Bud Theisen - Editor

Content development editor, story whisperer, head of research, producer for book art, web sites, and trailers. Narrative non-fiction.
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Writers are brave souls. They set off on a journey to turn inspiration, experience, and understanding into words on a page; and then must seduce other people to put aside their own lives in order to read it. Best to have a reliable traveling companion along the way, an adaptable helper.

My background as a producer for advertising, television, and feature film will bring production skills and story development methods that will catalyse your book project.

Recent work:

438 Days – An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea, by Jonathan Franklin
Published in the USA by Atria/Simon & Schuster, and by Pan Macmillan, 2015. Hardback published in 9 languages, movie rights acquired by a film development company owned by an A-list star. An excerpt from 438 Days was The Guardian’s most read story of 2015, with over 2.2 million visitors, 144,000 social media shares.

As developmental editor, focussed on developing the dramatic structure for the story. Provided detailed feedback on early drafts of the story.

As head of research my job was to identify subject matter experts, establish contact, prepare and conduct interviews; interviewees included scientists, diplomats, military personnel, explorers, psychologists, and eye-witnesses. Prepared transcripts for author's use. Image research and rights clearance. Created graphics brief and developed maps for publisher's art department. Wordpress website development for book promotion. Organization of archives.

Jonathan Franklin: “Bud was always one step ahead. His role in crafting this story was fundamental.”



Love me like the Sun (Quiéreme como al Sol ) by Carla Garlaschi
Carla is a contemporary artist based in Sweden. She's writing an experimental novel about the world of contemporary art in Europe and South America. Funds provided by Swedish Royal Academy, to be published in 2018. I'm helping Carla with character development and creating story structure. Designed a brief for a video trailer to promote the book, including a production budget based on the Latin American “Telenovela” style.