Our Memoir Editing & Coaching Services
MEMOIR EDITING IS AN ART and a science. Memoir editing should make your work better. It should make good memoir. I understand what that is because I write, publish and teach memoir. I do not give prompts, assignments or exercises. I do not coddle or give you gratuitous advice. What I do is to teach you to write with intent. And, as a result, my clients get published.
As a former staffer at The New York Times, commentator on NPR’s All Things Considered and an author of four mass-market books, I am well-versed in how to work hard and how to get published. I may be the best editor for you, though then again, I may not.
To meet the demand of our writers, as well as to give them the quality editing they deserve, we currently offer the services of a variety of editors with whom you can work. Their skills range from developmental editing and content editing, to coaching and copyediting. We will connect you to the very best person for your needs.
Memoir Editing & Coaching Services
All of our editors (profiled farther down the page) are talented, capable and experienced. Their rates vary. Our editorial assistant meets with Marion once weekly to match new editing applicants with the right editor.
We also now have skilled coaches on the team to guide you through the work of writing memoir. Get in touch with us at mroachsmith [at] gmail [dot] com to be referred to one of them.
Op-ed Editing
An experienced editor is now available to work with anyone who completes our class on How to Write Opinion Pieces. The edit includes a first read, a one-hour live phone conversation, and a second read and edit. His editing and consultation totals about 3 hours of work per op-ed and includes suggested places for you to submit your finished work. Be in touch at mroachsmith [at] gmail [dot] com for more information.
Editing FAQS
1. Can I work with Marion directly?
As of 2025, Marion is taking requests for one-on-one work, working only with 5 people at a time at $1000/month. If interested, please send an email to mroachsmith [at] gmail [dot] com.
2. What does working with a memoir coach cost?
That varies greatly as it depends on the length of your manuscript. Our coaches charge by the hour and generally their rates range from $75 an hour to $175 an hour. Each coach will give you a quote of what it costs to work with them before they begin work on your manuscript. The op-ed fee is $500 for three hours of work.
3. How do I start the process of working with a coach?
Email us at support [at] marionroachsmith [dot] com and mention the email address you use to take the classes and ask for the coaching application.
4. How long does it take before I am matched with a coach?
We match coaches and clients once a week. Usually our coaches have availability, or you may need to wait at most a week or two before working with a coach.
5. Who do I pay?
You will pay your coach directly. They will send you an invoice and a contract.
Our Editing Team
Diane Cameron
Diane is a well-published author whose work centers around recovery. She maintains a series on social media called “Sober Money.” Her columns and essays challenge readers to think about culture and community from a new perspective. Diane presents at conferences, faith communities, and at corporate and community events. As a creativity coach, she works with writers and artists to begin, complete and market their work. As a spiritual director she helps people find meaning, perspective and encouragement–especially those identifying as “spiritual but not religious,” atheist, agnostic, and people who are in recovery. See more on her here.
Bill Patrick
William B. Patrick is an award-winning writer whose works have been published or produced in a number of genres: creative nonfiction, fiction, screenwriting, poetry, and drama. His most recent book, Metrofix: The Combative Comeback of a Company Town, was published in December of 2021. He has also written The Call of Nursing: Voices from the Front Lines of Healthcare; Saving Troy: A Year with Firefighters and Paramedics in a Battered City; We Didn’t Come Here for This: A Memoir in Poetry; These Upraised Hands, a book of narrative poems and dramatic monologues; Rescue, a radio play commissioned by the BBC; Rachel’s Dinner, an ABC-TV teleplay starring Olympia Dukakis and Peter Gerety; and a novel, Roxa: Voices of the Culver Family, which won the 1990 Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award for the best first novel, among many other works. Bill has taught in Fairfield University’s MFA Writing Program for the last 14 years, and a variety of his book excerpts, magazine articles, and dramatic writing can be found at his website. He lives in Schenectady, New York with his wife, Carmel, and his golden doodles, Vincent and Rockwell.
Jill Smolowe
Jill Smolowe is the author of the memoirs Four Funerals and A Wedding and An Empty Lap, and co-editor of the adoption anthology A Love Like No Other. An award-winning journalist, she clocked 35 years as a foreign affairs writer for Time and Newsweek, and as a senior writer for People. Her essays have appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post Magazine, Reader’s Digest, More, Money; in several anthologies; and on numerous websites, including PBS’s Next Avenue. She has been editing memoir manuscripts for more than 20 years.
Mike Welch
Mike Welch is a writing teacher, editor and tutor living in Albany, NY. His work has appeared in the Crime Writers’ Chronicle, 50-Word Stories, the Albany Times Union, and he has written a feature sports column for the Binghamton Press and Sun Bulletin. He has read his work on WAMC/National Public Radio and at the Arts Center of the Capital Region’s Bookmark’s Series.
Michael White
Michael C. White is the author of seven novels, including Beautiful Assassin, which won the Connecticut Book Award for Fiction; Soul Catcher, which was a Booksense and Historical Novels Review selection, and A Brother’s Blood, which was a NY Times Notable Book. The founding editor of the fiction anthologies American Fiction and Dogwood, he also founded and was the director of Fairfield University’s MFA in Creative Writing Program. His webpage.
Joseph Dalton
Joseph Dalton has covered the Capital Region arts scene for the Times Union since 2002 and won writing awards from the New York Associated Press and ASCAP. In 2018 Rowman & Littlefield released his third book, Washington’s Golden Age: Hope Ridings Miller, the Society Beat, and the Rise of Women Journalists, a biography of the midcentury society editor who was his cousin. Dalton is efficient, good humored and economic in both writing and editing.