Joel Bahr

Joel Bahr – Editor

Competent. Sincere. Reliable. Trustworthy. Writing a great book is hard. Work with an editor who cares about your writing as much as you do.

Overview

***CURRENTLY LOOKING FOR A GREAT PROJECT FOR MAY & JUNE, 2023***


A do-it-all editor of 10+ years and 100+ titles, my specialty is helping authors build, shape, and refine their novels. Through thorough and thoughtful editor's essays and margin notes, my feedback both strengthens your story as it is and reveals what it could be. Feedback from me is both extensive -- usually 10,000 or more words of feedback -- and highly collaborative. You want your work to be great. That makes two of us.

At this time I'm primarily interested in editorial assessments and developmental editing projects, though copy/line editing and proofing exceptions can be made for promising works. Send me your most beloved sections as a sample. I can't wait to talk with you about it.

Notable authors/books that I've worked with in the past include:

Paul Pen, "Light of the Fireflies"

Corina Bowman, "The Moonlit Garden", "Storm Rose", and "Butterfly Island"
▪ Moonlit Garden was a #1 Kindle Bestseller

David Machado, "The Shelf Life of Happiness"
▪ Winner of the European Union Prize for Literature (2015)

Services
Fiction
Fantasy Horror Literary Fiction Mystery & Crime Thriller & Suspense Women's Fiction
Languages
English (US)

Work experience

Amazon Publishing

Jan, 2013 — Present

Provided developmental and line edits for 30+ titles. Genres include: translations, fantasy, romance, crime, fantasy, horror, women's and contemporary literature

Portfolio

“Luke Richardson’s right up there among the best writers I’ve come across” STEVEN MORE, BESTSELLING AUTHOR“A brilliant thriller that hooked me from the very beginning” AMAZON REVIEWER“Awesome book. Fabulous” AMAZON REVIEWERSome people go missing. Others choose... read more
New York Times bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones’s heart-pounding thriller of a woman’s secrets—and a past that’s about to come out of hiding…As an FBI profiler, it’s Lilah Love’s job to think like a killer. And she is very good at her job. When a series of ... read more
Ethan Somerton doesn’t do safe or easy. He’s all about the challenge. The risk. In order to rescue one of his agents, Ethan must infiltrate the ruthless Vega cartel. One tiny error—just one—and he’s dead. Which means he needs Natalia Vega. Bright, beautiful, a... read more
How far will she go to protect the sexiest guy in tech?When ex-marine Georgia Bennett left the military for high-end private security, it was supposed to soften her snarky attitude. Instead, her short fuse just earned her a punishment of an assignment: protect... read more
Through interconnected stories spanning four decades, A Tree Grows in Daicheng is a rich, multilayered portrait of life, love, and longing as the neighbors on Rose Street grapple with disease and poverty, marriage and society, during a transformative time when... read more
Where do the pieces of us end up, the ones that we traded for love?Antonia is ready for her life to start. A young woman from a small town in southern Italy, she wants to pursue her long-held dream of writing a novel. But when she moves to Milan and meets the ... read more
Wake in Winter

Nadezhda B.

Nina’s graduate program at Moscow University isn’t exactly cheap. So when she is offered work translating for Spanish families looking to adopt orphans from the provincial town of Rogozhin, she quickly agrees. Besides the much-needed money it brings, the job i... read more
Ripped apart by Portugal’s financial crisis, Daniel’s family is struggling to adjust to circumstances beyond their control. His wife and children move out to live with family hours away, but Daniel believes against all odds that he will find a job and everythi... read more
When the immortal Bai Qian finally meets her intended husband, the heir to the Sky Throne, she considers herself in luck—until an old enemy returns to threaten everything she holds dear…When a mortal woman enters the immortal world to be with her true love, sh... read more
The bestselling author of Last Train to Istanbul returns with a tale of love defying all boundaries.Sabahat, a beautiful young Muslim woman, is known in her family for her intelligence, drive, and stubbornness. She believes there is more in store for her life ... read more
An evil force is mutilating people in modern-day London, and the horror resembles that of another era.In the 1600s, a small town in Transylvania grew increasingly panic-stricken as more than five hundred young women lost their lives to a mysterious fiend. Some... read more
Lilly Kaiser had come to terms with her solitary, uncomplicated life after becoming a young widow. So when a stranger delivers an old violin to her Berlin antiques shop and tells Lilly it belongs to her, she’s completely bewildered. Why should she be the one t... read more
Storm Rose

Corina B.

When newly single Annabel Hansen moves to the coastal town of Binz, all she wants is to leave her former life behind. Soon after settling into a beautiful home overlooking the Baltic Sea, she stumbles upon an old fishing boat in a nearby harbor and discovers a... read more
From the bestselling author of The Moonlit Garden comes the sweeping, romantic tale of one woman’s quest across two continents and one hundred years of history to unearth her family’s deepest secret.Diana Wagenbach is the sole survivor in a withering family tr... read more
Eight-year-old Murgatroyd Floyd doesn’t fit in—not as a blue-eyed blonde living in Singapore, not in school, and certainly not with his aloof expatriate parents, who seem determined to make his life even harder. Unbeknownst to him, there’s a reason why he’s al... read more
The Quest of the quirky Oddfits continues—and this time, beyond the Known World lies something unspeakable…Two years after Murgatroyd Floyd joined the Quest to understand and catalogue the wonders of the More Known World, the rash-prone, blue-eyed Oddfit start... read more
For generations, the urban legend of Granny Hatchet has plagued the quiet residential area of Suvikylä in northern Finland. As the story goes, this immortal killer murders her victims with a hatchet, then buries the hearts in a potato field and eats them after... read more
An ancient war reignites as the international bestselling fantasy saga continues…At the height of its power, the elven court of Queen Emerelle revels in the joyful Festival of Light. Yet, as tribes gather to reaffirm their loyalty to the queen, treachery feste... read more
The international bestseller and epic adventureA fierce and merciless demon has been unleashed on the world, spreading destruction and bloodshed in both the human and the elven realms. Northlander Jarl Mandred witnesses the ruthless attack on his men, and he s... read more
In the second installment of the A Fire Beneath the Skin trilogy, Rina Veraiin has youth, beauty, and strength. She is a born warrior, able to outride any man, deal death with her fierce blade, and command awesome and mysterious forces granted to her by a set ... read more
When the gods go to war, who will stand against their divine fury?In the thrilling conclusion to the A Fire Beneath the Skin trilogy, the enchanted kingdom of Helva faces a nightmarish future of endless bloodshed, and Rina Veraiin—a young warrior-duchess armed... read more
After a long day of driving, Lu Ziye just wants a good night’s sleep and decides to stop at The Golden Triangle, a seedy but convenient motel. There he meets Shanshan, a pregnant prostitute with an open heart and a traumatic past. After surviving a strange nig... read more
Dead Woods

Maria C.

The body of thirty-four-year-old software developer Philip Birkner is found in the forest. Tracks at the scene of the crime point to several possible killers. Lina Svenson and Max Berg of the Hamburg Homicide Division investigate and soon discover more than on... read more
The second installment in the internationally bestselling and prize-winning Secret of Ji fantasy seriesThe Known World’s greatest secret has proven a heavy burden for the last heirs of the Ji emissaries: a death sentence from the goddess Zuïa and her band of i... read more
From Romine’s Deep Tower to the Grand Temple in Ithare, from the Murky Mountains to the Warrior’s Vale, the heirs continue their desperate quest—whose outcome will decide the fate of the Upper Kingdoms. Will they have to recklessly desecrate one of the gods’ m... read more
The Known World is a sprawling region ruled by mortals, protected by gods, and plied by magicians and warriors, merchants and beggars, royals and scoundrels. Here, those with the gift of the Erjak share a psychic bond with animals; a far-reaching fraternity un... read more

Joel has 51 reviews

Professionalism

Quality

Value

Responsiveness

Michelle R.

Michelle R.

May, 2023

Joel is honest with his feedback and always does an amazing job in my journey to become a better author. If you want an editor who will help lift your story and make it the best it can possibly be - Hire Joel!!
Michelle R.

Michelle R.

Mar, 2023

Joes is amazing to work with. I really feel like I have grown as an author and writer after working with him, and his work is so thorough and he pointed out soooo many things that I never would have thought of, and left me with some amazing feedback!!
Spirit P.

Spirit P.

Mar, 2023

Joel was wonderful to work with, he gave great feedback and was excellent with his communication/timeliness.
Thorin C.

Thorin C.

Dec, 2022

I’m grateful, and I feel very lucky that Joel agreed to work with me on my manuscript. I’ve had two unsuccessful collaborations in the past, and I'd started to believe that it would be impossible to find an editor who would take my project seriously. That is until I met Joel. He delivered. He took on a massive undertaking with my project, an epic fantasy with more than a dozen POV character...
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Lif S.

Lif S.

Sep, 2022

This was my second round of editing with Joel and all I've got to say is that Joel knows his stuff. He has provided me with a huge amount of excellent criticism and suggestion, and he addresses my concerns with clear replies. He's totally professional and yet accessible.
Joel B.
Thanks Lif! I appreciate your kind words and our continued partnership