About Raquel
Raquel Beatriz Pidal (she/they) has over two decades of writing, editing, and publishing experience. She first developed her interest in publishing during a college internship at The Writers Room of Bucks County, an educational nonprofit center for writers of all genres and levels of experience. After graduation from Ursinus College, she was hired as The Writers Room’s program director, where she expanded their annual calendar of offerings, oversaw volunteers and interns, and developed relationships with community partners. Raquel developed a successful summer creative writing camp for children and teens as well as an intergenerational memoir project called Generation Crossroads, and she supported the organization’s editorial services and their literary magazine, The Bucks County Writer.
Raquel also helped to cofound the online literary journal The Wild River Review and established a career as a freelance editor. In 2006, they moved to Boston to pursue an MA in Publishing and Writing at Emerson College, and upon graduation, they worked for two years in publicity at Harvard University Press.
In subsequent years, Raquel went on to work primarily in editorial, both for numerous small presses and as a freelancer. They were editorial director of Winans Kuenstler Publishing and its imprint, Platform Press, for eight years, as well as managing editor of Wild River Books for four years. Currently, Raquel is the cofounder and managing editor of Tree of Life Books, an independent hybrid publisher focusing on identity-driven stories across all genres.
Raquel’s publishing and editing clients have included Westchester Publishing Services, Burgess Lea Press (an imprint of Quarto Books), Brandeis University Press, and Beacon Press, as well as dozens of independent authors who have sought her editorial assistance with developmental and ghostwriting help, line editing, copy editing, publishing consulting, and writing coaching.
Raquel has been teaching publishing courses at Emerson College since 2018, and has been an Assistant Professor in the department of Writing, Literature and Publishing since 2023. While her primary focus is currently on teaching and academic writing, she is occasionally available for select editorial projects.
Raquel is a member of PEN America, the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA), and ACES: The Society for Editing.
Raquel’s Editorial Philosophy
In their excellent book The Invisible Art of Literary Editing, co-authors Bryan Furuness and Sarah Layden encourage their readers to craft an editorial philosophy as a way of articulating their own editorial methodology. It’s an exercise I have my own editing students complete, and I realized it wasn’t fair to ask my students to complete an assignment I hadn’t done myself. So I too considered what mattered most to me in my work with authors and wrote down my own approach.
Below are the touchpoints I’ve found myself returning to throughout every project over the last two decades. As someone who thrives on lists, I found this format the easiest way to express what I believe about this beautifully creative, expansive, expressive process. My hope is that this gives you a better sense of what it’s like to work with me.
Editing is the art of seeing and discovering potential in a work and its writer and helping the writer to see and work toward that potential too.
Everything we’re doing is in the service of the writing, so I ask that we check all egos at the door. All of us have the room to keep growing and learning, and every project is an opportunity for growth.
As your editor, I will act as your trusted creative collaborator. My role is to walk beside you and offer you, the writer, guidance based on my experience, but you are the leader and make the ultimate choices.
A good editor leaves their mark on the page. A great editor leaves none. Good editors do the heavy lifting for their writers. Great editors teach their writers how to do their own heavy lifting. I strive to be a great editor.
I approach revision with curiosity, compassion, and a sense of “what if?”
Writing is resilient. Everything that is done can be undone. I will help you feel confident in making changes, taking chances, and experimenting.
Everything we do together is in the service of your story and your reader. If something isn’t serving the story or its reader, I will help you determine how best to revise it.
Sharing creative work is an act of deep trust. I always treat that act of sharing with the greatest care, as well as with great enjoyment.
I am honest in my feedback, and I am always kind about it.
I am flexible, I am adaptable, and I choose the editorial hills I will die on sparingly. As your editor, I will push you and I will challenge you to push yourself as you revise, but I am always willing to yield. Compromise is the name of the game.
It is an honor, for both myself and the writers I work with, to enter into the intimate creative space of revision work, and together we ensure that we treat that with the utmost respect.
I always thank my writers for their trust, and they have always thanked me with their best writing.