INTRODUCTION

In various ways, I have been an editor for over twenty years, ranging from hands-on line edits to copyedits to structural and developmental work. While I specialize in all stages of literary prose and poetry—concept, motivation, revision, finishing touches—beyond those disciplines I have ghostwritten, proofread, and whipped into shape reviews, essays, legal documents, professional journal articles, and more.

My background as a working writer and professional songsmith, coupled with stints as a law office factotum and in musical theatre, puts me in a unique position to help you achieve your goals. Every client is top priority and receives my full attention.

Below are quotes from current and former clients and colleagues.

ABOUT KURT

Kurt has held a baker’s dozen of jobs, notably taking Gallup polls door-to-door, serving as shipping clerk for a Sausalito clothing wholesaler that turned out to be a front for laundering drug money, and surviving fifteen years in a criminal defense law office.

His writings under the pen name klipschutz include five books of poems and a grab bag of literary journalism. He has also written songs with Chuck Prophet through eleven albums, most recently 2017’s Bobby Fuller Died for Your Sins. They continue to adapt their iconic San Francisco song cycle Temple Beautiful into a musical.

Beyond high school, Kurt is an autodidact, having done everything via trial and error. In 2015 he belatedly completed UC Berkeley Extension’s four-course Professional Sequence in Editing, thanks to which he now knows his modifiers by name and differentiates “who” from “whom” by case rather than by feel.

For more than thirty years, Kurt has lived in San Francisco where he shares an apartment in the Tendernob with Colette Jappy and two tuxedo cats.

PHILOSOPHY

Maybe philosophy is too strong a word. How about approach?

My approach is to treat clients as individuals, providing them with personalized, detailed feedback, corrections, and solutions.

In this regard, a client’s goals, whether in fiction, nonfiction, poems, essays, business letters, online content, ghostwriting, or beyond, become my goals. We work together to achieve them, focusing on clarity and context. Once the mechanical basics have been covered, however, the process gives way to judgment, taste, the art of communication, and the mysteries of how to cast a spell on the reader. Every so often even a three-line poem can leave a lasting impression. To be successful, a three hundred page memoir needs an arc, but must also pack a punch.

Upon learning that in my other life I am a poet and songwriter, with some prose thrown in, you might wonder, “Why would a prose writer hire a poet as an editor?”

Since I posed the question, let me answer it.

“Poetry should be at least as well written as prose,” said the quotable Ezra Pound, and I have taken that dictum to heart. Further, we all need both “visions and revisions” (T. S. Eliot). By the way, if you think Eliot can be difficult, you’re right as rain, with the exception of his playful series of puss poems that have earned his estate untold millions through Cats.

Don’t be scared off by the names behind the above extracts, which are meant to convey a commonality spanning genres. Writing is writing, consisting of

inspiration
conception
technique
the stages to completion

Drop a line. At Lipschutz Editing we—yes, the royal we—are always open.

CONTACT

Pricing may be by the hour or job, depending on the size and demands of the project and your needs. Feel free to contact me at klipschutz@earthlink.net to express interest and ask questions.

For newcomers to the process, I would be happy to discuss the various levels of editing, the distinction between copy and line editing, and the higher plane of developmental editing. And don’t discount proofreading entirely. Spell check is a time-saver that can also wreak havoc.

Should you want to check it out, here’s my other site, which is geared toward my pursuits as a poet, songwriter, editor, literary journalist, and small press publisher.