Mike Jones – Editor

Since working freelance I have provided detailed structural edits for both individual authors, literary agents and for publishing companies such as John Murray, Amazon, S&S, Bloomsbury, Atlantic, Profile Books and Unbound. I have worked on both fiction and non-fiction. I have worked with authors on pulling together their publishing pitches and proposals.

I also work with a literary scout, monitoring and reporting on the current non-fiction market, reading and assessing over 100 non-fiction proposals and manuscripts a year submitted by agents and publishers to foreign markets, keeping abreast of all the current publishing trends.

I work with authors in a very collaborative way. I am open and honest with my views, but sensitive too to the needs of the manuscript and the reading public. I have built incredibly strong relationships with authors over the years, relationships built on trust and honesty.

I was Publishing Director for UK independent publisher, Profile Books. I ran this non-fiction list, commissioning titles such as 2015 Booker prize judge and prize-winning poet, John Burnside, to write a sweeping history of the poetry of the 20th century. Award-winning poet Fiona Sampson was commissioned to write a new biography of Mary Shelley. I acquired Being a Beast by Charles Foster, an authorized business and investment book on Warren Buffett, an examination of what music is, and a popular psychology title about what we can learn from animals.

Initially Editorial Director at Simon & Schuster UK, I eventual becoming Publishing Director of the non-fiction list. During a very successful period for that list I worked with authors such as Gordon Brown, Jeremy Bowen, Margaret Heffernan, Monty Don, Julie Summers, James Barr, David Reynolds, Ranulph Fiennes, Iain Martin, Jonathan Jones, Jonathan Fenby, Alex von Tunzelmann, Andrew Wilson, Gerard Russell and Ferdinand Mount. I published memoirs from Brian Moore, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dannii Minogue, Tony Iommi and Peter Hook, as well as many successful biographies. I also published literary and historical fiction, from writers such as Lloyd Shepherd, Nicholson Baker, Jeremy Duns and David Kirk.

I began my career at Bloomsbury Publishing in 1994. I started work in the post-room, progressing to the editorial department where as an assistant editor I helped to set up the Bloomsbury Paperbacks list.

I became a commissioning editor in my own right in 1998 and over the next 10 years commissioned and edited both fiction and non-fiction, working with authors such as George Saunders, Tobias Wolff, Richard Pryce, Colin Harrison, Douglas Coupland, Magnus Mills, Malcolm Pryce, David Winner, Patti Smith, Peter Biskind, Mick Brown, Ian Marchant, William Leith, Paul Morley, Julian Cope, Christopher Lloyd, The Happy Campers, Heston Blumenthal and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. I re-issued the Dougal and the Magic Roundabout series of books by Eric Thompson to great success and published Andrew Smith's bestseller, Moondust.