I awoke the other morning to find that the proofreader had returned the finished manuscript complete with her mark-up. At this point I should give her a large amount of credit for how the finished book reads.

Last year I was in the market for a proofreader/editor. My first book had never been touched by the original publisher - even though that was one of the promised services, when I went under contract with Publish America - they did nothing that was promised.

Kim Birdsell, on the other hand, has gone the extra mile.

My buddy and fellow author, Goose Gosweller, turned me on to her. His comment at the time was, 'I hear she's pretty good and thorough but, I have an editor and don't think I can afford her.'

I, on the other hand, had been looking for a good reliable editor for about six months at that point. I wanted to get two books edited then go back and clean-up 'The Duck Pond', which had become 'Blood and Brown Water'. I needed one bad!

Anyone, writing to get published, needs a good proofreader/editor. This is something that you just can't handle yourself. It takes that second set of 'professional' and, sometimes, pain-in-the-ass eyes to polish the book.

Others I'd talked to were too busy, more expensive, didn't have good press and other things.

Kim got back to me within days - that impressed me. I had just finished my last proofread/edit and a final (of 6) passes through spell checker, of 'Heart of War'. It's only one hundred pages so, it became her 'test' book. 

I not only got it back in, what I considered, decent time - at a decent price - but i was sent the mark-up and sidebar notes. The deeper I got into her work, the more I realized that she knew her stuff.

To make sure, I went over every line of her mark-up, every note, the whole smash. What impressed me most was that, not only was there some email contact, to clear up some things and discuss some small problems, but she got into my style of writing. For an author and his work this is very important. In 'Heart' there is a feeling conveyed in the style of the book...it's the style of the military, the style of a young sailor jaded by everything he sees and experiences. It's gritty, it's raw and, it's got some profanity and, some sorrow...without that particular style the book would be flat as a Buckwheat pancake in February.

Kim got into that, she understood that, she proofread that. She finished the book, making it a good read. She also made me feel like I was the only client she had.

Kim has proven herself to be totally professional in every respect.I was finishing up 'Old Fool's Gold' and she got that one as well. It's a long one, she had people waiting, I gave her time off for good behavior...'Gold' is also over three times as much book as 'Heart'. When I got it back I only checked about 60 pages of mark-up then bulk accepted the remainder...yep, I could trust her to do good work.

I would recommend her to anyone. She's getting 'Blood and Brown Water' next and anything else I write - over twenty-five pages anyway. She's good and she's professional.

'Louis...this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.'

- Bob Johnston

Old Fool's Gold

Heart Of War