Testimonial by G. J. Stoutimore (2023) 

Opening Statement

Amy was absolutely quintessential to the publication of my book. I can’t quite articulate how impactful our partnership has been. She is the kind of editor that hones into a writer’s voice, finds their vital tone & tenor, and then brings it to the forefront with efficiency, style, and thoughtfulness.

Delivery on Agreed Terms

My agreement with Amy was a hybrid edit over a word count of 160k-180k words. A key point of distinction for a hybrid edit is that she offers “occasional suggestions” for structural editing” with an emphasis on copy-edit. Amy exceeded my expectations and provided a degree of commitment to the project that wildly undersold her services. The draft I submitted to her pushed 195k words and may have been more. It would have been well within her rights to send it back to me before working on it with instructions to make cuts, which would have been more than fair. Not only did Amy sink into the work with vigor, but she did so under an extremely tight schedule, which operated from the 17th of October to the 31st of November.

Amy was proactive. When it became clear that the original deadline was unrealistic, mainly due to the bloated word count and additional copy-editing that wasn’t anticipated, she communicated with me immediately, and we extended the agreement. In my view, this is an example of Amy’s commitment to delivering her best work for her writing partners and making the work as good as it can possibly be. While many others might have kept quiet and rushed to hit an ambitious and, quite frankly, absurd deadline target given the overstuffing of the manuscript, Amy functioned like a true business partner would and asked for us to re-evaluate our goals. She also made it clear that she would hit the deadline if the demands proved inflexible, but felt it was best for the novel if we delayed. That was absolutely the right decision, and the book is much better because of it.

In her initial quote and agreement, Amy articulates a list of promises. She writes [paraphrased for length]: I will try my best for you, treat your manuscript with respect, maintain confidentiality, remain as unbiased as possible, ensure your text is the best version of itself, be honest, and be realistic about what is possible. I am delighted to say that Amy lived up to all of this and more. I came to feel as though she really cared about the work, not in a way that compromised her outside view, but in a fashion that drove her to make the book the best it could possibly be. For me, this was the most important thing in the partnership. Amy gave me feedback, pushed me where I needed to be pushed, and worked with diligence and care that was clear from day one.

Value for Money Spent

Amy has a fantastic affordability structure – a booking fee that is followed by either a bulk payment or a bisection of the balance – and the return on my investment came in spades. I actually think that Amy underprices her services, and my hope is that she procures enough returning clients like myself that are constantly endeavoring to produce work that she has to boost her new client prices. There are a lot of freelance editors out there, and not only was I lucky to find Amy, but I found the affordability of her services unexpectedly accessible. I doubt she will embrace cutthroat capitalism, but I genuinely think she undersells her services.

Editing a book of over 620 pages in a hybrid fashion in essentially three months was a tremendous undertaking. For the money invested in completing this project, I am left not only satisfied, but feeling somewhat criminal at the value! Amy is the proverbial vintage store that offers fantastic clothes at a considerable discount, and you wonder how or why she’s able to and how she’s able to stay in business, only to discover that there’s no catch or trap. Amy delivered something really remarkable, and I am extremely lucky and thankful for it.

Communication and Working Dynamics

This is where I believe Amy really shined brightest. I’ve worked with marketing partners, influencers, and other professionals across the spectrum of my work. I’ve experienced flakiness and slow returns on messages (sometimes ghosting for weeks on end) with other partners but not with Amy, not even once. Amy has proven to be the most constructively communicative, far and away, and always conducts herself with the utmost professional integrity, but is also engaging, funny, insightful, and kind. She was under no obligation to communicate through channels outside email, or even to engage outside our agreed upon parameters, but she was quick to respond to questions, chatted a bit about the work, and created so much trust and confidence in our partnership just by the way she communicated that I knew this book was going to be successful. It’s obvious that Amy values a degree of professional connection with both the work and the writers that she partners with, and I cannot express how appreciated this was, especially as a debutant novelist.

Final Thoughts

Amy is not only extremely thorough, qualified, talented, and skilled – her editing work is exemplary – she is also a tremendous person who endears her writing partners to her. Personally, I wanted to be a better writer because of the feedback I got from Amy, not because she made me feel like I wasn’t good enough, but because she made me feel like I was. She’s inspired me to really double down on my dedication to the craft and has me ready to get right into my second book a mere number of days after the publication of my first. I’d say that is about as lofty an accomplishment as I could have hoped for in an editing partnership. What’s more, though, is I feel like I’ve made a friend as well.