DIANE HIGGINS HANNAN June 2006 - present

dianehiggins.lit@frontier.com

Still keeping my New York connections strong, I have established my own agency in which I can share my expertise as a developmental editor, and writing and publishing coach.
The vast majority of aspiring writers (of every genre: fiction, non-fiction, memoir, inspirational and self-help) are overly-eager to query agents or publishers and, consequently, go on to submit proposals and manuscripts that are far from acquisition ready.

In my view, acting upon this impulse simply increases the likelihood that your hard work will join the ever-growing pile of those submissions tagged for rejection letters. No writer should submit work before its time. Your proposal, manuscript, or sample writing should be scrutinized by an experienced book publishing professional NOT a "freelance editor" with no in-house publishing experience; NOT a friend; NOT a fellow writer; NOT an MFA professor; NOT Mom. As much as these good-hearted critics might make some helpful observations, they have not swum with the sharks, and they have no clue as to how to navigate the waters into the den of the sharp-teethed and ever-discerning group that gathers at publishers' editorial meetings.

During my 15 year tenure at St. Martin's Press, I served as a Publicity Director, as well as a Senior Acquisitions Editor. Having spent years in both marketing and acquisitions, I possess keen insights as to how to make a manuscript or book proposal marketable, as well as publishable.

My New York publishing experience spans 23 years, six years at Houghton Mifflin Company in Publicity/Marketing, and over fifteen at Picador USA/St. Martin’s Press as Publicity Director, as well as Senior Acquisitions Editor. In 1995, I was one of three to launch the literary fiction and non-fiction imprint at St. Martin’s: Picador USA (a publishing cousin to the highly-regarded Picador UK). As Picador USA transitioned into a trade paperback list only, I moved my hardcover acquisitions to its parent company, St. Martin’s.

Over the years, I have been instrumental in orchestrating the publicity campaigns for many debut books, and now famous authors, including Terry McMillian, and her first novel, MAMA; as well as, Deepak Chopra's first book, CREATING HEALTH. Also, I have helped launch book campaigns for Margaret Atwood's break-out novel, THE HANDMAID'S TALE; Pat Conroy's bestselling novel, THE PRINCE OF TIDES; and President Jimmy Carter's first book, THE BLOOD OF ABRAHAM.

As a Senior Editor, I acquired fiction and nonfiction equally. I have always been drawn to the personal, political, and historical dynamics that influence all genres: the search for love; the struggle to incorporate faith and belief into modern life; the fight to achieve racial equality and international peace; the courage to examine the darker side of the family; and the commitment to explore the deepest recesses of the heart, mind, and soul.

Some of the many notable books that I have acquired and published include:

* Wladyslaw Szpilman's riviting and heartrending holocaust memoir, THE PIANIST, a New York Times bestseller, and the inspiration for Roman Polanski’s academy-award-winning movie by the same title;

* IN THE FACE OF JINN, a mesmerizing first novel about a woman searching for her kidnapped sister amongst the Taliban and various tribes in Pakistan and Afghanistan, by Cheryl Howard Crew, wife of the movie director, Ron Howard;

* DANCING AT CIROS, Sheila Weller's gripping memoir of family love, loss, and scandal on the Sunset Strip--where her uncle's nightclub, "Ciro's", served as a nightly hang-out for some of Hollywood's illustrious 1940s stars(including Lana Turner, Frank Sinatra, and Sammy Davis, Jr.);

* QUEENMAKER--and WISDOM'S DAUGHTER--by India Edghill, two vividly characterized and richly detailed biblical novels that have the scope of Anita Diamant’s THE RED TENT (which Diane published in its bestselling trade paperback format in 1998);

* THE USUAL RULES, Joyce Maynard's beautifully-rendered novel about a young girl learning how to live again after losing her mother on 9/11; as well as Maynard’s controversial memoir, AT HOME IN THE WORLD, in which she chronicles her childhood as the daughter of brilliant, although damaging, parents—and she shares, for the first time, the story of her girlhood seduction into an inspiring but abusive relationship with J.D. Salinger when he was 55 and she was seventeen;

* THE UNHEALED WOUND: The Church, The Priesthood, and the Question of Sexuality, by Eugene Kennedy, a ground-breaking study and meditation on mandatory celibacy and the irrevocable damage it wrecks on the hearts, bodies, and souls of Catholic clerics; and

* Craig Lesley’s most recent books: the novel, STORMRIDERS, a moving saga of the insurmountable challenges faced by a single father struggling to raise an Indian foster son born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome; and BURNING FENCE, Lesley’s first non-fiction, a gripping and visually rich memoir of fathers and sons in the hardscrabble and character-driven landscape of Eastern Oregon.