About Me
I have loved books all my life. Bedtime stories only made me wider awake, and as a kid I'd ride my bike to the local bookstore and come home with a stack of novels to devour. So it’s probably no surprise that after a summer internship at Simon & Schuster and graduating with Honors in English from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, I landed my first job as an editorial assistant at Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, in New York.
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In my first few years, I assisted four editors in what was informally called the romance group, where I had the opportunity to work with New York Times bestselling authors such as Jude Deveraux, Julie Garwood, Judith McNaught, and Linda Lael Miller. I soon began editing romance novels myself, and got an early start in nonfiction, editing several health books. My first acquisition was Elliot Engel’s A Dab of Dickens and a Touch of Twain, a collection of brief and entertaining literary biographies. When I was promoted to Associate Editor, I launched Pocket Books’ mystery program, focusing on cozy mysteries and acquiring and editing multiple books that became Independent Mystery Bookseller Association (IMBA) bestsellers and award nominees, including Maddy Hunter’s Passport to Peril series and Jan Burke’s mystery anthology Eighteen.
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In 2004, I moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to become the first editor, and later senior editor, at Center Street, a newly launched imprint of Hachette Book Group (which was then Time Warner Book Group). I acquired and edited general market fiction by both established bestselling novelists like Charles Martin and Philip Gulley, as well as debut novelists like Neil Abramson, whose first novel Unsaid became an Indie Next List pick and USA TODAY bestseller, and Kevin Alan Milne, whose novels have since been published in eighteen languages.
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I also continued to acquire and edit nonfiction in an array of categories, including New York Times bestselling memoirs by Bob Barker and Florence Henderson, fitness books by Denise Austin and Leslie Sansone, self-help books by Jordan Christy and Judge Glenda Hatchett, three official books with The Grand Ole Opry, and over twenty books by #1 leadership author John C. Maxwell, including his #1 New York Times business bestseller The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth and Wall Street Journal bestselling derivative How Successful People Think.
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While editing for Center Street, I further expanded my role by taking over the FaithWords Christian fiction program and had the opportunity to edit novels by New York Times bestselling authors Ted Dekker and Karen Kingsbury, and nationally bestselling authors Lauraine Snelling and Stephanie Grace Whitson. In 2013, I was honored to be nominated for the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) Editor of the Year Award.
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In 2018, I launched CEB Editorial Services, where I am excited to have the opportunity to work with authors, agents, and publishers in a variety of fiction and nonfiction categories. My clients include aspiring first time, bestselling traditionally published, and independent authors, as well mid-size publishers and major houses such as Hachette Book Group, Simon & Schuster, Penguin Random House, and HarperCollins.
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When I’m not reading, you might find me spending time with my family, planting flowers in my garden, exploring a unique museum in a new city, or creating something with a needle, paintbrush, or camera.
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Articles
Medium.com: ""Five Things I've Learned About Being an Editor"
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Media Interviews and Mentions
Public Books: "Where Is All the Book Data?" October 4, 2022
Publishers Weekly: August 19, 2016
Library Journal: November 24, 2014
Library Journal: November 1, 2013
Publishers Weekly: August 28, 2013
Publishers Weekly: February 8, 2013
Publishers Weekly: February 10, 2012
Publishers Weekly: August 12, 2011