I am George De Stefano, an editor and writer available for new projects in both areas. Let me explain what I do and how I can help you.

Editor

Whether you’re a first-timer or an experienced author, you probably know that there is no shortage of freelance editors —copy, line, and developmental.

So why hire me?

I offer 30 years of experience and expertise in book editing, media and journalism, academic publishing, corporate communications, and public and nongovernmental agencies.

What do I do?

I offer the following services to my clients:

• copy editing (spelling, grammar, punctuation, syntax, usage)
• line editing (language and paragraph-by-paragraph organization of content, and rewriting)
• developmental editing (structural work, including rewriting, on an existing manuscript or development of a new one).

I also provide manuscript evaluation services, as a first step in a substantive/developmental edit.

I have edited books by well-known authors, including rock musicians, historians, social scientists, literary critics, constitutional law experts, media critics and other nonfiction authors for major trade and academic publishers. I also edit for media companies and nonprofit organizations. I have edited major research reports and policy documents for think tanks, including The Center for Strategic and International Studies, and NGOs, including the United Nations’ World Food Program.

My subject matter expertise is broad, encompassing social science, the humanities, popular culture, social and political issues, health and public health. I am not intimidated by technical material and I am used to working with authors whose first language is not English.

I will work with you to make your writing project the best it can be, and something we both will be proud of.

Writer

I am an author, journalist and critic. I have contributed features, reviews, essays, and opinion pieces to a wide range of print and digital publications including The Nation, Film Comment, Newsday, Gay City News, The Advocate, Cineaste, In These Times, The Italian American Review and Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, and online publications PopMatters, The New York Journal of Books, Rootsworld, and La Voce di New York.

My well-reviewed non-fiction book An Offer We Can’t Refuse: The Mafia in the Mind of America explores some of my longstanding preoccupations as a writer: cultural mythologies and their social impact; ethnic identity and stereotypes; popular culture, especially film, and how such social categories as race, class, sexuality and gender interact in American society. I also am a contributing author to many other books, including The Routledge History of the Italian Americans, The Essential Sopranos Reader (University of Kentucky Presses), Mafia Movies (University of Toronto), Our Naked Lives (Bordighera Press).

If you are a writer, publisher, or organization looking for topnotch editorial services, please get in touch via this website.

Agents and publishers–if my work interests you, please get in touch.