Martin Cohen – Editor

I'm a writer, college professor and researcher. I've myself written about twenty books in philosophy and social science which have been reprinted in numerous languages and editions but I've also worked with many authors for essays, articles and occasionally books. The interest for me is always to develop with the author THEIR idea and get it as clear - and entertaining! - as possible for that wider audience. My approach is that of peer review and guidance. If you are just starting out and need background advice that's fine, happy to chat informally too. If you have a fully worked out m/s that you want reviewing and giving a professional shine, I'll work carefully and patiently with you to do just that.

You can see some of my own projects below; find some of my reviews of books at the Times Higher Education website and some of the philosophical articles I've coaxed into life at the websites of The Philosopher and Philosophical Investigations.

But enough about me! Back to you and your project. The way I like to work is to first take a look at the WHOLE of an author's manuscript and see which bits work and which bits don't. (If you've only written part of it, that's fine, but I would like to look through all the bits.) If you've a summary letter or a draft blurb, make sure you send that too.

Often I have found this is like looking for glittering nuggets in amongst a lot of material that actually doesn't work as it is. Assuming there is a viable central core to a project, then there is a more workmanlike process of building on the central idea. This often requires authors to go back and rework material, but I find that people genuinely grappling with philosophical ideas are prepared to do this, as long as they feel the process is getting somewhere good.

Successful non-fiction books are original, clear and entertaining. It's a difficult triple to achieve!

If you want someone to give your book a superficial shine, that's not me - but if you think you've got something important to say but need help to do it, please get in touch.