The Business of Publishing: Myth Busting from Within Panel discussion

Sarah Shaffi is a journalist, editor and interviewer with more than a decade of experience working at newspapers, magazines and websites. She has written for Stylist, Vogue Australia, Penguin.co.uk, The New Arab and more. She specialises in books, but also writes about politics, race, and pop culture (and the intersection of all three). Sarah regularly chairs events with authors, and has interviewed authors including Booker Prize-winner Bernardine Evaristo, Jojo Moyes, Candice Carty-Williams and Liane Moriarty. She’s a regular interviewer at Cheltenham Literature Festival, Southbank Centre and Asia House Literature Festival. She has been a judge for several literary prizes, including the Jhalak Prize for Best Book by a Writer of Colour and The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2020, and is judging the 2021 Costa Novel Award.

Emily Ross is the co-founder of Storysmith bookshop in Bristol, which she opened with her husband Dan in 2018. The shop has since been shortlisted for Independent Bookshop of the Year twice, and in 2021 was named by Guardian readers as one of the UK’s best independent bookshops. Before opening Storysmith, Emily worked in production roles at children’s publishers including Hachette, Usborne and Bloomsbury.

Abi Fellows has incredibly broad experience in the industry having been a literary agent at Georgina Capel Associates prior to working as a literary scout at Rosalind Ramsay Ltd for seven years. She has also worked as a bookseller at Blackwell’s and on the sales team at Faber and Faber. Outside of her day job she has experience as a school governor, with a particular focus on working with disabled children and children with special educational needs. Abi’s clients include Musa Okwonga, Saima Mir, Lizzie Huxley-Jones, Penny Pepper and Eva Verde. To unwind, Abi loves yoga and open water swimming.

Gyamfia Osei began her career in publishing working as a Bookseller at Waterstones, before joining Caskie Mushens as Literary Assistant to Juliet Mushens and Robert Caskie. She returned to the U.K. after living in Amsterdam for two years, where she managed international sales for The Pepin Press and held the role of Editor at Plural Magazine. Gyamfia is now an agent at The Good Literary Agency. She believes that the books on our shelves should represent the streets that we walk down, and so is extremely passionate about finding new and diverse talent.

Lucie Sharpe is marketing manager at Little, Brown Book Group, part of Hachette UK, developing campaigns for commercial and literary fiction and non-fiction. She has been working in publishing for 9 years, starting out at Penguin Random House and joining Hachette in 2020.

Jade Chandler is Publishing Director for Baskerville, a brand new imprint for literary crime and thriller fiction within John Murray Press at Hachette. Her past publishing includes bestselling and award-winning authors like Abir Mukherjee, Denise Mina and Jo Nesbo. She is keen to commission a distinctive new list of writers who span the breadth and depth of this exciting genre. She is looking for high-quality writing, original perspectives and compelling, page-turning narratives that make a lasting impression on the reader.