Hi! I'm Katherine Kirk.
My friendly, personal approach gives you much more than a basic spelling and grammar check; I provide a human touch that is impossible to achieve through spell-checking software, and I never use AI in my editing.
I work primarily in US English, and I especially love science fiction, fantasy, thrillers, and romance. I am a CMOS specialist. I work with indie authors, debut authors, bestselling authors, traditional publishers, and editorial agencies.
Contact me via email or through my website, www.geckoedit.com.
Why the gecko? Because if I'm doing my job right, I'm like a gecko on the wall of your story, quietly snapping up the errors, inconsistencies, and missteps that bug your readers so that they can immerse themselves in your world.
Services
I offer individual editing services as well as packages of combined services.
- Manuscript Evaluation/Editorial Assessment: I read your latest draft and pinpoint its strengths and weaknesses, highlighting areas to improve and giving you a revision roadmap to help your story reach its potential—and its audience.
- Line editing: I clear away the clutter that gets in the way of your authentic voice, helping you find exactly the right way to tell the story. I work sentence by sentence to tighten the structure, tweak the rhythm, bring out the characters distinct points of view, and evoke the right emotions in your readers.
- Copyediting: I comb through your text to find typos, spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, punctuation mishaps, and formatting errors. I apply a consistent style so your readers can stay immersed in the story, and I apply Word's paragraph styles so your formatter knows exactly what to do. I'll flag continuity or logic inconsistencies and alert you to problems that might put you or your readers at risk.
- Proofreading: I cast a careful eye over your final formatted text to catch any lingering mistakes so that you can be confident that your manuscript is polished and professional before it goes to the printer.
- Book formatting: I offer book layout and typesetting for novels, in Vellum. This includes custom headers and header backgrounds, custom ornamental breaks, full bleed images, print and e-book optimization, and other bespoke graphic elements.
What do I edit?
I work primarily on novels and short stories. I'm comfortable with most levels of spice.
Training
I've completed all of the CIEP's Copyediting and Proofreading courses and multiple EFA courses, as well as some specialized training such as Line editing for Suspense (Louise Harnby, completed 2023). For a full list of training I've completed, as well as speaking engagements and panels I've appeared on, visit my website.