Book Reviews
The list of judges for the 2012 IRDA’s follow below. Judges for the 2013 IRDA’s will be announced in the next few months and we will strive to secure comparable professionals. If you don’t know who they are–or aren’t familiar with the companies they work for–we encourage you to Google them. They’re that impressive.
Also, please note that we are not just compiling names on a page. Every one of the people listed have agreed to read–and judge–submitted books. Why? For the simple reason that they’re interested in finding talented writers who might otherwise be overlooked. Maybe it’s you.
THE JUDGES
Retailer
Liz Scheier, Editorial Director of Digital Content at Barnes & Noble.com
After a decade as an editor at Random House and Penguin, Liz Scheier is Editorial Director of Digital Content at Barnes & Noble.com. She creates new kinds of text-based, enhanced, and cross-platform content in the digital space, and works on special projects and promotions around ebooks. She is a frequent speaker at conferences and conventions across the country, and teaches workshops on craft, marketing, and new media.
Publishers
Jennifer Bergstrom, Gallery Books, a division of Simon & Schuster
Jennifer Bergstrom is Vice President, Editor-in-Chief of Gallery Books, a division of Simon & Schuster. Jen began her publishing career in the world of children’s books–starting as a Managing Editor of Philomel Books at The Penguin Group, then becoming an Editor at PaperStar Books, and later working as a Senior Editor at Sesame Workshop. At Sesame Workshop, she greatly expanded the publishing and new media divisions and was responsible for a variety of preschool formats for various licenses as well as the launch of a line of Sesame Street nostalgia books for the teen/college market, which included the commemorative 30th anniversary book, Sesame Street Unpaved.
Jen continued her success in children’s publishing when she joined Simon & Schuster’s Simon Spotlight imprint as Editorial Director in 1998. At Simon Spotlight, Jen managed many popular and bestselling licensed properties such as Dora the Explorer, Spongebob SquarePants, and Bob the Builder, turning their related books into mainstays of the children’s book world.
In fall 2004, Jen transitioned into the world of adult publishing when she helped launch Simon Spotlight Entertainment (SSE)–a new imprint targeting the 18-35 year-old demographic. As Vice President and Publisher of Simon Spotlight Entertainment, Jen published a string of New York Times bestsellers including He’s Just Not That Into You by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo; Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler; sTori Telling by Tori Spelling; High on Arrival by Mackenzie Phillips; Happy Endings by Jim Norton; Prairie Tale by Melissa Gilbert; Life with My Sister Madonna by Christopher Ciccone; and more.
In 2009, Pocket Books and SSE combined to form Gallery Books, a new imprint showcasing both fiction and non-fiction, across a variety of genres. Jen was named Vice President, Editor-in-Chief of Gallery Books and in her new role is responsible for the editorial content, growth, and overall development of her division’s varied lists.
Some of Gallery Books’ early successes include the New York Times bestsellers Uncharted TerriTORI by Tori Spelling; Sliding Into Home by Kendra Wilkinson; and Oh My Dog! by Beth Ostrosky Stern. Jen has been hailed as the “reigning publisher” of celebrity memoirs by The Daily Beast and her recent acquisitions include memoirs from Bret Michaels, Johnny Weir, and Kate Jackson, as well as new novels from Lisa Rinna and Star Jones.
Jen has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Barnard College at Columbia University.
Kate Bradley, HarperCollins
Kate Bradley has worked in the UK Book Industry for over 15 years both in retail and direct bookselling. She is now Commissioning Editor at HarperCollins working in the Women’s Fiction area but with a keen interest in all good fiction.
Tanya Hall, Business Development Manager, Greenleaf Book Group
Tanya Hall has a long history in media and is recognized in the fields of business development, distribution and publishing. In her current role, Tanya drives Greenleaf’s business development efforts, working with authors to develop their overall brand messages and publishing programs while also developing strategic partnerships to grow Greenleaf’s reputation as a leading independent publisher. Prior to her current role, she built Greenleaf’s distribution organization, working directly with retailers and wholesalers to develop one of the fastest growing distribution businesses in the industry.
Agents
Clay Ezell/ICM*
After two uninspiring years in the advertising industry, Clay Ezell started with ICM in 2006, where it became his great pleasure to work with dozens of authors placing their short stories, articles, and essays in newspapers and magazines across the country and abroad. He has since been at work developing his own roster of clients, which reflects his – almost – painfully wide taste in reading, and includes writers of literary fiction, upmarket thrillers and crime drama, as well as historians, comedians, journalists and bloggers. A music, food and sports-loving Brooklynite by way of Nashville, Tennessee, he is happy to consider almost anything well-written, adventurous, and informative.
Kristyn Keene/ICM*
Kristyn Keene has been at International Creative Management for the past five years actively building a list consisting of narrative nonfiction, memoir, women’s and YA fiction, pop culture, and humor. She also acts as the liaison for ICM’s partnership with Curtis Brown Ltd in London, which handles foreign and UK rights. She is a graduate of the Columbia Publishing Course and holds a degree in English and writing from the University of California at Santa Barbara
Kari Stuart/ICM*
Kari Stuart has worked for International Creative Management for the past seven years actively building a list consisting of narrative nonfiction, lifestyle books, cookbooks and food memoirs, thrillers, commercial women’s fiction, and YA fiction. Prior to ICM, she worked at CDS Books handling a variety of tasks in editorial, production, promotion and publicity. Kari is a graduate of the Denver Publishing Institute and holds a degree in English and French from Skidmore College.
* With the most prestigious literary publications department in the world, International Creative Management (ICM) represents a wide range of writers, including the authors of best-selling fiction, self-help and non-fiction books, as well as journalists who write for prominent newspapers and magazines. In addition to handling the sale of publication rights, ICM’s literary agents in New York work closely with a team of agents in Los Angeles dedicated exclusively to seeking out opportunities for film and television adaptations.
Joëlle Delbourgo, President and Founder of Joëlle Delbourgo Associates*
Joëlle founded her namesake company in 1999. A highly energetic former publishing executive and editor turned entrepreneur and literary agent, she has devoted more than three decades to identifying and developing literary talent. A passionate bibliophile and advocate for writers, she strives to guide their careers, with an eye to bringing their work to as many readers as possible. She brings in-depth “insider” knowledge of the industry from her prior editorial and executive publishing positions as Senior Vice-President, Editor-in-Chief and Associate Publisher of HarperCollins, Adult Trade Division. Previously, she spent over twenty years in various editorial and executive posts at Bantam and Ballantine Books, divisions of Random House.
* Clients include Democratic National Chair, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (for a forthcoming book), New York Times’ bestselling authors Ashley Rhodes-Courter (THREE LITTLE WORDS) and “The Sneaky Chef” Missy Chase Lapine ; Pulitzer-Prize winning Wall Street Journal writer Geeta Anand, author of THE CURE: How A Father Raised $100 million – And Bucked the Medical Establishment – In a Quest to Save His Children which was made into the film Extraordinary Measures, starring Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser; George Polk Award-winning journalist and Wall Street Journal financial editor and reporter, Ellen E. Schultz, whose RETIREMENT HEIST: How Companies Plunder and Profit from the Nest Eggs of American Workers will be published in September 2011, historians Philip Freeman and Julie M. Fenster.
Publicists
Jocelyn Kelley, Partner, Kelley & Hall Publicity*
Jocelyn Kelley has worked for one of the largest publishing houses in the country. Additionally she has been an independent book reviewer as well as a freelance marketing consultant. Jocelyn is an established freelance journalist for national publications including Glamour, Self, and Elle. Jocelyn has been a frequent contributor to Oprah’s Book Club and has made a number of appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show. A magna cum laude graduate of Emerson College, Jocelyn hosted and produced an Associated Press, award-winning, public affairs radio program.
*Kelley & Hall has been the team behind many successful New York Times Bestselling authors such as Brunonia Barry (The Lace Reader), Lisa Genova (Still Alice), Lauren Belfer (A Fierce Radiance), Michael Palmer, Jacquelyn Mitchard and Chandra Hoffman. Kelley & Hall has been profiled in Publishers Weekly, Self Magazine, The Boston Globe, Boston Herald and The Writer Magazine.
Jessica Glenn, MindBuck Media
Publicist and Owner of MindBuck Media, Jessica builds and executes successful public relations and publicity campaigns for book releases and authors. She works with publishers including AmazonEncore, CBAY, Ink and Paper, Dame Rocket Press, Absey and Co. and more.
Reviewers
Perry Crowe/Kirkus Reviews*
Perry Crowe studied English and writing at the University of Iowa. After graduation, he moved to Los Angeles where he wrote and self-publishing his first novel and worked as a journalist, covering city hall for LA CityBeat, editing the architecture column for New Angeles Monthly and helping launch The Los Angeles Times’ multimedia Guide section. He lives in Brooklyn and, after reviewing nonfiction books for Kirkus, now edits Kirkus’ Indie section.
* Kirkus Reviews was founded in 1933 as Kirkus Bookshop Services. Today, Kirkus Reviews, called “the world’s toughest book critics”, is a powerful resource for millions of readers, writers, librarians, media executives and the publishing industry.
Marilyn Dahl/Shelf Awareness*
Marilyn Dahl is book review editor for the two newsletters published by Shelf Awareness. She has worked at an independent (University Book Store), a wholesaler (Pacific Pipeline) and at Amazon.com. She manages the Shelf’s crack (and sometimes cracked) reviewers, edits the wildly popular Book Brahmin feature, writes the adult Maximum Shelf feature and turns out some reviews, too. It all started with agreeing to review one mystery a month.
* Shelf Awareness publishes two newsletters, one for general readers and one for people in the book business. Shelf Awareness: Enlightenment for Readers, their new newsletter, appears Tuesdays and Fridays and helps readers discover the 25 best books of the week, as chosen by our industry experts. They also have news about books and authors, author interviews and more. Shelf Awareness: Daily Enlightenment for the Book Trade, which we’ve been publishing since June 2005, provides booksellers and librarians the information they need to sell and lend books. It appears every business day and is read by people throughout the book industry.
Nina Sankovitch, www.readallday.org and The Huffington Post
Nina Sankovitch, author of “Tolstoy and the Purple Chair”, attended Tufts University and Harvard Law School. She worked as a litigation associate at a large firm; as a coastal attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council; a consultant to The Nathan Cummings Foundation; and as executive director and president of Save the Sound in Norwalk, Connecticut. Nina currently reviews books on her site www.readallday.org and for The Huffington Post. In June 2011, Harper Collins published Tolstoy and the Purple Chair, a memoir of reading a book a day for one year, and of a lifetime of reading. Nina lives in Connecticut with her four children, one husband, and three cats.
Literary Management/Production Company
Bethany Stirdivant, Book Ends Entertainment
Founding partner at Book Ends Entertainment, an LA-based boutique literary management and production company.
Marketing/Bloggers
MJ Rose, Buzz, Balls & Hype and AuthorBuzz.com.
M.J. Rose is the author of eleven novels and two nonfiction books on marketing. She was one of the founding board members International Thriller Writers and her work has appeared in Oprah, Poets & Writers, and many anthologies. She runs the blogs Buzz, Balls & Hype, and created the first marketing service for authors, AuthorBuzz.com. Called the “Poster Child of E-Books” by Time Magazine and The Today Show, Rose was the first author to self publish a book electronically and get picked up by a traditional publisher.
Journalists/Writers/Authors/Bloggers
Henry Baum
Henry is the founder and editor of the Self-Publishing Review, a central site devoted to news and reviews of independent publishing. He’s the author of the novels North of Sunset (winner of the Hollywood Book Festival Grand Prize), The American Book of the Dead (winner of Best Fiction at the DIY Book Festival & the Gold IPPY Award for Visionary Fiction), and The Golden Calf, released by Another Sky Press. More info at HenryBaum.com.
Paul Biba, Teleread*
A former international corporate lawyer, Paul is TeleRead’s Editor in Chief, iPhone Editor for PalmAddicts and chief U.S. equipment reviewer for GPS Passion. Paul lives in New Jersey and has been mentioned in the New York Times in an article about e-books and the Christian Science Monitor, The Guardian and the Financial Times as well.
* TeleRead is the web’s oldest blog (over 10 years) dealing with ebooks, epublishing, elibraries and, generally, anything books and “e”.
Jeff Rivera
Jeff Rivera is an author and inspirational media personality. He has appeared on national television, radio and print in such outlets as The Boston Globe, Publishers Weekly, Right On! Magazine, Rotarian Magazine, TMZ, WABC, WNBC, WCBS, SITV, American Latino and NPR. He also writes for Mediabistro, GalleyCat and the Huffington Post and has been invited to speak and inspire groups all over the world from South Carolina to Nigeria.
Pamela Redmond Satran
Pamela Satran is the author of six novels, including Suburbanistas, The Man I Should Have Married, Babes in Captivity, The Home for Wayward Supermodels, and Younger, recently optioned by ABC as a television series. Her newest novel, The Possibility of You, the story of three mothers at key moments over the past century, is due out from Simon & Schuster next February. Satran is also the author of the New York Times bestselling humor book How Not To Act Old and a creator of nameberry.com. She cowrites The Glamour List column for Glamour and Back to the Ranch for Park Place, a New Jersey Monthly publication, and also writes for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, and More. She lives with her family in Montclair, where she is the founder of the 800-member Montclair Editors & Writers (MEWS) group. You can find her on the web at pamelaredmondsatran.com and hownottoactold.com, and on twitter @prsatran.
Andrew Stout
Andrew Stout is a writer. His journalism and humor have appeared in Vanity Fair, The Village Voice, and The Atlantic.com. He is a regular contributor to The Economist online.
