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.
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.
John Thompson has been a senior executive at GE and Northwestern Mutual, leadership coach, and team builder with more than two decades of experience across operations, sales, and leadership roles in corporate America. Known for his practical, no-excuses approach, John focuses on helping individuals and teams take ownership of their choices and outcomes.
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.
Former corporate leader turned executive coach who spent 25 years inside the systems that reward stoicism, status, and self-sacrifice. Despite professional success, Jim experienced severe burnout driven not by workload alone, but by the isolation and emotional suppression baked into traditional definitions of masculinity and leadership.
Senior renewable energy marketing leader with nearly two decades inside the clean energy transition, deeply embedded in the industry but seeking a more reflective, lasting contribution beyond day-to-day deal flow.
Technology executive, investor, and board member of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship who felt a growing responsibility to prepare young people for the future of work. The book emerged at a personal inflection point, driven by fatherhood, loss, and a desire to leave something meaningful behind.
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?
Dean of The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine and nationally respected veterinary leader who had spent decades studying and living the human–animal bond, but had never formalized that work into a single, accessible body of thought.
Edwige Robinson is a global technology executive leading digital transformation across Fortune 500 organizations. Recognized as the #3 leader in Telco & Innovation by Mobile Magazine, she is a Forbes Technology Council member, Crain’s Chicago Notable Woman in STEM, 30 Black Stars Pinnacle Award recipient, and finalist for the 2026 Women in Tech Global Awards.
Cheri Mason is the former Chairman of the Board of Veterans’ Appeals at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, where she led one of the largest federal adjudicatory bodies in the country.
Senior global HR executive preparing for a major career transition who had deep experience and research but lacked a structured way to turn it into a defining body of work.
