Jestine Ware

About

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I'm Jestine Ware, former editor at the company behind "Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls" and a writer, author, editor, and writing coach.

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I have worked as a freelance editor for 10+ years and a full-time editor for 5+ years at small publishers such as Timbuktu Labs, Cricket Media. I am a lifelong creative writer with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Creative Writing and a Master of Arts degree in Rhetoric and Composition. I have worked in academic writing centers and taught both creative writing and composition classes. 

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With 10+ years of experience, I've put my skills to work gathering contacts in the publishing industry with editors, literary agents, authors, illustrators, and other publishing professionals. I have given numerous presentations on multiculturalism in the children's book industry, submitting to publishers, and careers in publishing. 

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While at Cricket Media, I wrote for 8 of Cricket Media’s 11 magazines and sat on many creative teams creating content for children from babies to young adult. Then I was promoted to editor of the award-winning children’s magazine Spider for children ages 6 to 9. The magazine has received the Parent’s Choice Award, the International Reading Association Paul Witty Short Story Award, Educational Press Association of America Gold Lamp Award, and the Parent's Guide Children's Media Award. At Spider, I edited the work of children’s book authors such as Tololwa M. Mollel, Tim J. Myers, Neal Levin, Michael Chesworth, Debbie Urbanski, Charles Ghigna, Tori Telfer, Pamela Dell, and Rhonda Telfer. I also work with a number of  unpublished authors to hone their craft and polish their manuscripts to bring out the best in each.

 

I edited and curated content for Spider magazine, publishing content that introduced children to a blend of classic and contemporary literature, to new cultures and ideas, and to children just like them. As editor at Spider, I published the first ever LGBTQ story, and you can read more about that groundbreaking project in Bay Windows, Mombian, and Advocate.

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As a freelance editor, ​I worked on manuscripts from unpublished children's book authors and illustrators to help them put their best feet forward when submitting work to publishers. I provide manuscript evaluations, developmental edits, critique, copyediting, or proofreading, depending on the stage of each manuscript. I have worked on picture books, middle grade chapter books, young adult novels, and magazine articles.