Mary Elizabeth Summer
Case study: Developmental and line editing
“This experience has been truly a unique one in my professional writing career.”
-Mary Elizabeth Summer, YA Mystery Author
Staying true to what matters.
Mary Elizabeth was already confident in her novels and her vibrant, talkative characters. But figuring out how to translate that to the page for her website and branding was more challenging. Mary Elizabeth was also concerned about how to differentiate herself in an over saturated market.
Together we set out on an adventure to re-attune Mary Elizabeth to her author’s voice and build her confidence.
“Frankly, I’ve never heard of any other service like this. There are editors who will help you find your character’s voice in your book. There are marketers who will help you brand yourself with graphics and colors. There are copywriters who will look at the surface of what you give them and spin out content to copy and paste on your website. But I’ve never come across a person who can look into my very soul and pull out the universal parts of myself so I can know and share them in a compelling and consistent way.”
Mary Elizabeth writes for people who are ready to be swept away by the story and open to being ok with their own unexpectedness, their own liminal spaces.
No matter how terrifying or exciting, there’s always a happy ending in this house. Mary Elizabeth takes readers on a thrilling journey - but they’ll always get a soft landing, too.
Core themes: Liminality and Freedom
Mary Elizabeth knew she wanted to go much deeper than “I’m a mystery writer so I must like spooky things” or “quick, mention tombstones and Professor Plum in the library!”
As we talked it was clear Mary Elizabeth’s work was based on the beauty of liminal spaces. We identified that her work has strong themes of:
Subverting expectations. Her work is a land where the villain could turn out to be the kindest character, an assassin can fall in love, and truth always wins.
The quest for freedom. From self-imposed cages to societal expectations, Mary Elizabeth is all about freeing her characters, and therefore her readers, from their prisons.
Appreciating the mystery. In Mary Elizabeth’s work, mysteries don’t have to be tied with a neat bow. Her readers learn to embrace ambiguity, and trust that eventually they’ll figure it out if they just keep going.
“I didn’t know what to expect from the process, never having gone through anything like it before. But what came out of it can only be described as magical. Allie is unfailingly kind and supportive and has a knack for asking questions targeted to exactly the places you need to plumb to reach depths of yourself you never knew existed. I felt seen.”
-Mary Elizabeth Summer
Defining the heart of the work
Defining who you are as an author can be hard. We identified that Mary Elizabeth’s core theme in five words is: Hope is always a choice.
We summarized the heart of her work as: You write mystery books that centre on intriguingly damaged characters learning to carve out their own space in the world.
Getting clear on this gave us a strong basis for the rest of our work together.
Based on this, I crafted Mary Elizabeth’s author’s love letter (you can read that here.) This letter gives Mary Elizabeth an instant shot of confidence whenever she reads it - and words she can use in her marketing, too.
We also put together a brand guide laying out the core themes and foundations of Mary Elizabeth’s work. In terms of actual copy, Mary Elizabeth needed very little help as she already had magic copywriting skills. However, as a result of our work she was able to better focus on her core themes,which will help her keep her presence consistent throughout her website, emails, social posts and beyond.
“I was surprised at how deep and profound the result was. I was expecting to have marketing language I could use to describe myself and my brand. I got that - but I also came away with so much more. Allie helps you bring scattered ideas and bits of soul flotsam up to the surface, then gathers them all up in a net and weaves them back out again in a rich, beautiful tapestry of words that you can pull from indefinitely. Being able to set yourself apart is paramount in this over saturated market, where AI is poised to saturate it even more. If I had tried to do this myself, all of my marketing copy would have sounded either cheesy or wooden. Allie’s suggestions opened up whole worlds of language I would never have considered before.”
Phase two: Hybrid editing
Mary Elizabeth also signed on with me to edit her latest work, Burden of Proof. Armed with Mary Elizabeth’s author’s love letter and brand guide, I ensured her key themes and values shone throughout the manuscript, in a way that fit the characters and story.
Hybrid editing was the ideal solution for Mary Elizabeth as it combines the big picture (developmental edits) with intense focus on flow, voice, and language choice (line edits.) Burden of Proof had strong characters and a solid plot, but some of the details needed hashing out, and Mary Elizabeth was looking for a fresh set of eyes on the language and flow, too.
Working in depth page-to-page this way provided Mary Elizabeth with an immersive experience that built the world and words from the inside out.
“Allie brings the same kindness, humor, and insight to editing your stories and she does to your author branding development. Not only that, but Allie’s gift for teasing out your unique author voice carries over to her editing style as well, meaning that when she edits your work, she focuses on bringing out your characters and theme and story the way you would do it, not the way anyone else would. Her suggestions (gently and supportively given) enhance your story by understanding and staying true to the core of your characters’ personalities and the purpose your story is meant to serve.”
-Mary Elizabeth Summer
“Having Allie do both author voice discovery and editing for you is the best of all possible worlds, because she knows you as an author inside and out as well as your characters and world, so she can help you craft a story that is as true to you and your vision as it can possibly be.”
-Mary Elizabeth Summer
The magic of building your author voice both on and off the page
Working together on both branding and editing gives my clients a unique opportunity to express themselves both in and outside of their novels.
Understanding Mary Elizabeth’s commitment to the beauty of the liminal meant I could keep an eye out for the liminal spaces in her work, and help her decide which mysteries needed to be solved, and which were always meant to be strange dreams.
Her sparky, funny, intelligent characters were the perfect vehicle to bring out her core themes of truth, justice, and escaping our prisons. Understanding that helped me to ask the right questions about character motivation and their responses to situations. It also meant I could see where they were shining at their most bright, and encourage Mary Elizabeth to do more of that.
From liminal spaces to characters that value truth and love, even in the midst of the grittiest mysteries, it was a true pleasure to help Mary Elizabeth find and see the heart of her work - and herself.
“All of my experience as both a traditionally published author and now an independently published author have taught me how essential a clear and distinct author voice is to success. If you have even the tiniest doubt about how to present yourself as an author, now is the time to act. And Allie will help you get there, in ways you never even imagined!
This is the best money you’ll spend on your author career. Cannot recommend highly enough.”
-Mary Elizabeth Summer, YA Mystery Author
Ready to experience the magic of true confidence in your author’s voice?