind that still believe that clarity, depth, and earned trust matter more than clicks or rankings. My specialties include philosophy, history, arts and culture, firearms, outdoor survival, small business ownership, game design, and more. These aren’t random—they’re forged from a life lived with purpose, energy, and intention. If your work stands for something real, I’ll help you stoke it to a roaring blaze.