SPEAKERS
Eileen Gittins, CEO & Founder | Blurb
Eileen is a publishing and Silicon Valley legend. She launched the beautiful book publisher Blurb in 2006 and today there are over 2 million registered users, nearly 1 million unique book titles, and a global footprint that extends to more than 70 countries.
She was voted Best CEO in the under $100MM revenue category last year and is a regular commentator on publishing in the media.
@BlurbBooks
Gareth Howard, CEO & Founder | Authoright
Gareth is the CEO of leading book marketing and self publishing company, Authoright. He is also the Co-Founder of the London Author Fair. Back in the 'old days' of 2005, Gareth was one of the first modern self publishing 'bestsellers' with his book, Single White Failure. An early supporter of self publishing, he wanted to bring professional book marketing to all authors. Gareth is also the founder of LitFactor, a startup designed to change how authors submit to literary agents.
@AuthorGareth / @Authoright
Julia Coblentz | Senior Marketing Manager | Nook Press at BN.com
Julia is an experienced and tenacious marketer. New York-based Julia has worked in publishing for almost fifteen years, serving as Associate Marketing Director at Random House before joining US book retailer Barnes and Noble in 2010. Julia is responsible for growing B&N's self publishing ebook platform NOOK Press.
@NookBN
Andrew Lownie | The Andrew Lownie Literary Agency
Andrew has been a literary agent since 1985, and became the youngest director in UK publishing the following year. He set up Andrew Lownie Literary Agency in 1988 and has an impressive list of mainly non-fiction clients. He is an author himself, has written and reviewed for a range of newspapers and magazines, and founded The Biographers' Club Prize.
@AndrewLownie
Porter Anderson | Journalist, Publishing Perspectives
Porter Anderson (@Porter_Anderson) is a career journalist working with the likes of CNN, the Village Voice and The Bookseller.
Anderson’s weekly Porter Anderson Meets column appears in the The Bookseller magazine in London on Fridays. He also writes the awesome Issues on the Ether for Frankfurt Book Fair's Publishing Perspectives.
@Porter_Anderson
Professor John Thompson |
Cambridge University
John is a world's leading authority on the publishing industry. One key area of his research focuses on the changing structure of the book publishing industry. In 2010 he published a seminal text on this area, called Merchants of Culture. John is unusual because, whilst an academic, he is also a publisher, having set up Polity Press 30 years ago.
Kate Pullinger | Literary Prize Winner
& Bath Spa University
Kate Pullinger writes novels, short stories and digital fiction, including multimedia collaborative works. Her novel, The Mistress of Nothing, won Canada's most prestigious literary prize, the Govenor General's Award for Fiction in 2009. Currently at Bath Spa, she teaches undergraduates, MA and PhD students. At PhD level, she is developing a cohort of Digital Writing students. Her new novel, Landing Gear, is an expansion of her digital work, Flight Paths, and will be published in 2014 (Doubleday Random House / Touchstone Simon and Schuster).
@katepullinger
Sheila Bounford | Publishing Expert
Sheila is a former Executive Director of the UK’s Independent Publisher’s Guild (IPG). She has played pivotal roles in a number of changing organisations in the industry. She is currently particularly interested in how HTML5 and mobile mean that publishing is not just about content, but has become about curated dissemination, and value-add.
@SheilaB01
Matt Cain | Former Channel 4
TV Presenter & Author
Matt became Channel 4's first ever Culture Editor in July 2010 after seven years working on The South Bank Show, where he made films on Ian McKellen, Sam Taylor-Wood and Carol Ann Duffy. He attracted acclaim for his coverage of the Orange Prize, the Mercury Music Prize and the Turner Prize, as well as interviews with Grayson Perry, Pedro Almodóvar and Emeli Sandé, and an exclusive look inside Lucian Freud's studio following the artist's death. His first novel, Shot Through the Heart, has just been published by Pan Macmillan.
@MattCainWriter
Ruth Jones | Director Publisher Business Development, Ingram
Ingram is a world market leader in distribution, print-on-demand and digital solutions. Ruth has over 22 years of experience in the publishing, library and electronic information industries. She joined Ingram from the British Library where she was Head of Product Development, responsible for the development of information products and services. Prior to that, Ruth was General Manager of Extenza e-Publishing, and has extensive sales, marketing and editorial experience gained predominantly in the academic and business education markets.
Simon Skinner | Sales Director, Nielsen BookData
Simon is responsible for sales of Nielsen BookData Services worldwide, including Asia Pacific and has been involved in the world of metadata for many years. He also manages the UK & Ireland Registration Agencies, covering ISBN, SAN and ISTC (International Standard Text Code).He started with Whitaker in 1993, which became Nielsen in 2006. Prior to that he worked for a children’s publisher (Child’s Play) and started his book trade career working for Hammick’s.
Russell Harding | Creative / Game Director at Sony Entertainment
Russ is a Creative/Game Director at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe where he is responsible for the development of Wonderbook™ Book of Spells & Book of Potions alongside the creative collaboration with J.K. Rowling.
Russ has spent over 20years specialising in the development of interactive entertainment for children and families across a wide range of media, from robotics, toys, web, multimedia & video games.
@russhar
Darren Hardy | Head of Vendor Management - Books, Amazon
Darren started his career in publishing working at retailer, Blackwell. He has worked at Amazon since 2004
Patrick Brown, Director of Author Marketing | Goodreads
Patrick Brown is director of author marketing for Goodreads, the largest book recommendation website in the world. He heads the Goodreads Author Program, which now features more than 90,000 authors. He's spoken about publishing and online marketing at Book Expo America, the Frankfurt Book Fair, the London Book Fair, Digital Book World, and the LA Times Festival of Books.
@PatrickRBrown | @goodreads
Diego Marano | Kobo Writing Life
Diego is Manager of Kobo Writing Life in the UK - Kobo’s self publishing platform. Marano previously worked in publishing, including for John Wiley, and at bookseller Waterstones.
Since its launch in July of last year, Kobo Writing Life has attracted more than 17,600 authors who have published more than 100,000 titles available in 184 countries and in 54 languages.
@KoboWritingLife
Hayley Radford | Authoright
Director of Marketing & Co-Founder
Hayley is a journalist by trade and worked in broadcasting for a decade before founding Authoright with Gareth Howard.
She has worked for The Sun, The Times and Time Out Magazine on their multi-media content and has produced and presented documentaries for BBC Radio's 2 and 4. As a publicist, her clients have appeared on BBC Radio 4, BBC Breakfast, The Daily Mail and The Times Literary Supplement, among others.
@authoright
Camille | Manager EU
Kobo Writing Life
Camille has working across the publishing industry for almost a decade. At Kobo she's able to combine her editorial skills and her expertise in digital publishing, as well as indulging her love of working with authors directly. From her base in Paris, Camille is responsible for developing the Kobo Writing Life platform across the European markets, accompanying KWL authors and publishers in their publication strategy.
@KoboWritingLife
Adele Parks | Bestselling Author
Adele is a bestselling commercial women's and historical fiction author. She has sold over 2.5 million copies of her novels in the UK and her books have been translated into 27 languages. She has written 13 novels in 13 years and all of them have been Times top ten bestsellers.
@AdeleParks
Gordon Wise | Literary Agent
Curtis Brown
Gordon is a super-agent with leading agency, Curtis Brown. A compelling speaker, Gordon tells it how it is. He represents a wide range of authors from Winston Churchill to comic of the moment Miranda Hart and 'Luther's' Neil Cross. Not to be missed.
@gordonwise
Polly Courtney |
Bestselling Self Published Author
Polly is a bestselling self published author. She infamously walked out on her traditional publisher in 2011 in order to be true to her work and to be an indie author. She has a fortnightly slot on Sky News and often appears on the BBC and Channel 4 News. Polly gives regular talks on the future of publishing and is a keen advocate of self-publishing.
@PollyCourtney
Anya Saunders | BBC |
Writer, Producer & Director
Anya has worked extensively on BBC 2's Culture Show. As a programme maker, her career highlights have included working with Andrew Motion, Jane Campion and Peter Ackroyd. Anya is currently the lead producer on the BBC's interactive ebook pilot project, exploring new creative possibilities for text, images and audio.
Holly Bennion | Wileys
As the Commissioning Editor at Wiley, the UK’s #1 business publisher, Holly works with some of the country’s most successful non-fiction authors. She has spent 10 years editing and publishing books and working with authors to get the best out of their work. She is always seeking out leading experts in their field, and helping them to share their story, build their reputation and create a bestseller.
@HollyBennion
Anna Lewis | CompletelyNovel & Valobox
Anna is the founder of self publishing hub CompletelyNovel and the ebook sharing platform, Valobox.
@anna_cn
Suzanne Baboneau | MD, Adult Publishing at Simon & Schuster
Suzanne Baboneau started in publishing in 1980 working for the Fiction Editor at Pan Books. She has since worked at Hamish Hamilton and Macmillan before joining Simon & Schuster UK in 2000. Her publishing career has always been in Editorial and she is now Managing Director of the Adult Publishing Division at S&S UK. Her main love is fiction and memoir and she has worked with a wide-ranging list of authors including Wilbur Smith, Ken Follett, Philippa Gregory, Tom Rob Smith, Lynda La Plante, Jackie Collins, Philipp Meyer and Richard Madeley.
Philip Jones | Editor, The Bookseller
Philip is editor-in-chief of the weekly print edition of leading British trade magazine The Bookseller, which enjoys a circulation of 50,000 amongst publishing professionals and the writing community, with over 60,000 unique visitors to its website each month. Philip has also served as Managing Editor at Nielsen Business Media since 1996.
@philipDSjones
WORKSHOPS
Ben Galley, ShelfHelp |
Self Publishing
Ben Galley is the author of the epic and gritty fantasy series - The Emaneska Series. He is also the founder of SHELF HELP - a website dedicated to providing advice about writing, self-publishing, and marketing.
Ben is incredibly zealous about sharing his passion and expertise with upcoming writers.
@BenGalley
Dan Holloway | Poet & Journalist
Dan is a poet, novelist, journalist, and organiser of Not the Oxford Literary Festival. He is a winner of several poetry slams and the international spoken word event Literary Death Match. Dan hosts and performs with the touring spoken word troupe The New Libertines who have delighted festivals and fringes across the UK for the past three years. He is a regular commentator, journalist and panelist on the subject of self-publishing, and his latest book is "Self-publish With Integrity".
James Wharton |
Bestselling Author and Consultant
James is a former soldier and author consultant. His debut book - Out in the Army, My Life as a Gay Soldier - was one of the crucial titles of 2013. James was a soldier in the Household Cavlary and when he took his first job on Civvy Street, he knew he wanted to help other authors. James joined Authoright in 2013 as an Author Consultant.
Polly Courtney |
Bestselling Self Published Author
Polly is a bestselling self published author. She infamously walked out on her traditional publisher in 2011 in order to be true to her work and to be an indie author. She has a fortnightly slot on Sky News and often appears on the BBC and Channel 4 News. Polly gives regular talks on the future of publishing and is a keen advocate of self-publishing..
Hellie Ogden | Janklow & Nesbit Literary Agency
Hellie Ogden is a literary agent at Janklow & Nesbit UK, and has significant experience across the publishing industry, having previously worked as a publisher at Penguin, a literary agent at Greene & Heaton, and with literary scout Anne Louise Fisher. Hellie's list covers both fiction and non-fiction, and she also represents work on behalf of US agents. Hellie chairs the Events Committee for the Association of Authors' Agents.
@HellieOgden
Helen Bryant | Editor
Helen is one of the great minds behind the legendary Cornerstones Literary Consultancy.
Helen is an incredibly experienced editor. She will be talking you through the key steps in editing your manuscript, why it's important and how to get the most out of your editor.
Hayley Radford | Authoright
Director of Marketing & Co-Founder
Hayley is a journalist by trade and worked in broadcasting for a decade before founding Authoright with Gareth Howard.
She has worked for The Sun, The Times and Time Out Magazine on their multi-media content and has produced and presented documentaries for BBC Radio's 2 and 4. As a publicist, her clients have appeared on BBC Radio 4, BBC Breakfast, The Daily Mail and The Times Literary Supplement, among others.
Adele Parks | Bestselling Author
Adele is a bestselling commercial women's author. She has sold over a million copies of her novels in the UK and her books have been translated into over fifteen languages. Husbands has sold over a quarter of a million copies and her other six novels, including Playing Away and The Other Woman’s Shoes, have all been top ten bestsellers.
Patrick Brown, Director of Author Marketing | Goodreads
Patrick Brown is director of author marketing for Goodreads, the largest book recommendation website in the world. He heads the Goodreads Author Program, which now features more than 90,000 authors. He's spoken about publishing and online marketing at Book Expo America, the Frankfurt Book Fair, the London Book Fair, Digital Book World, and the LA Times Festival of Books.
Piers Blofeld | Sheil Land Literary Agency
Piers is a literary agent at Sheil Land Associates where he represents a number of high profile, prize winning and internationally bestselling authors. These include Nadine Dorries MP, Jamie Thomson, winner of the 2012 Roald Dahl Funny Prize; Su Quinn and J.S. Taylor whose novels have both topped kindle charts in the US and UK several times this year and who have each sold well over 100,000 copies in the last year alone.
@pblofeld
Roz Morris | Bestselling Author
Roz is a bestselling author, editor and writing coach. She is also a prolific ghost writer, we can't tell you which books she writes but you'd know them well and each has sold over 500,000 copies!
Roz will be joined on her Workshop by her husband, Dave Morris, who is also a bestselling author.
@Roz_Morris
LITERARY AGENTS
Jessie Botterill | Janklow & Nesbit
Literary Agency
Jessie joined Janklow & Nesbit in 2010, shortly after graduating from Leeds University with a degree in English Literature. As well as building up her own list of fiction and non-fiction authors, she handles audio rights, permissions and the sale of foreign rights across a number of different territories
Andrew Lownie | The Andrew Lownie Literary Agency
Andrew has been a literary agent since 1985, and became the youngest director in UK publishing the following year. He set up Andrew Lownie Literary Agency in 1988 and has an impressive list of mainly non-fiction clients. He is an author himself, has written and reviewed for a range of newspapers and magazines, and founded The Biographers' Club Prize.
Yasmin Standen | The Standen Literary Agency
Before setting up her agency, Yasmin originally practised law - a skill that must greatly benefit her author clients when she's negotiating their publishing contracts!
Yasmin is interested in all genres of writing including adult and children’s fiction, literary or fantasy fiction.
Ajda Vucicevic | Luigi Bonomi Literary Agency
Ajda is an agent at leading London agency LBA. She started working for the bookseller Blackwells whilst at university and it was here that her passion for literature grew - she says she simply loved uniting people with books. Ajda is always on the lookout for outstanding new voices in fiction and is particularly interested in literary works with original plot lines and a commercial edge: literary fiction, women’s fiction, YA and narrative non-fiction.
Meg Davis | The Ki Agency
Meg is an established agent, representing authors and scriptwriters, as well as film/TV rights for some other agencies.
Having set up her own company, Ki Agency Ltd, Meg’s clients include bestselling authors Anne Perry and Simon Scarrow, and author/scriptwriters Mike Carey and Stephen Davis.
Career highlights include serving as Secretary for the Association of Authors’ Agents, and as co-Chair of the Dramatists’ section of the PMA. Currently she is Chair of the Writers’ Organisations Advisory Group, and is the external examiner for the post-graduate scriptwriting course at Sheffield Hallam.
@AgentMegDavis
David Headley | D H H Agency
David studied theology in London and Durham before co-founding and becoming the Managing Director of Goldsboro Books, a much admired independent bookseller, based in central London.
In 2008, David founded the D H H agency which is based in London and represents an eclectic range of best-selling and award-winning authors, including novelists, historians, short-story writers and children’s authors.
Hellie Ogden | Janklow & Nesbit Literary Agency
Hellie Ogden is a literary agent at Janklow & Nesbit UK, and has significant experience across the publishing industry, having previously worked as a publisher at Penguin, a literary agent at Greene & Heaton, and with literary scout Anne Louise Fisher. Hellie's list covers both fiction and non-fiction, and she also represents work on behalf of US agents. Hellie chairs the Events Committee for the Association of Authors' Agents.
@HellieOgden
Oli Munson | AM Heath
After nine years at the Blake Friedmann Literary Agency, Oli joined A.M.Heath in 2012. His client list includes award-winning, bestselling authors of crime, suspense and speculative fiction and I’m always on the hunt for novels with high concept plots, compelling characters and interesting locations: books that stand at the crossroads of different genres. Oli has given talks to various writers' groups both home and abroad, university courses and is a Frankfurt Book Fair Fellow in 2010.
@oliagent
Laura West | David Higham Agency
After stints working at Waterstones and the Lamb Bookshop post-university Laura took a job in the Film & TV department at DHA. It was a short while before she landed where she wanted to be – in the book department. Laura is currently building a list of all types of fiction and non-fiction. She is always on the look-out for a bright new voices, especially children’s and YA.
Lorella Belli | The Lorella Belli Agency
Lorella worked for various publishers and literary agencies before setting up her own agency in 2002. The Lorella Belli Literary Agency is particularly interested in first-time authors, journalists, multi-cultural writing and books with international appeal and potential. Lorella represents several award-winning and bestselling authors of both fiction (from literary to genre to YA) and general non-fiction. We also sells UK rights on behalf of a number of US co-agents and handle translation rights for British publishers, agencies and successful self-published authors.
Jemima Hunt | The Writers' Practice
The Writers' Practice is headed by Jemima Hunt, a writer, editor and agent who has worked in London, New York and Rio de Janeiro. She is interested in commercial and literary fiction and specialises in memoir and narrative non-fiction.
