If you’re looking for thoughtful content, helpful explanations, and deeper engagement in the professional writing and editing community, with access to writers, editors, strategists, and coaches, LinkedIn is a great place to start. Writing professionals post several times per week sharing content, prompting discussion, sharing new approaches, and challenging old assumptions.
Historically, LinkedIn hasn’t had the best reputation for engaging interactions, but in recent months, the culture of LinkedIn has shifted and people are sharing content more often and discussing more freely. Take another look at LinkedIn. While you’re there, check out these writing professionals and consider following a few of them. (Don’t worry, you can follow a person on LinkedIn without connecting.)
Here’s my list of writers, editors, strategists, and coaches to follow on LinkedIn, in alphabetical order by last name.
1. Dr. Claire Bacon – Copyeditor, Biomedical and Life Sciences
Dr. Bacon is a copyeditor specializing in biomedical and life sciences. She is a Ph.D. scientist who worked as a researcher at the Institute of Human Genetics and is now a trained language editor. She maintains an active blog addressing topics ranging from punctuation and grammar to academic journal submission. Her informative blog posts are helpful for all types of writers, including legal and business writers. She posts on LinkedIn several times per week with writing tips and blogs for academics, science writers, medical writers, and researchers. Dr. Bacon is an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading and is located in Germany.
2. Erin Brenner – Copywriter, Business; Editing; Training
Erin is an award-winning copywriter with 20 years of experience in communications and business. Her clients include software companies, sales training companies, and marketing agencies. In addition to copywriting and editing, Erin also provides staff training in writing for private companies. She’s the author of Copyediting’s Grammar Tune-Up Workbook, 1001 Words for Success, and Quick Study Dictionary of Commonly Confused and Misspelled Words (with Steve Berner). She maintains her own blog and posts at least once per day on LinkedIn. Erin is an Advanced Professional Member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders, a member of the American Marketing Association, and ACES. She’s located in the Boston area.
3. Craig Clarke – Proofreader; Copyeditor, Technology
Craig is a proofreader, copyeditor, and writer at MarketReach, Inc. with over 15 years' experience working in technology marketing and public relations. MarketReach is an award-winning creative production shop for tech marketers and Craig is a proofreading master—and a punning champion. He’s recently started sharing his articles on Medium and he posts helpful content relating to proofreading, editing, and technical writing several times per week on LinkedIn. Craig is located in the Boston area.
4. Maria Ford – Consultant, Branding; Writer; Editor
Maria is a branding consultant who helps established organizations refine, refresh, or rebrand. She helps business leaders find their brand voice and coaches them through writing retreats. She also helps them create a solid and unified communication strategy. Any company in transition or crisis seeking coaching through positive change will benefit from Maria’s work. Maria posts daily on LinkedIn and is active on other social media channels, including YouTube. She’s located in Canada.
5. Michelle Garrett – Consultant, Public Relations; Writer, B2B, Technology
Michelle is a public relations consultant and writer specializing in business-to-business and technology topics with over 20 years of experience. She deftly combines public relations, content marketing, and social media. She’s also a blogger, speaker, and regular monthly contributor to Muck Rack. Michelle maintains an active blog, is active on Twitter with a weekly freelancer chat, and post several times per week on LinkedIn. She’s located in the Columbus, Ohio area.
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6. Daphne Gray-Grant – Principal, Coach, Writer, Editor
Daphne is a publication coach who learned her skills in the newspaper industry, moving from weekly to daily publications where she learned how to write better and faster to meet tight deadlines. Now she works with companies and individuals around the world to teach them to do the same. Daphne is skilled in public relations with expertise in crisis communications. She maintains an active blog with short and pithy posts, tweets regularly, and posts nearly daily on LinkedIn. Daphne is located in the Vancouver, Canada area.
7. Louise Harnby – Editor, Fiction (Independent and Self-Published Authors)
Louise is a commercial fiction editor and proofreader with 30 years of experience in the publishing industry. Though she’s worked on over 600 books, she’s still passionate about helping new, independent, and self-published authors with their work. Louise publishes an active blog and has a podcast with Denise Cowle. She’s active on LinkedIn with links to her blog, podcasts, and helpful video content. Louise is an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading, a Member of ACES, and a Partner Member of the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi). Louise is located in Norfolk, United Kingdom.
8. Anne Janzer – Author; Writing Coach, Business & Professional
Anne is a business writing coach and the author of Writing To Be Understood and The Workplace Writer’s Process. Her goal is to help people communicate with clarity and authority and she’s a writer after our little WordRake hearts. Before becoming an author and writing coach, Anne spent years as a marketing consultant and writer for technology businesses, where she analyzed what made writing effective. She now shares her insights in books, workshops, online courses, and blog posts. Anne maintains a regular blog and posts on LinkedIn nearly daily. She’s located in San Luis Obispo, California. (Anne is also a WordRake user! Read her review here.)
9. Sophie Michals – Consultant, Technical & Business Communications
Sophie is a technical and business writer with over 15 years of experience writing and editing. She helps companies create writing standards and manage large editorial projects. Most companies know they should have standards and style guides but don’t know where to start. An experienced and understanding consultant can help. If writing stresses you out or if you know you must write well for work, but you’re not passionate about writing, Sophie is the perfect person to follow for advice and insights. She posts nearly daily on LinkedIn with straightforward business and technical writing tips. You can also find her writing advice on Medium. Sophie is located in Chicago, Illinois.
10. Ben Riggs – Writer; Editor; Writing Coach, Business & Professional
Ben is a writer, editor, and coach after our WordRake hearts. He’s dedicated to clarity and brevity and posts lessons on those topics on LinkedIn daily. He says: “My goal is to synthesize the conventions of clear writing with the time-tested dynamics of storytelling to help you confidently create and share writing that’s clear, and thus enjoyable.” Ben provides coaching sessions over his unique lunch-n-learn format and his aim is to help professionals further their influence through writing. He’s written and edited long-form content, ghostwritten books, and written and edited academic journals and educational curricula. Ben is located in Dayton, Ohio.
11. Lourdes Venard—Editor, Manuscripts; Instructor, Copyediting; Consultant
Lourdes is an editor with more than 35 years of writing, editing, design, and project management experience. She developed her skills as an editor and journalist at several major newspapers throughout the country. In addition to editing, she’s an instructor for the copyediting program at UC San Diego and the Editorial Freelancers Association. She posts regularly on LinkedIn and is located in San Diego, California.
12. Crystal Watanabe—Editor, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Crystal is a freelance fiction editor specializing in science fiction and fantasy. She’s also the owner of Pikko's House, an editorial services business that works on about 75 novels per year. Crystal is an avid gamer and a pop culture geek—and she makes editing fun. She’s the creator of Simple Markup, which is a web comic for editors, and she posts regularly on LinkedIn. Crystal a member of the Editorial Freelancers Association, a founding member of the Association of Independent Publishing Professionals , a member of the Authors Guild, and an affiliate member of the Science Fiction Writers of America. She’s located in Hawaii.
13. Cynthia Williams – Editor, Environmental & Healthcare; Project Manager
Cynthia is an editor and project manager at Dragonfly Editorial. She specializes in environmental policy, healthcare, and public interest advocacy and she uses her skills to help researchers and policy analysts communicate effectively and empower communities. She previously worked at Public Citizen and the Georgia Health Policy Center. Cynthia is also the creator of the new Outside the Book interview series that highlights editors of color who work outside of the book, news, and trade magazine publishing realm. Expect interviews of legal, medical, nonprofit, and social science editors. Since starting Outside the Book, Cynthia’s LinkedIn presence has grown. Follow her now to be ahead of the trend. She’s located in Baltimore, Maryland.
BONUS! Kristi Dosh
Kristi is a corporate lawyer turned sports business analyst turned publicist. She’s transformed her career (multiple times) through blogging and social media. Kristi parlayed her 2L note into a book deal about college football and became the first female sports business reporter for ESPN, then moved on to national speaking gigs. After leaving ESPN, she founded a boutique publicity and personal branding agency, where she helps solopreneurs and nonfiction authors establish themselves as experts in their niche. She says: “It doesn’t matter how good you are at what you do if no one knows you do it.” This makes her the perfect closer for this list. If you’re working on your business writing, people should see your work. Kristi posts several times per week on LinkedIn and other social media platforms and she’s located in the Jacksonville, Florida area. (Fun Fact: Kristi is an old friend who helped me apply to law school!)
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Conclusion
By following writing professionals on LinkedIn, you can make writing improvement a part of your daily process. When you’re ready to take the next step, let WordRake help. WordRake uses complex, patented algorithms to find needless words, weak lead-ins, clichés, dull phrases, redundancies, unnecessary modifiers, and more. Then it presents its suggestions to you in the familiar track-changes style. It can make any document clearer and shorter. Try WordRake free for seven days!
About the Author
Ivy B. Grey is the Chief Strategy & Growth Officer for WordRake. Prior to joining the team, she practiced bankruptcy law for ten years. In 2020, Ivy was recognized as an Influential Woman in Legal Tech by ILTA. She has also been recognized as a Fastcase 50 Honoree and included in the Women of Legal Tech list by the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center. Follow Ivy on Twitter @IvyBGrey or connect with her on LinkedIn.
This isn't spelling and grammar software. This is editing software to improve brevity and simplicity.
Succinct writing for 35 cents a day.
