Cristen Iris is an award-winning editor and ghostwriter with 11 years’ experience 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 is also a former Nonfiction Authors Association National Chapter Director. Her education in the field of anthropology and background in personal and institutional risk management help her see the world through multiple perspectives and recognize risks and opportunities others do not.
Her 200+ clients include university professors and researchers, medical doctors, mental health professionals, attorneys, entrepreneurs, entertainers, athletes, journalists, consultants, human and animal rights advocates and activists, filmmakers, novelists, and memoirists of every combination. They represent a wide variety of backgrounds and lived experiences but share Cristen's passion for learning and serving others in high-impact ways.
Projects Cristen worked on have been published by Big 5 traditional and traditional model independent publishers, including HarperCollins, Oxford University Press, Johns Hopkins University Press, Penguin Group imprint TarcherPerigee, Prometheus Books, and Unsolicited Press. Many clients have found success and satisfaction as self-published authors.
Books and essays Cristen worked on have earned dozens of well-known book and writing awards and have been translated into 13 languages.
Title bestseller rankings include New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and Amazon Charts. Several consistently (week after week, month after month, and for several years in a row) rank in the top 100 in one or more of their Amazon sales categories.
Clients’ earned media coverage includes TODAY Show’s Read with Jenna, Forks Over Knives magazine, Los Angeles Times, Parade Magazine, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Variety, and CNN.
While Cristen takes pride in helping her clients reach their personal and professional goals she does not live vicariously through them. Her 20+ creative nonfiction essays, business columns, indie film reviews, filmmaker interviews, and event coverage pieces have been published in print and online by a variety of publications that exercise editorial discretion.
Cristen is also an enthusiastic public speaker, workshop leader, and podcast guest with 49 appearances to date.
Others describe her as being “incredibly efficient as a researcher,” “a wonderfully precise thinker,” “a valuable sounding board,” "the perfect combination of cheerleader and taskmaster,” an "informed and professional role model,” and “the embodiment of excellence, grace, and humility” who has “tremendous impact” on projects.
Cristen describes herself as an insatiably curious extroverted hermit and lover of all things out of doors, especially winged and crawling things. If she could be anyone else, she'd want to be Pippi Longstocking.
Everything I know about crafting compelling and commercially viable fiction and nonfiction I learned from studying people, novels, screenwriting, and the crafts of acting and cinematography and working with successful publishing and film professionals. I use my industry knowledge and experience to help clients stand out in a crowded marketplace.
As a developmental & substantive editor, I'm focused on all aspects of crafting a high-quality nonfiction book (substance, structure, style, and more), all while keeping the needs, goals, and interests of the reader top of mind.
As a neurodivergent individual who works with both neurotypical and neurodivergent clients, I have a deep understanding of my clients' needs, fears, and cognitive patterns. And I care very much about how each clients' lived experience affects them as they write, revise, pitch, and promote their work.
I value autonomy within community and am an inclusive businessperson. I do not discriminate based on race, ethnicity, country of origin, age, marital status, disability, religious or political affiliation, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
My clients and I agree that without intellectual integrity and respect for human dignity, our work has limited value. Therefore, we place the wellbeing of readers in the forefront of our minds and agree to focus our efforts on educating and empowering them.
I grew up in a home without a television but with hundreds of books. Our evenings were spent listening to my father or mother read to us--Louisa May Alcott, J.R.R. Tolkien, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Johann David Wyss, and many more. We were encouraged to read aloud, and I learned early on the pleasure of capturing an audience's attention and shaping their experience with a text through the combination of written and spoken word.
Not long after reading a WWII trilogy about a group of young freedom fighters, I began to write my own novel. Approximately three chapters in, I realized it was derivative at best and plagiarized at worst. Perhaps that was the day this editor was born. I was 12.
My first job was working for a small newspaper where I started as a survey taker and worked my way into ad layout. Many years later while studying anthropology, I worked in a university bookstore where I learned the ins and outs of textbook returns and met my first publishing industry insiders. The entire experience was interesting, but I saw a future related to my area of study.
I graduated magna cum laude from Boise State University with a degree in anthropology. I'm particularly interested in medical and socio-cultural anthropology and public health.
On the professional side, prior to going back to school and after graduating, my background includes investment sales and personal and institutional (university) risk management and insurance.
While at university, I discovered and fell in love with public health and medical anthropology but found the academic and government agency opportunities--as interesting and important as they are--too constraining.
I've always been self-motivated and interested in running my own business. With the encouragement received from professors and publishing professionals I chose freelance writing. Shortly after my first piece was published, I stumbled into developmental editing and then ghostwriting and saw their potential to satisfy both my creative and business itches and do work that impacts people's lives.
I became interested in the film industry through the many excellent books I read about the craft of writing, most of which were written for screenwriters. I started using the fundamentals of screenwriting when structuring ghostwritten books and helping clients and workshop participants do the same. Results in the form of awards and media attention followed. When I started writing about films and filmmakers and meeting them at film festivals, I found a new creative outlet and dynamic group of thinkers and feelers that I wanted to engage with as a peer and collaborator.
On the personal side, members of my family and I are autistic and ADHD and work in the neurodivergent community. I credit my success to my lifelong intense fascination with words and my neurodivergent creativity and monotropism and am grateful to be married to someone who respects my autonomy, appreciates my differences, and supports my efforts to learn, grow, and meaningfully connect with people.
