Biography

Sharon Ritchey has been involved in the publications industry for over twenty-five years. A proficient writer, editor, and manager, she has worked for trade journals, magazines, international corporations, non-profits, universities, and public relations firms.
 Her expertise includes writing and editing feature-length articles, books, corporate profiles, bios, press releases, marketing materials, newsletters, bios, advertisements, marketing collateral, website content, blogs, and developing product and company names.


Sharon has extensive publications management experience including editorial scheduling, management of writers, editors, and materials. Her knowledge of printing and production, always with an eye for quality, has saved her clients thousands of dollars in design and printing costs. Sharon has specialized knowledge of the food industry that began in the early 1990s while working in the Netherlands as the Benelux editor for E.W. Williams publications covering the grocery procurement and frozen food industry. Upon returning to the States, she began covering the domestic market for the magazine and represented the company at trade 
 shows and industry events. She held a contributing editor position with the publisher for 
 two decades.

Sharon took her food industry and marketing expertise to the North American Meat Processors Association (NAMP) where for four years she served as the Association’s marketing and communications manager. While there, she oversaw all internal and external communications developing training manuals, a beef-industry cooking competition, and was the publication manager and senior writer for the industry’s first complete manual on poultry.

Sharon also has experience in the direct marketing and IT industries. She served as senior writer and public relations coordinator for a direct response advertising agency ghost-writing feature length articles, and coordinating the company’s media and press activities.

Sharon next expanded her writing and editing skill as the brand manager for an international software company. She was responsible for brand enforcement and development of all company products and corporate Websites and oversaw a $500K collateral budget.

Home Row Editorial, now in its seventeenth year, has developed expertise in higher education communications, creating magazines, newsletters, annual reports, and email drip campaigns for George Mason University in Fairfax (Sharon’s graduate school alma mater) and The University of Washington in Seattle.

Sharon has an MFA in creative non-fiction writing from George Mason University, holds a publications certificate from George Washington University, and has a BA in government and international relations from Clark University. She serves as Director of External Communications for the Women’s Fiction Writers Association.  

A small portion of her writing can be found her in the portfolio section. You can read some of her fiction writing at www.sharonwishnow.com. Her fiction is represented by Ann Leslie Tuttle of Dystel, Goderich & Bourret, LLC. 

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