About

I left college teaching in 1994 to focus full-time on my new career of freelance writing for college/higher education textbook publishers. Since then I’ve written over 200 supplements (also called ancillaries and instructional materials) for college textbooks. My major clients have included Pearson Education (including imprints Prentice Hall, Benjamin Cummings, Allyn & Bacon), Cengage Learning (Wadsworth, Houghton Mifflin, Brooks-Cole), HarperCollins, and McGraw-Hill. I’m also a member of the Text and Academic Authors Association.

I have a M. A. degree in political science from the University of California at Davis, a B. S. degree in biochemistry (highest honors) from the same institution, and an A.S. degree in engineering from Shasta College in Redding, California. I’ve also taken coursework in history, geography, and earth sciences, among other diverse subjects.

I taught American government, international relations, and politics of developing nations at Butte College and Shasta College from 1990 to 1994, and before that I was a teaching assistant for similar courses during my graduate studies at UC Davis. My professional work for college textbook publishers includes creating test banks, instructor’s manuals, student study guides, student companion sites, lecture outlines, educational booklets, PowerPoint ™ presentations, Internet exercises, article exercises, transparencies, video scripts, portions of textbooks, copyediting, proofreading, copywriting for publisher websites, and much more.

I’m also an outdoors writer. I’ve written two hiking guides covering trails in northern California and over 100 newspaper and magazine articles on a variety of outdoors topics from summiting Mount Shasta to white-water rafting to swimming with manta rays in Hawaii.

I live in the Shasta Valley near Mount Shasta in rural northern California with my partner Stephanie. I’m passionate about helping freelance writers be more productive and live happier and fuller lives, and I also love to hike and do tai chi whenever I can.

And check out my John Soares LinkedIn profile for more details on my education and career.

John Soares in a tributary of the upper Sacramento River near Mount Shasta in northern California.

John Soares relaxing in a tributary of the upper Sacramento River near Mount Shasta in northern California.