Gibson's Company Passionate About Polishing Your Prose

By: La Shawna Griffith

7th January, 2021

Robert Gibson is the owner and operator of Passionate Words Editing Services. Gibson, who has a B.Sc. in Computer Science, is a natural linguist and is able to edit and proofread work in a short period of time as it is his God given gift.

Gibson is the recipient of Book of The Year 2019 from The Gine On People’s Choice Award for his latest poetry collection ‘Passion: The Gemini Project’.

But who is Robert Gibson and why should you hire him or Passionate Words Editing Services?

In an interview with Write Right PR Services, Gibson said he was a “lover of women and words – not always in that order!” He also has a deep appreciation for jazz. He is the father of two teenage sons and made the decision in 2020 to leave his profession in Information Technology to pursue his dream of entrepreneurship.

What was the catalyst that made him leave the career he held for over a decade and embrace the unknown as an entrepreneur? Gibson said it was due to his love for words.

“I had a love affair with words for a long time – since before my teenage years. I was encouraged by a long-time friend, writer and entrepreneur Sandra Sealy, to take my love of writing and pursue an editing career.”

Despite this advice from his friend, he still did not decide to pursue editing as a full-time career and decided to do it part time, as he was not sure what his fees should be if he began the service full time.

Therefore, Gibson decided to do some research into the basic fees for the editing services that he wanted to offer and began his relentless pursuit of his dream of becoming one of the go-to editors in Barbados.

“In 2015, I began to market my services to people within the community I had built around my self-published books and offered to help some of them to edit their manuscripts. Slowly, I got a few clients and, by doing limited marketing in Sandra’s online group – Seawoman’s Writing Opps, which has now been renamed to Caribbean Writers – I did a few jobs. I decided to place the money earned in a business account alongside the money I made from selling my books,” he said.

Gibson explained that writing was a second source of income for him and he felt a sense of pride knowing that he was able to order his books through the funds he earned.

It was during the COVID-19 pandemic that Gibson decided to take his business more seriously.

“I started pushing Passionate Words aggressively. I started marketing during my downtime while we were in lockdown and started accumulating clients, both repeat clients with new books and projects from new clientele,” he said. Explaining the process of editing that he undertakes for his clients, he said that he has moved away from editing and formatting poetry book solely to editing other genres, such novels, journals and cookbooks – among others.

“I have evolved from editing and formatting solely books of poetry and novels to now taking on cookbooks and children’s books, which stretch my technical skills and make me learn new ways of formatting. I am looking to learn InDesign, which is professional desktop publishing software, over and above doing everything in Microsoft Word. As for my favourite? It is hard to say. Each new project is a whole new world, with new literary landscapes and terrain to conquer. Even when I am reading a new book of a similar genre to ones I have already read, the author’s unique spin on the subject matter makes it all fresh, new, and exciting,” he said.

Gibson described his editing process, saying that he is changing the way he does his business offering pricing at a fixed rate rather than using an hourly rate strategy. He suggested that this change will benefit both the customer and himself.

“It will allow the potential client to know exactly how much they are spending, and it assists me because I can charge initial deposits before work starts, rather than having to wait until the end to receive the full payment. In order to protect the company, an agreement must be signed that they accept the quote as stated. This prevents them from trying to re-negotiate the price down to a lower one,” he said.

The owner of Passionate Words Editing Services said persons should patronize his company because he is passionate about words; this is shown in the way he conducts his business as well as the way in which he treats his customers.

“We are passionate about the words that we provide for our clients – wherever they are in the world – who care about the work they are putting out. We know that they are cognizant of the fact that words are a representation of them and, thus, they want to align themselves with a company whose mandate is to ‘Polish Your Words’ to perfection,” he said.

Gibson also added business owners should be aware of the impact words have on their brands.

“What is said in the name of a company is just as important as how it is said, and it has grave implications for the reputation of that company in the eyes of the public. One badly written press release or publication written by your company can spread misinformation about what was said if not explained properly. This results in the business having to resort in hiring a crisis communication specialist to work on repairing the damage the initial post would have done – all of which could have been avoiding by hiring an editing company like Passionate Words Editing to be their copy editor before they post content on their company’s platforms,” he said.

Reflecting on the highlights of his career, the owner of Passionate Words Editing Services said the main one was having his story published in Toronto Caribbean News in October 2020.

“It was an honour to be recognized internationally for the work I am doing in assisting authors and business owners to hone their writing,” he said.

Gibson’s slogan is, ‘Polish Your Prose’, which was inspired by a conversation with his business coach Shakita Payne, as well as an image he found of – all things – shoe polish. This made him think about how a well-dressed man who didn’t have his shoes polished still was missing a key element in the refined look he was trying to achieve.

“In the same way polished shoes complete a refined look, this slogan suggests that it is the attention to this kind of detail that Passionate Words offers; we intend to give your words the finesse they deserve,” he said.

The owner of Passionate Words Editing Service said his business represents a high end, quality premiere service. He explained that his company treats the customer’s words like very important persons as they are coaxed, pampered, and refined so they can sit in the lap of literary luxury.

“What that means is, once you hire Passionate Words Editing Services, we will treat your manuscripts with the utmost respect and bring the best out of every project that we are a part of. I would like to encourage persons who have an interest in how their words make them look to contact Passionate Words Editing Services and let us help refine them. Let us Polish Your Prose until the words gleam – until you can see yourself in their reflection! That is the goal, for you to reflect yourself back to the people who read what you write,” he said.

Interested persons can contact Passionate Words Editing at 234-5669 or email passionatewordsediting@gmail.com. The company is also available on social media on Facebook at Passionate Words Editing Services, LinkedIn as Robert Gibson and Instagram @passionate.words.editing. (WRPRS)