Amanda M. Murray

I am an editor, book doctor, and collaborator based outside of New York City. After graduating cum laude from Cornell University and the Radcliffe Publishing Course, I spent the next 25+ years as an acquiring editor at top book publishers in New York.

I have experience developing and editing almost every kind of book. I’ve also ghostwritten self-help titles, collaborated on memoirs, produced I.P. projects, and packaged titles from manuscript to finished files. As an independent editor I particularly like to work on memoir, self-help, health/wellness, business, lifestyle, and entertainment.

Most recently I was Executive Editor at Hachette Books, publishing personality-driven nonfiction and leading the licensed content program. Previously I was Editorial Director at Weinstein Books, where I edited bestsellers by Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski, actor Dick Van Dyke, wellness expert Kathy Freston, comedian Iliza Shlesinger, and Cleveland kidnapping survivor Michelle Knight, as well as a variety of movie tie-ins. Fiction on my list included the award-winning novel The Garden of Evening Mist by Tan Twan Eng and the New York Times bestselling The Haunting of Sunshine Girl series by Paige McKenzie. 

I spent a large portion of my career at Simon & Schuster, where I published memoirs by Deborah Feldman (Unorthodox) and Simon Doonan; self-help titles by Regena Thomashauer and Bob Greene; fiction by Mary Higgins Clark, Stephen McCauley, and Pam Lewis; wine books by critic Robert M. Parker Jr.; and illustrated titles from domino magazine, historian David McCullough, and singer/songwriters Paul Simon and Bob Dylan. I established my career at Little, Brown and Company and W. W. Norton.