Nancy Peske

Spiritual leader Marianne Williamson, whom I'd done research work for when she was writing her book Healing the Soul of America, approached me to help her finish her untitled book on change on a very tight deadline. I helped her come up with a title and structure (ten key changes people need to make), and the book put her back onto the New York Times bestseller list and was featured on PBS. As the author wrote, "“Her editorial assistance was completely invaluable. I cannot overestimate her talents or her help to me.”

After helping Carl Greer brand himself as a psychology/self-help author (with the books Change Your Story, Change Your Life and Change the Story of Your Health, both award-winning self-help books I worked on), he asked me to help him with his memoir. The result is what we call an "interactive memoir"--the story of a businessman turned clinical psychologist, Jungian analyst, shamanic practitioner, and philanthropist combined with self-reflection questions at the end of each chapter. The questions encourage the reader to reflect upon the book's themes as they played out in their own life. Also, I played a major role in the design of the jacket; came up with the title; worked with Carl Greer to craft blog pieces, articles, and social media posts; came up with Amazon and Facebook ad keywords; and ran Facebook ads for the book.

Dr. Christiane Northrup came to me asking for my help in rebranding her as a lifestyle author as much as a medical doctor, with the idea to write a book called Goddesses Never Age. I helped her conceptualize titles that were in keeping with a lifestyle author voice and her brand ("I'm here to tell you everything that can go right with your health"), helped her research topics such as the risk of breast cancer in women with the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, and did extra research to support her in the PBS show based on the book (Glorious Women Never Age). The result was a book that brought her back onto the NY Times bestseller list, yielded multiple foreign rights sales and the aforementioned PBS show, and solidified the new brand.

I worked with the authors to establish a structure, title, and unified voice (which was combined with their individual voices) for a book that combined brain science, nutrition, psychology, and spiritual elements derived from Peruvian shamanism to help readers optimize their brain health and mental acuity. The book has a 4.6 rating on Amazon with over 225 reviews.

"A cultural phenomenon," as USA Today called it, Cinematherapy is a humorous women's self-help book and movie guide for choosing movies to match (or change) your mood. After becoming a hit in gift stores, Cinematherapy became a prime time TV show for Romance Classics (later Women's Entertainment), and the channel branded around Cinematherapy. We even had a billboard on Hollywood Boulevard and a suitcase full of tchochkes created to promote the book. Cinematherapy became a six-book series, is featured in dissertations around the world and was published in several languages, and was featured on CNN, in People magazine, and in most major U.S. newspapers and women's magazines. Most recently, Spirituality & Health published an article I wrote on Cinematherapy: https://www.spiritualityhealth.com/articles/2020/04/28/cinematherapy-these-flicks-can-heal-you

I was asked to help the author integrate nutritional information she had written along with several other authors' contributions into a user-friendly guide for readers seeking to address a number of health-related problems. I came up with a unique structure that maximized the reader's ability to quickly navigate to the information they most needed. The book is still carried in many health food and nutrition stores. As the author wrote, “Nancy’s editorial insights and expertise at structuring complex material on nutrition and her ability to help me craft an engaging voice for the lay reader were instrumental in the success of my book The Diet Cure — now with over 100,000 in print."

Colette Baron-Reid, a spirituality and New Age author, came to me with an unfocused manuscript hoping I could help her shape it into a marketable book. I came up with the idea of a map or internal, mystical, imaginary landscape the reader could interact with in a series of guided visualizations featuring archetypal characters, which the two of us worked on, knowing this would be in keeping with the author's brand as an oracle card creator. The Map had multiple foreign sales, attracted to the author a top NY literary agent, and helped her sell her next book for more than six figures, solidifying her brand.

The author came to me with a rough manuscript for her memoir about adopting, raising, and ultimately, giving up to another family a daughter with fetal alcohol syndrome. I coached her to "show, not tell," helped her create a structure and compelling chapter titles and a strong title. I found her an excellent book jacket designer, too. The result is a controversial and heartbreaking book that parents who have found themselves in similar situations have found reassuring and honest.

Richard S. Gunther asked me to help him create his memoir about his life, beginning with his childhood in the 1920s losing two fathers and being mesmerized by a glimpse into the Hubble telescope, through his life in the Army in WWII, marrying, raising a family, being a real estate developer in Los Angeles, having adventures such as climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro and taking LSD, leading Congress in its first session of meditation, and becoming a philanthropist involved in Jewish charities. I helped him get his stories on the page, coming up with a structure that shifted from his journey to age 34 to chapters on key themes in his life, thereby focusing on the lessons he wanted to share with readers.