Find the Heart of Your Book Project
The initial stages of any book project are murky. But connecting to your book’s full power—and moving forward in publishing—requires a razor-sharp understanding of what you’re trying to say, and how your craft choices can build a narrative that delivers us there. My superpower is locating the heart of your story, finding structures that make meaning accessible, pinpointing the personal growth work that will increase your artistic freedom, and identifying strategies for building a path in publishing.
“I can genuinely say I wouldn’t have a 6-figure book deal right now without Kati.”
Who do I work with?
I work with nonfiction storytellers with established craft skills already deep in a book manuscript. I’m a particularly good fit for memoirists writing about illness, trauma, sexuality, or other issues of embodiment, or those whose work seeks to place the personal alongside a more global inquiry through research or reporting. I’m a great fit for those writing sparkling prose but who can’t seem to find the right structure, who are torn between formatting as a memoir-in-essays versus a narrative memoir, or whose books are trying to take on too much. My ideal book is a compelling blend of narrative storytelling and deeply meaningful or world-changing ideas. I consider works of narrative journalism and cultural criticism that are not personal on a case-by-case basis.
Who’s not a fit for me?
At this time, I’m not a fit for those who are still developing basic creative nonfiction skills, those who have not begun their book project yet, or those who are struggling to write at all (unless this struggle is related to trauma responses—in this case, see my trauma writing doula offerings.) I do not work on fiction projects, how-to or self-help projects, or projects intended to be self-published.
What’s my track record?
My past clients have sold their books on pitch to major publishers for $75k-$500k; published in top literary journals like The Sun, The Rumpus, and Los Angeles Review of Books; gotten into top MFA programs like The Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa, the University of Arizona, Oregon State University MFA, University of Montana MFA, and more; won contests, been anthologized, signed with agents, and had their work selected as Notable by the Best American Essays series.
““After toiling away on my memoir book proposal for many months, I felt in my gut that there was still something missing. But I could not for the life of me put my finger on it. I was way too close to the material, too spent from reading the same words again and again, to see it clearly. I needed help: someone with an out-of-the-box brain, knowledge of the publishing industry, and—because of the subject matter—love for rural places and the West. Obviously that person was Kati. She read through the core pieces of my proposal and in one conversation, told me what she saw me doing, reassured me that it was important, and helped me turn the book on its head. With Kati’s help, I was able to not only extract the overarching question that was missing from my book, but also voice and resolve some anxieties that were holding me back.
I highly recommend Kati’s services.””
Book Offerings
Book Manuscript Editing
To receive a book manuscript editing quote, email Kati 20 pages of your manuscript with a synopsis. Your quoted rate is calculated per-page (generally $15-$25/page) based on the development of the prose and the tightness of the manuscript overall. To this, I add one hour of editorial consultation and factor in your proposed turnaround time. As part of my edit, you’ll receive a letter of about 7 pages that:
summarizes your primary craft choices in the book
assesses how well the manuscript is keeping reader attention and developing its ideas
identifies a clear set of steps for revision.
My turnaround time for most book manuscripts averages a month.
Book Proposal Overview
For $499, send Kati your book project overview up to 12 pages, then discuss your concept together for up to an hour. This arrangement will include some combination of line edits and a summary email of important points; that combination depends on the specifics of your work.
For $1400, send Kati your book proposal draft up to 80 pages (including your sample material). You’ll receive line edits, summary comments, and one hour of conversation about your proposal.
The First Fifty Pages
For $1200, send Kati the first 50 pages of your nonfiction book project, and receive a detailed 7(ish)-page letter plus one hour of conversation over Zoom discussing how your project is currently setting up its primary tensions, key questions, structure, voice, characters, and more. This offering approximates the 50-page sample often required by agents and is a great way to take the temperature on how your project is coming along in terms of propulsiveness and salability. You’ll walk away from the experience with a clear set of next steps for your book.
Non-Book Offerings
Career and Writing Life Consultations
For $200, we’ll explore where you are in your writing life, pinpoint where you’d like to be professionally, and discuss some of the tools or strategies that might get you there.
This is a great option for:
writers who aren’t sure whether an MFA is their next step
writers who already have an MFA but who haven’t arrived where they’d like to be
writers who generally feel stuck in the process, whether they’re seeking an agent, trying to publish, exploring crowdfunding, or trying to make a living as a writer
writers who want to borrow my brain for a craft or career problem, including book concept, but don’t necessarily need written feedback
anyone seeking clarity or inspiration in their literary life.
Essay Manuscript Readings
For $125 (for up to 8 double-spaced, 12 pt. font pages), $279 (for up to 20 pages), or $495 (up to 35 pages), receive feedback on your work of nonfiction—ideally about illness, trauma, or sexuality. Based on your manuscript’s characteristics, you’ll either receive line-level notes in the margins of your manuscript (flagging issues of syntax, pacing or development) and/or a letter that identifies your key craft choices and that suggests whether or not they are operating in the way you intend. In either form, I’ll offer questions to move the essay or excerpt forward, suggest ways of enlarging or sharpening the topic at hand, and note potential homes for your work in the publishing world. This arrangement includes a reasonable number of follow-up e-mails clarifying my assessment of the work.
MFA Application Support System
For $950, I'll be your sounding board through the MFA application season, drawing on my experience as a former low-residency MFA professor and an alum of a competitive residential MFA.
This package includes:
a one-on-one meeting to flesh out the style of MFA program that will work best for you (considering professors, funding models, locations, length, and residency types) and to discuss possibilities for your personal statement
Two reads with feedback on both your personal statement and your work sample
Your questions answered throughout the process!
*Please note that writers who need more than two rounds of feedback on either their personal statement or prose sample purchase an additional manuscript reading to continue our work together. I work only with nonfiction applicants. Working together does not secure a letter of recommendation from me.
“Kati expertly walked me through the process of querying agents and writing a book proposal, but more importantly she shared my enthusiasm for my book project while also asking the questions that would turn into some of the most important ideas in my book. Her ability to listen to a writer share ideas and then extract the core of what they are saying is truly unmatched; I’m consistently awed by how she can dive into messy, ambitious topics and pull out a thread that makes a project clearer, more precise and more expansive at the same time. ”
Upcoming Writing Workshops:
If writing is an act of power, writing workshops are where we learn to understand and wield that power. Join me in an upcoming offering:
“Kati’s writerly experience and readerly thoughtfulness shone when she was able to situate my work within a far broader cultural and literary framework than I had previously considered, and while Kati’s feedback was certainly not prescriptive, she suggested various pathways and directions I might pursue which were more aligned with both publishability and authorial urgency. ”
“My one-on-one manuscript mentorship with Kati advanced my writing to levels I didn’t even realize I could achieve. She offers specific feedback and has the unique ability to be honest and compassionate at once. She strives to understand the material while forming genuine, lasting relationships with her clients. Kati’s voice has become the editor in my head while I revise my manuscript, and I know the lessons from our mentorship will stay with me long into the future.”
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