Brian Hotchkiss

Newburyport, MA 01950 USA
Website: http://bdhotchkiss-editorial.com
Contact

Professional Experience

Extensive experience both writing and editing short-form (blogs, articles, catalog copy) and book-length content has honed my ability to zoom in on key material in order to target its presentation directly to intended readers. This audience-driven approach allows me to engage just the right blend of vocabulary, means of expression, and pictures to attract and engross targeted readers. More than 30 years devoted to providing editorial direction, project management, and manuscript origination/development services makes it second nature for me to devise and maintain project-specific organizational approaches. Specialties include compiling, verifying, styling, and editing bibliographies and other data-driven editorial apparatus; design and layout of text and images; compiling and editing indexes and other locator tools; and verifying factual information using 2- or 3-source research.

Expertise

Writer
16 Years
Editor
35 Years
Other, Specify
20 Years

Specialty

Arts & Humanities
37 Years
Books & Literature
33 Years
Other, Specify
16 Years

Industries


Book Publishing Trade/B2B
8 Years
Other
20 Years

Total Media Industry Experience

37 Years

Media Client List (# assignments last 2 yrs)

Yale University Press (3-5)

Corporate Client List (# assignments last 2 yrs)

Clark Art Institute (1-2)

Other Work History

Vern Associates, Inc. (co-founder/owner)—Editorial director for more than 20 years (1994-2015)

Technical Skills

graphic design and layout (InDesign); image editing (Photoshop); digital-document editing (Acrobat, PDFpenPro); index compilation (Cindex)

Computer Skills

Apple OS X, Numbers, Pages; Adobe Acrobat, InDesign, Photoshop; MS Word, Excel; PDFpenPro; Daylite

References

References appropriate to the specific nature of the work involved will be provided upon request.

Showcase

Blogs

Well known for producing commemorative books for organizations celebrating important anniversaries, VAI discovered early on that the people charged with originating this kind of project often hadn't a clue where to begin. This blog offers tips, which made it the most popular blog VAI ever posted.
The aim of my blog posts to "All in a Day's Work" is to disperse some of the fog that often baffles clients about what writers and editors do and how best to work with them.
As a long-time devotee of printed/bound books, I didn't dip my toe in ebook waters until later than many colleagues. Several VAI blogs I wrote wrestled with these maybe-yes/maybe-no issues, but by the time I posted this one I was a digital-book convert, but perhaps not for the expected reasons

Some past projects

Somehow my Harvard A.B. in art history and love of books coincided to make a career in all aspects of museum and art book publishing. This list offers just a sample of the many titles that represent one or more aspects of my editorial work.