About Jennifer
Writer, Editor, Consultant
Jennifer Lawler is a long-established freelance editor, who, one bleak winter on the Kansas prairies, dreamed of blue skies and sunshine. A few months later, she packed up The Chicago Manual of Style, numerous cartons of books, and a couple of pairs of cut-offs and moved to Southern California, where most days she can be found at the beach, laptop in hand, surrounded by palm trees and bougainvillea.
Jennifer became a freelancer editor and writer more than twenty years ago, when her daughter was born with a serious, debilitating neurological disorder and she needed a way to pay the rent that didn’t require going to someone else’s office for forty hours a week.
She has worked for many years as a freelance book development editor on a wide range of editorial projects for traditional book publishers as well as independent authors, specializing in genre fiction.
She launched Crimson Romance for Adams Media (which became an imprint of Simon & Schuster), overseeing all aspects of acquisitions, editorial, and production. She has also worked as a magazine editor for MSP Custom Publishing. Previously she worked as a literary agent.
She is the author or coauthor of more than thirty nonfiction books and nearly twenty novels, including her popular and award-winning Dojo Wisdom series (Penguin). Her work has been published by Simon & Schuster, Thomas & Mercer, Montlake Romance, and others.
Her personal essays have appeared in publications such as Family Circle, Neurology Now, Minnesota Monthly, and the Chicken Soup book series. Her blog post, “For Jessica,” went viral and is still a source of comfort and inspiration for parents of children with special needs.
She has taught in the biomedical writing program at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, the copyediting program at the University of California – San Diego, and in professional development programs at the Editorial Freelancers Association and Loft Literary (among others) as well as at other writing programs in colleges and universities.
She is the founder of Club Ed (www.ClubEdFreelancers.com) and Club Ed for Writers (www.ClubEdforWriters.com), companies that help freelance editors and writers succeed.
She earned her PhD in medieval English literature from the University of Kansas and a black belt in Taekwondo at approximately the same time. She hasn’t quite decided which has been more helpful in her career.
She can be reached at jennifer@jenniferlawler.com
Club Ed® LLC is a California company.