Robyn Russell

Robyn Russell – Editor

Where craft meets industry.

Overview

Robyn Russell is the Founder of Working Title Editorial, a boutique literary studio that offers both established and aspiring authors a range of services, from developmental editing, ghostwriting, and content marketing to collaborating, coaching, proofreading, blogging, and publishing consulting. A former associate at The Amy Rennert Agency, Inc., Robyn has worked with a number of New York Times bestselling and award-winning authors, including Pulitzer Prize winner Herman Wouk, Jimmy Buffett, Kris Kristofferson, Jacqueline Winspear, Dr. Rick Hanson, two-time Tony Award winner Patti LuPone, the director of Pretty Woman Garry Marshall, National Book Award finalist Beth Kephart, and Amy Krouse Rosenthal. As a ghostwriter and author, her work has appeared in several publications, including Healthline's PsychCentral, Teen Vogue, Health, Women's Health, Insider, Brevity, Livestrong, Wander, The Rumpus, Seventeen, Scary Mommy, Maria Shriver's The Shriver Report, Literary Mama, and alongside Kelly Corrigan and Gabrielle Bernstein in Nothing But the Truth So Help Me God: 73 Women on Life’s Transitions, which Eve Ensler described as a "testament to what is possible when we show up for our sisters."

To date, Robyn has edited, written, and/or co-written more than 150 manuscripts and nonfiction book proposals. Her clients have secured leading literary representation, gone on to receive critical and commercial acclaim, become national bestsellers, won awards, and scored ink in The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post. One of the more recent projects she's worked on, David A. Treleaven’s Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness: Practices for Safe and Transformative Healing, was praised as a “rare combination of solid scholarship, clinically useful methods, and passionate advocacy for those who have suffered trauma” by the author of Hardwiring Happiness Dr. Rick Hanson. Robyn, who has worked with the New York Times bestselling author Cara Black and Pushcart Prize Winner Frances Lefkowitz, among many others, holds an MFA in Writing from the University of San Francisco and lives in Hawaii.
Services
Non-Fiction
Biographies & Memoirs Psychology Self-Help & Self-Improvement
Fiction
Historical Fiction Mystery & Crime Short Story Thriller & Suspense Women's Fiction Young Adult
Languages
English (US)
Certifications
  • MFA, Writing

Work experience

Working Title Editorial

Dec, 2005 — Present

Editors are vital to a book’s success. As the Founder of Working Title Editorial, I work closely with authors to help them create the best project possible. While I edit across categories, I specialize in fiction, memoir, and narrative nonfiction. As a developmental editor, I provide writers with comprehensive, critical feedback in the form of extensive editorial letters and follow-up emails and teleconferences. I address style and voice, language, characterization, point of view, plot and structure, setting, theme, and dramatic tension. I ask questions throughout the editing and revision process with the hope of sparking lively discussions about the book’s possibilities, and offer writers ideas on how to constructively and creatively approach problems. My clients’ ambitions and aesthetics always guide my process and my feedback. I also offer line-edits, proofreading, doctoring, ghostwriting, query letter development, and assistance with nonfiction book proposals.

Self-employed

Aug, 2005 — Present

- Provides comprehensive evaluations on fiction and narrative nonfiction manuscripts.
- Offers co-writing, book doctoring, and ghostwriting services.
- Consults on cover and query letters, publishing options, book design, jacket copy, and platform-building.
- Writes content (blog posts, evergreen content, press releases, website copy, and emails) for corporate and private clients. Specialties range from health and wellness to psychology, and from finance to travel.

The Amy Rennert Agency, Inc.

Jan, 2005 — Nov, 2012 (almost 8 years)

As an associate at The Amy Rennert Agency, Inc.—a boutique literary agency located in the San Francisco Bay Area that represents a select group of fiction and nonfiction writers—I facilitated personalized, hands-on attention to authors and their books, evaluated manuscripts with an eye towards representation, provided critical feedback to authors prior to submission to publishers, wrote pitch letters, jacket copy, and marketing materials, managed submissions to publishers, secured media coverage for authors and their titles, assisted with contract negotiations, handled basic clerical work, and presented and participated at national writers’ conferences.

Portfolio

Plummet

Zarocostas, Michael

Wrong Man Running

Hruska, Alan

Mary. Mrs. A. Lincoln

Newman, Janis Cooke

Unkept

Clay, Ericka

The Lost Saints of Tennessee

Franklin-Willis, Amy

My Second Death

Cooper, Lydia

To Have Not

Lefkowitz, Frances

A Paper Son

Buchholz, Jason

Naked

Franco, Betsy

This riveting 20th installment entangles Parisian private investigator Aimée Leduc in a dangerous web of international spycraft and terrorist threats in Paris's 15th arrondissement. November 2001: in the wake of 9/11, Paris is living in a state of fear. For Ai... read more

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