Today we’d like to introduce you to Allison Buehner

Hi Allison, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?

I’ve always been the overachieving, Type A go-getter. I majored in Organizational Leadership and Business before I started my career as an Account Executive in public relations. A few years later, I left the small firm in Chicago to work as a Marketing Specialist at a Forbes 50 company, hoping there would be more opportunity for growth and leadership.

It was in this job that I realized maybe communications isn’t the right field for me. One day, casually talking with coworkers, I was asked what I said my dream job was in high school. I recalled that I always answered with, “I want to be a book editor, but I am going to rule the corporate world first, and then when I retire, I’m going to spend my days book editing and live slowly.” It got me thinking about why I felt, even in high school, that I had to work in a corporate job before living out my true dream. (I know I’m not alone though; many of my peers have expressed they felt socialized into wanting and pursuing corporate careers.)

Once that realization hit, I decided I wanted to move towards book editing right then, not in 40 years. A friend of mine began writing her first book and I told her about my interest in book editing. I wanted to learn more about the industry. She’d just begun working for a boutique boutique publishing company and they were hiring! I met with the CEO and started part time as the company’s PR manager, but within seven months, I was her first full-time employee. I was handling clients, managing our team of part-time employees, and best of all, I started learning how to edit books.

I worked there for three and a half years and just this spring decided to leave to freelance edit books full time. I finally feel like I am living out my dream.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?

When I look back on my journey to get here, it all feels serendipitous. I’ve enjoyed every experience that got me to the point of freelance book editing. I don’t believe anything that may have been perceived as a barrier or struggle in the moment ultimately held me back from walking my own path, rather, they were lessons I needed to learn!

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?

I am a book editor (and a book coach!) and I have expansive experience editing manuscripts from draft to completion. This means I do developmental edits, which focuses on the manuscript’s storyline, plot, context, flow, and minor details; line edits, which is about word choice, phrasing, and sentence structure; copyediting, which is more technical and focuses on style guide rules, consistency, slight fact checking, and grammar; and proofreading, which is for typos, light formatting, and grammatical issues as a last line of defense before formal interior book formatting and publishing.

While working at the small book publishing company, I also formatted the interior of our books and book coached for clients. My experience working at a publishing company is invaluable, because I understand the author’s journey in totality, not just my role as their editor. I’m always giving my clients advice and insight for strategic ideas related to their genre and I always do more than “just” edit.

I’m also proud of the way I’ve adapted to reach new clients. I’ve worked hard at building a small following on TikTok that provides me with steady flow of editing inquiries. While it’s not my favorite part of being a freelance editor, having experience in communications taught me that representing yourself and meeting your audience where they’re at (in my case, authors on #BookTok) is a critical component in creating success. So far, it’s working!

In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?

I think the publishing industry will only expand, and there are two components to this. First, content is king these days, and exponentially more people are writing and sharing content, whether their personal story, business insights, or fictional stories. Secondly, social media, especially TikTok (shoutout to my #BookTok friends!) has created meaningful communities that encourage and inspire more people to write. Social media has also paved the way for self publishing to become more mainstream, which means more authors are able to share their story without feeling that they “need” a traditional publisher to take on their story.

I have seen an increase in using AI to generate content for books. I don’t think this is inherently bad, but I do hope this trend doesn’t overshadow books and stories written by human authors. There is a beautiful complexity in our humanness that directly influences each author’s storytelling and it would be devastating to see that become undervalued.

I saw a post from Joanna Maciejewska this spring that really struck a chord. “I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes.” I think we can all relate to that sentiment!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://allisonbuehner.weebly.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/albee.words/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@allybedits

Image Credits

Joaquin Films Co.