I'm not an author's assistant myself, but I teach and coach authors and author's assistants!

Jan B. King is a publishing strategist, devoted to transforming experts with important contributions in their fields into successfully published authors, directly and by consulting with publishers.

She began her career with Merritt Publishing, a then 30-year-old publishing company, in 1983. When the company's founder retired in 1990, she became President and CEO. Ms. King transformed this small niche publisher into an employee-owned business as well as a recognized brand for financial information to professionals and consumers. She doubled revenues during the first half of her eight-year tenure, finally leading the company through an employee-buyout and its eventual sale to a leading computer based training company in 1998.

In 1997, Merritt Publishing was named the 44th largest woman owned/run business in Los Angeles by the Los Angeles Business Journal. Ms. King was also a member of TEC (The Executive Committee, a membership organization for CEOs) for six years, and co-founded a women's CEO group.

She is the author of two books. Her book Business Plans to Game Plans is praised by academics and business people alike and is in its 3rd edition (John Wiley & Sons, 2004). Her second book Smart Women Publish was published in 2005. She is also a member of the Author's Guild.

Ms. King has served on several Boards of Directors, including the Enterprise Institute Board for the National Association of Women Business Owners, Los Angeles. She has been a mentor with the TEC on Campus program for the Anderson School of Business at UCLA, and is an instructor with SCORE.

She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Southern California with a BA in History and Economics, is a certified NxLevel Entrepreneurial Training Program instructor and holds the SPHR (Senior Professional in Human Resource) designation from the Society of Human Resource Management. In 2002, she received the award for "Outstanding Performance as a Small Business Woman's Advocate" from the SBA/California Small Business Development Centers.

Ms. King's views on business and on publishing have been widely quoted in Investor's Business Daily, Fortune Small Business, Working Woman Magazine, the American Bar Association's Bar Leader magazine, Small Business USA, Business Finance, the Los Angeles Business Journal, and on numerous business web sites. She has also appeared on Making It! a small business television program on KTTV Los Angeles, The Economic Journal, a PBS business program, as well as on numerous nationally syndicated business radio programs. She writes and speaks extensively on publishing, employee ownership and participative management, and business planning.