Throughout my career, I have worked as a writer, editor, and manager. I started out in journalism, working for various daily and weekly newspapers in the Denver-Boulder area, including the Colorado Daily, Daily Camera, Mountain Gazette, Boulder Weekly, and Rocky Mountain News. As a journalist, I learned how to meet deadlines, find the nugget in a story, and write and edit fast and well.
From newspapers, I went to work for an energy information company, where I learned more complex computer skills (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and became experienced in editing business and trade reports, as well as more technical editing.
Most recently, I’ve been a freelance editor and writer. My main focus has been editing books, although I’ve also edited web sites and other publications. The books I’ve edited range from memoirs to academic to scientific, from 200 to 4,000 pages, and for small publishers as well as for individuals.
Editing Experience
- As a freelance editor, I have done substantive, developmental, and copy editing for mass market, educational, scholarly, and scientific books and other publications (February 2004–present). (See Books I’ve Edited)
- As senior editor at Platts, the world’s largest energy information provider (a division of McGraw-Hill Companies), I was project manager for publications ranging from 600-page industry overviews to 20-page topic-specific reports (August 2000–February 2004).
- As copy editor of the Rocky Mountain News, the now defunct Denver daily (circulation 350,000), I edited news, features, and business stories and wrote headlines (July 1997–August 2000).
- As managing editor of Boulder Weekly, an alternative weekly newspaper (circulation 25,000), I assigned and edited cover, news, entertainment, and special section stories; worked with a team of staff writers, freelance writers, and interns; and assigned photos (August 1993–July 1997).
- As entertainment editor of the Daily Camera, Boulder’s daily newspaper (circulation 35,000), I was responsible for Friday magazine, Sunday and daily entertainment sections, working with five staff writers and three designers, and supervising 9 to 12 student interns a year. Other positions I held at the Camera were as science and health editor (Discovery) and copy editor on the news and business desks, including designing pages (January 1984–May 1993).
- As managing editor of the Colorado Daily, a newspaper serving the University of Colorado and Boulder communities (circulation 20,000), I put together a Monday-through-Friday newspaper, directing a team of writers, photographers, and designers. I also served as president of the board of directors, editorial page editor, environment section editor, and reporter.
- I’ve also been an editor at smaller publications, including associate editor at Mountain Gazette, a nature/outdoors/recreation monthly magazine; and an editor of Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, a national tri-annual scholarly magazine. Other freelance assignments include project editor for Insider’s Guide to Boulder (1998 edition), a travel guide; and editor of Amicus, the University of Colorado Law School‘s alumni journal.
Writing Experience
Since August 2012, I have been editor of Senior Spirit, a nationwide newsletter from the Society for Certified Senior Advisors. In that capacity, I write about aging issues.
Other writing projects include: a book proposal for a book on the history of prostitution in Nye County, Nevada; profile of a Boulder homeless man for the book, Until They Have Faces: Boulder Stories of Resilience, Recovery and Redemption (2012); and the foreword (ghost-written) for a book on the co-incidence of Down syndrome and autism spectrum disorders (2012).
I have been published in Front Range Living, Boulder Weekly, the Daily Camera, Colorado Daily, High Country News, Mountain Gazette, Frontiers, and Silver & Gold Record. In addition, I write a blog (Cabin Journal) on my experiences owning a cabin in the mountains.
In April 2013, I was awarded first prize for fiction in the ACC Writer’s Studio contest for my short story “Barbara and the Bear.”
Kathy Kaiser 