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Paul De Angelis, book developer.

 

I assist authors, agents, publishers and publication departments in turning ideas and manuscripts into books. My work includes manuscript evaluations, re-writing or ghost writing of proposals and manuscripts, and book editing from the conceptual and organizational to copyediting. I’ve had much experience with books in translation and maintain extensive contacts among agents, editors, and publishers. I work on an hourly or project fee basis or for a percentage of royalties, depending on the project. Together with my wife, Elisabeth Kaestner, I also provide translation services from the German.

contact me by email: paul@abouttown.us

Some of the Books I’ve Worked On in Recent Years

Alban Berg and His World, edited by Christopher Hailey

Sikh Spiritual Practice: The Sound Way to God, Siri Kirpal Kaur Khalsa

The Beautiful Planet, Marc Simont

“Swing Along”—Race On Broadway And Beyond: The Musical Life of Will Marion Cook, Marva Griffin Carter

The Airmen and the Headhunters, by Judith M. Heimann

Oscar Bluemner: A Passion for Color, exhibition catalogue by Barbara Haskell

Learning to Govern: My Life in New York Politics, From Hell Gate to City Hall, Peter F. Vallone

Sirio: The Story of My Life and Le Cirque, Sirio Maccioni and Peter Elliott



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INDEPENDENT EDITOR

 

Professional Experience

In 35+ years in the book publishing business, I have served as Editor, Editorial Director, or Editor-in-Chief at such publishing companies as St. Martin's Press, E.P. Dutton and Kodansha America. I have had extensive American, European and Asian trade publishing contacts and I am fluent in German, French and Italian. 

From 1990 to 1995 I served as Editor-in-Chief and then Editorial Director of Kodansha America, and helped build Kodansha's New York-based publishing operation, which won the 1994 LMP Adult Trade Corporate Award; while there I personally oversaw the editorial, editorial production, design, manufacturing and foreign rights departments. During 12 years at E.P. Dutton I was involved in all aspects of a broad publishing program including quality fiction, literature, general nonfiction, translations, and the extensive Dutton consciousness/new age line (later incorporated into Penguin Arkana).

Since 1996 I have served as the project manager and editorial consultant for the Bard Music Festival volume of essays about a specific composer published every year by Princeton University Press; in 2006 & 2007 I was co-winner of the Deems Taylor ASCAP award for work on the series. Since 1997 I have co-published a quarterly guide to the Rhinebeck-Red Hook-Hudson area entitled AboutTown, which also reviews books.

Authors I have worked with include the Delany sisters, Mike Royko, Eric Kraft, Peter Guralnick, Barbara Pym, Jorge Luis Borges, Alexander Dubcek, Sarah Rossbach and Lin Yun, Wataru Ohashi, Bill Griffith, Tiziano Terzani, Leon Botstein.

 

Categories of special interest/expertise:

history • current affairs • music • biography  • religion • literature • translations

 

Testimonials

“Paul De Angelis . . . took a work of journalism and turned it into a biography.” 
— Peter Elliot, author of Sirio: The Story of My Life and Le Cirque

 “I just wanted you to know that my book has been published, thanks to your wonderful editorial job!"
—Marva Griffin Carter, author, Swing Along: The Musical Life of Will Marion Cook.

“Paul De Angelis worked with me to shape both sentences and story into a readable whole. . . and he was a delight to work with!”                 — Peter Vallone, author of Learning To Govern

“Your help with the proposal was invaluable in helping me present the work. The first publisher I contacted after revising the book published it.”
— Siri Kirpal Kaur Khalsa, author of Sikh Spiritual Practice.

“When the science of cloning has been perfected to include book editors, Paul De Angelis would be a good place to begin.”
— Christopher Hailey, editor, Alban Berg and His World.