About Indigo


Mission Statement

At Indigo Editing, LLC, our mission is to strengthen authors' words through impeccable editing.

We have come together to benefit publishing and business communities with our collective editing expertise. Through multiple editors with varied specialties and skills, we are able to provide the best professional editing to publishing houses, independent authors, small businesses, newspapers, and magazines.

About

Indigo Editing, LLC, is a firm of freelance editors with various specialties. We find strength in working as a team, offering at least two sets of eyes for projects that require multiple editing rounds, and providing you with the highest quality of editing services. Indigo Editing, LLC, is based in the Portland, Oregon, area and services clients across the country.

The name Indigo comes from the type of ink used in old-fashioned country school houses for use with quills. Its dark blue hue is a perfect color for editing—complementing the author's words in black. This is representative of our editors’ goals—to complement and strengthen, not add to or detract from, an author’s words.


Indigo Editors


Founder and Senior Editor Ali McCart
Ali thinks her love for the written word might have something to do with the pungent odor of ink and the methodic sounds from her parents’ printing press, which permeated her senses before she even knew how to read. She has a bachelor’s degree in English from Willamette University and a master’s degree in book publishing from Portland State University. She’s written and edited for periodicals in Oregon, Idaho, and Montana and edited for authors and book publishers across the country. She also spent two years as a bookseller and sometimes still itches to create front-of-store displays. When she’s not editing, reading, or sneaking whiffs of local print shops, Ali spends her time hiking with her dog, traveling, and feeding the geese at the park near her house.

Ali's editing specialties: health and wellness, fitness and recreation, metaphysical, how-to, self-help, memoir, and feminist nonfiction books; young adult fiction and nonfiction; short stories; professional documents; newspapers; magazines.

Associate Editor Kristin Thiel
Editing fiction and nonfiction for a variety of clients—among them individual authors, Coffee House Press, Simon & Schuster, HarperOne, the National Youth Leadership Council, Portland State University, and Bitch magazine—Kristin loves the written word, its playfulness and intricacies, and working with writers to snap each one into just the right spot.

Kristin draws additional editing support from her own work as a writer. Even before she knew how to form the letters of the alphabet, Kristin was "writing," dictating stories to her mom to put on paper. In 2006 she won the Elisabeth A. McPherson Award for Women Writers and in 2007 the Ooligan Editors' Choice short story contest. Her story "Pilgrim for Hire" was published in VoiceCatcher 2, and she read from it to an audience of almost one hundred at Portland's Central Library. An excerpt from that story is also in the reference book Don't Sabotage Your Submission: Save Your Manuscript from Turning Up D.O.A.

Kristin signs on here and at www.kristinthiel.com.

Kristin's editing specialities: adult literary fiction (anything along the magical realism spectrum is of particular interest), adult mystery or thriller

Associate Editor Andrea Deeken
With a B.A. in English and Writing and an M.S. in Writing and Publishing, Andrea brings three years of editing experience to Indigo Editing. She has edited fiction and nonfiction for individual authors, Ooligan Press, Legwork Team Publishing, proofread for Bitch magazine, and assisted in acquisitions for The Grove Review, Ink-Filled Page, La Palabra Café Press, and Redwood Literary Agency. When not editing, Andrea spends her time reading, writing, gardening, and working at the North Portland library. Her writing has appeared in Periphery, The Cereal Box Review, Knotmag, and The Bear Deluxe. She is currently at work on her first novel.

Andrea’s editing specialties: literary fiction, short stories, and children’s books. She also collaborates with other editors in editing nonfiction.

Marketing Coordinator Adriel Gorsuch
Adriel advocated for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault as an AmeriCorps member after finishing her BA in journalism and marketing communication from the University of Wyoming. Though the work was trying, she was able to explore two passions: effectively communicating to varied audiences and empowering women. The role each word plays in delivering information is astounding. Learning to harness that power for her voice and others is the target of Adriel's career.

Since moving to Portland, gray skies have lulled Adriel into all-day reading of literary fiction, feminist writing, and feature news and magazine stories. In addition to reading and writing, she can be found listening to NPR in her pajamas, collecting unfinished crossword puzzles, cooking with friends, backpacking, snowboarding, and napping outside.

Editorial Assistant Megan Wellman
Megan’s love for words began underneath the branches of her grandparents’ oak tree, where she devoured book after book. A handful of years later, Megan earned her BA in English literature from Western Washington University. After graduation she decided to turn her obsession with reading into a career and began working as an editorial assistant at Illumination Arts Publishing Company in Bellevue, Washington. Currently, Megan is a graduate student in the publishing program at Portland State University. She will graduate this fall. Although her literary tastes have changed from The Very Hungry Caterpillar to Jane Eyre, Megan still visits the oak tree from time to time.

Marketing and Editorial Assistant Leah Gibson-Blackfeather
Leah has had an obsessive passion for words since she was very young; she is prone to three a.m. breakouts of creativity which cause her to lose valuable sleep. She is currently a staff writer/proofreader for her school's liberal publication and in the process of developing a freelance writing and editing career to slide into after graduating next spring. Leah has recently become involved in Ooligan Press, which has led to her a disastrous addiction to the smell, feel, and general presentation of books; it has all gone downhill from there. She can now be found in the aisles of Powell's blue room on any given day, madly molesting the spines of books.

Don't see an editor who specializes in your genre? Don't worry. We have a queue of qualified editors who are eager to work with you. Whatever you write, Indigo editors can help!

Think you could be Indigo? Check out our Opportunities page.

Some of Our Clients


Beyond Words Publishing, Inc., an imprint of Simon and Schuster

HarperOne

Tim Harnett, author of Trompe L'oeil

Healing Society, Inc.

DeVinand Nicholson, author of Riddles and Strife, So This Is Life

Mid-county Memo community newspaper

Bitch Magazine

Henry Cameron, author of The Pilgrim's Paradox and The Pizza Diaries

SuperHeroStuff.Com

Haleah Blank, author of Sisters of the American Exotic

Mark Ellis, author of "The Beach at Newport", Their Loved Ones, and Ladder Memory

Check out their testimonials too!