Whether working with the Cosmopolitan magazine Bedside Astrologer on a humor book, co-authoring a memoir on the Scott Peterson murder case, assisting a U.S. Presidential candidate/author or mentoring a first-time mystery writer, Bonnie Hill loves working with authors. When editing your work, her goal is not to change for the sake of change, but to make you sound more like *you* -- without leaving editorial fingerprints.

Writer-friendly

A newspaper/magazine editor for 22 years as well as a national conference speaker and contest judge, Bonnie is a writer-friendly editor/mentor who has helped numerous authors break into print and published writers reach the next stage of their careers. She teaches workshops for Writer's Digest Online Workshops and authorlink.com and speaks at writing conferences across the country. In the private writers' workshop she leads in Fresno, California, her workshop members have won awards (such as the Hackney Literary Prize for fiction, Dark Oak Award for a first mystery and first prize in contests at the SouthWest Writers and Yosemite Writers conferences) and sold everything from novels to nonfiction books, essays and cowboy poetry to top publishers such as Woman's Day, Cosmopolitan, Writer's Digest, Story Line Press, Santa Monica Press, and Simon & Schuster.  

Top publication credits

A former newspaper editor and magazine columnist, Bonnie has completed a six-book contract with MIRA Books. Her titles include: Killer Body, a thriller set in the weight-loss industry, a Cosmopolitan magazine “pick”; Intern, called "a page-turner" by Publishers Weekly; Double Exposure a political thriller, and a series of three mass-market paperback newspaper thrillers published in 2006. She has co-authored books on a wide range of topics, including motivational subjects, memoirs, the history of Muscle Beach, California, and the Scott Peterson murder trial.

Bonnie has worked as a contributing editor and columnist for American Writers Review and columnist for Editor-Writer and Byline magazines. In addition she has sold hundreds of freelance articles to such magazines as Writer's Digest, Writing for Money, Family Circle and others and writes book reviews for Publishers Weekly. The (Expanded) Freelancer's Rulebook was published in 2002 by Story Line Press and named one of the top 25 writing books by The Writer magazine. With fitness pioneer Harold Zinkin, she wrote a nonfiction book, Remembering Muscle Beach in 1999.

A matter of focus

Bonnie feels that most writers don't lack talent—they lack focus. And she believes character, especially internal conflict, is the key to creating marketable fiction. “The good have flaws, and the bad have reasons.”  She also believes that whatever the genre, fiction provides closure in the way real life doesn't always do. She reads widely and enjoys teaching and editing writers in all genres, especially writers who are passionate about their work. "Passion," she says, "is the one ingredient you can't edit in later."

Specialties:

Fiction: Thrillers, mystery, women’s fiction, literary, historical, suspense, multi-cultural.

Nonfiction: True crime, memoir, health/fitness, medical, food/cooking, prescriptive nonfiction, business, inspirational, humor, literary.

Ghostwriting: Nonfiction only

Submission materials: Book proposals and, query letters

Developmental Editing / Rewriting

High-profile ghostwriting

Critiques / Evaluations

Mentoring

Book Proposals / Synopses