Andie Carver, the Page Carver
Creative by the Book
About Andie Carver
Andie Carver (any pronouns) (the artist formerly known as Amanda Woodard and Andie Woodard) is a queer writer, editor, media critic, and marketer. Andie received their MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Antioch University, and their poetry collection, TRAILER TRASH, was originally published through Bottlecap Press. Andie was interviewed about TRAILER TRASH by LitTalk: The Writer’s Garrett and The MuseInks, and they were interviewed about their writing craft on Writer’s Digest. Their editing portfolio includes bestseller Never Finished by David Goggins, and their reviews on books and movies showcase their deep understanding of narrative craft. Andie is a die-hard horror fan who lives in the Dallas Metroplex with their little cat, Young Bernie Sanders.
TRAILER TRASH: Poems
These poems discuss internalized classism, as well as the mental and environmental conditions that often accompany poverty, especially in the south: uneducated sexual exploration (and exploitation), untreated mental illness, addiction, insecure attachment in relationships, and religious idealization. For people living in poverty, these characteristics are inherited, and this collection explores that generational trauma through free-verse and erasure poetry. The work also explores “lifestyles” that are not accepted in the Bible Belt, like sexual liberation, queer relationships, and a refusal to look at trauma as something that “made you stronger.” TRAILER TRASH is for anyone who needs their hurt to be reflected back to them and their rage to be validated so that they might finally walk the path, without interruption, toward healing and hope.
“Andie is a skilled listener and communicator. They ask excellent questions and stay on top of details and deadlines. Their compassionate, creative, and thoughtful nature makes clients and colleagues feel seen and heard. It was a pleasure to work with Andie as they earned the trust and appreciation of many of Scribe’s authors.”
Emily Ellis, Former Head of Production at Scribe Media
Publishing under Lioncrest and Houndstooth
Awards & Recognitions
- 2nd Round at Austin Film Festival for the 2022 short screenplay contest: “Conception.”
- Top 10 screenplays in the 2022 Honeybee Prize Contest for The Good Life Review: “Francesca Foote.”
- Nominated for Best of Net 2021 by Prometheus Dreaming: “Self Portrait.” (Read the poem in TRAILER TRASH for free.)
- Runner-Up in the 2020 Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference’s Personal Essay Contest: “Crossroads.”
- 2nd Place in the North Texas District for the 2016 AAF National Student Advertising Competition: Snapple “Delight in the Moment” Campaign.
- Runner-Up in the 2014 Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference’s Personal Essay Contest: “If the Good Lord Lets Me In.”
Oversharing in Creative Works
- I had temporary custody of my niblings (the gender-neutral term for niece and nephew, read like “siblings”) from June to December 2020. You can read a little about that experience in Barely South Review.
- I have a 200-hour yoga teacher training certificate. Baptiste power flow helped me lose a bunch of weight, and I wrote about that weight loss here.
- I gained all the weight back in 2020, LOL, and I wrote about that too.
- I have been sober from alcohol since March 24, 2019.
- I had my wisdom teeth removed without laughing gas, just local anesthetic, and it was just as horrifying as you’d think that would be.
- Although it took me eight years to graduate with my undergrad, I am the first person on my mom’s side of the family and the second person on my dad’s side to graduate from a four-year college.
- I didn’t learn how to ride a bike until I was 22. Despite the saying, I do, in fact, believe that I have forgotten how.
- I played a dangerous prank on a friend when I was 19 that involved catfishing. Don’t worry, it only lasted a day, and she was a good sport.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are video calls included in your prices?
Calls are included in my ghostwriting and content marketing services!
For my manuscript evaluation and editing services, I will offer one call up to 30 minutes, so we can meet each other and determine if we would be a good fit. After that I will charge $30 per 30-minute call. (In my experience, however, my editor’s letter or other forms of communication are so clear that no further calls are needed.)
What kind of books do you edit?
I have a soft spot for memoir or self-help/memoir hybrids; I like to read about spiritual awakenings, sex and relationships, psychedelic drugs, redemption arcs, trauma (without traumatizing the reader), activism, and other stuff. For fiction, I love horror and dark fantasy and sci/fi.
What kind of books do you ghostwrite?
Ghostwriting someone else’s book is like caring for someone else’s baby during its formative years: It’s delicate. It’s scary. It can be really beautiful with the right partnership.
Because the Dark Night of the Soul is tough terrain to endure for someone else’s creative passion, I am very choosey about the type of books I will ghostwrite.
To get a feel for the topics I’d like to write about, these are some examples of books I WISH I had ghostwritten:
- Your Favorite Scary Movie: How the Scream Franchise Rewrote the Rules of Horror by Ashley Cullins
- Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation through Anger by Lama Rod Owens
- I Survived Capitalism and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt by Madeline Pendleton
- Rethinking Sex by Christine Emba
- Shit, Actually by Lindy West
- Sociopath by Patric Gagne
- Humankind by Rutger Bregman
- Group by Christie Tate
- Meaty by Samantha Irby
- How to Stay Married by Harrison Scott Key
- Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung
If your book aligns with these topics, please feel free to reach out to me about my ghostwriting services. Otherwise, I will likely reject the offer and recommend you reach out for developmental editing services when your first draft is complete.
How is “developmental feedback” different from “developmental editing”?
My “Book Report” services include line-level work as well as detailed developmental feedback. While your manuscript will include tracked changes and comments, I do not make major developmental changes in your manuscript. Instead, I prefer to empower authors to make key strategic changes based on suggestions in their detailed book report.
Why don’t you implement the developmental feedback you suggest in manuscripts?
I may suggest cutting a scene that doesn’t make sense in context to me, but you–knowing your story and your intention–could come to realize, as a result of that feedback, that you were not clear about a core detail. Instead of cutting the scene, you may decide to expand on that section.
Can we work on a style guide together before we get started?
Absolutely! I use Chicago Manual of Style, 18th Ed. to guide my grammar edits and Merriam-Webster to guide my spelling edits, but if, for example, you have special spellings for characters or new terms you have developed for your self-help book, I would need to keep that in mind during the edit.
Do you offer proofreading services?
Unfortunately, I do not at this time.
I have enjoyed proofreading in the past, but I cannot turn in a book without commenting on parts that are unclear, which kind of puts the responsibility back on the author, and because proofreading is the penultimate step before layout design, it is not fair to have a professional point out a fundamental error right before you believe you are ready to go to layout. Even if we have gone through developmental and copy editing together, I think it benefits the author to have another pair of eyes on their manuscript.
Ready to Get to Work?
What would you like to work together on?