Book Magic provides manuscript evaluations, proofreading services, and copy editing for fiction and nonfiction books, academic papers, and business proposals. We enjoy all genres, from romance to science-fiction, fantasy, literary and historical fiction, memoirs, biographies, thrillers, mysteries, spiritual and self-help material, business management and leadership books, and textbooks. We also love working on essays and other student papers, using The Chicago Manual of Style or The APA Style Manual. The company is owned and operated by Sigrid Macdonald, who works with Maeve O’Connell, Dian Yu, and Jules Sherwood. Sigrid has spent a great deal of time working with people who have English as a second language, including students who don’t want to submit papers with mistakes in verb tenses or missing prepositions.
We work with clients worldwide and are happy to talk to you on the phone or FaceTime, Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp, or email. Team members live in various cities throughout North America.
Meet the Team
Sigrid Macdonald is the successful author of three full-length books, two of which she published herself, and two short stories, which Silver Publishing released. Her first book, Getting Hip: Recovery from a Total Hip Replacement, became an Amazon bestseller on Kindle. It has sold more than 24,000 copies. Her second book, a mystery titled Finding Lisa, is loosely based on the true-life story of a woman who disappeared in Ottawa, Ontario; a publisher in Texas picked this novel up. Sigrid’s third full-length book, Be Your Own Editor, is self-explanatory: she wrote writing tips for years for the website freelancezone.com, and eventually, she decided to publish a book for people who preferred to edit their own work.
Sigrid has been affiliated with six publishing companies, including Dragon Moon Press in Alberta; Contento de Semrik International Publishing House in Israel; Book Coach Press in Ontario; Total Recall Press in Texas; Hasmark Publishing in Ontario; and Scribendi, an international publishing house.
She has extensive experience writing, editing, proofreading, and self-publishing. She is available for consultations for those interested in choosing the highest quality professionals to format and distribute work for Kindle. This includes referrals to the finest formatting people, graphic art designers, and cutting-edge website designers.
Sigrid has a BA in Psychology, graduating summa cum laude, from Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey, and did graduate studies in Social Work at the University of Toronto. She is a member of the Editors’ Association of Canada and Ottawa Independent Writers and spent many years in Toastmasters International.
Maeve O’Connell has a commercial background in marketing communication. For fourteen years, she worked in newspapers and the film industry, where she created advertisements, some of which won awards.
She has a BA in Communications, an MA in Film Studies, and an MBA. She moved to Canada in 2014, earning a Graduate Certificate in Scriptwriting. In Ottawa, she also worked for the House of Commons, where she was trained as a transeditor.
Maeve has worked as a proofreader and editor for eight years. She has worked on a huge range of material: academic papers, children’s books, self-help manuals, and thriller novels.
In her spare time, she writes fiction for books and the screen. In 2016, she wrote a short film that won the best film award at Ottawa’s Digi60 festival.
She has worked at Book Magic since 2015.
Dian Yu has published her works in a short story anthology called Pot-Pourri, the Varsity, as well as in the Ottawa Citizen newspaper. She loves reading and hopes to polish each work she sees to perfection. Dian graduated in Pharmacy from the University of Toronto. She has worked as a copy editor with Book Magic since 2009.
Jules Sherwood is an experienced writer based in Ottawa, with several poems published in Lakeshore Art’s Anthology, “Into the Queerverse,” as well as one in “Queer As In Here.” They also received an Honourable Mention in Wow! Women On Writing’s Fall 2020 Flash Fiction Contest for their short story “Challenging Dragons.”
They are a graduate of Randolph College for the Performing Arts and a current undergraduate student at the University of Ottawa, where they are studying English. They are also a student affiliate member of Editors’ Canada.
Jules’ goal as an editor is to help improve your writing and make it the best it can be while also giving you a positive and constructive experience. As a writer themself, they understand that each work is precious and that collaborating with someone else is an act of trust.
Rest assured that we respect your confidentiality at Book Magic. Our copy editing, proofreading, and manuscript evaluation contracts promise never to forward, reproduce, or copy your material in any way, shape, or form; we guarantee this. We can also help you to copyright your material if you are concerned about piracy. Approximately one third of our clients are returning clients; that’s because writers tend to write one book or document after another. It also says something about how they feel about our company—they have found a home here, and we hope that you will too.