Katy Mastrocola, a classy-looking woman in business attire

About Me

I am a digital publishing enthusiast who is not afraid to stand up for all things weird (I’m also a virgo and an INFJ if you’re into that sort of thing). I started my love affair with books as soon as I could lift them with my grubby marinara-stained hands. I didn’t let the fact that I couldn’t actually read stop me from memorizing every book I encountered. Now by combining my creativity and tech-savviness, I share my love of stories through ebook development and other publishing projects.

What Do I Do?

I am currently a production editor at HMH Books & Media, where I make and manage children’s and young adult books (and occasionally others) for digital devices. It’s hard to pinpoint what I do exactly because I wear a lot of different hats: developer, editor, proofreader, designer, archivist, curator of a huge ebook backlist. I’ve been at HMH for over five years now and am amazed when I look back at how much my team and I have grown. We continue raising the bar for even better design and accessibility every year, with yearly wins in the New England Book show and Ebookcraft’s So You Think You Can Code competition. For more information on my work, visit my eproduction page.

I am very passionate about improving our processes and heavily involved in work culture. I’m part of the Diversity Council’s Education and Entertainment subcommittee, where I advocate for better workplace accessibility and have helped draft accessible language and meeting guidelines. I’ve lead accessibility-based talks and events, like Global Accessibility Awareness Day. I love a good party and was also a leader of the Engagement Team prior to our offices closing due to COVID-19.

What Is Your Educational Background?

I grew up attending the North Andover public school system in the suburbs of Boston where I played clarinet in band, performed in Shakespeare plays, and worked hard to graduate second in my class. After that, I headed over to the middle-of-nowhere upstate New York to attend Hamilton College, a small liberal arts school that resembles Hogwarts. After four years of studying books and brains (a BA in English and Psychology, Cum Laude), I decided I wanted to return home where it didn’t snow as much and teach English. I joined AmeriCorps as a middle school teacher, and while I learned a lot, it just wasn’t right for an introvert like me. By then, I had a hunch that creating books rather than teaching them might be the right path. So I enrolled in Emerson College’s Publishing and Writing graduate program and completed courses in:

I also participated on the staff of magazines such as Minerva, Words Apart, and The Redivider. During my time at Emerson, I discovered I strangely enjoyed metadata and correcting OCR errors, and thus I began my journey into the eproduction vortex. I received my MA in publishing and writing in May 2016.

What Is Your Professional Background?

Before I started working at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2015, I had publishing internships and did freelance work. I started in the publishing industry in 2014 as a publishing assistant for Merrimack Media, where I handled publicity work such as writing press releases, coordinating book reviews, and creating promotional media. In Spring 2015, I did some freelancing with Lumina Datamatics as a project manager and Thomas Nelson as a proofreader and also was a teaching assistant for one of the Publishing and Writing professors. From May–November 2015, I interned at The MIT Press, where I got great experience making ebooks and PDFs. I also content-edited metadata on The MIT Press’s CogNet site.

Other jobs and learning opportunities in the past ten years include being an AmeriCorps teacher at Our Sisters’ School in New Bedford, MA, student archives worker at the Burke Library at Hamilton College, Living Laboratory Intern at the Museum of Science Boston, and Visitor Education Intern at The New England Aquarium.

What services do I offer?

In addition to developing, quality-assuring, and editing ebooks, I also am available for proofreading, copyediting, manuscript coding, print book composition, basic web development, writing, and video editing. I am interested in projects that are creative, organized, not full-time, and that offer compensation. You can find out more about my skills in design, writing, and editing on my projects page.

What Do You Do in Your Free Time?

I am writing this in early 2021. That is a loaded question these days. However, I used to do things, which included:

For fun, I like reading (duh), playing games, cooking (and eating while we’re at it), watching anime and all the other things people are streaming these days, writing, listening to podcasts, skiing, gardening, and researching eclectic topics ranging from genealogy to disability activism to the best snacks at Disney World even though I will not be going any time soon.

Oh, and because it was the pandemic OF COURSE I learned how to make bread.

What Am I Looking For?

To share who I am with the world through creative expression. To create books that I am proud of, that I feel will make a difference in people’s lives. To make all content accessible for everyone. To feel like a respected member of a team. To surround myself with people who value hard work, sticking to their guns, having fun, and being weird. To better my coding and editing skills. To always ask if there’s a better way to do things. The world’s best pork buns and chocolate lava cakes.

Why Me?

Because I love learning for the sake of learning. Because I am resilient in the face of adversity. Because I can see details and patterns that few others can. Because I am clever and hilarious. Because I don’t compromise my values for what people want to hear, which can be both a blessing and a curse, but it has made me a reliable person. I’m quirky, open, conscientious, and care way, way, way too much about everything, which has made my work, as several former advisers have said, “immaculate.”