Jennifer Emmett
National Geographic Kids and Family
Jennifer Emmett
Vice President for Content
National Geographic Kids and Family
Jennifer Emmett is vice president for content in the Kids and Family division at National Geographic, overseeing National Geographic Kids and National Geographic Little Kids magazines, the National Geographic Kids book program, plus websites and video for kids. National Geographic encourages kids to learn about the world and how it works, so they can make it a better place. National Geographic’s products, programs and experiences promote attitudes of curiosity, responsibility and empowerment as well as skills of observation, communication, collaboration and problem solving.
Emmett has worked at National Geographic since 1997. She has edited more than 100 nonfiction titles for children, including “Wheels of Change,” by Sue Macy, “Marching to the Mountaintop,” by Ann Bausum, the “National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry,” by J. Patrick Lewis, and the “National Geographic Kids Almanac.”
Before editing, Emmett was a researcher for the children’s television program “Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?” for two seasons. While earning her M.A. in English literature from Boston College, she taught English composition and interned at Little, Brown and Company. in their children’s book department. She’s a graduate of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with her husband, three children and a dog.
Kate Keating
Random House Children’s Books
Kate Keating
Director of Digital Marketing
Random House Children’s Books
Kare Keating oversees the Digital Marketing department at Random House Children’s Books, the largest trade publisher in the world. Her team is responsible for digital campaigns for over 700 titles annually, which includes strategy, execution and analytic reporting for all brand websites, social media, and email marketing as well as strategic partnerships with PRH corporate communities such as ReadBrightly.com. Most recently this summer, Kate’s team launched Random House’s first teen targeted community, Underlined (GetUnderlined.com), the first of its kind publisher-run website focusing on engaging teens through a website destination, social channels and email via teen lifestyle content. The site already has an email database of 115k subscribers and monthly traffic of 90k+.
Kate came to RHCB from over 6 years at L’Oréal USA, where she was the Director of Social Media for the luxury skincare brand Kiehl’s, developing its digital team and strategy from scratch, working in tandem with their e-commerce, marketing, and PR teams to drive their digital strategy across all of the brand’s touchpoints; prior to Kiehl’s, Kate oversaw media, publicity, and social strategy in the professional haircare division of L’Oréal. as Before joining the beauty industry, Kate was an Account Supervisor at Coburn Communication, where she was developing PR and social programs for various publishing and beauty clients. Kate started her career at Simon & Schuster, where she worked in Publicity for the kids group.
Allison Hellegers
Rights People
Allison Hellegers
Director
Rights People
Based in New York City, Allison joined the Rights People team as a Director and North American co-agent in June 2009. Allison handled all international rights for Alloy Entertainment and was previously a literary scout with Barbara Tolley & Associates. She has worked in children’s publishing for over 16 years.
Jennifer A. Perry
Sesame Workshop
Jennifer A. Perry
VP and Publisher
Sesame Workshop
Jennifer A. Perry is Vice President and Publisher of North America Media Products at Sesame Workshop, home to Sesame Street and other children’s television properties. Perry oversees strategic partnerships for several media-based business units, including publishing, DVD, streaming video, apps, music, and museums. Sesame Workshop’s mission is to help kids grow smarter, stronger, and kinder, so Perry’s goal is to maximize educational impact and audience reach with an emphasis on innovation, personalization, and new technologies and channels. Sesame Workshop will celebrate its milestone 50th anniversary in 2019, so Perry is focused on finding product and distribution partnerships to keep this uniquely influential and beloved brand relevant for kids and adults far into the 21st century. Her favorite Sesame Street character is Grover—who’s yours?
Jill Grinberg
Jill Grinberg Literary Management
Jill Grinberg
President
Jill Grinberg Literary Management
Jill Grinberg is the founder and President of Jill Grinberg Literary Management and has worked in publishing for the past two decades. She started in the publicity department at HarperCollins, where she serendipitously became publicist for (then) debut author Amy Bloom. Amy helped Jill recognize her passion for author advocacy and book development from the ground up and suggested agenting might well be her calling, for which Jill is eternally grateful. She went on to become a founding partner of Anderson Grinberg Literary Management, and formed her own firm, Jill Grinberg Literary Management, in 2006. JGLM represents a diverse and carefully cultivated list of quality children's and adult writers. Jill began to build her children's book list back in 1997 when Garth Nix came to her with his new novel,
Sabriel. Her children's list ranges from picture books to chapter books to middle grade novels to YA and teen crossover. Her authors include John Bemelmans Marciano, Jennifer Holm, Kirby Larson, Deborah Noyes, Andy Griffiths, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Jaclyn Moriarty, Catherine Gilbert Murdock, Justine Larbalestier, Margo Lanagan, Melina Marchetta, Garth Nix, Scott Westerfeld, and Marissa Meyer.
The agency's reading tastes are wide-ranging, born out of deep curiosity about the world and a passion for great writing. Our authors are novelists, historians, and scientists; memoirists and journalists; illustrators and musicians; cultural critics and humanitarians. They have won major awards--including the Printz Award, the Newbery Honor Award, the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize--and regularly appear on national and international bestseller lists. The agency has had 23 books hit the
New York Times list in the past five years, with four at #1. We aren't ruled by trends, but.we do remain current. Our authors typically transcend "category" and are united by the high quality of their writing, strong authentic voices, originality, dedication, and brilliant storytelling. We like to say that if we were to gather our authors in one room, it would be the best kind of cocktail party.
Lori Benton
Scholastic Trade Publishing
Lori Benton
Vice President and Publisher
Scholastic Trade Publishing
Lori Benton is the Vice President & Group Publisher for the Trade Publishing division of Scholastic Inc, and President of Scholastic Audio and Weston Woods. Scholastic Inc is a global children's publishing, education and media company. In this capacity, Lori oversees the direction as well as the digital strategy of the publishing program for all imprints of the Trade division. Prior to joining Scholastic, Benton was Vice President, Publisher of the Children’s Books Division at Harcourt; Associate Publisher, Director of Marketing for Henry Holt Books for Young Readers; and Associate Marketing Director for the children’s book division at William Morrow & Company. Benton also spent thirteen years as the children’s book buyer at The Book Shop in Boise, Idaho.
Mary Ann Naples
Disney Book Group
Mary Ann Naples
Vice President and Publisher
Disney Book Group
Mary Ann Naples is the Vice President and Publisher of the Disney Book Group, part of Publishing & Digital Media at The Walt Disney Company. She was previously SVP, Publisher for Rodale Books and Rodale Wellness, and throughout her career has held various leadership positions including chief of business development for Zola Books; vice president of Talent and Business Development at OpenSky, and co-founder of The Creative Culture, Inc., a boutique literary agency. She has also held various editorial positions at Simon & Schuster, Hyperion and Doubleday. Naples holds a BA from Cornell and an MA from University of Virginia. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Kate Wilson
Managing Director
Nosy Crow
Kate Wilson has worked in the publishing industry, mainly in children’s books, for thirty years. She is the founder and managing director of Nosy Crow Ltd, a London-based, independent children’s publishing company, publishing books for children between the ages of 0 and 12. The company also creates and publishes digital products, including multi-award-winning apps. Nosy Crow is currently the British Book Awards Children’s Publisher of the Year and the Independent Publishers Guild’s Children’s Publisher of the Year. After just seven years of sales, it is the 13th biggest children’s publisher in the UK based on Nielsen’s UK data, while over half of the company’s revenue comes from outside the UK. Nosy Crow buys world rights in all languages, and is a publisher that very much participates in the creative process, often coming up with formats and texts in-house. The company has exclusive publishing partnerships with two prestigious UK organizations, The British Museum and The National Trust. Prior to founding Nosy Crow, Kate ran Scholastic UK Ltd and, before that Macmillan Children’s Books in the UK.
Kelly Farber
President
KF Literary
Kelly Farber, American literary scout, works on behalf of fifteen formidable foreign publishers finding strong projects from the US and worldwide for them to publish in their territories, and is passionate about bringing great books to international readers. After interning at The Gernert Company, she landed a foreign rights job at Sterling Lord Literistic, where she was able to combine her passion and burgeoning knowledge of publishing with her love of travel and international affairs. At Sterling Lord, she was promoted to rights manager for the children's and YA list. Afterward, she worked as a scout for Barbara Tolley & Associates. In 2013, Kelly went forward to found KF Literary Scouting, seizing an opportunity to create a young, energetic business entity in the foreign rights sphere. KF Literary Scouting provides hands on, tailored, targeted book scouting services. She works on behalf of about a dozen publishing houses, differing in focus and scope, but is proud to have several strong children's publishers on the list in competitive territories like Germany, France, Brazil, China, Latin America, and others.
Rachel Hecht
Rachel Hecht Children's Scouting
Rachel Hecht
Rachel Hecht Children's Scouting
After attending Kenyon College, Rachel Hecht lived in London and worked in a genre bookshop on Charing Cross Road before relocating to New York. There, she fell in love with the international side of book publishing while working in foreign rights at Anderson Literary Management and Foundry Media, where she was foreign rights director for Children's Books. Rachel served as children's book scout at Mary Anne Thompson Associates for seven years, fusing her passion for foreign rights and children's literature as she sought to match the best English-language projects with a roster of international publisher and film clients. She founded Rachel Hecht Children's Scouting in 2016, the first children's and YA-focused scouting agency in the U.S.
Ginger Clark
Curtis Brown LTD
Ginger Clark
Curtis Brown LTD
Ginger Clark has been a literary agent with Curtis Brown LTD (New York) since 2005. On the adult side of her list she represents science fiction, fantasy and horror. On the children’s side she represents middle grade and young adult fiction and non-fiction. In addition to representing her own clients, she also handles British Commonwealth rights for the agency’s children’s list. She attends the Bologna Book Fair every year on behalf of her agency, and visits London annually as well. Previously, she worked at Writers House for six years as an assistant literary agent. Her first job in publishing was as an editorial assistant at Tor Books. She is the Chair of the Contracts Committee of the Association of Authors’ Representatives, and a member of its International Committee. She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and lives in Brooklyn with her husband.
Kristen McLean
The NPD Group | NPD BookScan
Kristen McLean
Executive Director, Business Development
The NPD Group | NPD BookScan
Kristen McLean is the Executive Director of Business Development at NPD Book, a part of The NPD Group. With more than 20 years of experience in the publishing industry in roles including retailing, sales, marketing, and industry advocacy, she oversees research into the consumer behavior of readers, and she is NPD Books' in-house specialist on both the Children's and the Christian markets. As part of her role as an industry strategist, Kristen speaks extensively on issues facing the publishing world including the effect of technology and culture on books and reading and evolving models for content and publishing. Kristen is deeply interested in the confluence of consumer behavior, technology, literacy, and global information in the Digital Age.
Meera Dolasia
CEO, Editor & Publisher
DOGO Media
CEO and Founder of DOGO Media, a leading COPPA compliant platform that empowers kids to engage with digital media in a fun, safe and social environment. The platform comprises of DOGOnews - the most popular source for non-fiction literacy, DOGObooks - the largest website for kids to discover, rate and review books and DOGOmovies - the largest website for kids to watch trailers and review movies. Prior to founding DOGO Media, Meera had a successful career in finance at Seneca Capital Management, SKBA Capital Management and Bankers Trust. Meera holds a BSc in Financial Services from the University of Manchester and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
Daniel Nayeri
Macmillan Children's Publishing Group
Daniel Nayeri
Publisher of a new imprint at
Macmillan Children's Publishing Group
Daniel Nayeri is the publisher of a new imprint at Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. He is the author of several books for young readers, including
Straw House ,
Wood House,
Brick House,
Blow: Four Novellas,
The Most Dangerous Book, and
How to Tell A Story.
Jennifer Emmett
Vice President for Content
National Geographic Kids and Family
Jennifer Emmett
Vice President for Content
National Geographic Kids and Family
Jennifer Emmett is vice president for content in the Kids and Family division at National Geographic, overseeing National Geographic Kids and National Geographic Little Kids magazines, the National Geographic Kids book program, plus websites and video for kids. National Geographic encourages kids to learn about the world and how it works, so they can make it a better place. National Geographic’s products, programs and experiences promote attitudes of curiosity, responsibility and empowerment as well as skills of observation, communication, collaboration and problem solving.
Emmett has worked at National Geographic since 1997. She has edited more than 100 nonfiction titles for children, including “Wheels of Change,” by Sue Macy, “Marching to the Mountaintop,” by Ann Bausum, the “National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry,” by J. Patrick Lewis, and the “National Geographic Kids Almanac.”
Before editing, Emmett was a researcher for the children’s television program “Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?” for two seasons. While earning her M.A. in English literature from Boston College, she taught English composition and interned at Little, Brown and Company. in their children’s book department. She’s a graduate of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with her husband, three children and a dog.
Kate Keating
Director of Digital Marketing
Random House Children’s Books
Kate Keating
Director of Digital Marketing
Random House Children’s Books
Kare Keating oversees the Digital Marketing department at Random House Children’s Books, the largest trade publisher in the world. Her team is responsible for digital campaigns for over 700 titles annually, which includes strategy, execution and analytic reporting for all brand websites, social media, and email marketing as well as strategic partnerships with PRH corporate communities such as ReadBrightly.com. Most recently this summer, Kate’s team launched Random House’s first teen targeted community, Underlined (GetUnderlined.com), the first of its kind publisher-run website focusing on engaging teens through a website destination, social channels and email via teen lifestyle content. The site already has an email database of 115k subscribers and monthly traffic of 90k+.
Kate came to RHCB from over 6 years at L’Oréal USA, where she was the Director of Social Media for the luxury skincare brand Kiehl’s, developing its digital team and strategy from scratch, working in tandem with their e-commerce, marketing, and PR teams to drive their digital strategy across all of the brand’s touchpoints; prior to Kiehl’s, Kate oversaw media, publicity, and social strategy in the professional haircare division of L’Oréal. as Before joining the beauty industry, Kate was an Account Supervisor at Coburn Communication, where she was developing PR and social programs for various publishing and beauty clients. Kate started her career at Simon & Schuster, where she worked in Publicity for the kids group.
Allison Hellegers
Director
Rights People
Allison Hellegers
Director
Rights People
Based in New York City, Allison joined the Rights People team as a Director and North American co-agent in June 2009. Allison handled all international rights for Alloy Entertainment and was previously a literary scout with Barbara Tolley & Associates. She has worked in children’s publishing for over 16 years.
Jennifer A. Perry
VP and Publisher
Sesame Workshop
Jennifer A. Perry
VP and Publisher
Sesame Workshop
Jennifer A. Perry is Vice President and Publisher of North America Media Products at Sesame Workshop, home to Sesame Street and other children’s television properties. Perry oversees strategic partnerships for several media-based business units, including publishing, DVD, streaming video, apps, music, and museums. Sesame Workshop’s mission is to help kids grow smarter, stronger, and kinder, so Perry’s goal is to maximize educational impact and audience reach with an emphasis on innovation, personalization, and new technologies and channels. Sesame Workshop will celebrate its milestone 50th anniversary in 2019, so Perry is focused on finding product and distribution partnerships to keep this uniquely influential and beloved brand relevant for kids and adults far into the 21st century. Her favorite Sesame Street character is Grover—who’s yours?
Jill Grinberg
President
Jill Grinberg Literary Management
Jill Grinberg
President
Jill Grinberg Literary Management
Jill Grinberg is the founder and President of Jill Grinberg Literary Management and has worked in publishing for the past two decades. She started in the publicity department at HarperCollins, where she serendipitously became publicist for (then) debut author Amy Bloom. Amy helped Jill recognize her passion for author advocacy and book development from the ground up and suggested agenting might well be her calling, for which Jill is eternally grateful. She went on to become a founding partner of Anderson Grinberg Literary Management, and formed her own firm, Jill Grinberg Literary Management, in 2006. JGLM represents a diverse and carefully cultivated list of quality children's and adult writers. Jill began to build her children's book list back in 1997 when Garth Nix came to her with his new novel,
Sabriel. Her children's list ranges from picture books to chapter books to middle grade novels to YA and teen crossover. Her authors include John Bemelmans Marciano, Jennifer Holm, Kirby Larson, Deborah Noyes, Andy Griffiths, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Jaclyn Moriarty, Catherine Gilbert Murdock, Justine Larbalestier, Margo Lanagan, Melina Marchetta, Garth Nix, Scott Westerfeld, and Marissa Meyer.
The agency's reading tastes are wide-ranging, born out of deep curiosity about the world and a passion for great writing. Our authors are novelists, historians, and scientists; memoirists and journalists; illustrators and musicians; cultural critics and humanitarians. They have won major awards--including the Printz Award, the Newbery Honor Award, the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize--and regularly appear on national and international bestseller lists. The agency has had 23 books hit the
New York Times list in the past five years, with four at #1. We aren't ruled by trends, but.we do remain current. Our authors typically transcend "category" and are united by the high quality of their writing, strong authentic voices, originality, dedication, and brilliant storytelling. We like to say that if we were to gather our authors in one room, it would be the best kind of cocktail party.
Lori Benton
Vice President and Publisher
Scholastic Trade Publishing
Lori Benton
Vice President and Publisher
Scholastic Trade Publishing
Lori Benton is the Vice President & Group Publisher for the Trade Publishing division of Scholastic Inc, and President of Scholastic Audio and Weston Woods. Scholastic Inc is a global children's publishing, education and media company. In this capacity, Lori oversees the direction as well as the digital strategy of the publishing program for all imprints of the Trade division. Prior to joining Scholastic, Benton was Vice President, Publisher of the Children’s Books Division at Harcourt; Associate Publisher, Director of Marketing for Henry Holt Books for Young Readers; and Associate Marketing Director for the children’s book division at William Morrow & Company. Benton also spent thirteen years as the children’s book buyer at The Book Shop in Boise, Idaho.
Mary Ann Naples
Vice President and Publisher
Disney Book Group
Mary Ann Naples
Vice President and Publisher
Disney Book Group
Mary Ann Naples is the Vice President and Publisher of the Disney Book Group, part of Publishing & Digital Media at The Walt Disney Company. She was previously SVP, Publisher for Rodale Books and Rodale Wellness, and throughout her career has held various leadership positions including chief of business development for Zola Books; vice president of Talent and Business Development at OpenSky, and co-founder of The Creative Culture, Inc., a boutique literary agency. She has also held various editorial positions at Simon & Schuster, Hyperion and Doubleday. Naples holds a BA from Cornell and an MA from University of Virginia. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Kate Wilson
Managing Director
Nosy Crow
Kate Wilson
Managing Director
Nosy Crow
Kate Wilson has worked in the publishing industry, mainly in children’s books, for thirty years. She is the founder and managing director of Nosy Crow Ltd, a London-based, independent children’s publishing company, publishing books for children between the ages of 0 and 12. The company also creates and publishes digital products, including multi-award-winning apps. Nosy Crow is currently the British Book Awards Children’s Publisher of the Year and the Independent Publishers Guild’s Children’s Publisher of the Year. After just seven years of sales, it is the 13th biggest children’s publisher in the UK based on Nielsen’s UK data, while over half of the company’s revenue comes from outside the UK. Nosy Crow buys world rights in all languages, and is a publisher that very much participates in the creative process, often coming up with formats and texts in-house. The company has exclusive publishing partnerships with two prestigious UK organizations, The British Museum and The National Trust. Prior to founding Nosy Crow, Kate ran Scholastic UK Ltd and, before that Macmillan Children’s Books in the UK.
Kelly Farber
President
KF Literary
Kelly Farber
President
KF Literary
Kelly Farber, American literary scout, works on behalf of fifteen formidable foreign publishers finding strong projects from the US and worldwide for them to publish in their territories, and is passionate about bringing great books to international readers. After interning at The Gernert Company, she landed a foreign rights job at Sterling Lord Literistic, where she was able to combine her passion and burgeoning knowledge of publishing with her love of travel and international affairs. At Sterling Lord, she was promoted to rights manager for the children's and YA list. Afterward, she worked as a scout for Barbara Tolley & Associates. In 2013, Kelly went forward to found KF Literary Scouting, seizing an opportunity to create a young, energetic business entity in the foreign rights sphere. KF Literary Scouting provides hands on, tailored, targeted book scouting services. She works on behalf of about a dozen publishing houses, differing in focus and scope, but is proud to have several strong children's publishers on the list in competitive territories like Germany, France, Brazil, China, Latin America, and others.
Rachel Hecht
Rachel Hecht Children's Scouting
Rachel Hecht
Rachel Hecht Children's Scouting
After attending Kenyon College, Rachel Hecht lived in London and worked in a genre bookshop on Charing Cross Road before relocating to New York. There, she fell in love with the international side of book publishing while working in foreign rights at Anderson Literary Management and Foundry Media, where she was foreign rights director for Children's Books. Rachel served as children's book scout at Mary Anne Thompson Associates for seven years, fusing her passion for foreign rights and children's literature as she sought to match the best English-language projects with a roster of international publisher and film clients. She founded Rachel Hecht Children's Scouting in 2016, the first children's and YA-focused scouting agency in the U.S.
Ginger Clark
Curtis Brown LTD
Ginger Clark
Curtis Brown LTD
Ginger Clark has been a literary agent with Curtis Brown LTD (New York) since 2005. On the adult side of her list she represents science fiction, fantasy and horror. On the children’s side she represents middle grade and young adult fiction and non-fiction. In addition to representing her own clients, she also handles British Commonwealth rights for the agency’s children’s list. She attends the Bologna Book Fair every year on behalf of her agency, and visits London annually as well. Previously, she worked at Writers House for six years as an assistant literary agent. Her first job in publishing was as an editorial assistant at Tor Books. She is the Chair of the Contracts Committee of the Association of Authors’ Representatives, and a member of its International Committee. She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and lives in Brooklyn with her husband.
Kristen McLean
Executive Director, Business Development
The NPD Group | NPD BookScan
Kristen McLean
Executive Director, Business Development
The NPD Group | NPD BookScan
Kristen McLean is the Executive Director of Business Development at NPD Book, a part of The NPD Group. With more than 20 years of experience in the publishing industry in roles including retailing, sales, marketing, and industry advocacy, she oversees research into the consumer behavior of readers, and she is NPD Books' in-house specialist on both the Children's and the Christian markets. As part of her role as an industry strategist, Kristen speaks extensively on issues facing the publishing world including the effect of technology and culture on books and reading and evolving models for content and publishing. Kristen is deeply interested in the confluence of consumer behavior, technology, literacy, and global information in the Digital Age.
Meera Dolasia
CEO, Editor & Publisher
DOGO Media
Meera Dolasia
CEO, Editor & Publisher
DOGO Media
CEO and Founder of DOGO Media, a leading COPPA compliant platform that empowers kids to engage with digital media in a fun, safe and social environment. The platform comprises of DOGOnews - the most popular source for non-fiction literacy, DOGObooks - the largest website for kids to discover, rate and review books and DOGOmovies - the largest website for kids to watch trailers and review movies. Prior to founding DOGO Media, Meera had a successful career in finance at Seneca Capital Management, SKBA Capital Management and Bankers Trust. Meera holds a BSc in Financial Services from the University of Manchester and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
Daniel Nayeri
Publisher of a new imprint at
Macmillan Children's Publishing Group
Daniel Nayeri
Publisher of a new imprint at
Macmillan Children's Publishing Group
Daniel Nayeri is the publisher of a new imprint at Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. He is the author of several books for young readers, including
Straw House ,
Wood House,
Brick House,
Blow: Four Novellas,
The Most Dangerous Book, and
How to Tell A Story.
Raise a glass to celebrate the excellence in children’s publishing and to the talented professionals that makes it happen.
