Barbra Rodriguez

Line Editor

Barbra Rodriguez is a certified editor with decades of experience and a big picture vision; she draws on an eagle eye and skills learned as an award-winning writer to ensure content is engaging and accessible. Her editing and proofreading for MIT Press, Counterpoint Press, and Greenleaf Book Groups has included books on big ideas, self-help, health topics, and more. She has also edited print and digital educational materials for clients such as W. W. Norton, and assisted self-published authors of memoirs, spiritual self-help guides, and other content. Other clients have been the ecosystem sciences division of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, an engineering construction institute, and non-profits focused on mental health and diversity, or conservation.

After receiving a certificate degree in Science Communication from UC, Santa Cruz, she undertook writing internships at The Dallas Morning News and Kansas City Star. Barbra’s interests often center broadly on the intersection of science with aspects of healthy living. So, she has freelanced since the late ’90s about public health challenges, climate change, and other topics for publications of the AARP, the journals Science and Nature, and magazines such as Texas Co-op Power. She won two national awards for a feature about aging well mentally, and a Texas writing award for profiling plant conservationists. The latter award came during a public relations career of assisting faculty at a top-ranking medical school and an R1 research university to communicate their work.

Barbra looks forward to helping authors express their intelligence, passion, and personality on the page. She reboots her passion through writing workshops, and uses an organized approach to developmental edit, copy edit and ghostwrite manuscripts.

AREAS OF SPECIALTY

  • Nonfiction for adults, including narrative nonfiction, historical nonfiction, books of journalism, memoir, psychology, self-help, spirituality, health/wellness, nature, bioscience, sustainability and landscape design

  • Literary and historical fiction.

AVAILABLE FOR

  • Manuscript critiques, copyediting of fiction and nonfiction (including style sheet creation), developmental and substantive editing of nonfiction (including book map creation), first chapter reviews, line editing (of fiction and nonfiction for voice and style), proofreading, query letter and book proposal drafting or editing.

  • Ghostwriting for select topics/subject matter; inquire for details.

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“I truly enjoyed working with Barbra. Her attention to detail and suggestions exceeded my expectations. Initially she started by copyediting and proofreading my memoir, but after working through my initial manuscript and seeing its potential, she gave me some recommendations on where we could improve the project. We decided to continue the work and through additional developmental editing we created a new manuscript that vastly improved the book. All I can say is that I’m grateful for her suggestions! I am thankful for her enthusiasm and willingness to immerse herself in the subject of my book. I strongly recommend Barbra!”

- Roman Castilleja, author of Rowing Home