Lara Jones
Editor
Lara Jones was Senior Editor at Emily Bestler Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, and home to authors such as Colleen Hoover, Lisa Jewell, Fredrik Backman, and Janet Evanovich. She has worked on novels by bestselling authors including John Connolly, Diane Setterfield, Sarah Vaughan, Vince Flynn, and Jodi Picoult.
An Expert Editor
Previously Simon & Schuster
Before joining The Novelry, Lara Jones was senior editor at Emily Bestler Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, home to authors such as Colleen Hoover, Lisa Jewell, Fredrik Backman, and Janet Evanovich. Over her ten-plus years at the imprint, she worked with bestselling authors including Jack Carr, John Connolly, Jennifer Weiner, Diane Setterfield, Will Dean, Brad Thor, Sarah Vaughan, Vince Flynn, and Jodi Picoult.
Lara gained experience across genres and categories, working on everything from romance to horror to thrillers to book club and upmarket novels. She is proud to have been the editor of New York Times bestselling author Kimberly Belle; award-winning author Amy Pease, whose debut Northwoods was a “Book of the Month Club” pick; Bram Stoker Award-nominated Ally Wilkes; national bestseller and Lambda Literary Award winner TJ Alexander; New York Times bestseller Evelyn Skye; and critically acclaimed author Jackie Lau, whose romance Time Loops and Meet Cutes was a New York Times “Best Romance Novels of 2025” pick. Before Simon & Schuster, Lara gained experience at Europa Editions, where she worked on novels by New York Times bestseller Elena Ferrante. Lara is a graduate of the Columbia Publishing Course.
Lara is a firm believer in a collaborative, creative and encouraging editorial process designed to help authors achieve their goals for their novels. She views her role as an editor as that of the best possible reader of a book, providing guidance and care, with an emphasis on open dialogue and support for her authors. Lara brings over a decade of editorial expertise and market knowledge across a variety of genres, and finds it a privilege to be one of the first trusted readers of a manuscript.
“An Editorial Gem”
“Lara was an absolute pleasure to work with; I will truly miss her passion and insight, combined with a winning can-do attitude. I have no idea how I’d have navigated through the perils of debut publishing without such a committed advocate on my side, and have no doubt my books were stratospherically better for every single ounce of her (considerable) input. She’s a gem.” — Ally Wilkes, Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of Man Eater
“I had the absolute pleasure of working with Lara Jones on my adult debut and the novel is better because of her. Not only is Lara smart, intuitive, attentive to the page, and extremely experienced across genres (I’d trust her with all of my novels!), but she’s also an excellent communicator and would put any author at ease. Highly, highly recommend!” — Tara Goedjen, author of Please Enjoy Your Stay
“Lara is everything I hoped for in an editor: a superb editorial eye, honest critiques delivered with sensitivity, and unwavering support for my vision and my voice. She understood that my books were ultimately my stories, told in my way, and she helped me make them the very best versions of themselves.” — Amy Pease, award winning author of The Silence Keepers
Lara’s Genres
- Book Club & Reading Group Fiction
- Crime & Suspense
- Historical Fiction
- Speculative Fiction
- Women’s Fiction
Please note: all genuine emails from Lara Jones will come from @thenovelry.com.
I love to see a writer’s skills grow over the course of the editorial process; there’s nothing more rewarding than working closely with a writer to support their vision and help their novel shine as brightly as possible.
