April Michelle Davis led her workshop at the Virginia Press Women spring conference held in Farmville, Virginia, on Working with a Freelance Editor: The Editorial Process. The workshop was inspired and designed by April Michelle from real-world experiences throughout her career. April Michelle captured the essence of the spirit of the conference and attendees in the way that she presented the material and how she relayed it to each story. April Michelle was available throughout the two-day event, getting to know the attendees, familiarizing herself with their type of work, and making helpful suggestions on how to increase productivity and creativity.

April Michelle Davis participated in her third Celebrate with a Book author book fair, which was held Saturday, December 14, 2013, at Regency Square Mall, in Richmond, Virginia.

What was different about this group of local authors was that each one had written and published one or two books. From this experience, these authors realized the value of working with a professional editor such as April Michelle Davis. Many of these authors gravitated toward April Michelle and expressed concerns of embarrassment and dissatisfaction with their publishers. Their books had been published with spelling mistakes, inconsistencies in the sentence structure, and even errors in the overall flow of the plot. These errors affected the integrity of their books and more importantly the integrity of the authors. These errors should have been found and corrected.

April Michelle personally reads every word of every manuscript her company is hired to work on.

April Michelle Davis, a highly regarded editor in the industry, presented her workshop Working with an Editor: The Editing Process to the Agile Writers group on December 2, 2013. The group comprised new and experienced writers who desired to write a better first draft for a novel.

The eager writers were excited to hear April Michelle’s words of wisdom, which brought forth an interactive exchange of information tailored to the writers’ needs, but geared to draw out other questions and topics that the others would relate to their own writing experiences. As the audience participation increased, the dimensions of the topic encompassed everyone and the power of the educated and experienced speaker, April Michelle, produced a time of new and renewed resolutions, a truly motivational experience.

April Michelle Davis was the featured editor on the floor at the James River Writers Conference held on October 19 and 20, 2013. April Michelle was available for in-person editing and publishing consultations.

At the conference, an author approached April Michelle looking for an editor that would personally take the time to get to know his style before taking on the project. This author had already written several books and was unhappy with the editors he had worked with because to him they were neither personable nor flexible enough to allow the time to familiarize themselves with his style before making recommendations for his manuscript. April Michelle introduced herself to him by saying, “The intent of the author is always kept in mind—from the first word to well beyond the end,” which she proudly states on the Editorial Inspirations website. April Michelle listened intently to his explanation of his needs for his manuscript, then she injected her philosophy into the conversation, and before the author left, they had made an appointment to talk again.

After another author shared the difficulties he had experienced self-publishing his first book, April Michelle gave him some tips on how self-publishing would work well for his second book. This in-person one-on-one meeting allowed April Michelle to delve into the author’s situation and show him how he could overcome the problems that had left him feeling that his options were limited for his second book. The author told April Michelle that he appreciated her knowledge of the subject and would re-think self-publishing.

The value of in-person editing and publishing consultations was realized by these two authors as they left feeling that their needs were understood and that April Michelle could provide them with the professional services that they had been seeking.

April Michelle’s presence was warmly received at an event that offered so many opportunities for writers and authors.