Welcome! I am an independent book editor based in Manhattan Beach, CA who works with both debut and established authors offering notes for creative development. I’m exceptionally intuitive and love being invited to imagine alongside my clients sharing my insights and ideas for elevating their work. You can visit my Publishers Marketplace page here.
Before moving west to Los Angeles in 2010, I spent twelve years in New York City with HarperCollins Publishers where I was a Senior Editor acquiring primarily for William Morrow and Harper Perennial. Most recently I was an Editor at Lucasfilm for two years working in their publishing division across categories including picture books, beginning readers, children’s comics, middle grade, young adult, adult fiction, non-fiction, and novelty titles.
My most recent freelance client project to release was Sarah C. John’s debut novel, The Sirens of Soleil City, from Random House. Selected previous freelance projects include: Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi’s Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions which Roxane Gay chose as her October 2022 pick of the Audacious Book Club and The New Yorker named one of their “The Best Books of 2022 So Far”; Janie Chang’s The Library of Legends; Dragon Springs Road, and Three Souls; Leila Rafei’s Spring; Ehsaneh Sadr’s A Door Between Us; Stephanie Clifford’s Everybody Rise; Mindy Tarquini’s Hindsight; Susan Wands’ Magician and Fool; Renée Carlino’s Sweet Thing; Megan O’Leary’s Into the Blue; Elizabeth de Veer’s The Ocean in Winter; and Kathleen J. McInnis’ The Heart of War. Publisher clients I have worked with include: Blackstone Publishing; Kobe Bryant’s forever missed Granity Studios; and Open Road Integrated Media. I also represented Katie Delahanty’s Brightside series (In Bloom, Blushing, and Believe) and Keystone series (Keystone and Incognito) through the Bent Agency.
Some of the titles that I acquired and published include at HarperCollins include: Daniel James Brown’s The Indifferent Stars Above and Under a Flaming Sky (reprint); Michael Zadoorian’s The Leisure Seeker; Willy Vlautin’s The Motel Life, Northline, and Lean on Pete; Marjorie Hart’s Summer at Tiffany; Sara James and Ginger Mauney’s The Best of Friends; Catherine Hanrahan’s Lost Girls and Love Hotels, Jennifer Sey’s Chalked Up; Marina Palmer’s Kiss and Tango; Lola Jaye’s By The Time You Read This; Maud Casey’s Genealogy; K.L. Cook’s The Girl from Charnelle; and Sarah Hall’s Daughters of the North and How to Paint a Dead Man, amongst others.
Selected Lucasfilm team projects include: National Geographic: Weird but True!: Star Wars; Star Wars: 100 Objects by Kristin Baver; Star Wars: The High Republic: Beware the Nameless by Zoraida Córdova; Star Wars: The High Republic: Escape from Valo by Daniel José Older and Alyssa Wong; Star Wars: The High Republic: Temptation of the Force by Tessa Gratton; Star Wars: The High Republic: Tears of the Nameless by George Mann; Star Wars: The High Republic: Defy the Storm by Tessa Gratton and Justina Ireland; Star Wars: The High Republic: Path of Vengeance by Cavan Scott; Star Wars: Jedi Brave in Every Way by Rosemary Soule and Charles Soule; Star Wars Jedi: Battle Scars by Sam Maggs; Star Wars: The High Republic: Quest for Planet X by Tessa Gratton; Star Wars: The High Republic: Convergence by Zoraida Córdova; Star Wars: The High Republic: Cataclysm by Lydia Kang; Star Wars: The High Republic: Tales of Light and Life; Star Wars: The High Republic: The Lightsaber Collection by Daniel Wallace and Star Wars: Bestiary, Vol. 1 by S.T. Bende.
I have also been guest faculty or a speaker at the following programs dedicated to writers: the SDSU Writers’ Conference; Writing Workshops LA: The Conference; the UC-Riverside/Palm Desert M.F.A. Program; USC’s Master of Professional Writing Program; the Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference; the James River Writers’ Conference; the South Carolina Writers’ Conference; the Asian American Writers’ Workshop; the Surrey International Writers’ Conference; the Ohio State University Writers’ Conference; The San Diego Union-Tribune Festival of Books, the Colgate Writers’ Conference and Colgate University’s “Living Writers” course; and Grub Street’s “The Muse and the Marketplace.”
My book projects–both past and present–mean everything to me. I am incredibly grateful to have spent the past twenty-five years working in the publishing world from New York City, to Los Angeles, to the galaxy far, far away. If you’d like to be in touch about editorial services please reach out at jennifer@jenniferpooley.com.