We’re a small team of award-winning writers, editors, designers, publishers, and marketers in the Pacific Northwest, and every one of us has more than twenty years of experience. We have overlapping yet different skill sets to make sure we can cover anything and everything our clients might need, from the basics—writing and editing—to coaching and mentoring, design, publishing, marketing, promotion, and strategy. 

Michael J. Totten founded Ink Lab Editing and Publishing after working for more than twenty years as a prize-winning author, an award-winning journalist, and an accomplished book editor whose clients have gone on to earn awards of their own. His very first book, The Road to Fatima Gate, won the Washington Institute Book Prize, and his second novel, Resurrection, was optioned for film. His latest book, Write, Edit, Publish: What Every Writer Needs to Know but Only an Editor Will Tell You, is one of the consistently best-selling books about writing, editing, and publishing. He has ten published books to his name, and his articles and book reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The New Republic, and numerous other publications.

As an editor, he specializes in developmental editing of general fiction, genre fiction (crime fiction, science fiction, horror, and fantasy), and narrative nonfiction (memoir, history, travel writing, creative nonfiction, and so on). These are the kinds of books that he likes to read and write himself, so if you’re one of his fellow authors, he’ll get you in ways that other editors might not.

In addition to editing books for individual clients, he has also edited books for major publishers: Thomas and Mercer (crime fiction), Lake Union Publishing (contemporary and historical fiction), Lucky Bat Books (science fiction and fantasy), Disruption Books (narrative nonfiction), Encounter Books (narrative nonfiction), Advantage Books (business books), and Avocet Books (business books and memoirs).

He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading and is bound by its code of practice. He’s also a member of the Editorial Freelancers Association, the Northwest Editors Guild, and ACES: the Society for Editing.

Scott William Carter

Scott William Carter’s first novel, The Last Great Getaway of the Water Balloon Boys, was hailed by Publishers Weekly as a “touching and impressive debut” and won the Oregon Book Award. Since then, he has published dozens of books and short stories, his fiction spanning a wide variety of genres and styles.

His book for younger readers, Wooden Bones, chronicles the untold story of Pinocchio and was singled out for praise by the Junior Library Guild. He is the author of the popular Garrison Gage mystery series set on the Oregon coast, the Karen Pantelli novels featuring a former FBI agent turned drifter, and the provocative Myron Vale investigations about a private investigator in Portland, Oregon, who works for both the living and the dead. His short stories have appeared in such diverse publications as Ellery Queen, Weird Tales, Analog, Pulphouse, and the Los Angeles Review among others.

Since none of that apparently keeps him busy enough, he’s also the cartoonist behind the Run of the House comic strip about what a quirky group of house pets do when their people aren’t around—if they could talk, of course! In past lives, he has been an academic technologist, instructional designer, college writing instructor, bookstore owner, manager of a computer training company, and ski instructor.

Before leaving to pursue a full-time career in publishing, Scott was a digital production and publishing specialist at Western Oregon University, where he managed a Digital Media Center and occasionally taught 400-level creative writing classes. He received his BA in English from the University of Oregon and an MLIS from San Jose State University. In his spare time, he edits and mentors upcoming writers and teaches workshops for independent publishers, covering everything from the craft of writing to marketing books after they’re published.

Allyson Longueira

An award-winning writer, editor, and designer, Allyson Longueira has worked in fiction and nonfiction in multiple media, including newspapers, magazines, and books, for more than twenty years.

While a newspaper editor, she led her newspaper to three general excellence awards in three consecutive years from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association. Since moving to fiction editing, Allyson spent twelve years as the publisher for a small press and has been series editor and executive editor of more than a dozen anthologies, including the WordFire Press/Western Colorado University anthologies she co-edits with New York Times best-selling author Kevin J. Anderson.

Allyson is a passionate advocate for preserving author voice while editing, and she teaches the next generation of editors to embrace that same passion and skill through craft talks, conference lectures, and graduate-level classes. She employs her skills as a developmental editor, line editor, copyeditor, and proofreader for authors of both fiction and nonfiction.

She is also a professional cover designer who has created hundreds of book covers for fiction and nonfiction titles. Allyson has a deep and unrelenting love for typography and could talk about her favorite (and not-so-favorite) fonts all day long.

Allyson’s depth of experience in publishing also allows her to help with all aspects of the book production process and publishing journey. As associate director of the publishing concentration at Western Colorado University’s Graduate Program in Creative Writing, she uses that knowledge to educate and inspire the next generation of publishers. You don’t need to be one of her grad students to benefit from her knowledge and experience because you can work directly with her right here at Ink Lab.

She is a member of the Editorial Freelancers Association and the Alliance of Independent Authors. Allyson holds a BA in English from Rutgers University and an MA in journalism from the prestigious University of Missouri School of Journalism. She is also a member of Kappa Tau Alpha, the National Honor Society in Journalism and Mass Communication.

Gwyneth Gibby

Gwyneth Gibby is a multifaceted storyteller, educator, and publishing professional whose forty-year career spans independent publishing, journalism, film, and higher education. She provides comprehensive editorial and marketing services for authors after working as associate publisher at a small press, where she managed production and marketing for more than nine hundred titles, created multimedia promotional content, and served as managing editor and editor for several anthology series.

Gwyneth has a BA in Russian area studies from St. Catherine University and an MA in journalism from the University of Missouri Journalism School. Before entering publishing, Gwyneth worked as a feature and investigative reporter, earning multiple Society of Professional Journalists awards for science, investigative, and comprehensive reporting. Her academic path includes teaching at Western Colorado University’s MA in publishing and at the Red Sea Institute of Cinematic Arts in Jordan—where she helped create the MFA curriculum—and the University of Oregon, where she also conducted research in digital narrative journalism and multimedia studies.

In film and television, Gwyneth has directed feature films for Concorde Pictures, Showtime, and international markets, working in countries as varied as Russia, India, Peru, and Ireland. In Jordan, she also mentored emerging filmmakers from across the Middle East.

Her work is grounded in a deep commitment to craft, education, and community service that’s reflected in her volunteer work with youth programs, food banks, medical missions, and documentary organizations. Across disciplines, she is dedicated to helping others tell powerful, compelling stories.

Books written by the Ink Lab team