Editor Donalda Day can make you look smarter!

Donalda Day serves as living proof that if you’re patient enough, then someday, even you might work at a job which has some relation to what you studied in school.

Day is promoting what she hopes might translate into a new “day job” for herself; that of professional copy editor.

Was that supposed to be a colon or semi-colon in the above paragraph? The Sheet has no clue, but Donalda Day knows!

Though Day had no previous professional editing experience until last year, she graduated from San Diego State University with a degree in English and has been an avid reader all her life.

At a cocktail party last year, she got to talking with her neighbor Georgia Lowe, who wrote the award-winning novel “The Bonus.” Day ended up editing that book as well as a second book of Lowe’s, a prequel to The Bonus called The Kid. She has also edited Kirk Stapp’s latest manuscript and one of Peter Berardo’s.

Day charges a dollar a page for manuscripts, and $15/hour for other projects such as news/magazine articles, websites and term papers.

The first chapter of any book is free – “so both sides can figure out whether it’s a fit,” she said.

As Lowe said, “What I love about Donalda’s work is that she is the consummate, careful reader. Not only does she understand the rules of grammar and punctuation [conforming to the Chicago Manual of Style], but she reads for content and continuity. That, for me, is the best gift.”

Kirk Stapp added, “I would use her again.” He said he told Day to just read it [the manuscript] and give him feedback. “I didn’t ask for specifics.”

He was delighted with her feedback on both line editing and editing for content.

When not editing, Day still maintains her position as a sales representative for Turtle Fur, Style Eyes Sunglasses and Sol  Sunscreen.