Kate Sheehan Roach jumped ship from her academic career midway through her doctorate when she landed a coveted job with Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press. As an entry-level editor, she learned the entire assembly line process from acquisitions to promotions, but she fell in love with the developmental phase—working directly with writers from their manuscripts’ inception to completion. Rising through the ranks of a big academic press, Kate found managing other editors a lot less rewarding than working with writers, so she jumped ship again and developed a thriving freelance editorial company. Although she saw herself primarily as a developmental editor, she began helping her writers craft proposals to publishing companies and, before she knew it, she found herself serving as editor/agent. Having witnessed the publishing industry’s rapid evolution over the past 20 years, Kate maximizes the great opportunities available in the digital age and helps her writers do so as well.