Today we’d like to introduce you to Nessie Siler.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Nashville Voyager
Hello, I’m Nessie Siler. The journey to my successful editing business began when I was eight years old. My favorite subject in school was spelling, and I remember being so excited to read in elementary school when they announced a contest saying students could win a T-shirt if they read 100 books. I ended up reading 200 books and winning 2 T-shirts that year. Both of the shirts proclaimed my achievement on the front… “I Read 100 Books.” I was so proud I could pop!
Having unlocked that achievement, I remained an avid reader. I progressed to the Little House on the Prairie book series, to Charlotte’s Web and The Secret Garden. These were my favorites as a child. I was also racking up 100s on spelling tests consistently, and being a general know-it- all when it came to all things Language Arts. It got to the point where my parents were coming to me if they didn’t know how to spell something. To my nine-year-old brain, if Mama and Daddy were coming to me for help, it meant I had arrived. This was also the point where I began thinking in words instead of pictures.
Fast forward to 2010. As an individual with a disability, it is generally assumed that if you have a disability and you need a job, Vocational Rehabilitation is the place to go. And indeed, they had helped with the money and technology for me to get through school. Imagine my surprise when I could not get anyone from the local office to return a phone call or an email for months on end.
So I started thinking. I had recently finished a Bachelor’s degree that required reams of writing over 18 months. I loved words, I loved stories, and I loved helping people. I had remarked to friends that if I could find a way to get paid to read I would be happy forever. They smiled and thought nothing of it.
I did think of it. And I was determined. I had already done what it took to work toward a Bachelor’s degree despite the odds being against me. I had a lifelong disability (Cerebral Palsy) and no driver’s license. I had started college at 25, after finally getting out of my own way and doing what it took to get what I wanted: an education. This meant long nights, asking for rides from fellow students, or paying cab fare if I absolutely had to. I found a way, or I made one.
I stopped calling the Vocational Rehabilitation office. Instead, I took what I had (two degrees) and I threw myself into learning what I would need to do to get paid to read. There were hundreds of books around my house and I knew that each of them had been edited. So I began the process of learning the different stages of editing. I learned about developmental editing, copyediting, and proofreading. I started editing for free just to get some experience.
In 2013, I hung out my shingle and Writer’s Best Editing Services was born. With this business, I have the best of all possible worlds. I meet good people who have stories to tell, and I help them communicate those stories through the editing process. For 13 years I have worked with writers of fiction and nonfiction, memoirists, educators, and entrepreneurs. My office is down the hall from my living room, and I set my own hours. I am always on the lookout for new opportunities. This is what led me to the Professional Book Editors Association and Tiffany Butler of Raven Wolf Books.
She lives 11 hours away from me in another state. She is so thoughtful and caring and knowledgeable that I told myself if there was any way I could work with her, then I wanted to. As luck would have it, she emailed me about six months after our first PBEA meeting asking if I could help with her growing project list. I said yes, and we found that we worked so well together that we chose to join forces and work together on all our projects. We are in daily contact over our business and how we can grow it to serve our customers.
If we can help you with something you are working on, please let us know.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
There were struggles in the beginning to be taken seriously as an individual with something to offer despite my disability of cerebral palsy.
And I had to learn not to let the naysayers have the last word. I had to believe in myself before anyone else would.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a member of the Professional Book Editors Association. I specialize in helping people communicate through the written word.
I am the editor-in-chief for The Binnacle, an online disability lifestyle magazine, and I am a partner in Raven Wolf Books.
What sets me apart from others is my willingness to listen and to work with an author until we come up with exactly the thing they want to say in the way they wish to say it.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I would say that good fortune has played a role, in that just when I needed certain things in my journey, either those things would appear or I would receive help to work toward them.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://writersbesteditingservices.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WritersBestEditingServices
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/108308503/admin/inbox/thread/2-ZTZiMTc1MDktMjlmNi00MjcxLTg5YzAtNGIzNzczZjFjZjBkXzEwMA==/
