Maria set up as a freelance medical editor and proofreader in 2000, but has been working in the industry since the 1980s, in the days of hot metal and "blues". She was employed by publishing giants Taylor & Francis as a Desk Editor to run their medical journal group, where she acquired her high academic editorial standards. She continued her employment with increasingly modern publishers until 2000, before she moved to a remote area in Scotland where she set up Shoreline BioMedical. 

 

Over the years, her growing list of clients asked her to provide more "challenging" services, which she took on board one by one, with the net result that she learnt everything involved in the publishing process. She began her own publishing  company, Swan & Horn, over 10 years ago, in response to a request from the NHS to publish a course she had helped them with from first draft to publication. However, rather than assemble a team to take over the editorial and production tasks, Maria did (and still does) every thing herself, relying on support from her team (below) for other aspects of the business.

 

Most importantly, Maria has continued to provide her services to anyone wanting support with biomedical content, wherever they are in the publication process, and whatever the final use of the document. Furthermore, her finely honed project-management skills are applied to every project she works on. ​

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​With such a long career in academic publishing, thousands of documents and books have passed through Maria's hands, and she has safely guided hundreds of clients, of all backgrounds .