Ron Shoop, a former sales representative for Penguin Random House in the San Francisco Bay Area for more than 20 years, died January 16. He was 74.
Shoop was a sales representative in the Bay Area for more than 21 years, working first with Bantam Doubleday Dell and then Random House. He retired in 2016.
He is credited with pioneering the role of the sales rep as a key to community outreach for publicizing new titles. He worked to build relationships throughout the field with authors, media, bloggers, and social media influencers working to launch new writers of all kinds, from literary novelists to bestselling authors. Shoop also worked to train and support a generation of independent booksellers in the Bay Area
Shoop will be remembered as a gentlemen and a professional who was supportive of new reps, optimistic, kind and an inspiration to his colleagues. A memorial service is being organized.
