Philip Turner, New Year's Day 2012

At my website/blog The Great Gray Bridge (www.TheGreatGrayBridge.com or http://philipsturner.com/) I share my enthusiasms for books, publishing, media, culture, and politics; write personal essays; and present information on Philip Turner Book Productions (http://philipsturner.com/about-ptbp/). For more information on books I've published, including the first paperback edition of Barack Obama's DREAMS FROM MY FATHER (1996), and Ambassador Joseph Wilson's THE POLITICS OF TRUTH: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity, I invite you to visit this page at my website: http://philipsturner.com/about-philip-turner/

I have worked in the book business for 3 ½ decades. I became an acquiring editor seven years into that run, after an opening span when I first owned and ran an independent bookstore chain, Undercover Books of Cleveland, Ohio, bookstores I began with my siblings and our parents. My time as a bookseller was especially fertile for strong reader engagement nationally with bestselling novels by such writers as John Irving, Umberto Eco, Anne Tyler, and landmark nonfiction like "Goedel, Escher, and Bach" and "Playing in the Band." We became known as a go-to store among publishers sales departments and publicists, as a place to break out new books, receiving dozens of ARCs and galleys each season from every company. We read all the new stuff early, ordered tons of copies of the books we loved, talked with reader customers on the sales floor every day, then hand-sold the books in major quantities. We were the sort of store that could sell 200-300 copies of several different new titles every season. This gave me an opportunity to identify the qualities that made for the strongest reader enjoyment of new commercial titles. When I became an editor then, I already had a keen sense of what made prospective titles appealing to bookbuyers, honed a lot since, This has meant that as an in-house acquiring editor, executive editor, and editor-in-chief--jobs I've held at Walker & Company; Macmillan; Prentice-Hall Press at Simon & Schuster; Kodansha America; Times Books and Crown at Random House; Carroll & Graf with Avalon Publishing Group; and Union Square Press at Sterling Publishing--a high proportion of my list has always had second and third printings, generally selling well beyond their first print.

• That longterm success of many of the books I acquired, edited and published as an in-house editor nowadays gives me the perspective to provide one of the several services I offer to authors and agents: Book Proposal Development. For this, I read draft proposals and deliver a report for the client, specifying how I believe an editor at a publishing house would see this project, and how it might be revised to make it as appealing as possible to editors, and most salable to publishing houses. I also do line-editorial work on the proposals, in addition to my written report.
• I also work with authors, agents, publishers, and publicists in the area of public speaking. I am the representative to the book community for Speakerfile.com, a tech company with nimble software and a robust Web platform that connects conference organizers, meeting planners, and media to authors, experts, and thought leaders who do public speaking. It’s a dynamic engine that can drive discovery of authors and their books. It does not compete with speaker bureaus or lecture agents, even for authors and publishers that are already availing themselves of either one. Speakerfile, because of its excellent SEO, is ideal for authors who don't yet have either a lecture agent or the assistance of a speakers bureau. It works like a matchmaking service for the conference business on one side of the equation, and on the other side, for authors who want to do more public speaking and for publishers who want their writers to get better bookings.
• In this area, I also do promotional writing for authors who want to hone their presentation of self, whether from a podium, their bio on their website, or their next blog post or email blast. I also write for companies.
• I consult with the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE), the voice of independent booksellers against censorship and book banning. I work in fundraising, social networks, and marketing for ABFFE and am helping to increasing the awareness of their mission among booksellers; manufacturers of bookstore sideline merchandise; authors; and social activists. If you as an author have ever had a book that someone wanted to remove from a public or school library, I’m doing work there that will interest you.
• I do full line-edit of manuscripts, mostly nonfiction, some fiction hired by authors, agents, and publishers;
• I represent a select list of author clients and endeavor to place their books with publishers, while also co-agenting with other literary representatives on behalf of authors;
• I publish independently under the Philip Turner Books imprint when dynamic opportunities arise;
• I explore emerging models for digital and print-on-demand publishing (POD) on behalf of author clients;
• I know how challenging a climate this is for authors and their books. I work with authors to help them get over some of the hurdles in pretty good shape.
• I work with businesspeople and academic professionals who want their website copy or résumés, cover letters, and job search materials to have a fresh and dynamic approach.

In all areas of my editorial and publishing services practice, I am an advocate for writers and readers. I edit with the author perched on one shoulder, and the reader on the other, fostering a virtual dialogue between the two and creating mutual benefit for each. I am devoted to helping writers navigate a path through the lurching transition that the book industry is experiencing nowadays as we morph from a print world to a new world that combines digital and print modes for avid readers. I welcome queries from new and experienced writers, predominantly in nonfiction, and some fiction, with fees quoted upon receipt and consideration of material.

I am an active participant in numerous literary and cultural organizations. Below is a partial list of memberships, affiliations, interests, along with my educational background:
• Member, PEN America Center, https://www.pen.org/philip-turner
• Chair, Membership Committee, Book Table, publishing industry monthly lunch club.
• Attended Book Camp NYC, an unconference, Dec. 2010, Feb. 2011, April 2011, and February 2013 http://bit.ly/dMwD3k & http://bit.ly/i4tAoD & http://bit.ly/XwTUCt
• Associate member of the National Book Critics Circle;
• Member, the Personal Democracy Forum, community that explores the intersection among politics, technology, and culture;
• Guest Instructor 2008-2013, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism's Winter Academy;
• Member, CBC Radio 3's informal music and blogging community, http://radio3.cbc.ca/#/profile/PhilipST;
• For my published journalism and personal essays please see these: http://bit.ly/jkLZzB; http://bit.ly/uTppPP; http://bit.ly/TVc4zk; http://bit.ly/W66ZbG
• BA in Philosophy of Education and History of Religion, Franconia College, Franconia, NH., product of experimental education in high school and college.

“Philip's broad knowledge of the publishing industry enables him to help authors avoid the pitfalls that keep many worthy projects from ever seeing the light of day. In particular, he shows respect for authors by explaining his suggestions and listening to their "reasons why." The resulting sense of collaboration fosters creativity, and, working with him, I had the sense that my book was improving before my eyes.
In addition to spotting and proposing hundreds of felicitous small changes in The Rowan Tree, Philip never lost sight of voice, character, and story. He sets his sights, and helps authors set theirs, on creating books that "really matters in people's lives," as he puts it. If there's a better reason for writing and publishing, I can't think of it. For authors who want their books to matter, Philip Turner is your editor.”—Robert W. Fuller, author of the novel The Rowan Tree; Somebodies and Nobodies: Overcoming the Abuse of Rank; and All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity

“We owe a lot to Philip Turner. It was his vision as a veteran book editor that opened the doors of the publishing world to our first book, COVERT: My Years Infiltrating the Mob. Philip's steady hand through the editing process, many valuable insights, and even-keeled approach made him a pleasure to work with on Covert, eventually named a best book of 2008 by USA Today. We had the opportunity to join forces with Philip again in the past year, this time in his expanded capacity as editor and co-agent for our latest project SURVIVING THE SHADOWS: A Journey of Hope Into Post-Traumatic Stress. His versatility and wisdom in the ways of the publishing industry would be a huge asset to anyone looking for a guiding force and strong ally amid the challenge of bringing a book to life.”—Bob Delaney and Dave Scheiber, co-authors of COVERT and SURVIVING THE SHADOWS.

"We recommend Philip Turner with great appreciation and without hesitation. With Philip's vast experience and stellar track record, we were grateful to find him always engaged in the nitty-gritty of improving our book FROZEN, and empathetic to our needs and fears as writers. As our editor, he was the perfect mix of hard-working and professional yet supportive and nurturing. His expertise and talents greatly improved the language, structure and pacing of the book, all the while remaining faithful to the voice and tone we as authors had originally envisioned. His notes on the craft of storytelling were flawless and his more creative suggestions were inspired. Working with Philip was like taking a master class in editing. Our book and our writing are all the better for the experience." Larry Johnson and Scott Baldyga, authors of FROZEN: My Journey into the World of Cryonics, Deception, and Death (Vanguard Press, Perseus Books, 2009)

Peter Evans, Speakerfile.com; Chris Finan, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; Roger Cooper, formerly Vanguard Press, Perseus Books; Calvin Reid, Publishers Weekly; J.P.Leventhal, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers; Cynthia Manson, Cynthia Manson Literary Agency; Lynn C. Franklin, Lynn C. Franklin Associates, Ltd; Uwe Stender, TriadaUS Literary Agency; Bob Delaney, NBA referee; John Wright, literary agent; The Honorable Cathy Bailey, US Ambassador to Latvia, 2004-2007; Glenn Lewis, Professor of Journalism, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism; Vincent Romeo, author of MY ITALIAN COUSINS.

THE DEEDS OF MY FATHERS: How My Grandfather and Father Built NY and Created the Tabloid World of Today by Paul David Pope; FROZEN: My Journey into the World of Cryonics, Deception, and Death, Larry Johnson with Scott Baldyga; COVERT: My Years Infiltrating the Mob, Bob Delaney, NBA Referee, with Dave Scheiber, a USA TODAY Best Book; HAVEN and EXODUS 1947, Ruth Gruber; IBM AND THE HOLOCAUST: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation, Edwin Black; BOOKNOTES: Life Stories, Brian Lamb; DEAD RUN: The Shocking Story of Dennis Stockton and Life on Death Row in America, Joe Jackson and William Burke, introduction William Styron; A DIARY OF THE CENTURY: Tales from America's Greatest Diarist by Edward Robb Ellis, Introduction by Pete Hamill and THE EPIC OF NEW YORK CITY, Edward Robb Ellis; BASEBALL LETTERS and EVERY PITCHER TELLS A STORY, Seth Swirsky; THE DEVIL IS LOOSE, Antonine Maillet; NOT FOR AMERICA ALONE, Senator George Mitchell; Kodansha Globe (85 title nonfiction trade paperback series including first paperback edition of Barack Obama's DREAMS FROM MY FATHER; series featured anthropology, cross-cultural studies, narrative travel, and adventure classics.

(nonfiction) DREAMS FROM MY FATHER, Barack Obama (first paperback edition, Kodansha Globe, 1996); THE POLITICS OF TRUTH: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Revealed My Wife's CIA Identity, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, in part the basis of the movie "Fair Game" (Carroll & Graf, 2004); LOVER OF UNREASON: Assia Wevill, Sylvia Plath's Rival and Ted Hughes's Doomed Love, Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev (A Philip Turner Book, Carroll & Graf); ON THE BRINK: An Insider's Account of How the White House Compromised American Intelligence, Tyler Drumheller with Elaine Monaghan (A Philip Turner Book, Carroll & Graf); THE WOMAN WHO WOULDN'T TALK: Why I Refused to Testify Against the Clintons & What I Learned in Jail, Susan McDougal (C&G); SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire (C&G); WRITING WITH INTENT: Essays, Reviews, Personal Prose, 1983-2005, Margaret Atwood; AHMAD'S WAR, AHMAD'S PEACE: Surviving Under Saddam, Dying in the New Iraq, Michael Goldfarb (a NY Times Notable Book, C&G); VIRGINIA WOOLF: The Will to Create as a Woman and AHEAD OF TIME: My Early Years as a Foreign Corrrespondent, Ruth Gruber (both pub'd by C&G), EXODUS 1947: The Ship that Launched a Nation (pub'd by Times Books, 1999, and Union Square Press, 2007), Ruth Gruber; YOUNG J. EDGAR: Hoover, the Red Scare and the Assault on Civil Liberties, BOSS TWEED: The Rise & Fall of the Corrupt Pol Who Conceived the Soul of Modern NY (a NY Times Notable Book), and DARK HORSE: The Surprise Election and Political Murder of James A. Garfield, Kenneth D. Ackerman (all three pub'd by C&G); THE GLORIOUS DECEPTION: The Double Life of William Robinson, the Marvelous Chinese Conjurer, aka Chung Ling Soo, and HIDING THE ELEPHANT: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear, Jim Steinmeyer (both pub'd by C&G); MR & MRS HOLLYWOOD: Edie and Lew Wasserman and Their Entertainment Empire by Kathleen Sharp (C&G); 1960: LBJ vs. JFK vs. Nixon (pub'd by Union Square Press), 1920: The Year of the Six Presidents; and ROTHSTEIN: The Life, Times & Murder of the Criminal Genius who Fixed the 1919 World Series, David Pietrusza (both pub'd by C&G); THE LAST BATTLE, Ralph Wetterhahn (Carroll & Graf); NAPLES '44 and A TOMB IN SEVILLE, Norman Lewis (both pub'd by Carroll & Graf); THE EPIC OF NEW YORK CITY, Edward Robb Ellis (Kodansha America, 1996, Carroll & Graf, 2004); THE ONLY GRANT-WRITING BOOK YOU'LL EVER NEED: Top Grant Writers and Grant Makers Share Their Secrets, Ellen Karsh and Arlen Sue Fox.
(fiction) GEORGE & RUE, George Ellliott Clarke (C&G); HUNGER'S BRIDES and SOR JUANA, OR THE BREATH OF HEAVEN, Paul Anderson (C&G); THE REVENANT, Michael Punke (C&G); THE SANDS OF PRIDE and THE FIRES OF PRIDE, William R. Trotter (C&G); THINNER, BLONDER, WHITER, Elizabeth Maguire (C&G); MEMORY BOOK, A Benny Cooperman Detective Novel, Howard Engel (C&G); IN TIME OF WAR, Allen Appel (C&G).

SURVIVING THE SHADOWS: A Journey into Post-Traumatic Stress, Bob Delaney with Dave Scheiber; ECLISPE OF THE RISING SUN: The Air War over the Pacific, 1941-43, Ralph Wetterhahn, author of the Colby-award winner THE LAST BATTLE: The Mayaguez Incident and the End of the Vietnam War (Carroll & Graf, 2000);
CHANGING PLANET, CHANGING HEALTH: How Climate Change Threatens Our Health and What We Must Do About It, Paul Epstein, M.D., Associate Director of Harvard's Center for Health and the Global Environment, and Dan Ferber; AFTER MANY A SUMMER: The Passing of the Giants and Dodgers and a Golden Age in NY Baseball, Robert Murphy; ZERO DAY THREAT: The Shocking Truth of How Banks and Credit Bureaus Help Cyber Crooks Steal Your Money & Identity, Byron Acohido and Jon Swartz; 1960: LBJ vs. JFK vs. Nixon: The Epic Campaign that Forged Three Presidencies, David Pietrusza; THE LAST LINCOLNS: The Rise & Fall of a Great American Family, Charles Lachman; WAR OF WORDS: A True Tale of Newsprint and Murder, Simon Read; THE BABY THIEF: The Untold Story of Georgia Tann, the Baby Seller Who Corrupted Adoption, Barbara Bisantz Raymond; PRINCE OF DARKNESS--RICHARD PERLE: The Kingdom, the Power, and the End of Empire in America, Alan Weisman; REGRET THE ERROR: How Media Mistakes Pollute the Press and Imperil Free Speech, Craig Silverman, founder of RegretTheError.com; A DIARY OF THE CENTURY, Edward Robb Ellis; THE UNITED STATES v. I. LEWIS LIBBY, edited and with reporting by Murray Waas; RETURN TO THE MIDDLE KINGDOM: One Family, Three Revolutionaries, and the Birth of Modern China, Yuan-Tsung Chen; "RFK MUST DIE": The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, Shane O'Sullivan; SO WRONG FOR SO LONG: How the Press, the Pundits--and the President Failed in Iraq, Greg Mitchell, Editor of Editor & Publisher; DARK GENIUS: The Influential Career of Legendary Political Operative and FOX News Founder Roger Ailes, Kerwin Swint; MONA LISA'S PAJAMAS: Diverting Dispatches from a Roving Reporter, A. Craig Copetas.

At Carroll & Graf, 2000-2006
AN ALPHABETICAL LIFE: Living It Up In the World of Books, Wendy Werris; THE NUCLEAR SPHINX OF TEHRAN: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the State of Iran, Yossi Melman and Meir Javedanfar; IBSEN AND HITLER, Steven F. Sage; INVADING MEXICO, Joseph Wheelan; ARTIFICIAL HAPPINESS, Ronald W. Dworkin, M.D.; ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF MAGIC, Milbourne and Maurine Christoper; "WHEN YOU READ THIS THEY WILL HAVE KILLED ME": The Life & Redemption of Caryl Chessman, Whose Execution Shook America; DELIVER THE VOTE: A History of Election Fraud, An American Political Tradition, Tracy Campbell; ODYSSEY OF AN EAVESDROPPER, Martin Kaiser & Robert Stokes; CHURCHILL'S FOLLY, Christopher Catherwood (C&G); I'LL BE YOUR MIRROR: The Interviews of Andy Warhol (C&G); ORDEAL BY SLANDER: The First Great Book of the McCarthy Era, Owen Lattimore (C&G); CELL PHONES: Invisible Hazards in the Wireless Age, Dr. George Carlo and Martin Schram (C&G); THE SAVVY AUTHOR'S GUIDE TO BOOK PUBLICITY: A Comprehensive Resource--From Building the Buzz to Pitching the Press, Lissa Warren; THE LAST TIME AROUND CAPE HORN: The Historic 1949 Voyage of the Windjammer Pamir, William F. Stark.
(fiction) MOTORCYCLE MAN, George Elliott Clark; THE THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF BEOWULF: Champion of Middle Earth, Brian Thomsen; EAST OF SUEZ, Howard Engel; LUCK, Joan Barfoot.

Curator and writer, personal blog The Great Gray Bridge: Spanning City Life, Books, Publishing, Music, Media, Culture. (www.TheGreatGrayBridge.com or http://philipsturner.com/)
Founder & President, Philip Turner Book Productions LLC and Publisher of Philip Turner Books
Editorial Director, Vice-President, Union Square Press, Sterling Publishing;
Executive Editor, Editor-in-Chief and Vice President: Carroll & Graf, Philip Turner Books, Thunder's Mouth Press/Avalon Publishing Group;
Executive Editor, Times Books and Crown Publishing/Random House;
Senior Editor and Editor-in-Chief, Kodansha America;
Senior Editor, Prentice Hall Press;
Editor, Macmillan;
Editor, Walker and Company.
As retail bookseller: Under Cover Books, Cleveland, Ohio.
• Chair, Membership Committee, Book Table, publishing industry monthly lunch club.
• Charter subscriber to Publishers Lunch, with dozens of deals posted since its inception
• Guest teacher in CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, nonfiction book-writing course, Jan. 2008-2011.
• Member, PEN America; Personal Democracy Forum; CBC Radio 3
• Presented panel at Book Camp NYC, Dec. 2010 http://bit.ly/dMwD3k
• For journalism and interview see: http://bit.ly/jkLZzB; http://bit.ly/g8Es9j; http://bit.ly/lXy00d;
http://bit.ly/kLbF4D.