Meet Desiree
Desiree Zimmermann is a freelance copyeditor and lover of language. She’s been reading since she was big enough to hold a book and has always been drawn to opportunities to utilize this love as often as she could. She decided to launch her business A to Zimm Edits after the COVID-19 pandemic provided her with an opportunity to change course. Enthusiastic in anything that catches her attention and determined to utilize all the skills she’s built over the years, she now offers services such as copyediting, sensitivity reads, and transcription.
She has had a meandering journey to reach this point: she obtained a Bachelor’s of Science in Clinical Psychology from Marywood University, a Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Lesley University, and a certificate in Copyediting from UCSD: Extension. She has worked as a barista, a serials librarian, a therapist, a business catering customer service concierge, and in retail.
When the COVID pandemic hit, it was an opportunity to figure out what to do next. The best part of her prior jobs had been helping with training and coaching others on their written communication, so advancing that into a career made perfect sense. Combining that with her love for the written word led to copyediting. Utilizing the skills she learned in prior jobs led to offering sensitivity reads, transcriptions, indexing, and fact-checking on top of her base offering of copyediting.
Her favorite reading genres tend to be fantasy, science fiction, YA, mystery, horror, and historical fiction; although she will try anything.
When she isn’t reading and copyediting, she can be found paying tribute to her small overlord Tigra, playing video games, knitting, cross stitching, baking, watching musicals, and planning her next adventure.
She is a member of the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA) and ACES: The Society for Editing (ACES).
