I worked as a manuscript editor for 15 years for Penguin USA, and I have parlayed that extensive hands-on experience into a very successful career as a freelance editor and ghostwriter. In editing over 600 titles, I have worked with both big-time authors and first-timers, from developmental editing to line editing to ghostwrites. In the ultra-competitive world of publishing today, my editing is proving to be the extra edge that authors need to attract agents and editors. For fiction and nonfiction editing, I usually work in two phases with authors: first a developmental, or structural, stage, and then a line-editing stage. In addition, I often help authors craft solid outlines in advance of the writing. I also ghostwrite nonfiction given adequate data and/or a partially competed manuscript. I also help authors create proposals. If you would like more complete information on the services provided, please visit my website, johnpaine.com.

In the past year, 21 of the titles I edited were published or are scheduled to be published, both fiction and nonfiction. You can also view a more extensive list of recently published authors on my website (johnpaine.com/recent.html).

“John has worked on books for the book division at the National Geographic Society for several years. He manages to take a baggy or meandering manuscript and tease out all the most interesting threads. Working closely with the editor (me) and the author, John provides a deep edit, guided by his intellectual curiosity and good sense, that contributes as much to the content as it does to the form of the final manuscript. John is my go-to editor when a manuscript requires more than I can give it myself. I highly recommend John and his fine work.” --Garrett Brown, editor, National Geographic Books

“John is an absolute professional, easy to work with, very good at what he does. He took my lump of coal and turned it into a diamond--brilliant work and real sweet guy."--Jeff Rivera, author of FOREVER MY LADY

In the past 12 months, here are edited/ghostwritten books that have been or will be published:

FICTION
ReShonda Tate Billingsley, A FAMILY AFFAIR
ReShonda Tate Billingsley, THE SECRET SHE KEPT
Eric Jerome Dickey, AN ACCIDENTAL AFFAIR
William Gladstone, THE POWER OF THE TWELVE
Greg Harris COLIN PENDRAGON: THE ARNIFOUR AFFAIR
Greg Harris, COLIN PENDRAGON: THE BELLINGHAM BLOODBATH
John Lansing, THE DEVIL'S NECKTIE
Barry Lancet, JAPANTOWN
J.D. Mason, ReShonda Tate Billingsley & Bernice McFadden, AMOS
Orel Stelmach, THE BOY FROM REACTOR 4

NONFICTION
Conrad Anker, Bernadette Mcdonald, et al., THE CALL OF EVEREST
Jonathan Bailor, THE SMARTER SCIENCE OF SLIM
Susanne Bennett, THE 7 DAY ALLERGY MAKEOVER
Herschel Cobb, HEART OF A TIGER: Growing Up with My Grandfather, Ty Cobb
Walter Cronkite IV and Maurice Isserman, eds., CRONKITE'S WAR: Walter Cronkite’s World War II Letters Home
Keith Ellison, MY COUNTRY, 'TIS OF THEE
Jerid M. Fisher, UPSIDE DOWN
Dorothy Foltz-Gray, WITH HER AND WITHOUT HER
Tim Laman & Edwin Scholes, BIRDS OF PARADISE
Christopher McKnight Nichols, PROMISE AND PERIL: America at the Dawn of a Global Age
Aki Peritz & Eric Rosenbach, FIND, FIX, FINISH: Inside the Counterterrorism Campaigns That Killed bin Laden
Gino Wickman, TRACTION: Get a Grip on Your Business
Gino Wickman, GET A GRIP: An Entrepreneurial Fable
Pamela Yellen, THE BANK ON YOURSELF REVOLUTION

FICTION
Jeff Abbott, A KISS GONE BAD, Catherine Anderson, ONLY BY YOUR TOUCH, Leslie Glass, JUDGING TIME, Heather Graham, TALL, DARK, AND DEADLY, Greg Iles, MORTAL FEAR, John Jakes, AMERICAN DREAMS, Bentley Little, THE WALKING, Barbara Parker, SUSPICION OF VENGEANCE, Nancy Taylor Rosenberg, MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES, Peter Straub, THE THROAT, Steve Thayer, THE WHEAT FIELD, Lucien K. Truscott, HEART OF WAR

NONFICTION
Jerry Bledsoe, BEFORE HE WAKES, Sylvia Browne, THE OTHER SIDE AND BACK, James Comer, MAGGIE'S AMERICAN DREAM, Ariel Dorfmann, DESERT MEMORIES, A.M. Homes, LOS ANGELES, Herbert Krosney, THE LOST GOSPEL, Dave Pelzer, A MAN NAMED DAVE, Rick Pitino, BORN TO COACH, Geneen Roth, WHEN FOOD IS LOVE, Jon Winokur, THE PORTABLE CURMUDGEON