Authors
How real authors used their books to create leverage, clarity, and lasting impact
These are not influencer stories or overnight success narratives.
They’re professionals who used a serious book to do serious work.
How to Read These Stories
Every author comes to Manuscripts with different goals, fears, and constraints. This page is designed to help you find stories that feel familiar, not aspirational. Filter by what matters to you, and see how others navigated the process.
While the majority of authors we work with are publishing thought leadership nonfiction, we also support select memoir and fiction projects where editorial depth, originality, and long-term intent are central to the work.
Jeanie Duncan is an executive and team coach who works with Fortune 100 and 500 companies, higher education institutions, and nonprofit organizations navigating complex change.
Michael Biarnes works at the forefront of healthcare strategy, focused on improving patient outcomes and advancing meaningful innovation.
But beyond healthcare, he’s become known for something deeper:
Helping people redefine success.
Victor Barnes is a CPA and MBA with a career grounded in financial rigor, analysis, and professional standards. He approached authorship with skepticism, not sentiment, and evaluated the book process the same way he would any serious professional undertaking.
Steve Tang is a CEO and leadership speaker who came to authorship through lived responsibility, not aspiration. During the COVID pandemic, he found himself navigating high-stakes decisions, cultural strain, and leadership ambiguity with no existing playbook.
Henna Pryor is an award-winning author, keynote speaker, and executive coach who helps leaders navigate moments of social risk, visibility, and uncertainty.
Michael Dumlao is an award-winning Vice President of Marketing & Communications with 15+ years of experience leading brand transformations across Fortune 500, federal, academic, and nonprofit organizations.
Technology and business strategist with a 20+ year career leading transformation across Fortune 500 telecom, ecommerce, and retail organizations, most recently as Vice President of Strategy at a $12B North American retailer.
Senior marketing and strategy executive with decades of experience at companies like AWS, Intel, and Honeywell, known among peers as an “idea machine,” who had long been fascinated by how decisions actually get made, but had never consolidated that thinking into a single framework.
Former Wall Street executive who rebuilt her life from childhood poverty in Brazil, climbed to senior leadership at top financial institutions, and ultimately faced a pivotal question: could her value exist beyond the career she spent decades building?
