About An American Editor, the Current Owner and the Founder

An American Editor began as the blog from Rich Adin, an editor with more than 30 years of experience as a full-time professional editor. It is now owned and managed by Ruth E. Thaler-Carter, a long-time, award-winning freelance writer/editor/proofreader whose motto is “I can write about anything!”® (www.writerruth.com).

Ruth has been a full-time freelancer since 1984. She started out as a writer and moved into editing and proofreading somewhat by default, as either the only or the most-knowledgeable person in the office in terms of usage, grammar, punctuation and spelling. (For her perspectives on editing, see “On the Basics: A Love of Editing,” “What is Editing?” etc.) Often called the Queen of Networking, Ruth is active in professional organizations such as the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (NAIWE), Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA), ACES: The Society for Editing (ACES), Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), Association Media & Publishing, Women in Communications (www.comcom.org), and others, as board member, newsletter editor or contributor, speaker/webinar presenter, and more.

Ruth is also the founder and host of Communication Central‘s “Be a Better Freelancer”® conference, co-hosted by NAIWE since 2019, with plans underway to offer its 17th event in October 2022, most likely in St. Louis, MO.

“I am deeply honored that Rich asked me to take ownership of the An American Editor blog, and I aim to keep it going at a level he will be proud of,” Ruth said.

Rich’s first career was that of a lawyer. He was drawn to law because of his love of language and words. After practicing law in Indiana for seven years, he returned to New York and found his way into the publishing world. He learned his craft by working for Matthew Bender & Co. and then at Prentice Hall/Simon & Schuster. In 1984, Rich began offering his editing services on a part-time basis and in 1991, he opened the doors (full-time) of Freelance Editorial Services, which was his primary professional home ever since.

In the 1990s, Rich was also the publisher and CEO of Rhache Publishers Ltd., a small independent press. In the 2000s, he founded wordsnSync Ltd, which is the home of the online stylesheet he created, as well as of EditTools, a collection of Word macros designed to make the editing process more productive, efficient and consistent.

Rich is retired these days, but retains a lively interest in language and editing, and accepts occasional new projects.

Contact Information

If you are interested in using Ruth’s writing, editing, proofreading or speaking services, contact her at Ruth@writerruth.com or conference@communication-central.com. She can work in AP or Chicago style. 

For insights into the editing process, see Rich Adin‘s essay, The Business of Editing: What an Author Should Give an Editor. For a discussion of the difference between developmental editing and copyediting, read Editor, Editor, Everywhere an Editor. In The Business of Editing: Evaluating a Manuscript, Rich discusses the basic procedure he followed in evaluating a manuscript to determine the fee. Several of his posts address how to set fees for editing based on his concept of an Effective Hourly Rate.

“The best editor-author relationship is the one built on knowledge.”

— Rich Adin, AAE Founder

All content © An American Editor. No content may be republished or recirculated without prior permission and full credit to the author and to An American Editor as original publisher. Contact Ruth@writerruth.com for permission or further information.