Penny Arnold
Nonfiction, both academic and commercial: African American Studies, Business, History/Biography/Autobiography, International Studies, Journalism, LGBTQ+, Memoir, Politics/Public Policy/Government, Self-help/How-to, Social Work
Developmental editor, copy/line editor, proofreader
Penny Arnold’s first career was in journalism. After eight years as a reporter and a year as a rewrite specialist, she moved up to assistant city editor, learning line and developmental editing at such papers as the (Baltimore) News American, Dayton Daily News, and San Jose Mercury News. Reporters on her teams at those papers, as well as the Times-Herald Record of Middletown, New York, received Pulitzer nominations. She also worked as a copy editor at Newsday. She turned to freelance book editing in the 1990s, gaining assignments from both university presses and trade publishers. Through word-of-mouth and personal referrals she also has amassed a loyal group of authors who come back to her for book after book. She has edited more than one hundred book manuscripts.
Penny’s editing philosophy is simply to give each manuscript what it needs—no more, no less. Her motto is “Don’t give a critic free lunch”—or a reader a reason not to buy the book. She’s thorough. She’ll spot any holes in the argument, logic, or narrative; organizational problems; incomplete or missing explanations; overuse of jargon; redundancies, wordiness, clichés, and infelicitous phrasing.
Even when she is working as a developmental editor or line editor, she also copyedits, so authors are likely to save money by hiring her.
She’s a straight shooter. Penny is polite but she doesn’t wrap criticisms in so much cotton candy that the author can’t figure out what the problem is. And if she’s wrong, she backs down. Immediately.
Penny always meets deadline. In 2013, she fell off a horse and broke her hip on a Tuesday, had surgery on Wednesday, and was back to work a week later. She never missed a deadline because she has a clock in her head from her newspaper days and works steadily on each project. She doesn’t procrastinate or overbook her time.
She’s also fun to work with, cracking jokes and making irreverent observations, which authors enjoy and find that it makes her professional nitpicking on their behalf a lot easier to digest.
Representative List of Works Edited
Complete lists of works in your field or genre are available upon request. Asterisks denote those that have received awards and/or honors.
—Loren Ghiglione, retired dean, Medill School of Journalism and
author of CBS’s Don Hollenbeck and Genus Americanus
African American Studies
Beauboeuf-Lafontant, Tamara. To Live More Abundantly: Black Collegiate Women, Howard University, and the Audacity of Dean Lucy Diggs Slowe. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2022.
Cobb, James C. The Brown Decision, Jim Crow, and Southern Identity. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2005.
Eldridge, Lawrence. Chronicles of a Two-Front War: Civil Rights and Vietnam in the African American Press. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2012.
Goings, Kenneth W., and Eugene O’Connor. The Classics in Black and White: Black Colleges, Classics Education, Resistance, and Assimilation. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2024.
Moore, Leonard N. Carl B. Stokes and the Rise of Black Political Power. Champagne-Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003.
*Roorda, Rhonda M. In Their Voices: Black Americans on Transracial Adoption. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015. Winner, Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2016, American Library Association.
Young, Vershawn Ashanti. Your Average Nigga: Performing Race, Literacy, and Masculinity. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2007.
Young, Vershawn Ashanti, and Aja Y. Martinez, eds. Code-Meshing as World English: Pedagogy, Policy, Performance. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 2011.
Anthropology/Cultural Anthropology/Sociology
Boyles, Andrea S. You Can’t Stop the Revolution: Community Disorder and Social Ties in Post-Ferguson America. Oakland: University of California Press, 2019.
*Hodzic, Saida. The Twilight of Cutting: African Activism and Life after NGOs. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2016. 2017 Michelle Z. Rosaldo Book Prize presented by the Association for Feminist Anthropology.
Ibarra, Robert. Beyond Affirmative Action: Reframing the Context of Higher Education. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2000.
Lattas, Andrew. Cultures of Secrecy: Reinventing Race in Bush Kaliai Cargo Cults. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998.
Overland, Orm. Immigrant Minds, American Identities: Making the United States Home, 1870–1930. Champagne-Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000.
Taylor, Mark C. Field Notes from Elsewhere: Reflections on Dying and Living. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.
Business
Cabot, Heather, and Samantha Walravens. Geek Girl Rising: Inside the Sisterhood Shaking Up Tech. New York: St. Martin’s, 2017.
Caulfield, Timothy. Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything? How the Famous Sell Us Elixirs of Health, Beauty, and Happiness. Boston: Beacon, 2015.
Dart, Michael, and Robin Lewis. Retail’s Seismic Shift: How to Shift Faster, Respond Better, and Win Customer Loyalty. New York: St. Martin’s, 2017.
Doctoroff, Tom. Twitter Is Not a Strategy: Rediscovering the Art of Brand Marketing. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
———. What Chinese Want: Culture, Communism, and China’s Modern Consumer. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
Erisman, Porter. Alibaba’s World: How a Remarkable Chinese Company Is Changing the Face of Global Business. New York: St. Martin’s, 2015.
———. Six Billion Shoppers: The Companies Winning the Global E-Commerce Boom. New York: St. Martin’s, 2017.
Ecology/Animal Behavior
Dinerstein, Eric. The Return of the Unicorns. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003.
Grubb, Thomas. The Mind of the Trout: A Cognitive Ecology for the Biologists and Anglers. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003.
Stanford, Craig. Upright: The Evolutionary Key to Human Origins. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003.
Steinberg, Michael K. Searching for Home Waters: A Brook-Trout Pilgrimage. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2023.
Thiel, Richard. Keepers of the Wolves: The Early Years of Wolf Recovery in Wisconsin. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2001.
Gay Studies/Gender Studies
Acosta, Katie L. Queer Stepfamilies: The Path to Social and Legal Recognition. New York: New York University Press, 2021.
Gardner, Christine J. Making Chastity Sexy: The Rhetoric of Evangelical Abstinence Campaigns. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011.
Gere, David. How to Make Dances in an Epidemic: Tracking Choreography in the Age of AIDS. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004.
Lancaster, Roger N. Sex Panic and the Punitive State. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011.
Mallon, Gerald P. Gay Men Choosing Parenthood. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.
Murphy, Peter. Studs, Tools, and the Family Jewels: Metaphors Men Live By. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2001.
History/Biography
Avella, Steven. Charles K. McClatchy and the Golden Era of American Journalism. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2016.
Corbett, Warren. The Wizard of Waxahachie: Paul Richards and the End of Baseball as We Knew It. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 2009.
Cottrell, Robert. Roger Nash Baldwin and the American Civil Liberties Union. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.
Craven, Wayne. Stanford White: Decorator in Opulence and Dealer in Antiquities. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005.
Elmer, Jerry. Conscription, Conscientious Objection, and Draft Resistance in American History. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2023.
Haskell, Michael E., and Douglas Brinkley, eds. The World War II Desk Reference. New York: Collins Reference, 2004.
Hill, Nancy Peterson. A Very Private Citizen: The Life of Grenville Clark. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2014.
Jebara, Mohamad. Muhammad, the World-Changer: An Intimate Portrait. New York: St. Martin’s Essentials, 2021.
*Keiderling, Kyle. Heart of a Lion: The Life, Death and Legacy of Hank Gathers. New York: Morning Star Books, 2010. Named Best Sports Biography of 2011 by International Book Awards.
*———. Olympic Collision: The Story of Mary Decker and Zola Budd. Lincoln. University of Nebraska Press, 2015. Named Best Running Book of 2016 by Competitor magazine.
Kershner, Seth, Scott Harding, and Charles Howlett. Breaking the War Habit: The Debate over Militarism in American Education. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2022.
Lause, Mark A. The Collapse of Price’s Raid: The Beginning of the End in Civil War Missouri. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2016.
*Lineberry, Cate. Be Free or Die: The Amazing Story of Robert Smalls’ Escape from Slavery to Union Hero. New York: St. Martin’s, 2017. Christian Science Monitor 30 Best Books of 2017.
Okerstrom, Dennis R. Project 9: The Birth of the Air Commandos in World War II. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2014.
Perdue, Theda. Race and the Atlanta Cotton States Exposition of 1895. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2010.
*Richardson, John T. E. Howard Andrew Knox: Pioneer of Intelligence Testing at Ellis Island. New York: Columbia University Press, 2011. Winner, 2011 Outstanding Book in the History of the Neurosciences.
Soffer, Jonathan. Ed Koch and the Rebuilding of New York City. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010.
*Varzally, Allison. Making a Non-White America: Californians Coloring Outside Ethnic Lines. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008. 2009 Theodore Saloutos Memorial Award, Immigration and Ethnic History Society.
Walker, Scott. Hell’s Broke Loose in Georgia: Survival in a Civil War Regiment. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2005.
Studies
Barnett, Michael N. Dialogues in Arab Politics: Negotiations in Regional Order. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.
Dychtwald, Zak. Young China: How the Restless Generation Will Change the Country and the World. New York: St. Martin’s, 2018.
Kang, Jiyeon. Igniting the Internet: Youth and Activism in Postauthoritarian South Korea. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2018.
Motyl, Alexander. Imperial Ends: The Decay, Collapse, and Revival of Empires. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.
———. Revolutions, Nations, Empires: The Decay, Collapse, and Revival of Empires. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
*Roosa, John. Pretext for Mass Murder. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2005. Finalist, Social Sciences Book Award, the International Convention of Asian Scholars.
Journalism
*Alwood, Edward. Dark Days in the Newsroom: McCarthyism Aimed at the Press. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2007. Winner, 2008 Tankard Book Award; Connecticut Press Club’s Best Book of the Year: Adult Non-Fiction, 2008.
*———. Straight News: Gays, Lesbians, and the News Media. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. New York Times Notable Book of the Year, 1996; GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) Media Award for Outstanding Achievement in Publication, 1997; Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in North America Award for Outstanding Book on Human Rights in North America, 1997; Choice Outstanding Book of the Year, 1997.
Coté, William, and Roger Simpson. Covering Violence: A Guide to Ethical Reporting about Victims and Trauma. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000, 2006.
*Engelman, Ralph. Friendlyvision: Fred Friendly and the Rise and Fall of Television Journalism. Foreword by Morley Safer. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009. Winner, 2010 Abraham Krasnoff Memorial Award for Scholarly Achievement.
Ettema, James S., and Theodore H. Glasser. Custodians of Conscience: Investigative Journalism and the Crafting of Public Virtue. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.
*Ghiglione, Loren. CBS’s Don Hollenbeck: An Honest Reporter in the Age of McCarthyism. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. Finalist, 2009 Tankard Book Award; finalist, Frank Luther Mott/Kappa Tau Alpha Research Award, 2008.
Martin, Richard. Superfuel: Thorium, the Green Energy Source for the Future. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
Law
Elrod, Justin. You Need a Plan: How to Prepare for Death, Taxes, and Long-Term Care. Lioncrest, 2016.
Madden, Robert G. Essential Law for Social Workers. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003.
Platt, Tony. Beyond These Walls: Rethinking Crime and Punishment in the United States. New York: St. Martin’s, 2018.
Steury, Ellen Hochstedler, and Nancy Frank. Criminal Court Process. Minneapolis: West, 1996.
Stowell, Daniel W., ed. In Tender Consideration: Women, Families, and the Law in Abraham Lincoln’s Illinois. Champagne: University of Illinois Press, 2002.
Zelezny, John. Communications Law: Liberties, Restraints, and the Modern Media. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1993.
Memoir
Bitterman, Pamela S. Sailing to the Far Horizon: The Restless Journey and Tragic Sinking of a Tall Ship. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004.
*Chesler, Phyllis. An American Bride in Kabul: A Memoir. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. National Jewish Book Award from the National Jewish Council for best memoir of 2013.
*de Milly, Walter III. In My Father’s Arms: A True Story of Incest. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1999. Named One of the Best Southern Books of All Time by Oxford American Magazine in its May–June 2000 edition.
Parks, Jeffrey. Stronger Than Steel: Forging a Rust Belt Renaissance. Bethlehem, PA: Rocky Rapids Press, 2018.
Reamer, Frederic B. On the Parole Board: Reflections on Crime, Punishment, Redemption, and Justice. New York: Columbia University Press, 2016.
*Salton, George L. The Twenty-Third Psalm: A Holocaust Memoir. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003. Outstanding University Press Book Citation, American Association of School Libraries.
Shine, Neal. Life with Mae: A Detroit Family Memoir. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2007.
Tuan, Yi-Fu. Who Am I? An Autobiography of Emotion, Mind, and Spirit. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1999.
Valmiki, Omprakash. Joothan: A Dalit’s Life. Translated from the Hindi by Arun Prabha Mukherjee. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
Xie Bingying. A Woman Soldier’s Own Story: The Autobiography of Xie Bingying. Translated by Lily Chia Brissman and Barry Brissman. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.
Politics, Public Policy, and Government
Amy, Douglas J. Real Choices/New Voices: The Case for Proportional Representation Elections in the United States. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
*Ghiglione, Loren, with Alyssa Karas and Dan Tham. Genus Americanus: Hitting the Road in Search of America’s Identity. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2020. Association of LGBTQ Journalists, 2021 Excellence in Book Writing Award.
Gitlin, Todd. The Intellectuals and the Flag. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
Lawless, Kristin. Formerly Known as Food: How the Industrial Food System Is Changing Our Minds, Bodies and Culture. New York: St. Martin’s, 2018.
Palmer, Lisa. Hot, Hungry Planet: The Fight to Stop a Global Food Crisis in the Face of Climate Change. New York: St. Martin’s, 2017.
Platt, Tony. Beyond These Walls: Rethinking Crime and Punishment in the United States. New York: St. Martin’s, 2019.
Pride, Richard A. The Political Use of Racial Narratives: School Desegregation in Mobile, Alabama, 1954–97. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2008.
*Reuss, Henry S. When Government Was Good: Memories of a Life in Politics. Introduction by John Kenneth Galbraith. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1999. Winner of the 1999 Milwaukee County Historical Society Gambrinus Prize for the Best Book on Milwaukee History.
Self-help/How-to
Burgo, Joseph. Shame: Free Yourself, Find Joy, and Build True Self-Esteem. New York: St. Martin’s Essentials, 2018.
Elrod, Justin. You Need a Plan: How to Prepare for Death, Taxes, and Long-Term Care. Lioncrest, 2016.
Gremaux, Stephanie. Navigating Nursing Homes: When You or Someone You Love Needs a Nursing Home. Bradenton, FL: Author, 2021.
Talbott, John R. Survival Investing: How to Prosper amid Thieving Banks and Corrupt Governments. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
Weil, Andrew, M.D. Eight Weeks to Optimum Health. Rev. ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007.
Weil, Andrew, M.D., and Winifred Rosen. From Chocolate to Morphine: Everything You Need to Know About Mind-Altering Drugs. Rev. ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004.
Social Work
Kellehear, Allan. The Inner Life of the Dying Person. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.
Reamer, Frederic G. Criminal Lessons: Case Studies and Commentary on Crime and Justice. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003.
———. Heinous Crime: Cases, Causes, and Consequences. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.
Reamer, Frederic G., and Deborah H. Siegel. Teens in Crisis: How the Industry Serving Struggling Teens Helps and Hurts Our Kids. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.
Segal, Nancy L., and Yesika S. Montoya. Accidental Brothers: The Story of Twins Exchanged at Birth and the Power of Nature and Nurture. New York: St. Martin’s, 2018.