Testimonials

I enjoyed working with Andi as she edited my children’s book manuscript. I was amazed at her ability to take away the unessentials of my manuscript while not compromising the story itself. Her edits and suggestions were so helpful!

Andi read my entire upmarket women’s fiction manuscript and gave me invaluable and timely feedback. She pointed out some problem areas in the novel — a time jump that could be confusing, some unresolved issues at the end, and physical descriptions that could be earlier — and gave me specific suggestions on how to improve those. She was accessible, enthusiastic, and insightful. I truly enjoyed working with her, and my novel is so much stronger. I highly recommend her excellent services.

Andi did a thorough review of three of my middle-grade fiction manuscripts and her advice and edits were spot on. I agreed with all of the edits that she pointed out in her critiques and found her help to be invaluable. My work is definitely better after using her notes when I made my revisions. I would recommend her to anyone needing an objective critique of their manuscripts. Thanks for everything, Andi!

Andi’s manuscript review service is reasonably priced and money well spent. The first draft of my book was little more than a 200 page stream of consciousness. Andi saw that I did have a story and gave me suggestions on pacing, scene writing, timeline, tense; and information about publishing options and book categories. Andi is honest without being harsh. Working with her is a pleasure. Her advice was so helpful that I recently engaged her to review my second draft.

I can’t say enough about Andi’s Manuscript Review and how valuable, even pivotal, it has for me as a first-time author. I wanted to get feedback from an experienced, professional editor before continuing through the process of publishing my book, and Andi was perfect. Through her Manuscript Review, as well as our follow-up phone conversation, Andi provided me with tons of encouragement, building my confidence as a writer, and identifying the strengths and weaknesses of my writing with insight and clarity. Her feedback was kind but also very honest. She is an amazing editor and I would work with her and recommend her again and again!

I am a first-time author, and really felt like I needed a thorough, unbiased, professional review of my draft novel manuscript. Andi’s manuscript review was exactly what I was looking for and more. She provided me a detailed four-page memo with very constructive observations, suggestions, and ideas. She clearly had spent a lot of time carefully reading and absorbing my draft and thinking about ways to make it better. Sometimes you have that “a-ha” moment when you get a suggestion and you can see right away how implementing the suggestion will improve the work. That’s what happened when I read Andi’s memo with its recommendations. I know my final work will be better for Andi’s having reviewed the draft.

It is a pleasure to work with Andi. Not only does she have my complete trust, but she has my best interest at heart; it is seen in the way she deciphers through the details of my book, and provides her detailed suggestions on how it can be improved. Furthermore, even after the the edits, she followed up to assure the process was going well and to see if I had any further questions. I highly recommend Andi for any writer who is looking for not only someone they can trust, but who is an expert in what she does.

As a newcomer to the writing life, it was a huge benefit having a professional like Andi read my work and make recommendations. Her suggestions were concrete and have led to improvement in my novel. Her words of encouragement continue to help me persevere through the writing process.

Andi was terrific to work with. She encouraged me, but her edits and suggestions also pushed and challenged me, helping me make my writing better.

I enjoyed working with Andi as she edited my children’s book manuscript. I was amazed at her ability to take away the unessentials of my manuscript while not compromising the story itself. Her edits and suggestions were so helpful!

Andi is knowledgeable and thorough. She approaches her work with both a sense of responsibility and an obvious enjoyment of the written word. If someone tells me that they are looking for an editor, she is the first person that I recommend.

“Andrea helped me revise a lot of my work. She was a great editor who worked patiently with me and really tried to understand what I was trying to communicate. She is a definite hire!”

Thanks for reading the manuscript of my novel PINOCCHIO ISLAND and for your feedback. I am almost through revising it according to your notes and I am pleased with the revisions. It was invaluable having feedback and encouragement from a professional writer who’s been in the business of writing novels and who is not a friend (they tend to be prejudiced!) although through your blog I am starting to feel like a friend, too. You read and gave your notes in a timely fashion and I thought your pricing was fair. I would recommend you to anyone seeking feedback on their novel manuscript. Thanks again for your help!

“Andrea helped me overhaul my resume and also reviewed my cover letter for a job application. Wow! Quick turnaround and super suggestions.”

Andi and I have worked together on a variety of projects that have all been very important to me. Not only is Andi extremely good at what she does, but she also provided me with a lot of creative direction. Her communication is great and she always delivers on time. I would highly recommend Andi for any writing projects that you might have.

I engaged Andi to independently review and critique my manuscript. She went beyond providing a thorough critique by helping me understand how best to position and pitch my novel. She gave me specific, actionable suggestions to help me get my book in front of the right people. I highly recommend my writing coach, Andi.

“Andi has helped me immeasurably in developing my writing style. She has tirelessly shaped and molded my works and has helped to push me to the pinnacle of mediocrity that I am today.”

“Andi was a great help in preparing my resume for distribution. While I greatly appreciate her writing skills, I was worried that she would not have the ‘business’ perspective that I needed. That worry went unfounded and Andi provided both an analytical and literary perspective to the review process that made my resume much stronger.”

I had two requests when I first talked to Andi, a brave move for a first time writer. One request was to be honest with me, the second was don’t hold back. She was and she didn’t. The result of working with her increased my confidence about the manuscript I will soon be submitting.

Andi is the greatest. Her reading of my manuscript was thorough and searching. She made some excellent suggestions for changes and provided me with very helpful advice about the next steps in the publication process. On top of it all, she is a delightful person. She puts you at ease and makes you laugh. What more can you ask for?

Andi completed a developmental edit on my opening chapters. She not only first took the time to give me a phone consultation, she worked quickly on the edit, with clear, timely communication throughout the process. Through her thoughtful, expert questions and comments, she showed me what was going on on a deeper level. It seemed like she was inside my story, looking around, calling to me from within and describing how it felt to be there. If you want someone to jump into your story, travel there and experience it so she can understand and fix it, Andi’s your editor.

Andi reviewed the manuscript of my memoir and gave me invaluable help regarding point of view, pacing, structure and more. I am a “first time writer” and her services really made it possible for me to rewrite my book. She gave clear, relevant direction in a three page review, in emails and on the telephone – a generous amount of time for the money charged. I plan to continue to work with her until I am ready to send my book to an agent.

Andi did a content edit for my thriller Rogue Spy. Her advice was thorough, helpful, and delivered on time. Her work made my book faster-paced and more balanced in terms of setting, and now, my readers can fully experience a gripping, psychological adventure through the streets of San Francisco.

I can’t say enough about Andi’s Manuscript Review and how valuable, even pivotal, it was for me as a first-time author. I wanted to get feedback from an experienced, professional editor before continuing through the process of publishing my book, and Andi was perfect. Through her Manuscript Review, as well as our follow-up phone conversation, Andi provided me with tons of encouragement, building my confidence as a writer and identifying the strengths and weaknesses of my writing with insight and clarity. Her feedback was kind but also very honest. She is an amazing editor, and I would work with her and recommend her again and again!

Andi came highly recommended to me by one of the top publishing consultants in the business. She was thorough, constructively critical, and delivered on time–all qualities that I wanted in an editor. I trusted her with my first book and will trust her with the next one as well.

Writing a book can be a very intimidating process. Added to that intimidation is the overwhelming process of editing, querying, proposing, publishing, and all of the other elements that come after the book is completed. Having just completed a draft of a memoir, I was naive to the next steps, and concerned about the quality and overall concept of my work. The manuscript review offered by Andi was the perfect solution for me. She gave me a thoughtful and insightful “big picture” review of my manuscript, and gave me the guidance and confidence to take the necessary next steps in the proper order. I will definitely be using Andi’s services again when the next project arises.

I think anyone wishing a constructive evaluation of their work will find working with Andi to be a rewarding experience. I was very pleased at her assessment of the positive points of my manuscript and found her to be forthright and helpful when offering criticism.

My chief question was whether my work merited further time invested and she answered that to my satisfaction. I am encouraged to pursue my writing, which I have done.

Her charge for this service is reasonable and I strongly recommend working with an editor. A local person recently wrote a non-fictional account of an episode in her family that was well worth telling; but she used the word epitome over and over again. If she had worked with Andi that would have been pointed out.

As a first-time children’s picture book author, I found myself lost in how to begin. As fate would have it, I found Andi’s website and reached out to her for her content editing services. Not only did it help me feel less alone in this new-to-me process, Andi was welcoming, kind, encouraging, and shared valuable insight in editing my work. What an asset, indeed! I highly recommend Andi and hope to continue to work with her well into the future.

After being immersed in our writing “bubble” working on our book, my writing partner and I needed fresh eyes to read it. We hired Andi to provide a manuscript review – the best decision we could have made. Her review was insightful and constructive, with specific recommendations. It was obvious Andi spent time carefully evaluating the draft. We’re moving forward with her suggestions and we can already see the improvement. We’re so grateful we found Andi – now we’re back to the “bubble” with renewed vigor and inspiration. Thank you, Andi!

I’m so grateful that I contacted Andi Cumbo-Floyd to edit my first novel. Andi was a tremendous resource, very helpful and very understanding of what I was going through as a first time author. She answered all of my questions and provided invaluable feedback. Her expertise, knowledge and guidance was very instrumental in steering me through the subsequent steps to improve my novel.

Thanks to her, I was thoroughly satisfied with the final product…and best of all, I’m now a self published author.

I hired Andi Cumbo-Floyd in January of 2015 as the content editor for my recent memoir, All in My Head: How a Hypochondriac Beat Brain Cancer. In the course of writing this book, I worked with many other professionals — copy editors, graphic designers, publishers, and proofreaders— but Andi was by far the most valuable resource to me in my literary journey. I actually hesitate to refer to her as a “resource,” as that word tends to dehumanize someone who has more genuine humanity than most people I have ever known.

Andi is an extremely skilled editor who pays meticulous attention to grammar and syntax. More importantly, she taught me how to “show” rather than “tell” in my writing so that my readers would not only see what I saw, but also feel what I felt and care about my story. I would highly recommend her editing services to anyone who is seeking to create a polished work that is rich with emotion and detail. I have been a corporate writer for 42 years, but Andi Cumbo-Floyd made me an author!

Andi did line editing for my debut novel. I loved her professionalism and warmth as she helped me polish my manuscript for submissions. Her comments were insightful, meticulous and clear. They inspired me to push my writing and story to the next level. She returned the work quickly and was always available for questions. I highly recommend her services.

Andi performed a Manuscript Review of my forthcoming book The Type B Financial Plan. She did exactly what she promised and completed the task on time. Her suggestions were right on point, easy to implement, and our conversations provided me with lots of good information about the self-publishing process. Better yet, Andi has connected me with all sorts of helpful people that are helping this first time author produce the best book possible. Thanks Andi!

Andi’s Painted Steps class is giving me exactly what I need to write the first draft of my memoir — support and expert advice. I love it, and highly recommend it. I look forward to our classes every week, and always enjoy my one-on-one conversations with And. I’ve made significant progress on my book, and couldn’t have done it without this class. I”m feeling much more confident as a writer than when I started.

I have participated in a weekend retreat Andi Cumbo-Floyd led at her farm in Virginia as well as in her 6-months-long Painted Steps Writers Group. In addition to the value I find in Andi’s input and critiques of my work, it is through the community of writers she brings together that I have been inspired to write regularly; to include my writing at the top of my “to do” list each day. I highly recommend Andi as a writing coach and mentor.

Andrea has been a wonderful coach in developing my academic and professional writing. She is prompt on returning edited work and extremely well organized. Her edits are both thorough and clear. She is also an enjoyable and positive person to work with. She both developed my writing ability, while increasing my confidence about writing. Andrea has my highest recommendation.

Andi read my entire upmarket women’s fiction manuscript and gave me invaluable and timely feedback. She pointed out some problem areas in the novel — a time jump that could be confusing, some unresolved issues at the end, and physical descriptions that could be earlier — and gave me specific suggestions on how to improve those. She was accessible, enthusiastic, and insightful. I truly enjoyed working with her, and my novel is so much stronger. I highly recommend her excellent services.

Andi helped me with a manuscript I’d been grappling with for years. In a gentle, always encouraging fashion, she showed me where my early insecurities had diluted my message. She didn’t so much “tell” me what was wrong as “show” me how to find it for myself. The result exceeded my greatest hopes. Having paid thousands for traditional writing classes at a prestigious university, I can honestly say Andi gave much more value.

The manuscript review Andi provided was thorough, punctual, and a great value. Not only did she find key points for revision, but she provided encouragement, and following the review offered further advice about the writing process. After this last revision I’ve been able to query agents with improved confidence. Thanks, Andi!

Andi’s work is very impressive. I wasn’t disappointed on any anticipated outcomes AND I got a lot more on areas of my writing that I had written off unknowingly. Furthermore, Andi gives great advice without being condescending or snooty. . . . She’s very approachable and clearly loves to assist writers. Her service is worth every dollar.

Andi’s editing services are amazing. After reading the rough draft of my memoir, she encouraged me to dig deeper, to be more vulnerable, to push through until the real meat of my story shone through. With her suggestions, I was able to approach my work with a new perspective, and it encouraged me to keep writing and to make my work the best I could possibly make it. Her encouragement and gentle nudging helped me push through and finish.