We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jennifer Silva Redmond a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jennifer, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

My whole adult life is sort of a story of taking risks, large and small. I dropped out of college at 18 and ran off to Los Angeles and then New York to be an actress. Then, in 1989, just when I was getting a toehold in the business, I took a risk going sailing for a year in Mexico with my new husband. After a decade of sailing, writing, and editing, I took a job with Sunbelt Publications, a small indie publisher in San Diego in 2000. Then in 2011, I went freelance. The first year I had to practically give away my services, and I attended a lot of conferences and writers groups before finding enough authors who needed my services. My work clearly impressed people; I have been an independent book editor ever since.

Jennifer, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

There are a lot of editors out there, and different book projects need different types of editing. I am a content or structural editor. I work with publishers like Sunbelt Publications as well as working directly with authors. Some authors want to self-publish their books, and others are interested in getting their work ready to be read by an agent or acquisitions editor. Since I was an acquisition editor for many years, I am able to advise them as to the readiness of their projects. I give feedback on the structure of the book, any changes needed to fit its genre, and any issues with writing style; I also give my opinion on marketability and salability.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I started on Facebook the way most people did in 2010—just keeping in touch with friends and family. I started blogging in 2010 and so I shared my blog posts on Facebook. I did book reviews and wrote about editing clients books and what could be learned from my experiences; I shared about going to writers conferences, always trying to give my readers, who are mostly writers, something of value in every post.
I expanded to Instagram and then to TikTok, sharing insights about the book business, as well as posting photos of my travels, to bring a bit of color and fun to the social media landscape. In 2019 I published a memoir, Honeymoon at Sea: How I Found Myself Living on a Small Boat, and started a Substack newsletter to promote it; I write about book marketing and my travels around the West Coast of North America. I also guest post on other people’s Substacks and blogs, which is always a great idea for cross-marketing. My newsletter’s subscriber list continues to grow.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Word of mouth has been my best tool for getting new clients. I teach at a great conference (the Southern California Writers Conference) every year in San Diego, and also teach at local writers organizations like San Diego Writers, Ink. I try to attend a lot of local author/writing events. I try to always make clients glad they hired me, by going out of my way to be available for follow up conversations or additional editing or recommendations of copy editors (I am not a copy editor) and sometimes even recommend a client’s manuscript to an agent or publisher.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.jennyredbug.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jsilvaredmond/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jsilvaredmond
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-silva-redmond-1334777/
• Other:
  My Substack newsletter is Honeymoon at Sea https://honeymoonatsea.substack.com/

Image Credits

Russel Redmond