Francesca Zunino Harper is a linguist, translator, and publishing professional. She worked in the British and international academia researching on comparative literatures, translation, and women’s and environmental humanities for several years. She now works in the Humanities and Social Sciences area of publishing. You can follow her @ZuninoFrancesca.
Janneke Niessen is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, board member and mentor for startups. She has started and sold 2 international tech companies and is currently working on her third: Berlage. She is co-initiator of InspiringFifty, an initiative that aims to increase diversity in tech by making female role models more visible. As part of the InspiringFifty initiative, Janneke has published Project Prep, a novel for young girls in conjunction with an award winning child book’s author. Jannekke will be joining our panel at BookMachine Unplugged 2018: Talking Tech.
Typefi is a global leader in single-source automated publishing software for print, web and mobile, enabling people to publish their content in more formats—and up to 80% faster—without compromising on design or content integrity.
A literary agent for 14 years, Yasmin Kane set up her own publishing house, Three Hares Publishing, in 2014. A firm believer that you need to move with your times, Yasmin strives to be at the cusp of change in a continuously evolving and fast-paced industry. Her agency, Kane Literary Agency, specialises in thought-provoking YA and children’s fiction, whereas Three Hares publishes adult, YA and children’s fiction.
Esther Harris is an Editor and PR with Bookollective.
Thea Lenarduzzi is a commissioning editor at the TLS and the co-host of Freedom, Books, Flowers and the Moon, the TLS’s weekly podcast. She is also a freelance writer and, slightly sporadically, the literary editor at Five Books.
Nick Coveney is Co-chair of Pride in Publishing and Publisher Relations and Content Lead – U.K. & ANZ at Rakuten Kobo Inc. Nick has more than eight years’ experience in a variety of digital roles in the publishing industry, working with bestselling authors and leading brands to digitally bring their content to life. Nick is co-chair of Pride in Publishing and regularly volunteers with LGBTQ charities including Diversity Role Models, StonewallUK and the Albert Kennedy Trust. He is also involved in LGBTQ inclusive sports as a member of Charlton Athletic Invicta FC and London Otters’ rowing club. Follow Nick on Twitter: @nmjcoveney @prideinpub
“A publishing house is a fragile organism, dear sir,” he says. “If at any point something goes askew, then the disorder spreads, chaos opens beneath our feet. Forgive me, won’t you? When I think about it I have an attack of vertigo.” And he covers his eyes, as if pursued by the sight of billions of pages, lines, words, whirling in a dust storm.”
Italo Calvino, If On a Winter’s Night a Traveller
Starting her interview with this great quote as she’s a passionate Calvino devotee, Maria Giovanna Brauzzi is Assistant Editor on the Education list at Bloomsbury Academic. Francesca Zunino Harper asked her some questions to know more about what working at an academic publisher involves on a day to day basis.
Sara O’Connor worked in children’s publishing for 13 years and is now a full-time web developer. Frustrated with the cost and creative limitations of outsourcing good digital ideas (check out this article), she decided to retrain as a programmer. She now works with Emma Barnes at Consonance (the new name for Bibliocloud), helping to build the software she wished she had when she worked in publishing. Sara will be joining our panel at BookMachine Unplugged 2018: Talking Tech.
Emma Barnes taught herself to code after founding her own independent publisher, Snowbooks. She went on to build Bibliocloud, the next-generation publishing system. Now she’s on a mission to promote tech skills within the publishing industry and beyond.
Nick Barreto works where books and technology intersect. He’s managed and built apps, is as an expert on ebook formats, metadata and workflows. He is committed to automating all the repetitive tasks to free up more time for the work that matters. Nick is one of Canelo’s co-founders and the Technology Director. @nickbarreto
Karen Haller has over 20 years of experience studying and working with colour. Karen is regularly asked to comment on colour stories in local and national magazines, newspapers, radio and TV. She is a contributing author of the leading industry book Colour Design: Theories and Applications on Colour in Interiors. She is currently writing her first book.
Brittany Yost is a student at University College London pursuing her Masters in Publishing. She received her undergraduate degree in English Literature and Communication Studies with an emphasis in Intercultural Communications. She has served on two separate professional diversity committees and has been leading inclusivity and bias training seminars since 2010. She is originally from Seattle but enjoys venturing between her home city and London.
Derek Owusu is a writer, podcaster, and mentor from Tottenham. He realised his passion for literature aged 23 while studying Exercise Science at University. Before then, he had never read a book cover-to-cover, his introduction to literature coming via a short story by D.H. Lawrence called ‘St Mawr’. Discovering literature was a revelation that came too late for his university path, so instead of switching course, he snuck into English literature lectures at The University of Manchester.
