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Leslie Wells

Goodreads Author

Born

in The United States

Website

Http://www.lesliewellsbooks.com

Genre

Romance, Contemporary, Chick Lit

Member Since

May 2014

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Leslie Wells has edited forty-eight New York Times bestsellers in her over thirty-year career, including thirteen number one New York Times bestsellers. She has worked with numerous internationally known authors, musicians, actors, actresses, television and radio personalities, athletes, and coaches. She lives on Long Island, New York.

More about me:
Growing up in my small town in Virginia, I always had my nose stuck in a book. I devoured everything on my parents’ bookshelves and pillaged our local library. In college, I double majored in English and Music (classical, piano). When I was a senior, my advisor suggested I apply to graduate school in New York City, and then afterwards, maybe I could think about going into book publishing.

Publishi Leslie Wells has edited forty-eight New York Times bestsellers in her over thirty-year career, including thirteen number one New York Times bestsellers. She has worked with numerous internationally known authors, musicians, actors, actresses, television and radio personalities, athletes, and coaches. She lives on Long Island, New York.

More about me:
Growing up in my small town in Virginia, I always had my nose stuck in a book. I devoured everything on my parents’ bookshelves and pillaged our local library. In college, I double majored in English and Music (classical, piano). When I was a senior, my advisor suggested I apply to graduate school in New York City, and then afterwards, maybe I could think about going into book publishing.

Publishing! The minute he said that, it was as if a light bulb exploded over my head. My Master’s at Columbia only took a year, and then I landed my first job as an editorial assistant. The hours were long, you had to do all the editing on nights and weekends, and the pay was abysmal—but I was getting paid to read! Eventually I became a Senior Editor, and later, an Executive Editor. I worked at three publishing houses over two decades, after which I started my own business. Editing is my day job, and I still love it.

I began writing Come Dancing in 2009, on the thirtieth anniversary of my arrival in Manhattan. I wanted to describe what it was like in the years 1979-1981, when the city was still rough along the edges. And when nightclubs like the Palladium, the Roxy, Danceteria, and the Mudd Club attracted a huge mix of people from many different strata of society.

Back then, you could go out dancing and run into just about anyone: actors, politicians, rock musicians. Celebrities weren’t surrounded by bodyguards; the assumption was that if you were allowed into a club, you were cool. No one was going to harass anybody; after all, this was downtown. And there were no cell phones back then. People didn’t walk around with a camera in their pockets 24/7—so if you were famous, you didn’t have to worry about being photographed every time you turned around. That made for a much more open atmosphere, where regular people rubbed shoulders with the glitterati as everyone cut loose on the dance floor.

I also wanted to write about book publishing before the advent of e-readers and computers, when we were all lugging home 400-page manuscripts every night. As with the music biz, the changes have been seismic. Over the years, many people have asked me what editorial meetings are really like—so I’ve included some of those in my novel.

I hope you’ll enjoy Come Dancing!

Thank you,
Leslie

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Combine Editions
Leslie Wells’s books

Average rating: 3.58 · 594 ratings · 170 reviews · 4 distinct works • Similar authors

	Come Dancing (Jack and Julia #1) 3.58 avg rating — 381 ratings — published 2014 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Keep Dancing (Jack and Julia #2) 3.76 avg rating — 92 ratings — published 2015 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Curing Season 3.51 avg rating — 70 ratings — published 2001 — 24 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dancing with Mistletoe: A Holiday Story 3.37 avg rating — 51 ratings — published 2014	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Leslie Wells's Blog

Indie Reader Rave for Come Dancing

Come Dancing’s memorable heroine and witty writing are the cornerstones of this novel.”

IR Verdict: “COME DANCING offers a witty protagonist in a creative, colorful, and charming work, painting exciting portraits of the publishing world, the rock star life, and the ever-bustling New York City before the time of cell phones.”

“COME DANCING is the story of a lovable young book publishe

Series by Leslie Wells

Jack and Julia (2 books)
by

Leslie Wells (Goodreads Author)

3.59 avg rating — 524 ratings

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