Victory Matsui is a freelance book editor.
About Me
I have a decade of experience editing prize-winning, bestselling books.
I began my career at Little, Brown and Company, as an assistant to then-publisher Michael Pietsch. He taught me to edit in the style that I continue today: with generous, wholehearted, meticulous attention to the writer’s vision. Together, we edited several best-selling books by James Patterson, two posthumous David Foster Wallace collections, and The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, which won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
I was then invited to join One World, a newly relaunched imprint of Random House, where I worked alongside legendary editors Chris Jackson and Nicole Counts. We built a home for exceptional storytellers whose work challenged and shaped cultural conversations. The last book I acquired and edited for One World was Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong, which won the 2021 National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography, and was a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.
I took a hiatus from editing to live at a Soto Zen Buddhist temple, where I trained as the Head of the Kitchen and the Director. Five years later, I returned with a deepened understanding of just how meaningful, beautiful, and ephemeral our stories are. Now I’m a freelance book editor, working directly with writers and publishers. A queer, mixed-race, Buddhist New Yorker, I live in the Hudson Valley with my partner and our beloved pizza oven.
Books I’ve Edited
Services
my approach
I specialize in novels and narrative nonfiction. I work closely with you to understand your vision for your work. Then I read your manuscript with these questions in mind:
- What is the story at the heart of this book?
- What is the promise the book is making to the reader? Where is this promise being fulfilled, and where does it need support?
- How can the narrative structure, plot, character development, and prose all work together to create the most compelling reading experience?
I also offer guidance on the realities of the publishing industry: what editors are looking for, how to position your work strategically, and how to give your book the best chance at being published.
I love working with writers of color, queer & trans writers, and anyone who has reckoned with systemic and internal barriers. I help you take your book as seriously as it deserves.
manuscript review
You’ve written a full draft of your book, and you want to know how a professional editor might respond to it. You might be wondering: Is this story working on a fundamental level? Are there any major issues I need to address? How can I make my book as strong as possible?
A manuscript review gives you clear answers to these questions. This includes:
- An initial conversation about your vision for your book
- An editorial letter (around 5-7 pages) offering insight into the foundational strengths and weaknesses of your manuscript, ideas for revision, and strategies for positioning your work to agents and editors
- A follow-up conversation to discuss the letter and support your plan for revision
A manuscript review is ideal for writers who have completed a first draft and want big-picture feedback before getting into the details.
Developmental Edit
You’ve revised your manuscript multiple times. You’re now looking for an in-depth, professional edit, the kind you would receive from an editor at a publishing house. A developmental edit includes:
- An initial conversation about your vision for your book
- An editorial letter (around 10-12 pages) including everything offered in a manuscript review, as well as detailed feedback on how each element works within the whole: narrative structure, plot and pacing, character development, voice, and prose style
- Your manuscript, marked up with comments and questions in the margins
- A follow-up conversation to review the edits and support your plan for revision
Developmental editing is ideal for writers who are looking to transform their manuscript into a polished draft before querying agents or submitting to publishers.
Rates are based on the word count and complexity of your project.
Tell me about what you’re working on, and I’ll send you a quote.
Testimonials
“Minor Feelings would have had half the power and heart if it weren’t for Victory Matsui. We had the most ideal collaboration between editor and writer. She was encouraging, brilliant, rigorous, detailed, and most importantly, not afraid to ask the hard questions that inspired me to crack open the issues or emotions that I was too afraid to approach. There was no one like Victory in publishing. Anyone who works with Victory as their editor would be incredibly lucky indeed.”
—cathy park hong
“Working with Victory is a revelation. Simply put, you will not feel alone in your writing again; Victory becomes a partner in your project in ways that exemplify and exceed the editorial ideal. She is a genuine, deep collaborator in the writing process, meticulous and visionary at the same time—a rare and impossible combination.”
—jordy rosenberg
“Victory is the platonic ideal of an editor. With meticulous attention to detail, an inherent facility with language, and a consistently clear communication style, Victory’s vision for a work never supersedes that of the writer’s. Instead, she is a genius at bringing the writer’s vision into crystal clear focus. There is no editor I could recommend more highly.”
—MAURICE CARLOS RUFFIN
“I truly cannot imagine having a more inquisitive and compassionate eye on my writing. In addition to being brilliant on the sentence and structure front, Victory asks just the right questions to take work from smart to brilliant, from interesting to deeply engaging. I welcome the chance to work with her again.”
—MIRA JACOB
“Working with Victory on my book was truly the gift of my career. Her insightful, thoughtful, and compassionate reading of my manuscript, and the feeling of freedom that she brought to the process, helped shape my work far beyond a single book, and helped me find the heart of my story, evolving it into a wild creature I could be proud of. The editorial process can often seem daunting, but Victory allowed the work to feel like play, discovery, and experimentation, which was exactly what I needed.”
