Candela Potente, PhD

developmental editing

I work with authors in the humanities and social sciences on books and articles for publication, especially on theoretically-informed projects and comparative work between languages, regions, and intellectual contexts. I serve as an intellectual interlocutor, reading and listening closely to identify patterns, notice points of discontinuity, and suggest concrete revisions, thinking alongside authors to make a project's ideas as convincing and memorable as possible. I take on projects in English and Spanish, and can comfortably work with French sources.

My focus is on manuscript development, addressing the narrative development of the argument, the organization of the chapters or sections, and the authorial tone. This kind of work, called developmental editing, offers paths for revision to the author rather than making changes to the prose.

If you are interested in working together and would like to book a free consultation, please contact me here or at cpotente [at] alumni.princeton [dot] edu.

composing a first draft

If you are in the process of producing a first draft, I offer one-on-one developmental sessions to work through ideas in conversation and imagine new ways of articulating and organizing them on the page. These meetings can take different forms based on the project's needs. We mainly focus on developing the main argument and organizing the material. If you are turning your dissertation into a book, we can go through the dissertation structure and devise a new argumentative narrative.

If you already have some written material (for example, conference presentations, articles, or dissertation chapters), I can offer a developmental review, which can complement conversation sessions or be a standalone service. This review entails an editorial letter addressing how these written pages could be reconfigured as parts of a larger whole, taking into account your specific priorities. I can also provide this feedback in conversation, depending on preference.

reworking a full manuscript

If you already have a working draft that captures your project's overall arc, I can provide a manuscript assessment, which involves a comprehensive editorial letter and a meeting to discuss it and think about next steps. The letter synthesizes how the text functions in its current form, identifies areas for development, and offers concrete recommendations for revision. I also illustrate specific points covered in the letter through in-text comments. This work is suitable for book projects or article drafts.

If your manuscript is a shorter piece, such as an article or book chapter, or if your book manuscript has already addressed the main overarching issues and you want to work chapter by chapter, I can provide granular developmental feedback. I offer an editorial letter accompanied by detailed in-text comments with observations, questions, and recommendations. These comments are more comprehensive than the illustrative notes provided in manuscript assessments.

experience and training

As an editor, I have worked with authors on turning dissertations into books, restructuring articles to fit new objectives, and making conceptually dense work legible to other disciplines. Projects I've worked on include academic monographs, journal articles, and book proposals in the fields of literary studies, philosophy, postcolonial studies, musicology, intellectual history, and media studies.

I completed professional training in developmental editing with Laura Portwood-Stacer, and have taken other courses on editing and advising scholars on book development. Before working as an editor, I taught academic writing at Princeton Writing Center and Aalto University, where I worked with graduate and undergraduate students on their dissertations and theses. Our work focused on organizing ideas, defining arguments, and identifying conceptual short-circuits.

I hold a PhD and MA in Comparative Literature from Princeton University and have held postdoctoral positions in Germany and Finland. As a scholar, I have first-hand experience publishing articles, transforming a dissertation into a book, turning preliminary ideas and intuitions into concrete questions and theses, and pages of nebulous thoughts into developed finished texts.

You can find testimonials on my LinkedIn page.

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