Rachel Kirsch
Editor, Proofreader
Rachel Kirsch is a proofreader and editor with 12 years of experience working on 200+ fiction and nonfiction books. She has a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Linguistics from Cornerstone University. She works as a freelance editor for Christian publishing houses, such as Zondervan, WaterBrook Multnomah, and Kregel. She has worked on titles by best-selling authors such as Cindy Woodsmall, Gary Thomas, Kim Vogel Sawyer, Dr. Larry Crabb, Shaunti Feldhahn, and Robin Jones Gunn. She has also worked directly with self-publishing authors, doing substantive editing for such books as The Last Red-Line Brig, Deicide: How Eliminating the Deity Is Destroying America, and Seven-X.
Rachel is a thoughtful and detailed editor, with a desire to assist authors in communicating their message in the best way possible, while maintaining their voice and style. Her goal as an editor is perfectly described by author and editor Arthur Polotnik: “You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
When Rachel isn't editing, she is very involved in family life with her husband and four kids. She has a deep love of children’s literature and reads to her kids any chance she gets. Their current read-aloud books are 100 Cupboards, Anne of Green Gables, and My Father’s Dragon. In her personal reading time (which is scarce!), she likes to read books on parenting and finances and anything written by Louise Penny, Dallas Willard, Timothy Keller, and Eugene Peterson.
Endorsements:
“Rachel is an excellent, detailed proofreader who always meets my expectations! I have complete confidence in her work, and she is top on my list of freelancers.” –Laura, production editor
“I prefer to hire Rachel because I can always trust her thorough work, attention to detail, punctuality, and good judgment when marking manuscripts. And she’s very pleasant to work with!” –Judy, production editor
“Rachel Kirsch was outstanding. She was very helpful, and did a great job editing my stories.
I would certainly recommend her to anyone.” –Jack Bridges, author
“When I asked for an editor, I got two responses who gave me sample edits of my work. The only difficult part of the process was choosing between the two. I’m glad with the choice I made. Rachel was professional, available, and very insightful. She found typos, repetitions, and areas that needed more explanation. My favorite part was the anachronism she found. My book is set in the 1960s and there’s a man with tattoos of Bible verses. Rachel pointed out that I was using a version of the Bible that was published after the time period. Amazing catch! Her changes did not interfere with the voice of the narrator. When there was a chance of that, she wrote comments and suggestions rather than make the change. I used most of those suggestions, and she was in no way offended by the suggestions I didn’t use. I felt completely confident with giving Rachel possession of ‘my baby.’ I’m using her again. She even finished the project a day before the deadline!!!” –Peter Carini, author