Testimonials & Portfolio

Clear, supportive, and professional book editing can enhance your story and improve your writing skills. As a writer, having a confident, knowledgeable, and trustworthy editor in your corner can set you above your competition and make your writing stand out amongst an ocean of other stories. With more than ten years in the publishing industry, I offer an inclusive, compassionate, and unique approach to editing, but don’t just take it from me. Read the testimonials from real, paying clients, creative colleagues, and fellow publishing professionals who I’ve worked with over the last decade.

Additionally, due to the nature of electronic editing, it is a challenge to provide visual examples of my work, with most of it being confidential or text-based (which doesn’t make for very visually-appealing images). For this reason, I happily provide clients with a complimentary sample edit to demonstrate my skills and approach to writing and editing. That said, you can view screenshots of comments I’ve left for clients as well as a detailed list of projects I’ve led or collaborated on (organized by year) further down the page.

*This is not a comprehensive list of my clientele or portfolio. Clients may prefer not to provide a public testimonial and it is common for editorial contracts to include confidentiality clauses that protect client identities and prohibit the disclosure of services. As such, the testimonials listed below have been published with express client permission and clients and colleagues who would prefer to remain anonymous in their feedback online, have the option to withdraw attribution at any time. If you would like to leave a review of your experience with my services, to to request anonymity, or for general inquiries, please email Hello@PaytonHayes.com.

Client Testimonials & Creative Colleague Recommendations

2024

2023

2019

2018

Verified Client Testimonial

Service(s): (Heavy) Copyediting & Proofreading

“We hired Payton Hayes as an editor for our self-published photography book. It was definitely a learning experience for us, not having need of an editor for our three previous books. Payton endured through us not reading the entire packet of information she first sent, misunderstandings (due to both of us communicating to her but not with each other), us sending changes to her before they were actually ready (in the wrong format), delays for a variety of reasons, and our stubbornness or lack of compliance. She was probably quite frustrated with us, but Payton adapted and adjusted for us over and over again. She sent new communications and re-sent information, including the first communication, several times to be sure we understood why she was doing the edits she was doing. She explained and expounded on where she was coming from with the edits and on what she wanted us to know. And in the middle of it all (when we switched horses in midstream, so to speak, on what we wanted from her) Payton never missed a beat, smoothly reorienting herself and forging onward. Let There Be Light: Images of Oklahoma is a better book due to Payton Hayes’s editing help. She did more than edit our work and words; it was vividly apparent that she did massive amounts of research into the animals and locations in Steven's photographs.”

—Karen & Steven Hunter, Let There Be Light: Images of Oklahoma (2024)

Creative Colleague Recommendation

Service(s): (Pro Bono) Networking & Author Mentoring

“Payton is an absolute pleasure to work with, especially because she puts the concerns of her clients—and even potential clients—at the forefront. Payton responded to a TikTok video my daughter posted about a book I’m writing. I’m a veteran writer, but a novice book author. Payton immediately asked thought-provoking, insightful questions to determine the exact scope and intention of what I was doing. She then forwarded my project to contacts she felt were better aligned to help me. She also gave me frank insights on what to expect, the publishing process and the publishing industry. And never—never!—did she ask for anything in return or any commitment to working exclusively with her. I felt my interests always took precedent for her. That unsolicited commitment to me—a total stranger—and my project is why I recommend her to aspiring and veteran authors alike. Payton will take the time to get to know you and your book and determine the right course of action for it, even if it does not involve her. I found her to be a voice of experience that I could trust. Thank you, Payton!” 

—Scott Smith, Debut Children’s Book Author and Podcast Consultant (2024)

Verified Client Testimonial

Service(s): Technical Copyediting & Proofreading

“Payton assisted me editorially in the development of my marketing materials for my medical practice and I was very impressed with her work. She took the time to research the related topics in order to address the content from an informed position and it showed. At times, Payton would touch base to clarify more nuanced perspectives in order to develop an idea to its potential. She was flexible and communicative throughout the process. I feel her services are a wonderful value and I plan to work with her again soon.” 

—Chance Whinnery, “Dreaming Leaves Psychiatry Practice” (Website Copy) (2024)

Verified Client Testimonial

Service(s): Copyediting & Proofreading

“I had the pleasure of working with Payton Hayes on editing and polishing some crucial documents for me. I can confidently say that her expertise and professionalism exceeded my expectations. Her keen attention to detail and dedication to ensuring the documents were representative of my voice and error-free were truly impressive. She not only provided valuable insights and suggestions that significantly improved the quality of the documents but also demonstrated a genuine desire for helping me achieve my goals. Her timely responses and clear communication made the entire editing process smooth and efficient. Thanks to Payton’s assistance, I was able to effectively convey my message with my intended audience. I would recommend her services to anyone in need of editing and writing support. I am thankful for her insight and support which helped make my writing experience much easier and less stressful. I would most definitely work with her again in the future.”

—Rachel Allen, “Tulsa Artist Fellowship Package” (Application Materials) (2024)

Creative Colleague Recommendation

Service(s): Copyediting for New Plains Student Publishing and Student Writing Workshops

“Payton Hayes is among the most thoughtful and invested students I have worked with. I had Payton as a student in our Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing workshop. She is a strong student, easily capable of [keeping up with a heavy course] load. Beyond the fascinating and nimble insights she offers class discussion, as a writer, she is original, someone who relentlessly pursues her ideas on the page. She would prove, I think, an asset to any program and would make an engaging teacher to boot. Although wonderfully independent, she is also eager for guidance and mentorship, and well deserves this attention and support. Payton’s tenacity will no doubt serve her well in the literary long game. As an institution, we simply could not invest better than in Payton Hayes. She is ready to work.

Payton’s reputation in the Creative Writing program is excellent—our faculty and staff value her presence. Her enthusiasm for the subject at hand and her honesty in engaging scholarly ideas makes her a pleasure to work with. Her attitude and her energy are undeniable. Still I believe her real promise is in her creative capacities, in the way she carries ideas from one space to the next, ready to radically rethink them, never giving up on them.

Her writing is both earnest and direct, unveiling a tenderness for character development, and a skill for clarity and precision. Her real strength is in her fixed gaze at the event, her willingness to stay with the complexity of the situation. She doesn’t look away, even if her fictional characters sometimes wish to. They are compelled just as we are.

I hope you will recognize Payton as deserving of [this scholarship], and that these sketches of her merit earn her some of the attention she deserves. She has proven herself to be a valuable member of our community.”

—Dr. Tobias Wray, Director of Creative Writing Programs at The University of Central Oklahoma, Scholarship Letter of Recommendation (2023)

Creative Colleague Recommendation

Service(s): Work-Study Assistant at Rose State College

“I am honored to provide my whole-hearted support and recommendation for Ms. Payton Hayes.

At Rose State College, Payton immersed herself into college life, staying involved and active on campus. She has exhibited excellent communication skills, creativity, shows a passion for learning, and has the determination to tackle any tasks put in front of her. As a student on The 15th Street News team, she is not afraid to step up and serve in a leadership capacity, she works well with her peers, and is able to stay on track and complete projects in a timely manner.

As a double major student, she has demonstrated the ability to multitask, focusing on her education while building a freelance business. Payton is currently leading the charge with her peers where she designed and is painting a second mural on campus, she designed the Pegasus website, and her work has been published for four consecutive years in Rose State College’s annual literary journal, Pegasus. She was nominated this year as a finalist for the James Axley Creative Writing Award for her poetry. With a multitude of talent, Payton has received many awards for her creative writing skills and was also awarded Top Contributor for The 15th Street News in 2016. She will graduate from Rose State College this summer with honors in English and Fine Arts.

Ms. Hayes is a dedicated student with goals to continue her educational journey and obtain her bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Oklahoma. She is confident and excited about the opportunities that await her at UCO. I have no doubt that Payton will be successful in achieving her academic and personal goals. It is without reservation that I recommend Ms. Payton Hayes [for this scholarship].” 

—Dr. Jeanie Webb, President of Rose State College, Scholarship Letter of Recommendation (2020)

Creative Colleague Recommendation

Service(s): Work-Study Assistant at Rose State College

“I am very pleased to write this letter of recommendation for Payton Hayes. She is a talented, creative, and thoughtful student. My experience with Payton Hayes as her professor was very positive; she has met each assignment with enthusiasm, thoroughness and with a purpose to learn.

Payton has always demonstrated that she is a good student, a leader, and an excellent collaborator with her student peers. In a mural painting class, Payton would share ideas, be avalable to do team research, and encourage her classmates. And when it came time to actually work on the mural, Payton was ready and willing to work and continued to be very cooperative with her fellow classmates.

Payton continues to display a willingness to grow and evolve which in turn demonstrates her strengths as a leader. She proposed to create a second mural during the spring semester [and] she designed and organized her work force for the mural. She took what she learned in the mural class and applied that knowledge in a very tangible way. Payton is not afraid to ask questions, seek advice, accept constructive criticism, and take whatever knowledge she has acquired and apply it to the tasks …required of her.

The faculty and administration are greatly impressed with her talent, skill and leadership abilities. Payton is capable of great things and has the character and discipline to accomplish any goal she sets out to achieve, and will do so with confidence, motivation, and professionalism.” 

—Suzanne Thomas, Professor of Art at Rose State College, Scholarship Letter of Recommendation (2020)

Verified Client Testimonial

Service(s): Beta Reading & Copyediting

“Payton provided a beta reading service for the first few chapters of a story I am writing. The quality of her feedback was great, not to mention very useful. She was able to highlight areas where I could improve my writing and gave valuable suggestions about the genre I'm writing in, which were really helpful. She provided her feedback quickly and in an easy to digest, constructive way (something that is not always easy when you are critiquing someone else's writing!) I wouldn't hesitate to consider her for further editing work in the future.”

—Katie Owen, The Vampire Prophecies: The Turning (2018)

Verified Client Testimonial

Service(s): Developmental Editing

“Payton Hayes has an excellent set of eyes. My book was edited by Payton and I have to admit that her editing prowess was what it needed. I followed up with a call to ask about her methodology for editing and she gave me more sound advice. As a writer, I value creating a good, captivating story and Payton’s editing service no doubt, has enhanced my storyline. Payton kept me abreast throughout the process and was a wonder to work with. She is the real deal and I strongly recommend using Payton for your next writing project.”

—Eric Reese, Sins of the Son (The Frank Lucianus Mafia Series, Book 1) (2019)

Verified Client Testimonial

Service(s): Proofreading

“I have been writing for myself for quite some time and I have always been apprehensive about seeking editorial services. I was totally clueless and had no idea where to start. After getting a chance to explore my options I fell upon Payton's services. I was reassured from the start about the importance of the editing process to further my strength as a writer. She provided detailed notes and was very quick to get edits back to me with reliable correspondence when there was a delay. Her edits are very concise. She takes the time to explain the reasoning behind her suggestions which is great for refreshing one's knowledge of proper grammar and how your work is viewed from the reader's perspective. Overall, I am very happy with her edits and will continue to seek her advice as I explore writing with an audience in mind!”

—Julius The Robot, “Hard Lessons in Modern Magic from the Midwest” (2019)

Verified Client Testimonial

Service(s): Developmental Editing

“I delivered Ms. Hayes what I believed to be a finished novel, and what I got back exceeded my expectations. She not only caught the issues that I knew of, but also ones that I either overlooked or hadn’t seen. Her comments about the overall novel were thoughtful and appropriate. Too many people who call themselves editors will just throw the prose into a program, but Ms. Hayes took the time to read the entire manuscript and was able to give excellent insight from an outside perspective. I have always been a believer in that you can’t edit your own work, and Ms. Hayes’ attention to detail proved my belief right. I can only speak to her ability to edit a fantasy novel, but from what I have seen about her abilities leads me to believe that she would be successful at other genres.”

—Dana Journey, The Apprentices, (The Crimson Guard Trilogy, Book 1) (2018)

Creative Colleague Recommendation

Service(s): Work-Study Assistant at Rose State College

“I am writing to give my strongest possible recommendation to Payton Hayes as a candidate for your scholarship. As Dean of Humanities at Rose State College, I have been the final person to oversee Ms. Hayes as she worked in multiple disciplines in our division. In all, she has been outstandng, innovative, self-directed, creative, organized, committed, and collegial. I could not recommend a student more whole heartedly.

In addition to being an Honors Program student, Ms. Hayes volunteers her time to write articles of significant importance for our professional college publications, including The 15th Street Newspaper and The 6420 Magazine. In the art department, she not only has created and executed the production of a very large mural to decorate the upstairs hall of our building, she has also organized an alliance of high school students to aid the project—including navigating the complex paperwork required for such an alliance.

She was so outstanding as a student that this semester she was hired as a part-time assistant in our English department, where she is working side-by-side with our head of literature to turn our college’s literary publication, Pegasus into a regionally respected literary journal to which anyone can submit.

On applications, I am often asked into what percentage group I would place this student. Without question, Ms. Hayes is in the top 1%, and if your organization helps fund her education, you will be making a wise investment for our society’s future.” 

—Dr. Toni Castillo, Dean of Humanities at Rose State College, Scholarship Letter of Recommendation (2020)

Creative Colleague Recommendation

Service(s): Work-Study Assistant at Rose State College

“Payton Hayes is just two classes away from earning a double major in Fine Arts: Art Emphasis and English. … She has shown herself to be a creative, hardworking student who has a heart for service to the college and the community [and] she is committed to finishing both degrees this summer.

Payton’s professors speak highly of her service, leadership, and creativity. Professor Suzanne Thomas remarked that Payton designed the second mural in the Humanities building and reached out to Midwest City High School students and fellow Rose State students, forming a bond between the college and the community to help complete the mural. Professor Darcy Delaney-Nelson spoke about the excellent work Payton has done writing articles for The 6420. Professor Kristin Hahn told me that Payton helped cull and edit student submissions for Rose State’s literary publication, Pegasus, in addition to assisting with the publication’s approval process through Academic Affairs.

When Professor Kristin Hahn found out that Payton would need to re-take …[one of her courses] in order to graduate in the summer, she agree to teach the class as an independent study, just for Payton. Finally, all three professors nominated Payton for 2020 Outstanding Humanities Student of the Year. Not surprisingly, she won.

…I respectfully request that you consider Payton’s accomplishments, her hard work, her exemplary service, and help her cross the finish line this summer. With her Art and English degrees in hand, she would be able to transfer to the University of Central Oklahoma and continue the great work she started at Rose State College.”

—Chris Shaneyfelt, Humanities Academic Advisor at Rose State College, Scholarship Letter of Recommendation (2020)

2020

Editorial & Creative Portfolio

Below is a detailed list of the creative projects for which I have completed either paid or pro bono editorial services, organized by year. The projects that are underlined are viewable publicly, so click the underlined item to open it in a new window. Once again, this list is neither comprehensive of my clientele nor portfolio, as some clients may prefer to remain anonymous in their reviews or left out altogether. You may notice some overlap between the items in my portfolio and in the client testimonials above.

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

There are no items for 2021. I took a break from academics and editorial work from 2021-2022 to improve my mental health following the COVID-19 Pandemic. I did not take on any client projects during this time.

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

  • Lead/Solo Painter | “The Yellow Brick Road” by Lukas LaRue (Canvas Backdrop & Stage Set Design).

2015

2014

Comments From Editing Projects

Below is a gallery of screenshots from various editing projects, in which I’ve left feedback for clients to accept or reject (via comments/suggestions/tracked changes). I have made no edits to the comments themselves, for transparency, but timestamps, names, or any other personally identifying information has been redacted from these images to protect client confidentiality.