Gail Anderson-Dargatz
Author. Mentor. Editor.

Gail Anderson-Dargatz

Resources for writers

Gail Anderson-Dargatz

Resources for writers

Explore Our Resources for Writers

Building Blocks

Big Idea

Your Characters

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Revising

Publishing

Making a Living

Life

Kimmy Beach on Making an Income - continued

Article Index

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By and large, community is how I make most of my income. A pal on a book awards panel will ask me to sit on a jury for a provincial book prize. A provincial funding organization will ask me to sit on a grants jury. An author will work with me and recommend me to a writer friend looking for an editor. A writer in residence will know of me and send one of their clients to my website (where I’m careful to keep my portfolio completely up to date, including any awards the books have won or have been shortlisted for). I pick up the odd writer in residence gigs where I can. A library I’ve worked for will hire me to run a full-day editing workshop. Editors who are overextended will sometimes send me clients they simply don’t have time to work with. I estimate that about 75% of my paid work comes from referrals. Guess what I’m going to say now! Make friends (real ones, not just “connections”). Be an excellent person whenever you can. I give my repeat customers a discount if they hire me again. I have a network of friends whose work I’ll always read for free in exchange for them reading my next work when it’s ready. 
 
The keys are: always be learning, and always be helping. Invest in your professional development in whatever way you can afford. Take editing and writing classes, or design or layout courses: whatever it is you want to do. Go to launches and hand out business cards at literary events and conferences. Make it known that you’re available for work. Toot your own horn online, but build a behind-the-scenes network of horn tooters to help you do that. Reciprocate. Make a good website. Don’t fight it. Just do it. You need it. But above all, be a good, kind person and don’t undervalue yourself. You will get potential clients (for everything you offer) who will push back and try to negotiate a lower rate. Ask them if they’d ask their dentist for a half-price root canal. No. It’s a good word, and more abundance comes to us once we learn how to say it more often.
~~~
KimmyBeachKimmy Beach’s sixth book, Nuala: A Fable (University of Alberta Press, 2017) was shortlisted for the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction in 2018. Her articles, poems, fiction, and reviews have appeared in journals and anthologies across Canada, England, and Wales. Please check out Kimmy's website for her editing services, her portfolio of award-winning editing projects and her shop where she offers a self-directed e-course on editing one's own prose. She is available for workshops, private consultations, and writer-in-residence opportunities. Kimmy writes and edits from Red Deer, Alberta, where she lives with her husband, Stu.
 
Photo credit: Shawna Lemay

Testimonials

Tara Gereaux

"Gail is an incredible editor. She has an innate ability to understand what I’m trying to do with my writing and to help me see what I need to do to get where I want. The best part about working with her is her supportive, encouraging approach. She’s a writer, she gets it – she knows how hard writing can be – but when I’m working with Gail, it always feels a little bit easier and a little more fun. Can’t recommend her highly enough."

-- Tara Gereaux has published two books of fiction and was the recipient of the Colleen Bailey Memorial Award from the Saskatchewan Foundation for the Arts, and a REVEAL Indigenous Art Award from the Hnatyshyn Foundation.

Tara Gereaux

Christine Fischer Guy

"Gail’s model suited me right down to the ground, exactly the right combination of close reading, thoughtful feedback, and enough space to work these questions through in my own time. She’s an intelligent and experienced manuscript midwife with an uncanny ability to see to the heart of what I was trying to do. I appreciate her guidance immensely!"

-- Christine Fischer Guy author of The Umbrella Mender (2014) and The Instrument Must Not Matter (2026).

Christine Fischer Guy

Leila Marshy

"I've been writing my whole life, but in the past two years I can say that Gail has pretty much taught me everything I now know. I am convinced that without Gail's ministrations, my novel The Philistine would not be enjoying its current success"

-- Leila Marshy, author of The Philistine and 2026 winner of TWUC's Danuta Gleed Literary Award for My Thievery of the People.

Leila Marshy

Matthew Hooton

"Gail's developmental edits were superb. Her attention to the manuscript's structure, to themes and emotional resonances, and to the character creation were at once challenging, sophisticated and encouraging. And she draws on a range of excellent resources. I've not seen anything quite like it in twenty-five years in the industry."

-- Dr. Matthew Hooton, author of Deloume Road, Typhoon Kingdom, and Everything Lost, Everything Found, longlisted for the ARA Historical Novel Prize 2025. Dr. Hooton is a lecturer at the University of Adelaide.

Matthew Hooton

Jessica Waite

"Gail is the total package: brilliant writer, keen-eyed editor, ace story architect, and warm genuine human. The structural foundation she taught saved me years of floundering in the dark. Thank you Gail!"

-- Jessica Waite, author of the Widow's Guide to Dead Bastards,  one of The Globe and Mail's best 100 books of 2024.

Jessica Waite

Darcy Friesen Hossack

"By the end of the first draft, I'd rediscovered colour in a world that had faded to black and white. I can not thank Gail enough."

-- Darcy Friesen Hossack, Danuta Gleed runner-up and Commonwealth Prize-shortlisted author of Mennonites Don't Dance  and Stillwater.

Darcy Friesen Hossack

Kelly S. Thompson

"Not only did Gail help me to polish my prose, but she also showed my how to believe in my own work, how to play, how to explore language with the writer's tools. What a gift, to have someone champion your work in a way that makes you, the writer, feel seen."

-- Kelly S. Thompson, national bestselling author of Girls Need Not Apply: Field Notes from the Forces.

Kelly S. Thompson

Lise Mayne

"Time Enough became the novel I longed to create thanks to Gail’s expert advice and encouragement. Gail helps writers find the heart of their own story, the mark of the very best teachers. I highly recommend her as a professional mentor and a sincere guide."

-- Lise Mayne, author of Time Enough.

Lise Mayne

Elle Wild

"Gails fiction course was the best class I have ever taken. Full stop. Her notes and analysis were invaluable and I still use the creative exercises she shared with us."

-- Elle Wild. #1 bestselling author of Strange Things Done and winner of the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Unpublished First Crime Novel.

Elle Wild

Maia Caron

"Perhaps there's no greater proof of a manuscript editor's work than when the writer they mentor gets a publishing contract, but what I found most valuable was applying Gail's insightful comments when I began to plot a new book."

-- Maia Caron, author of Song of Batoche

Maia Caron

Daniel Griffin

"Gail has been a great help to me for many years, reading my novels and stories and providing practical, clear and meaningful feedback. Her focus on the structure of a story, its arc, the conflict that drives it and the development of characters and their transformation has been invaluable."

-- Daniel Griffin is the author of Stopping for Strangers and Two Roads Home.

Daniel Griffin

Nerys Parry

"(Gail's) greatest gift is her passion. She truly loves the craft and throws her heart into her work as not only a teacher but also as a coach and inspiration to aspiring writers. She always knows just how far to push you without breaking you, and if you let her, she can help you become a far better writer than you ever imagined..."

-- Nerys Parry, author of Man & Other Natural Disasters, a finalist for the Colophon Prize and tied for seventh in the Giller Prize Reader’s Choice Awards.

Nerys Parry

Jennifer Manuel

"Gail has a firm grasp on what effective mentorship looks like: supportive, challenging, fully engaged. Immediately Gail got to the heart of my novel’s problem and then worked with me to find possible solutions, pushing my craft to a higher level and deepening my understanding of narrative structure. It was nothing short of a shattering breakthrough.”

-- Jennifer Manuel, author of The Heaviness of Things That Float

Jennifer Manuel

Liisa Kovala

"Working with Gail during an early stage of my historical fiction manuscript was like taking a masterclass. Both my novel and my skills as a writer improved through her guidance. Best of all, Gail is not only knowledgeable about everything to do with writing, she is also delightful to work with."

-- Liisa Kovala, author of Surviving Stutthof: My Father's Memories Behind the Death Gate and Sisu's Winter War.

Liisa Kovala

Emily De Angelis

"Gail was knowledgeable, thoughtful, and kind as she coached me through the process. Her feedback validated my journey and help me to move forward with my story in countless meaningful ways..."

-- Emily De Angelis, author of The Stones of Burren Bay.

Emily De Angelis

Maggi Feehan

"Gail is nothing short of an editing genius. She has the rare ability to give feedback laced with compassion, appreciation and respect... that will inspire you to go back to the page and transform your narrative, words and characters in truly remarkable ways."

-- Maggi Feehan, author of The Serpent's Veil

Maggi Feehan

Kimmy Beach

"I'm so happy I chose Gail as my first foray into the world of hiring an outside eye. I've loved her work for ages, and hoped her insight would take my new project where it needed to go. I'm overwhelmed with gratitude (and work!). Thank you, Gail. You 'get' me."

-- Kimmy Beach, author of The Last Temptation of Bond.

Kimmy Beach

Chris Tarry

"Working with Gail has become the measure by which I rate every workshop I've taken, or will ever take. And she has set the bar impossibly high. To study with Gail is to understand the plight of the Apprentice Writer, to take solace in her direction, and to witness one's growth in virtually real time."

-- Chris Tarry, four-time Juno Award winner and author of How to Carry a Bigfoot Home.

Chris Tarry