About Abigail Keyes: Book Coach, Editor, and Author

I help leaders, founders, healers, and visionaries write the book they really want to write, and not the book they think they should write. 

As an author, editor, and book coach, I’ve been in the writing and publishing industry for over a decade, and in addition to working with private clients, I’m a manuscript developer and editor for Greenleaf Book Group, a major hybrid publisher in the business and leadership space. I specialize in coaching and editing authors writing transformative nonfiction—leadership, healing, and memoir—as well as fantasy, historical fiction, sci-fi, and speculative fiction. 

I come to this work from a unique background of analysis and creative practice. In my 20s, I worked for the CIA as an intelligence analyst, writing for and briefing policy makers on high-stakes topics such as Iraqi politics and biosecurity. In my 30s, I was a professional touring dance performer and instructor specializing in SWANA (Southwest Asia/North Africa, aka Middle Eastern) dance forms and wrote several books on performance arts in the SWANA region. When I’m not coaching author clients and editing manuscripts, I teach dance history at Skyline College in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I’ve developed and published a semester-long course on global dance traditions.

My approach to editing and coaching is rooted in my background in education, meaning that I’m invested in giving my clients actionable, constructive feedback that they can implement right away, while empowering them to write and publish their books with conviction and confidence. 

I’m a member of the Editorial Freelancers Association and do not use generative AI in my editorial process.