Book Editing
I have always loved the opportunity and privilege to be entrusted with another writer’s words. As a writer first, I know the value in hiring an editor who will work toward enhancing without stifling, improving without fundamentally changing, and celebrating what works without ignoring what doesn’t.
In the early months of 2023, I worked with Laura Diaz Freeland on her debut memoir, “Not What I Had In Mind: A Motherhood Origin Story”. Memoirs were my first true love as a more sophisticated reader (yes, of course the first book to really capture my heart as a young reader was the novel “From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler), so I jumped at the opportunity to work with Laura. Over the course of about six months, we worked together to take her incredibly raw and vulnerable first draft into a book that is still raw and vulnerable, only now with proper pacing, extraneous details cut, and an approximately 47% decrease in superfluous commas.
Working with Katie to edit my book was delightful. This may seem like a strange thing to say about working with someone who, on one occasion, recommended rewriting thousands of words I had spent weeks crying over, but she was right. It had to go. Not only is Katie meticulous about the rules we writers must follow, but she is intuitive about where we are holding back, and she is generous with her praise. She is an expert collaborator, truly bringing out the very best of my stories and my strengths as a writer. 10/10 will kill my darlings with her again. — Laura Diaz Freeland
