Sarah O’Keefe, President, founded Scriptorium Publishing in 1996 to provide editing and production services to technical writing departments. From the beginning, Sarah focused on efficiency—-selecting the right publishing tools, creating templates, and training writers on how to use their tools. 

Today, the company is known for expertise in cutting-edge tools and technologies. With a dozen employees, Scriptorium specializes in streamlining publishing processes for numerous high-profile clients in telecommunications, defense, technology, and other content-rich industries. Sarah is an early adopter of technology who enjoys experimenting with the latest tools. In consulting engagements, however, she contains her enthusiasm and focuses on establishing a solid business case for new workflows. 

Sharing knowledge is a priority for Sarah, who strives to be both entertaining and informative during training sessions and conference presentations. In 2002, she received her Certified Technical Trainer (CTT+) accreditation from CompTIA. Her presentations at international, national, and regional conferences (including STC, tekom, and WritersUA) have consistently earned high ratings. 

Last year, Sarah began a regular column for Intercom. “The XML Strategist” provides candid analysis and opinion about developments in structured authoring. She is also the primary contributor to Scriptorium’s blog, Palimpsest.

Her publishing credits include Publishing Fundamentals: FrameMaker 7 (originally published asFrameMaker 7: The Complete Reference), The WebWorks Publisher Cookbook, Technical Writing 101, FrameMaker 5.5.6 for Dummies, and numerous white papers. 

Sarah moved to Durham, North Carolina, to attend Duke University. She traces her interest in technical publishing to one fateful summer when she was forced to choose between a chemistry major and the position of editor-in-chief of Vertices, Duke’s Undergraduate Journal of Science and Technology. Two years later she graduated with a double major in Comparative Area Studies (Western Europe and East Asia) and German. She still lives in Durham with her husband, Mark, and daughter, Charlotte. 

Sarah looks forward to leading Scriptorium as the technical publishing field continues to change—-provided that she doesn’t run out of chocolate.

You can follow Sarah on Twitter at sarahokeefe.