Writing is a craft, a skill which improves with practice.

Grammar can be learned.

Spelling...notsomuch. Either you're good at spelling, or you're not. And unfortunately, Spellcheck might be helpful, but let's face it: it's only as good as its programmers, and we all know how many problems certain software programs have. Which is why, no matter who you are, no matter what you write, you need an editor. If you don't believe me, ask Stephen King-we're very close. Like two peas in a pod. (At least, in my mind, which I mean in a completely un-stalkerlike way.)

Now that I'm done name-dropping... Books have always been my thing. And I've been a writer since I could pick up a pencil. My thoughts didn't turn toward writing professionally until about 2005, when I wrote three novels. Through a couple of critique groups and thousands of crits, both given and received, I honed my craft quite a lot. So much so, in 2008 after watching two of my books go through the editing process at publishers, I got the wild idea (the wild, incredibly overconfident idea, in retrospect), that I could do that. So I applied to become an editor at Lyrical Press, a smallish new publisher who'd contracted some of my books. I got hired as a content editor, and began learning a slew of publishing terms, electronic editing tricks, ebook formatting snafus, and guess what? Learned even more about The Craft.

And here I still am. Now I'm the Editor in Chief, also still a content editor, still learning more about how to be a better writer, how to help "my" authors improve their work. I dabbled in the back end of the process, line edits, but I really enjoy pushing up my sleeves and getting in the trenches of content edits where we make the story stronger, cleaner, as riveting as possible.

My poor authors have to learn my lingo: "Innerds"-deep third inner thoughts from a character, generally requested as a replacement for narrative ("She wondered why he hadn't arrived yet" comes off much stronger as "Where the hell was he already?") or "Holding Pattern", which I type as a shortcut to remind an author to mix up sentence structure, rather than going with a repetitive subject/predicate format every time.

And I still write. (When I have time, and when I can tranquilize that inner editor enough to shut her up so I can type.) My characters must endure extensive suffering and conflict, and sometimes they do things certain readers don't approve of, but they always get their happy ending.

What kind of books do I prefer to edit? Deep conflict, relatable characters, believable plots, and a strong romantic element. Because romance makes the world go round. Right?

If you'd like to query me directly, my email address is below. I've got a very strong roster, however, so a submission would have to knock my socks off for me to take on anyone new. Alternately, you can submit directly to the editors' roundtable at the Lyrical Press address found on our submissions page.

Piper Denna-Romance is sexy!

Preferred genres: Contemporary Romance , Erotica

Piper's Website

Email Piper Denna

Fun Facts About Piper

• At the beginning of her writing career, she worked as an electrician. (she’s better at writing than she is at hooking up plugs and switches) She’s also been a daycare provider, cashier, restaurant hostess, big box stock girl, Hallmark supermarket account merchandiser, done data entry, been a car hop, sold Avon and Tupperware, fast food manager, optician, and substitute teacher. This writing and editing thing seems to have stuck longer than anything else!
• She spent the majority of her grade school years as “librarian’s pet”
• Her biggest childhood bully was the lone rooster in their chicken coop—resulting in something of a birdphobia
• Has never had trouble getting dust bunnies and general accumulated crud from under/behind the fridge or other appliances. (Why spend precious time doing things like that?)
• Plans to become a rasta wearing, reggae-playing, barefoot beach bum and retire on the beaches of Jamaica, where all the happy people have already gone.
• Thinks we need a box to check on US tax return forms, so people can donate to a research fund for removal of stretch marks and unwanted body hair. How can we grow 3-headed mice in research labs, but not solve these age-old problems?
• Wonders who has an island they’d like to donate for temporary (4-6 years) storage of teenagers?
• Thinks winter is a crock. (which is why Jamaica looks better all the time)
• Her dream car is a Jeep Rubicon with a snorkel kit. Not that she’d ever take it off-road rock-crawling, much less through a river. But still.
• Thinks Stephen King should be nominated for sainthood or made a royal knight or put in the Everything Hall of Fame, for exposing the evilness of adverbs.