Have lots of great ideas, but not sure how to braid them together? I can help.
Written a promising first draft that needs to be taken to the next level? I can help with that, too.
Looking at an "almost there" manuscript that needs some detailing and polish? I'm ready for you.
Find yourself needing something north of an editor, but south of a ghostwriter? Get in touch, and we'll get it done.
Want to brainstorm about the best ways you can pitch and tailor your content for maximum appeal to publishers, the media, and readers? No problem.
For more than two decades, I've partnered with great storytellers to develop concepts, improve prose and amplify impact. I've served as the Editor in Chief at Little, Brown and Co. and an Editorial Director at HarperCollins, among other positions, acquiring and editing more than one hundred books, including scores of bestsellers and award winners. I've helped launch two successful imprints and advised other publishers and investors about doing the same. Independently, I've edited books published by divisions of Simon and Schuster, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette Book Group, W.W. Norton, Macmillan, Authors Equity, and Yale University Press. I've worked closely with a multitude of authors (nonfiction and fiction), journalists, screenwriters, business leaders, political visionaries, scientists, historians, big thinkers, athletes, former spies and soldiers, movie directors and musicians to develop and strengthen their work. I've taught at NYU and run workshops at the Community of Writers summer conferences in California. I am a Fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities, and have served as an evaluator for the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Whiting Foundation. Offering the undistracted and undivided attention that they deserve, I love to help writers, thinkers and innovators bring their stories to life at any stage of the process.
JAMES DONOVAN, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR; AGENT
"As a writer and a literary agent for twenty-seven years, I’ve worked with dozens of editors at the Big Five publishing houses and elsewhere. There’s no one better than Geoff, and I know from personal experience: he was my editor on my first two books with Little, Brown. He made them both immeasurably better, in both a structural and a line-editing sense. If I could choose one editor to improve my book, it would be Geoff Shandler."
MALCOLM GLADWELL, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR; STAFF WRITER AT THE NEW YORKER
"Geoff and I worked together on a number of my books while he was at Little, Brown. Upon reflection, maybe it wasn't a coincidence that they were my most successful books!"
LUIS ALBERTO URREA, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR; FINALIST, PULITZER PRIZE; FINALIST, PEN/FAULKNER AWARD; WINNER, AMERICAN BOOK AWARD; LANNAN LITERARY AWARD; PACIFIC RIM KIRIYAMA PRIZE; WINNER, EDGAR AWARD; WINNER, AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS FICTION AWARD
"Geoff Shandler is a genius at what he does. We worked in perfect harmony, though he was heavy with that damned red pencil. But I would trust Geoff with every book I write. He will always be my friend and my secret go-to guy."
BOB SPITZ, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR
"My Beatles biography would have been sunk without Geoff Shandler’s incredible editing job. He took a beast of a manuscript, at 2,800 unpublishable pages, and with his exacting eye and impeccable sense of editing, whittled it into an award-winning, sleek 950 pages without asking me to rewrite a word. I am indebted to his expertise. He’s my go-to choice for editor extraordinaire."
WENDY PEARLMAN, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AND DIRECTOR OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
"I approached Geoff with two draft chapters of a book of narrative nonfiction that incorporated excerpts of interviews that I had done with Syrian refugees. Geoff peered through the draft to see the soul of a project that both my agent and I missed. He envisioned a book — in everything from style to page layout — that made the most of what I had spent years gathering, guided me to the very best of which I was capable as a writer, and helped me produce the proudest achievement of my career to date."
DAVID W. BROWN, WRITER FOR THE ATLANTIC, NEW YORKER AND NEW YORK TIMES
"Geoff Shandler is the greatest editor I have ever worked with, and I dare say the best editor I ever will work with. His ability to unpack a manuscript, separate it somehow into its constituent atoms, and rebuild it as something truly magnificent is one of the most mystifying and magical experiences I've ever encountered in my professional career. If, as it has been said, all art aspires to the condition of music, then Geoff Shandler is Mozart."
GARRETT M. GRAFF, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR
"Geoff is magnificent at every stage of the editing process, from spotting ideas to massaging finished prose—a real-life example of the kind of editor you usually read about in wistful stories of publishing's best days gone by. I felt incredibly lucky to have him as a partner in my book and learned a tremendous amount from his advice, suggestions, and examples; writing for Geoff is the equivalent of the greatest MFA degree you could ever earn."
MARY GABRIEL, FINALIST, NATIONAL BOOK AWARD; FINALIST, PULITZER PRIZE; FINALIST, NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD
"Geoff Shandler is one of the best editors I have had the pleasure to work with during twenty-five years as an international journalist and author of four published books. Geoff is not just expert at the mechanics of editing, his natural intellectual curiosity means he engages deeply with an author, beyond the mere words on the page, until the work becomes a true collaboration. He knew my book so well that he could see what I—after seven years of research—did not. I grew to trust his instincts and deeply value his direction. When Love and Capital became a finalist for the National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, and Pulitzer Prize, I attributed much of that success to him. I still do."
DANIEL JONAH GOLDHAGEN, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR
"The best editor imaginable."
WALLACE J. NICHOLS, PHD, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR; SENIOR FELLOW, CENTER FOR THE BLUE ECONOMY, MIDDLEBURY INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES AT MONTEREY
"My goal in writing Blue Mind was to transform a wealth of deep science, history and contemplation into a compelling, accessible and useful book—no easy task given the amount of research I’d done and that this was my first attempt at a project of such length and complexity. Via multiple rounds of red pencil line edits, detailed notes, big picture memos, and long conversations, Geoff helped me craft a bestseller that has since been read by hundreds of thousands of people. It was a perfect partnership."
RONALD C. ROSBOTTOM, PROFESSOR OF ARTS & HUMANITIES, AMHERST COLLEGE
"Word by word, line by line, chapter by chapter, Geoff Shandler taught me how to write two books for a popular audience without sacrificing any of the analysis and deep research that had been so central to my previous academic work. Patient, with a well-honed sense for the power of language, Geoff never loses sight of the most desired goal: how to keep the interest of readers without boring them."
BRIAN CASTLEBERRY, AMERICAN BOOKSELLERS ASSOCIATION "INDIE NEXT" SELECTION, PEN/FAULKNER AWARD LONGLIST
"My debut novel found the perfect editor with Geoff. He could see things in the story that I hadn’t yet perceived, and helped me to bring cohesion and clarity to ideas I’d only previously been reaching for. This is an editor with an incredible eye for detail, a sharp intellect, and a deep well of historical knowledge. He’s also a great partner, helping a writer to discover their best drafts with a sense of camaraderie. I learned more about my work from our conversations and his notes than I'd ever expected to. Hard to imagine a better person for the job."
DAVID ENRICH, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR; FINANCIAL EDITOR AT THE NEW YORK TIMES
"Geoff is a gem of an editor. With his trusty red pencil, he worked meticulously through countless drafts, vastly improving my prose, pushing me for more and better reporting, and helping me resolve nagging conceptual questions that I hadn't been able to articulate, much less answer. Hire him. You will not be disappointed."
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR
"Wisdom, precision, and humor."
JAKE TAPPER, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR; HOST OF CNN’S THE LEAD AND STATE OF THE UNION
"Geoff is a fantastic editor—quick, smart, insightful, generally compassionate and kind but tough when he needs to be. He understood and immersed himself not only the writing and editing of the book but the mission I felt I was on while writing it. He was a great addition to my life as an editor and as a friend."
GREG SARGENT, COLUMNIST, THE NEW REPUBLIC
"An extraordinarily perceptive reader who consistently found deft and innovative ways to elevate the quality of the text."
BEN BRADLEE, JR., NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR
"Geoff Shandler is the best book editor I know, full stop. He is rigorous, but collaborative at the same time, and brilliant with a pencil. I turned in what I thought was a strong manuscript, only to have it returned to me with a sea of red pencil marks, line-by-line, over 800-odd pages. When I felt strongly about keeping something, Geoff was always willing to discuss it, and we’d work it through. He helped shape The Kid into a New York Times bestseller, and I’ll always be grateful to him. Any writer would do well to have Geoff as an editor."
ROBERT DALLEK, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR
"As fine an editor as any author could hope to have."
JAMES BRADLEY, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR
"His laser-like focus on excellence helped immeasurably in creating a worthy testament."
EVAN THOMAS, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR
“Any author would be lucky to have him. He always improves your book—sometimes a lot—in a way that shows a deft touch and deep understanding of the fragile egos of authors. He can do it all, from big picture conceptualizing to granular comma-by-comma tweaking."
DUNCAN WHITE, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF STUDIES IN HISTORY AND LITERATURE, HARVARD UNIVERSITY
"Geoff is a superb editor. From commissioning the book to working with him on the final proofs, I felt I was in the hands of someone who really understood what I was trying to do in my book. He had faith in the project even when mine wavered. His edits, whether structural, or in the fine detail, made every single page of my book better. And it had a lot of pages."
AARON GLANTZ, SENIOR REPORTER AT THE CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING; SENIOR INVESTIGATIONS EDITOR, NPR
"Geoff helped me take on a topic, housing finance, and write a book that reads like a novel. He asks probing questions that lead to new, fruitful lines of reporting and 'aha' revelations that readers crave and writers live for. I can't wait for the chance to work with him again."
ROBIN GABY FISHER, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR
"Geoff Shandler made it better with every stroke of his magic red pencil."
Select Authors
Sir Antony Beevor
Ann Blackman
Ben Bradlee, Jr.
James Bradley
Marie Brenner
Jimmy Buffett
David W. Brown
Janet Byrne
John le Carré
Jonathan Chait
Ben Cohen
Robert Dallek
Basil Davidson
John Dean
James Donovan
Christopher Drew
Ross Ellenhorn
David Enrich
Sir Harold Evans
Jack Fairweather
John Feinstein
Edward Fiske
Robin Gaby Fisher
Jonathan Safran Foer
Mary Gabriel
Malcolm Gladwell
Daniel Goldhagen
Garrett Graff
Reid Hoffman
Jodi Kantor
Dean King
Dick Lehr
Karina Longworth
Marcus Luttrell
Karl Maier
David Mamet
John Markoff
Robert McNamara
Greg Miller
James Andrew Miller
William Least Heat-Moon
J. Wallace Nichols
Amy Odell
James Patterson
Wendy Pearlman
Hon. Shimon Peres
Sarah Perry
Dana Priest
Jonathan Rauch
Alexandra Robbins
Ronald Rosbottom
Hon. Kevin Rudd
Greg Sargent
Charlie Savage
Tom Shales
Elaine Shannon
Larry Siems
Mohamedou Ould Slahi
George Soros
Bob Spitz
Justice John Paul Stevens
Leonard Susskind
Jake Tapper
Evan Thomas
Chuck Todd
Luis Alberto Urrea
Martin Van Creveld
Don Van Natta, Jr.
Jerry West
Robert Wright