Jeannette Belshee Reitz, author of Alaska in the Rough: Bert Ray Libe’s Odyssey from Cheechako to Pioneer

Jeannette came to me with a story written by a family friend affectionately known as Uncle Bert, who traveled to Seward, Alaska, in 1905 to be part of the Alaska gold rush. Bert’s story was based on his true adventures in 1905 and 1906 on the Kenai Peninsula and Southcentral Alaska. This became part 1 of the book. Part 2 is the continuation of Bert’s story, written by Jeannette, of Bert’s life after 1906 and the history the Ketchikan, Alaska, area where he settled for the remainder of his life. Woven into part 2 is also the history of Alaska Natives in the Southeast Alaska region.

Jeannette’s book covers vast territory, and we worked together to link Bert’s stories, written by him, to the rest of his story, written by Jeannette. We ended up with two parts, with several sections within to guide readers.

I helped identify areas that needed more development, as well as areas to cut back in order to keep the book to a manageable size and stay within the main theme. The citation list was long, due to the historical facts presented in part 2, and this required specific formatting for consistency and to align with conventional style. We also maintained a style sheet to track names, locations, and other elements of the story.

After the editing phase was complete, I designed the layout and placed over 120 images, each with a caption and source reference. Proofreading was the next step to give the final polish before it went to the printer.

• Nonfiction book
• Memoir
• Developmental edit—Reviewed for overall structure, organization, and gaps in story
• Copyediting (medium to heavy)—Reviewed for consistency, clarity, spelling, and grammar. Helped structure chapters for better organization and reader understandability.
• Manuscript front and back matter—Provided guidance to align to book publishing standards.
• Style sheet—Tracked terminology, capitalization, number style, etc.
• Formatting—Reviewed for consist styles and format, extensive citation formatting
• Book design—Designed layout and placed images
• Proofreading—Reviewed PDF version after book design