Karen’s audit provided innumerable suggestions with respect to pacing, dialogue, character and plot development. Karen was very professional in her comments and criticisms and, most importantly, honest and fair. I could tell from the comments that Karen really dove deep into my story and put an incredible amount of thought and effort into her suggestions.

A wellspring of ideas and insights, [Karen] is a master at bringing a novel’s literary elements to life. She believed in me, took me on a journey far beyond my first and second draft, and always balanced truth to kindness as she justified rewrites I honestly didn’t want to do — again.

I have worked with many editors across the art, business, and science press and Karen is by far the best. Karen’s expert hand elevated my writing in every way. She challenged me to breathe life and honesty into some very difficult material with a generous and supportive spirit. Though her technical proficiency and meticulousness are beyond compare, it is her dedication to me and my work to create the best possible material, pushing to new limits while always preserving my voice that makes her extraordinary. She made me fearless.

Karen Aroian was recommended to me as someone who could provide professional perspective in making my book manuscript agent-ready. Within a month – ahead of deadline – she had completed a thoughtful editorial audit, which included high-level feedback as well as detailed notations. Karen has a firm but gentle style that offers a practical reality check while preserving an author’s ego. She was extremely generous in talking with me, answering questions, and providing constructive ideas. I especially appreciate that she encouraged me to dream a little in developing my characters.

When writing fiction, it’s important to find an editor who will not infuse their version of the story into the edit process. Karen understood the direction of my story, and each editorial suggestion sharpened the story and allowed my work to shine.

After an initial discussion on the scope and direction for the article, I never had to worry about it being late or off-track.

Knowing when to back off and when to be more hands on, Karen is an ideal collaborator. I have heard from so many of our clinicians how grateful they are for her guidance through the process. For them it is a win because they become better writers. And that is a win for the organization as we are putting out more and more top-quality content.

[Karen’s] expertise extends well beyond word choice and sentence construction, as she is able to address the larger structure and tone of a piece. I found her remarkably adept at understanding the argument I was trying to make and restructuring portions of my piece to bring it out more clearly.