Editing
I’ve had the pleasure of working with Amanda on several occasions. She provided insightful editorial notes and in-line comments for my manuscript pre-submission process with my agent and during the submission process when I tackled an R&R with an editor. Her comments are thoughtful, extremely well-detailed, and brought a breadth of knowledge of the Young Adult market at large. Amanda knew the audience of YA diaspora contemporary fiction and gave me both valuable edits and mentorship. She has a keen perspective on character development and the distinctive BIPOC diaspora character arc, along with an understanding of non-Western BIPOC storytelling that the industry needs more of. Amanda also helped me brainstormed, outlined, and drafted my second YA novel. She was there at every stage and provided unmatched support while championing my stories that speak to queer, Asian American girls. She is a true champion to BIPOC authors with great editorial vision, skills, and knowledge of the publishing industry at large.
— Trinity Nguyen, author of various genres, represented by Naomi Davis at BookEnds Literary Agency.
Amanda is a generous and active member of the book community, and we connected over our shared interest in Vietnamese diasporic literature. Amanda served as a reader for my full-length adult novel manuscript after implementing my first round of agent edits. I know she has a full plate, but she turned around her reading and provided feedback in a month, which was so appreciated. Her feedback was thoughtful, and she addressed the specific issues I’d shared on the manuscript. In addition, she demonstrated a keen insight and picked up on nuances in my novel that were both intended and unintended. It was lovely to see my creative vision realized, and Amanda also provided amazing insight into parts of my creative vision I hadn’t even discovered yet. Her eye for thematic threads and the parts of my work that needed to be smoothed over was instrumental. I would highly recommend her as an advocate for your work!
— Hien Nguyen, author of speculative fiction, represented by Katelyn Detweiler at Jill Grinberg Literary Management.
Amanda and I crossed paths in the strangest of ways but it was a blessing. I’d been stuck with something on my adult romcom, I don’t know what, but something wasn’t right. I’d read and revised it a million times but I wasn’t ready to let it go. It’s a good story, of this I was sure, but I was too close to it.
She offered to read it as a favour because we all know she can consume a romcom in a day and while I was expecting some decent feedback, I did not expect the level of care that went into her feedback. She’d made notes of the things she liked and the things that concerned her drawing from her years of experience in analysing story beats.
She listened while I bounced ideas off her as I tackled the problems she’d identified and throughout the process, she emphasised the things she loved which, let’s be honest, every writer needs to know. By the end of it, I have a story I’m so incredibly excited to share and I cannot recommend her enough! Go go!
— Shameez Patel Papathanasiou, author of speculative fiction and romance, represented by C.H. Armstrong at The Purcell Agency
