“I love encouraging clients

and community as I equip them with editorial solutions that elevate their content. Writing is hard. My happy place is listening, helping writers feel safe, helping them recapture their creative energy and helping them increase their writing productivity and potency.”
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Karen Aroian Headshot

Karen Aroian

A lifelong writer and editor, Karen Aroian began her career in the editorial offices of Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, working with America’s finest editors and authors. Through the years, she has led teams of editors and writers at major publishing and marketing firms.

Karen is a walker and world traveler. She served as the 2017-2018 president of Women Communicators of Austin, an all-volunteer nonprofit with more than 250 members.

Testimonials

Jim Dennis Testimonial

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.

Seeds of Our Future Book Cover

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.

Martin Barooshian: The Complete Graphic Works from Adam to Zeus 1948-1970

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.

Tory Roof Book Cover

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.

The Troubles Book Cover

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.

Austin Contractors and Engineers Association Logo

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

PACT Institute Logo

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.

Jeff Cohen Headshot

[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.

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