Editorial Freelancers Association
Member Profile
Cristen Iris
My Zone of Competence (WriteNow, LLC)
Cristen Iris is an award-winning writer and editor with 10 years of first-hand experience working in the highly competitive book publishing industry. She has worked for traditional and hybrid publishers of fiction and nonfiction and alongside literary agents as a developmental and substantive editor, book proposal consultant, ghostwriter, and talent scout.
Cristen values autonomy within community and believes that writing and editing are a way of life, the constant creation and refinement of thought and action that leads to our highest level of contribution.
This belief; her education in the field of anthropology; her lived experience as an autistic-ADHD business owner working with authors and aspiring authors who have a variety of thinking- and work-styles, constraints, abilities, and impairments led her to develop the My Zone of Competence concept and The My Zone of Competence Approach to writing, publishing, and marketing high-impact, commercially viable nonfiction books.
Cristen specializes in collaborating with subject-matter experts and memoirists who respect their readers, the craft of writing, and the business of books. She is fascinated by people who are themselves fascinated with what they do.
Her nonfiction client list includes university professors and researchers, medical doctors, mental health professionals, attorneys, entrepreneurs, consultants, and social justice and animal rights advocates and activists.
Cristen’s clients have contracts with Big 5, academic, and respected traditional model independent publishers. Some have found satisfaction and success within the hybrid-publishing model or as self-published authors.
Her clients have earned more than 60 book and writing awards. Their bestseller rankings include New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and Amazon Charts. Several clients’ books consistently rank between #3 and 100 in one or more of their Amazon sales categories. National media coverage includes the TODAY Show’s Read with Jenna, Parade Magazine, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Variety, and New York Post. To date, their books have been translated into more than a dozen languages.
___________________________________________________________________
SELECT TESTIMONIALS
“[Cristen] is a highly knowledgeable editor and a wonderfully precise thinker. Her skill, commitment to excellence, and ability to understand my intent, inhabit it, and articulate it improved my manuscript tremendously.” –Heather Sears, entrepreneur and former marketing executive, author Mind to Mouth: The Busy Chick’s Guide to Mindful Mealtime Moments
“Cristen has proven to be a critical component of my manuscript preparation. She executed her role with professionalism, which includes timeliness and integrity. I tend to be direct when I talk, and she worked well with that…There are two things I wanted from a developmental editor that I found in her: 1. She identified things I would never have been able to identify and was able to help me see and understand them. 2. She helped me resolve several internal conflicts I was having with how to do certain things. The value of that cannot be underestimated.” –Larry Mandelberg, a 5th generation entrepreneur, business coach, speaker, and author of Businesses Don’t Fail. They Commit Suicide: How to Survive Success and Thrive in Good Times and Bad
“After 15+ years in publishing, I can say that Cristen sets the gold standard for freelance editing. She recently worked with us on a client’s memoir proposal, including an extensive amount of co-writing of sample chapters. From the start of the process, I was highly impressed with her writing, her ideas, and just how much organization and inspiration she brought to the project. Her writing was beautiful, clear, and very true to the author’s unique voice. Collaborating with her has been a joy for both author and agent. She had tremendous impact on this project, and we will look forward to working with her on many more, given our experience.” –Lilly Ghahremani, JD, MBA, literary agent and co-founder of Full Circle Literary
“Cristen is a true professional on every level. As a leader for the Nonfiction Authors Association, she provided support, training and encouragement for her team. Her enthusiasm is contagious and she never hesitates to go above and beyond to exceed expectations. She has been a valued asset to our organization and will no doubt continue to dazzle all those she works with in the future.” –Stephanie Chandler, CEO and founder, Nonfiction Authors Association
“When I came to Cristen as a first-time author, I had what could best be described as a book outline with a few chapters written. She was quickly able to develop a structure behind my work, directing my efforts down a clear, constructive path. Just as important, she provided what I imagine all authors need: an experienced industry professional to discuss ideas with and guide one through the often challenging process of not only completing the book you have the potential to write, but a proposal as well. As the first major acquisition editor who saw my book proposal commented, ‘For a first time author, this certainly is not a first time proposal.’ Simply put, without Cristen as my editor I would never have the opportunities in front of me that I do today.” –Steve Adelman, co-founder of the Avalon Nightlife brand worldwide, author of Nocturnal Admissions: Behind the Scenes at Tunnel, Limelight, Avalon, and Other Legendary Nightclubs
“I was extremely fortunate to be referred by my literary agent to Developmental Editor, Cristen Iris, last year. She took the first draft of my memoir and turned the stories I’d written into a manuscript with an actual story arc. She created intriguing chapter titles and improved my dialogue when needed. In addition to manuscript work, she sent videos via email explaining things to me as if we were sitting together. Probably most importantly, she understood the message of my book and made sure that it stayed uppermost as the story unfolded. Her upbeat, but realistic, attitude made her a real pleasure to work with. She is outstanding.” –Linda K. Olson, retired physician, motivational speaker, and triple amputee, Parkinson’s patient advocate, author of Gone: A Memoir of Love, Body, and Taking Back My Life
“I cannot speak highly enough about Cristen Iris as a developmental editor. Six months before my manuscript was due to my publisher, I started working with her. I gave Cristen a monstrosity of a draft that was refusing to yield into the meaningful book that I knew it could be. I had been working on the draft for a year. It was over 30% longer than I had promised my publisher and had major problems with redundancy and presenting complex concepts. The feedback Cristen provided gave me a clear vision on how to restructure the manuscript and to simplify my presentation of information. She provided a detailed letter addressing specific questions I had posed to her as well other insights she had about the manuscript. Cristen also shared notes on each of the chapters and the manuscript that was marked up with comments. Perhaps the most valuable feedback was several hours of videos that Cristen provided about my manuscript. Watching them was like taking a master class that tailored for me. I have learned so much through working with Cristen, and my manuscript is turning into the meaningful book I had envisioned.” –Lisa Schelbe, PhD; Associate Professor Florida State University, author of Some Type of Way: Aging Out of Foster Care
“To Cristen Iris, who kicked the book over the goal line. It was a true pleasure writing with you. Your ability to streamline, unpack, and create story is impeccable. For me, for what is so emotional, raw, and too close to be fairly objective, you brilliantly bridged the gap so that our reader can have the best experience and a-ha moments one chapter at a time.” –Alicia Robertson, founder of Lemonade Life and author of Make Lemonade: Thrive Through Divorce by Transforming Your Life
“Through a series of phone calls, well, more like countless times of me bugging Cristen, she always greeted me with grace, kindness, and at times mercy…. Anyone who, whether a professional or a novice like me, is looking for some help and assistance with writing, your one stop is Cristen Iris. It’s an over-stated cliché, but I literally could not have done this without her. I had a beat and a concept, but she helped make it solid.” –Billy Kilson, 2x GRAMMY Award (R) winning drummer, author of The Solid Beat Concept: A Modern Method for Musical Advancement
BOISE, ID
US
Email: cristen@cristeniris.com
Years in the field: 10
Years freelancing: 10
Cristen Iris
Cristen Iris is an award-winning writer and editor with 10 years of first-hand experience working in the highly competitive book publishing industry. She has worked for traditional and hybrid publishers of fiction and nonfiction and alongside literary agents as a developmental and substantive editor, book proposal consultant, ghostwriter, and talent scout.
Cristen values autonomy within community and believes that writing and editing are a way of life, the constant creation and refinement of thought and action that leads to our highest level of contribution.
This belief; her education in the field of anthropology; her lived experience as an autistic-ADHD business owner working with authors and aspiring authors who have a variety of thinking- and work-styles, constraints, abilities, and impairments led her to develop the My Zone of Competence concept and The My Zone of Competence Approach to writing, publishing, and marketing high-impact, commercially viable nonfiction books.
Cristen specializes in collaborating with subject-matter experts and memoirists who respect their readers, the craft of writing, and the business of books. She is fascinated by people who are themselves fascinated with what they do.
Her nonfiction client list includes university professors and researchers, medical doctors, mental health professionals, attorneys, entrepreneurs, consultants, and social justice and animal rights advocates and activists.
Cristen’s clients have contracts with Big 5, academic, and respected traditional model independent publishers. Some have found satisfaction and success within the hybrid-publishing model or as self-published authors.
Her clients have earned more than 60 book and writing awards. Their bestseller rankings include New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and Amazon Charts. Several clients’ books consistently rank between #3 and 100 in one or more of their Amazon sales categories. National media coverage includes the TODAY Show’s Read with Jenna, Parade Magazine, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Variety, and New York Post. To date, their books have been translated into more than a dozen languages.
___________________________________________________________________
SELECT TESTIMONIALS
“[Cristen] is a highly knowledgeable editor and a wonderfully precise thinker. Her skill, commitment to excellence, and ability to understand my intent, inhabit it, and articulate it improved my manuscript tremendously.” –Heather Sears, entrepreneur and former marketing executive, author Mind to Mouth: The Busy Chick’s Guide to Mindful Mealtime Moments
“Cristen has proven to be a critical component of my manuscript preparation. She executed her role with professionalism, which includes timeliness and integrity. I tend to be direct when I talk, and she worked well with that…There are two things I wanted from a developmental editor that I found in her: 1. She identified things I would never have been able to identify and was able to help me see and understand them. 2. She helped me resolve several internal conflicts I was having with how to do certain things. The value of that cannot be underestimated.” –Larry Mandelberg, a 5th generation entrepreneur, business coach, speaker, and author of Businesses Don’t Fail. They Commit Suicide: How to Survive Success and Thrive in Good Times and Bad
“After 15+ years in publishing, I can say that Cristen sets the gold standard for freelance editing. She recently worked with us on a client’s memoir proposal, including an extensive amount of co-writing of sample chapters. From the start of the process, I was highly impressed with her writing, her ideas, and just how much organization and inspiration she brought to the project. Her writing was beautiful, clear, and very true to the author’s unique voice. Collaborating with her has been a joy for both author and agent. She had tremendous impact on this project, and we will look forward to working with her on many more, given our experience.” –Lilly Ghahremani, JD, MBA, literary agent and co-founder of Full Circle Literary
“Cristen is a true professional on every level. As a leader for the Nonfiction Authors Association, she provided support, training and encouragement for her team. Her enthusiasm is contagious and she never hesitates to go above and beyond to exceed expectations. She has been a valued asset to our organization and will no doubt continue to dazzle all those she works with in the future.” –Stephanie Chandler, CEO and founder, Nonfiction Authors Association
“When I came to Cristen as a first-time author, I had what could best be described as a book outline with a few chapters written. She was quickly able to develop a structure behind my work, directing my efforts down a clear, constructive path. Just as important, she provided what I imagine all authors need: an experienced industry professional to discuss ideas with and guide one through the often challenging process of not only completing the book you have the potential to write, but a proposal as well. As the first major acquisition editor who saw my book proposal commented, ‘For a first time author, this certainly is not a first time proposal.’ Simply put, without Cristen as my editor I would never have the opportunities in front of me that I do today.” –Steve Adelman, co-founder of the Avalon Nightlife brand worldwide, author of Nocturnal Admissions: Behind the Scenes at Tunnel, Limelight, Avalon, and Other Legendary Nightclubs
“I was extremely fortunate to be referred by my literary agent to Developmental Editor, Cristen Iris, last year. She took the first draft of my memoir and turned the stories I’d written into a manuscript with an actual story arc. She created intriguing chapter titles and improved my dialogue when needed. In addition to manuscript work, she sent videos via email explaining things to me as if we were sitting together. Probably most importantly, she understood the message of my book and made sure that it stayed uppermost as the story unfolded. Her upbeat, but realistic, attitude made her a real pleasure to work with. She is outstanding.” –Linda K. Olson, retired physician, motivational speaker, and triple amputee, Parkinson’s patient advocate, author of Gone: A Memoir of Love, Body, and Taking Back My Life
“I cannot speak highly enough about Cristen Iris as a developmental editor. Six months before my manuscript was due to my publisher, I started working with her. I gave Cristen a monstrosity of a draft that was refusing to yield into the meaningful book that I knew it could be. I had been working on the draft for a year. It was over 30% longer than I had promised my publisher and had major problems with redundancy and presenting complex concepts. The feedback Cristen provided gave me a clear vision on how to restructure the manuscript and to simplify my presentation of information. She provided a detailed letter addressing specific questions I had posed to her as well other insights she had about the manuscript. Cristen also shared notes on each of the chapters and the manuscript that was marked up with comments. Perhaps the most valuable feedback was several hours of videos that Cristen provided about my manuscript. Watching them was like taking a master class that tailored for me. I have learned so much through working with Cristen, and my manuscript is turning into the meaningful book I had envisioned.” –Lisa Schelbe, PhD; Associate Professor Florida State University, author of Some Type of Way: Aging Out of Foster Care
“To Cristen Iris, who kicked the book over the goal line. It was a true pleasure writing with you. Your ability to streamline, unpack, and create story is impeccable. For me, for what is so emotional, raw, and too close to be fairly objective, you brilliantly bridged the gap so that our reader can have the best experience and a-ha moments one chapter at a time.” –Alicia Robertson, founder of Lemonade Life and author of Make Lemonade: Thrive Through Divorce by Transforming Your Life
“Through a series of phone calls, well, more like countless times of me bugging Cristen, she always greeted me with grace, kindness, and at times mercy…. Anyone who, whether a professional or a novice like me, is looking for some help and assistance with writing, your one stop is Cristen Iris. It’s an over-stated cliché, but I literally could not have done this without her. I had a beat and a concept, but she helped make it solid.” –Billy Kilson, 2x GRAMMY Award (R) winning drummer, author of The Solid Beat Concept: A Modern Method for Musical Advancement
