Independent publishing often involves wearing many hats. A small publication may require the same person to write an article, edit submissions, prepare advertisements, design a page, and handle production. That was particularly common before digital publishing became widespread. Joelle Steele’s career developed in this setting, moving between commercial writing, magazine production, editing, illustration, publishing, and teaching. Her professional portfolio includes over 800 articles, 59 books, 34 ghostwritten books, and more than 100 contracts. She has also written short stories, advertising copy, interviews, advice columns, and other commissioned work. Her topics have ranged from publishing and small businesses to horticulture, genealogy, photography, and writing.
Steele entered professional writing through advertising and illustration. She served as a senior illustrator and copywriter for Valentine Urgo & Associates part-time from 1971 to 1973. In 1973, she wrote her first article and short story. Over the next two years, she joined Torrey-Matlock Publications in San Mateo as creative director and vice president. This role included both editing and production. From 1974 to 1977, she also served as a producer and co-owner of a recording studio in Portola Valley.
Magazine and newspaper assignments became a continuing part of her work. Her list of publications includes the Monterey Herald, Park Place Publications, Key Magazine, Cats Magazine, I Love Cats, Body Mind & Spirit, Mensa Bulletin, New Age Journal, Artist’s Magazine, Service Business, Shopping Center World, and Michigan Lawyers Weekly. She has also published articles on gardens, interiorscapes, landscaping services, and small business issues. The content has changed because much of the work was freelance. One piece might cover trade practices or services, while the next might cover animals, arts, writing, or consumer-related issues. Other material includes editorials, illustrations, movie reviews, marketing materials, interviews, and advice columns.
Her work gained importance in the 80s. In 1983, Steele began marketing her own pre-printed legal forms to contractors and other small businesses via advertisements in trade magazines. Based on the historical information, it appears she produced 88 such forms in total. In 1994, Steele made them all electronic and customizable in Microsoft Word. Steele’s publications include New Leaf Press and Landscape Pro, where she was the publisher and editor from 1983 to 1994. She served as publisher and editor of Songsmith Magazine from 1985 to 1991 and Golden Opportunities Magazine from 1987 to 1992. From 1994 to 2001, she published and edited California Astrologer Magazine, and from 1997 to 2002, she published and edited Folio for Professional Writers.
Other editorial assignments were connected to organizations rather than commercial publishing houses. From 1985 to 1997, Steele co-edited Interiorscape Newsletter, a publication of Moore Consulting. Between 2001 and 2006, she volunteered as co-editor of The Quarterly, the newsletter of the Swedish Finn Historical Society. She also worked on the 2001 and 2002 Monterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce Membership Directory and Business Referral Guide. From 1999 to 2005, she did marketing writing, advertising design, and production for Central Coast Adventures. These jobs went beyond proofreading. They involved preparing material for publication and, in some cases, handling the visual and commercial elements.
Academic editing formed another specialized branch of the work. From 1997 through 2005, Steele edited theses for the Defense Language Institute and the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey. The latter is a graduate institution operated by the U.S. Navy and occupies a 627-acre campus in Monterey. Its programs include master’s and doctoral education for military personnel, government employees, and other eligible students. Steele’s work was therefore different from her magazine assignments, involving academic manuscripts rather than general-interest copy. She also worked as a part-time proofreader for Monterey County Weekly from 2004 to 2005. From 2001 to 2003, she was listed as a creative director for outside projects associated with the Monterey County Herald.
Visual art was often combined with writing. From 1976 to 2003, she illustrated, photographed, and designed graphics for covers, advertisements, and website banners. She created ads for restaurants and companies, as well as brochures, business cards, forms, and book and CD covers. Her commercial clients included Benihana, Hog’s Breath Inn, Old Fisherman’s Grotto, Bahama Billy’s, Mizu Sushi, Sticks at the Inn, Passionfish, Pacific’s Edge, and other businesses in the Monterey area. She also designed business cards and other similar materials for individuals and small businesses. In 2000 and 2001, she worked part-time as a webmaster for Asilomar Conference Grounds, where she created historical website materials and found photos for the original site.
The arrival of the web changed how some of these activities were distributed. Steele created joellesteele.com in 1994 and has maintained it, while also creating websites for other users. Her professional record identifies web development as a separate occupation beginning in 1994. By the mid-1990s, her contract form had evolved from mail-order print ads into downloadable, customizable documents. She later applied electronic publishing to her books and other written material. This development was not meant to replace the former methods of publishing, but to add another way to distribute them. Ultimately, the website gathered all material related to her books, articles, contracts, advice columns, photographs, artwork, and other information from her career.
Her teaching has been an integral part of her career as a writer and publisher since 1983. She began teaching extended education with a poetry-writing class at UCLA, followed by courses at Fullerton College on writing articles and books. In the Monterey Bay area, she taught at California State University, Monterey Bay from 1998 to 2003, where she taught subjects including making a living as a writer and genealogy.She began teaching in Washington State in 2006 and continued through 2026, with classes generally held on Saturdays. At The Evergreen State College, she taught book writing, article writing, publishing, and genealogy from 2006 to 2008.
At Pierce College’s three campuses, she taught from 2006 to 2016, covering web design and HTML; writing and novel writing as a career; getting published; landscape design; genealogy; cat care; introductory astrology; and making a living as an artist, among other subjects.She taught at Centralia College from 2007 to 2026, primarily covering writing, getting published, and genealogy. At Tacoma Community College, she taught writing and publishing courses in 2009, while South Seattle College hosted her writing, publishing, and genealogy classes from 2010 to 2013.
Her lectures have covered small business, publishing, astrology, and horticulture. She has also taught adult and continuing education courses on writing, publishing, genealogy, horticulture, small business management, web page design, HTML & CSS, art, and more. Her extended teaching record therefore includes UCLA, Fullerton College, California State University, Monterey Bay, University of California, Riverside, The Evergreen State College, Pierce College, Centralia College, Tacoma Community College, and South Seattle College.
Her earlier work at the University of California, Riverside also included serving as co-coordinator and instructor for an interior landscaping program from 1985 to 1988.She also served as a marketing panelist on a KBIZ Radio small-business call-in program from 1985 to 1987. From 1983 to 1997, she traveled throughout the United States, Canada, and England, giving presentations on small business, horticulture, and astrology.
After moving to Washington in 2005, Steele continued writing, editing, and web and digital production while focusing on book-related work, contracts, and e-publishing. She worked as an adjunct faculty member at colleges in Washington and continued producing books and other publications. Her final known teaching class took place in May of 2026. By this time, her career, which began in the 1970s with illustration and copywriting, had spanned newspapers, magazines, independent publishing, academic editing, graphic design, websites, and adult education. Through it all, she kept writing. Joelle Steele’s professional life reflects a career built not around one publishing job, but across a range of writing-related tasks.
