Who We Are

Kelli Christiansen: Manuscriptress/Manuscriptist

Kelli is an award-winning publishing professional—who is drunk on books (in a good way).

Since joining B. Dalton Bookseller (a division of Barnes & Noble) in 1989, Kelli’s career has been one immersed in books and publishing and writing and editing and bookselling. She has worked in all aspects of publishing, from acquisitions to editorial to production. Over the years, she has acquired, developed, and edited hundreds of books, working with such publishers as:

• ALA Editions
• Amacom
• Berrett-Koehler
• Chicago Review Press
• McGraw-Hill
• Osprey Publishing
• Sourcebooks
• University of Nebraska Press
• Wiley
• Workman Publishing

A number of the books Kelli has worked on over the years have earned positive reviews from such general-interest media as Barron’s, BusinessWeek, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Washington Times as well as special-interest media such as HistoryNet, Foreword Reviews, Library Journal, Military History Qaurterly, PsychCentral, and Publishers Weekly. Throughout her career, Kelli has worked on a number of titles of particular note, including:

• From the Dugouts to the Trenches by Jim Leeke, winner of the 2018 SABR Baseball Research Award
• Backbone: History, Traditions, and Leadership Lessons of Marine Corps NCOs by Julia Dye, winner of the Military Writers Society of America’s 2014 Gold Medal for Reference
• Don’t Hurry Me Down to Hades by Susannah Ural, named one of the Best Books of 2013 by The Kansas City Star 
• The Rice Paddy Navy by Linda Kush, nominated in 2013 for The William E. Colby Award for the Best Military History Book of the Year by a First-Time Author and for The Brigadier General James L. Collins Book Prize in Military History
• Battlefield Angels by Scott McGaugh, a Benjamin Franklin Award Finalist for History, 2012
• Lessons from the Greatest Stock Traders of All Time by John Boik, named by Barron’s as one of the best twenty-five books of 2004
• The New Reality of Wall Street by Donald Coxe, a BusinessWeek bestseller (December 6, 2004)
• Outsmarting the Smart Money by Larry Cunningham, named by Barron’s as one of the best twenty-five books of 2002
• The Master Swing Trader by Alan Farley, a multimillion-dollar bestseller in the finance and investing category
• Loyalty.com by Frederick Newell, named one of the best books of 2000 by getAbstract

 

agent … editor … writer … publishing pro
Kelli has spent more than twenty years writing manuscripts and working with books, magazines, and white papers. She has covered high school sports, village boards, breaking news, business issues, and various aspects of the publishing industry. Her work has appeared in such media as Book Business Magazine; Carol Stream Press; Chicago Book Review; Chicago Life; Chicago Literati; Collections & Credit Risk Magazine; Faith, Hope & Fiction; Midwest Book Review; Midwestern Gothic; and San Francisco Book Review. A popular speaker, she has appeared in front of audiences large and small for such organizations as Chicago Book Expo, Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, Chicago Women in Publishing, Chicago Writers Conference, Editorial Freelancers Association, Military History Fest, and University of Chicago.

A fourth-generation entrepreneur, Kelli launched bibliobibuli professional editorial services in 2007. She founded Chicago Publishing Network, a LinkedIn group with more than 2,000 members, in 2008. Kelli also was publisher and founder of Chicago Book Review, which she launched in 2013. In addition, she served as Trustee and Vice President of the Glen Ellyn Public Library Board of Trustees from 2013–17, and she currently serves on the Board of Directors for Glen Ellyn Library Foundation.

In 2016, Kelli was honored to earn the James Friend Memorial Award for Literary and Dramatic Criticism by Society of Midland Authors for her work on Chicago Book Review.

You also can find Kelli at online publishing-type places such as Reedsy, Editorial Freelancers Association, and Publishers Marketplace.

 

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