I started my doctorate in education at Pepperdine University, and although my area is music, I have to write a lot of papers and eventually a dissertation. My writing has improved so much, thanks to you, that since I've started my studies at Pepperdine, I have gotten a lot of compliments from all my teachers, particularly about my writing! A big thank you for your help!!!

I will let you know, as things unfold, how this project is doing and hopefully I will have some really good news soon.

--Ana-Maria F.      

Laurie,

Working on my book and I just wanted to say thank you. You do such a wonderful job and provide a much needed service. I am sure I am joined by a multitude when I say thank you for doing what you do and lending writers in need expertise such as yours. Without you I would be lost!

--Candance T., Sarasota, FL      

Dear Ms. Rosin,

It has been many years since I have contacted you. You edited a "coming of age" novella of mine called, "Mike's Journal". It won in the memoirs category of the Florida Writers Association Royal Palm Awards in 2003. It wrote it under my pen name Donaldson Jensen.

I am starting a new project and would like your help structuring it before I begin to write.

--Carl B., Jacksonville, FL      

Dear Laurie,

I have read your critique completely at least twice and completed reviewing the manuscript with your margin notes.

Although I had high expectations, you have exceeded them. This is beyond editing; this is coaching. By far, reviewing this manuscript with your critique and notes is the best instruction in writing that I have ever experienced. Although most of your technical recommendations were things I knew, I was blind to my own mistakes. The contact coaching was invaluable. What seemed like conflict to me was not conflict to the reader. The characters, so well developed in my own mind, remained in my mind and not in the book where they belonged.

--Dean L.. Jacksonville, FL      

First, let me say how pleasantly surprised I was to see the way you immersed yourself in my manuscript. Your attention to detail left me shaking my head at times. In fact, you left me battered and bloody on the floor by the time I finished reading your critique, but I have already recovered and am letting all your comments filter through my brain.

I guess I am a long way from perfecting my craft, but I will keep at it, since that is what my inner self is telling me to do.

I will e-mail you again in two weeks or so, after I have gone through your critique and the editing notes on the manuscript a second time. Thank you for the very personal instructive crititism.

--Regards, Donald M.      

Hello! I just recently moved so I haven't had a chance to open the package until today, and I'm very impressed with just the few pages! It's great to have a professional opinion and another point of view that really opens my eyes on what works and what doesn't. It's definitely overwhelming but I'm sure I'll slowly make sense of it all. Thank you!

I'd like an email of the critique and I'm curious about the reasoning behind the refund check? Thanks again, I can't wait to finish it and take it all in. Wow with every page the ideas get better and better! And you make it easy to understand, it comes off so naturally as if the answer was there the whole time! I definitely have a lot to learn, thanks again!

Sorry I asked that question prematurely. So, my first impression of what I did wrong is I tried to take events or people directly out of my life and maybe was too afraid to give them character and polish.The first chapter (with Drake and Trey etc.) was always my favorite, and I felt it comes across as my best writing. It is also the one chapter I completely made up from scratch. Everything else was a fiction I tried to weave out of reality, although now I realize did so poorly, and believe that I may not be able to tell the story I originally wanted to tell. Maybe I wanted to rely on life's events as plot instead of creating my own story and I need to throw out that attachment and start anew, but I'll definitely take the time to soak it all in. Thanks again.

--Donald W.      

Dear Laurie,

Learning from a talented editor like you is more than what I learned from writing in college. Thank you very, very much for what you have done for me and have a great day!

I am starting a new project and would like your help structuring it before I begin to write.

--Kevin L, Austin, MN      

I wanted to let both of you know that with your help, "Who Are These People?" has been published and on Amazon this morning. I am so excited. It is not a goal I have achieved, and hopefully someone might find it helpful.

Thank you both so much. Someday, I will visit Sarasota and meet you in person.

--Mariann C.      

Hi, Laurie.

Hope you're having a wonderful summer! I'm sure...busy as usual.

Phew. What a crazy ride so far. Maybe you'd agree that the publishing industry is wild, weird, and "sometimes" wonderful. I wanted to touch base with you with some quick sound bites. The link above is from the Readers Favorite Awards. Yea... I'm one of the finalists. They'll announce the winner in September. The review is listed in the link. I wish there was a place to give credit to the best editor anyone could be lucky enough to know. Yep... gotta give credit where credit is due.

I also went to BEA and made some nice connections. New challenge: Finish book two while trying to promote book one. I've got such an ad hoc collection of marketing and promotional outlets, its hard to keep them all straight. I'm sort of doing all this marketing stuff on the cheap so I guess thats to be expected. Publicists are north of $3,000.

So...just keep plugging away. I see the advantage of having a series. I already have some built in readers waiting for a second book. I'm getting some lovely emails from people looking forward to Einstein.

They just announced the winners for the Readers Favorite Awards silver medal! Kinda cool. Yea for us!! You're part of this win...no question. Theres a nice feeling knowing that they had the most entries this year, including the big publishing houses and celebrities. So there!!

Keep cool!

--Nadine S., Las Vegas, NV      

Hello, Laurie:

I've been working on what you sent me since February. I'm halfway through and I've gotta say that you've really pushed me to find a better groove. Thank you! I'm constantly going back to your comments and comb through the parts of my writing that need work, which are a lot of places. Smile.

I'm happy to say that the tone of the book is much lighter, has some dark, instead of the depressing and confusing labyrinth I had before. It's still complicated, and I'm trying my best to make it clear, but I'll see if I've pulled the plot all the way through to its logical conclusion.

--Rachel B., Arroyo Grande, CA      

Once again, many thanks. You have helped me to take a story that is in my heart and put it to paper. You are truly blessed.

Most sincerely,

--Sara K., Fort Lee, NJ      

Namaste, Laurie,

I received the manuscript and critique today. Once again, thank you very much for your feedback. From what I saw, your feedback is going to be extremely helpful. Thank you also for sending me a refund when you felt that the manuscript required signficant rework. This is exceptionally ethical and, honestly, quite unexpected. You are in a class of your own!

Thank you very much!

--Srinivas J., Austin, TX      

Dear Laurie,

Thank you for your thoughtful and detailed feedback on my manuscript. It will be extremely valuable as I move forward and I am most grateful for it. Your advice to give myself time to assimilate all that you've shared before diving back in sounds wise and I will do so.

Thank you as well for prorating your charges according to what you felt the manuscript warranted. The check is much appreciated.

I'm looking forward to implementing your suggestions and the ongoing writing adventure ahead. With best wishes.

--Terence      

Dear Laurie,

Hi Laurie, got the manuscript and read your crtique notes and explanations. I've read it again an again and then again. Were you a professor of English? I am so impressed with your input you are brilliant. I have never read such a precise letter of knowledge and encouragement.

Thank you so much for aiding me in all directions for a more successful approach for selling my book. I will follow your advice. If I need your advice I'll call you.

I am so happy that I have found you, Laurie. You are very intelligent and very pleasant. I loved your poetic Thanksgiving card. Laurie, please call me if you are ever in southern California. All the best.

--Vivian R., Torrance, CA      

You were always fantastic to work with, and provided some stellar content while I was at WD. It was always a pleasure!.

--Zachary Petit, former senior managing editor, Writers Digest, FW Media      

In 2013 you edited my novel, "Another Time, Another Place," and I've always remembered what a great help you were and how pleasant you were to work with. Now I've completed another novel in the romance-suspense genre and I'd like very much to send it to you.

--Mary V., Middletown, CT