Notes from the Wings/Author & Editor
How I Built a Second Career Editing for Random House While Producing Tony Winners
Two full-time careers, running at once, for twenty-five years. Here's how that actually worked.
People are often surprised to learn that alongside producing Tony Award-winning Broadway shows, I built a full editing career, working on more than 1,200 titles for major publishers including Random House, Simon & Schuster, John Wiley & Sons, and others. The surprise usually comes with a follow-up question: how does anyone do both?
The honest answer is that I never thought of it as "both." It was one working life with two outlets.
It started as a way to survive as an actor
Like most people in theatre, I needed income that didn't depend on getting cast. Freelance proofreading was flexible, it paid reasonably, and it used skills I already had: an eye for detail and a stubborn need to fix things that weren't working. What started as survival work became something I was genuinely good at, and then something I genuinely loved.
The skills transferred more than I expected
Editing teaches you to read for structure, not just sentences. You start to feel pacing problems before you can articulate them. You learn to give feedback that respects the author's voice while still being honest about what isn't working. Every one of those skills shows up directly in how I evaluate scripts and work with creative teams in Broadway production.
How the schedule actually worked
Editing happens on a publisher's deadline, not a theatre's rehearsal schedule, which meant the two careers rarely competed for the same hours directly. Manuscript work filled the early mornings, late nights, and travel days that producing naturally creates. It became less of a juggling act and more of a rhythm: theatre during the day, editing in the margins.
It became less of a juggling act and more of a rhythm: theatre during the day, editing in the margins.
Why I wrote Copyediting and Proofreading For Dummies
After years in the editing world, I wrote Copyediting and Proofreading For Dummies to give people entering the field the practical guidance I had to learn the hard way. It remains one of the most accessible entry points into professional editing, and I still hear from readers who used it to start their own freelance editing careers, the same path that led me here.
What Carrying Two Careers Actually Requires
- 01
A schedule that protects both, not one over the other
Neither career got to be the "side project." Both were treated as real work with real deadlines.
- 02
Skills that reinforce each other
I chose work where the two careers made each other better rather than competing for the same mental energy.
- 03
Comfort with being two different professional people
An editor working alone with a manuscript and a producer leading a creative team in a rehearsal room require different versions of the same person. Learning to move between them is its own skill.
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