ZooWrite

Writing Support

I thought I had written a self-help book, but Nancy told me right away that this was a memoir. She urged that instead of hiding behind famous people’s quotes, I should put more of my own words out there. She encouraged me to speak in my own VOICE, to be totally me, which helped me let go of the need to have a lecturing authoritative voice. I worried that my writing was childish and stupid, but she got my humor, she got my message. No—she helped me understand my own message! She dug deep into my world alongside me and encouraged me to explore further. Nancy transformed my book. She also transformed me.

—Nina Nam, author of Transformation Champ: The Story of My $80,000 Six-Pack

My superior copyeditor, Nancy Pile, employed her great skill to big quality improvements in the text. The readers will benefit from her persuasive insistence that the [book] needed more summations, conclusions, and explanations—and her imaginative and creative ideas for what the text needed. The copy as a whole owes a large improvement in clarity to her understanding.

—Charles Tiefer, law professor at University of Baltimore, former Solicitor of the House of Representatives, former Assistant Senate Legal Counsel & author of The Polarized Congress

Vision & Values

This is how I see myself in my work with writers: I am on your side, cheering you on. I help, encourage, and challenge you to shape your manuscript into its most compelling form. I understand that it can be a daunting task, sharing the manuscript/content you've toiled over for hours, weeks, months, and years on, and you can expect both empathy and a friendly toughness on my part in our work together. I am here to help you with your text, and I do so with determination and warmth.

What I consider my specialty—how I can help you, so together we can turn your good writing into a moving, convincing, cohesive piece of magic—is the work we do on your content itself. My aim is to ensure your text is not just comprehensible, but energetic, moving, and 100% united on the paragraph-, section-, chapter-, and whole-text (or book) levels. Every single part of your text must serve a single purpose—to support its main message (if nonfiction) or to contribute to the narrative in a meaningful way (if fiction). My job is to make sure both that it's happening and that it's happening in the optimum manner possible.

I provide a lot of feedback, suggestions, and even direct changes to your content. If I notice inconsistencies, sentences that don't make sense, transitions that are unpolished, unclear, or confusing, ideas that need greater development, or new ideas that you didn't address but really must be included, I will voice that. I am careful to explain thoroughly my thinking and to offer potential "solutions" (if applicable). If I determine that I have the information necessary and that I can match your voice and style, I will add in words, phrases, sentences, and even paragraphs to resolve issues—but only if I think I can do it seamlessly.

Let me add that any work I do on your text will be readily evident to you. Because I use the "track changes" function, my work inside your text is clearly visible. You always have the final say about my corrections, additions, and suggestions because you are the creator.

Unless you advise me otherwise, I follow the guidelines of the Chicago Manual of Style. And just to be clear on this point: I am very experienced at correcting grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, word order, verb tense, subject-verb agreement, parallel construction issues, typing errors, and more, and I make all these proofreading-type changes too. However, our work on your voice, message, style—your content—is of primary importance. Proofreading is important too, but that comes after we've nailed down your content!

I’ve worked with other editors before and they were all professional and knew what they were doing, but with Nancy, I felt like she really got me and what I was about, not just as a writer and author, but what was in my heart and soul, and she helped to pull that out of me and onto the page.

—Mary Cheyne, 2009 world champion of public speaking, president and CEO of Magnetic Podium, LLC, & author of the bestselling "Present" Yourself in Public Speaking

It was truly a great experience to work with Nancy on my letter of intent. Nancy’s depth and breadth of skills together with her responsiveness provides you with unquestionable confidence in her ability to deliver a unique product. Her attention to detail, craftsmanship and thoroughness exceeded any of my expectations. I would most certainly recommend Nancy and plan to use her services again in the near future.

—Alex P., MBA applicant, Pottsdown, PA

Services

While the majority of the time I work with writers on their book manuscripts, I also do work in a variety of genres, including the following:

Books, both fiction and nonfiction
Website content
Business reports
Academic papers
Personal essays
Application-related content

My services include the following:

Content editing (also called substantive or developmental editing)
Copy editing
Proofreading
Ghostwriting
Building bibliographies (APA, MLA, or Chicago Manual of Style)
Creating book indexes
Coaching

Fees: Depending on your project requirements, service fees are either a flat rate (based on the word count) or an hourly rate with rates dependent on the turnaround time that you require.

To discuss the possibility of our working together, please contact me at editor@zoowrite.com.

To the editing wizardry of Nancy Pile, who so eloquently captured the essence of my message and encouraged me to pull out the stories and references of my responsibilities and give my process order and coherence . . .

—Susan Burlingame, author of the Kick-Ass Corporate Wife series

About

My name is Nancy Pile. I grew up in rural Kentucky in a farming family. In high school, with my parents' help and support, I was able to attend Groton School in Massachusetts. That's where I was introduced to Latin, chaos theory, and rowing (crew). I graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in British and American language and literature. I earned my master's from the University of Memphis in secondary English teaching, i.e., high school English.

I love to travel and teaching allowed me to do so. I lived and taught English literature and writing at high schools in rural Mississippi (with Teach for America), in Memphis, TN, and in Washington, DC. I served as a Peace Corps volunteer, living and teaching in a village in Mauritania, West Africa. Later, I taught for several years at a small international school in the highlands of Guatemala.

After 10+ years of traveling and teaching, I changed my role in regard to English reading and writing: I began working as a full-time editor and copywriter: editing books, supporting people in applying to universities and new jobs, editing web content, ghostwriting, building indices and bibliographies, and supporting graduate students in their research. I've worked with writers and clients on texts ranging from PhD dissertations, web content, and more than 300 books, both fiction and nonfiction.

I am really into bicycling and cyclo-touring. I've bicycled all over Alaska, including the 500-mile unpaved Dalton Highway from Fairbanks to the Arctic Ocean. I visited the French Pyrenees to cycle the famous Tour de France climbs. In 2009, I did a year-long bicycling adventure, cycling across BC and Alberta, Canada, and then I followed the Great Divide south, through the USA, Mexico, Belize, and into Guatemala. I ended up stopping in Lago Atitlan, Guatemala, to take a month studying Spanish while waiting for some bicycle parts, and that's where I’ve been living ever since. You can read about this adventure and see great photos in this travel journal.

When I'm not working with writers, I enjoy bicycling, doing yoga or HIIT, walking the local trails with my dogs, making ice cream, baking fabulous desserts, and traveling (in Rio Dulce, Guatemala, in the photo below).

Writing, I’ve learned, is a very solitary process. But only up to a point. . . . [My] book was initially ideas and concepts put together. The magical flowing of thoughts came as a result of Nancy’s coaxing me to provide the connectivity between them. Her brilliant editorial work and wonderful additions have made my passionate writing sparkle. Thank you, Nancy!

—Kathy Archer, leadership development coach & author of the bestselling Mastering Confidence

Portfolio

Since transitioning from high school teaching to supporting writers, I've edited many, many books. In my portfolio below, I'm including a sampling of the most memorable, challenging, and rewarding books I've worked on.

If you are interested in working with me, please contact me, and we can talk about it. Here's my email address: editor@zoowrite.com.
Note: I am happy to do a sample edit of an excerpt of your work.