About Nancy

As a freelance book editor, co-author, collaborator, ghost-writer, and coach with over 25 years of experience in the writing and publishing industry, I have helped hundreds of authors reach their goals. More recently, I offer training and support for freelance book editors through Editorial Arts Academy, an online school I cofounded in 2018. 

I started out as an editorial assistant with Viking Press, after earning a BA in English from the University of Massachusetts in 1969. I then earned a master’s degree in English and Theater Arts from Columbia University, and did graduate study abroad at Oxford University.  In 1974, I became a medical editor at the University of California at San Francisco and did various other jobs (including motherhood) over the years before becoming a freelance book editor/ghost writer in 1996 for Dr. Candace Pert’s all-time bestselling Molecules of Emotion, published by Scribner in 1997.

In a parallel career, I was an instructor in English Second Language at Santa Barbara City College for 20 years. More recently, I participated in leadership programs through Landmark Education, becoming trained in coaching people individually and in groups to achieve their personal and professional goals.

I currently live in Montpelier, Vermont, where I moved from Santa Barbara with my husband Richard in 2016. We enjoy being part of an extended family that includes our daughter’s 5-year-old twins, and being members of a community that supports the arts, literature, health and wellness, and nature.

Editorial Arts Academy is an online community dedicated to helping people become freelance editors through training, support, and referral. Cofounders Nancy Marriott and Susannah Noel share a passion for helping wordsmiths prosper from their natural affinities and, in that spirit, offer online classes, mentoring. and consultation for aspiring and working freelance book editors..