The publishing industry is biased toward white, cis-gendered, straight, able-bodied authors. This isn’t news.

I exist in a position of privilege as a white woman (while I don’t have it quite as good as the majority of the white men of the world, I am near the top of the pyramid). I rarely use my editing platform to discuss my own place within the marginalized world because it’s irrelevant to my editing in most cases. Right now, I feel it’s more important than ever to share that with you all. I’m a proud member of the LGBTIQ+ community. I grew up in a relatively progressive world so I haven’t experienced the same level of discrimination that others in my community have. I cannot imagine how difficult it is to be discriminated against daily for something that is a part of you, but I do know the pain of being othered for my sexuality.

Growing up I didn’t see many stories about kids like me. I was lucky to find a couple of great novels that I really identified with. Representation matters. My thoughts on this subject are rather complicated as I would love to live in a world where queer stories were so normalized that we didn’t need to have our own genres to explore them. I would love to see the same thing for our authors of color. For the moment, that remains a dream. Right now, representation matters. I want to see these stories going out into the world for people to read.

My tiny space on the internet where I edit for indie authors feels like the perfect starting place.

That’s why I’ve created the Pay What You Can Editing Program for marginalized authors to access editing services. If you would like to help please scroll down to the bottom of this page to see what you can do.

How does it work?

Every month I’ll be opening up a minimum of one editing slot to marginalized authors with the pay as you can option. To be considered for one of these slots, check the criteria below to see if you qualify then email me an application following the instructions below.

This first slot is funded entirely by me. Every additional slot will be dependent on the funds pool which anybody can contribute to (see “I need your help” below).

At this point I’m only offering developmental editing and copyediting as part of this program. I hope to be able to expand in the future.

Who can apply?

If you consider yourself part of one of the below groups you can apply. That simple.

• LGBTIQ+
• BIPOC
• Disabled

NB: Please apply only if your book is ready for editing.

How do I apply?

Send me an email at CateEdits@gmail.com including the following information with Pay What You Can as the subject line:

Author Name:

Book Title:

Genre:

Word Count:

Blurb:

Editing Service Required: [Developmental editing or copyediting]

I need your help

Please share the information about this program to your social media following to get the word out to people who would benefit from this program.

If you can, consider adding a little extra to your editing invoice to help me add extra editing slots.

You can make a donation to this program at PayPal.me/CateEdits. This will help me add extra editing slots to the program.