Forget love, you’re here to either make a start or get ahead in the publishing industry, right? So come along to our career speed-meet event and learn how by quizzing the big-wigs of Scottish publishing.
Make your way around tables of experts from across the industry and quiz them on how to get ahead in your field.
Tables include:
Editorial
Agenting and Rights
Journalism
Sales
Design and Production
Marketing and Publicity
*JUST ANNOUNCED!*
Find out more about some of the industry experts taking part before you come along
Agenting and Rights
Lindsey Fraser and Kathryn Ross ran the Readership Development agency Scottish Book Trust from 1991 until 2002 when they decided to put their combined experience into a new venture – Fraser Ross Associates Literary Agency and Consultancy.
Their experience prior to their work with Scottish Book Trust lay mainly in teaching and bookselling, both in the UK and overseas. They have judged many of the main literary prizes for writers for young people, and have attended and addressed conferences on literature and readership development throughout the UK, in the USA and Canada, in Ghana, France, Germany and Russia. They worked with the BBC to launch the Blue Peter Book Awards, which they administered for many years. They have reviewed children’s books widely, both nationally and for the Scottish press, and edited a number of anthologies and author biographies for young people. In addition to running the Literary Agency, Kathryn and Lindsey manage The Pushkin Prizes, a unique creative writing competition open to all Scottish pupils in their first and second year at secondary school.
Kirstin Lamb started with Barrington Stoke as an intern before being offered the job of Publishing Assistant. Her role expanded to include Rights shortly afterwards and she now deals extensively with international publishers in negotiating and selling translation rights on Barrington Stoke titles. This work has also involved travelling to various book fairs over the last two years including Frankfurt and Bologna, where Kirstin meets both new and existing contacts to discuss potential deals.
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Editorial
Vicki Rutherford graduated with a degree in English from the University of Edinburgh in 2006 and went on to complete a PGDip in Publishing at Napier in 2007. While she was a student she worked for Jenny Brown Associates and also completed an internship with children’s publisher Barrington Stoke Ltd. She then worked for Barrington Stoke for five and a half years, first as Editorial Assistant, then as Editor from 2010. While at Barrington Stoke, Vicki worked on around 60 titles a year – commissioning and editing texts, contracting and briefing designers and illustrators, as well as managing the production process and handling the company’s rights business. She has been Managing Editor at Canongate Books since January 2013, where her role is to work between the many departments at Canongate to shepherd every book from MS to final print file while keeping an eye on budgets, quality and schedules.
Jo Dingley is originally from Lancaster, but stayed in Scotland after studying English at the University of St. Andrews. She is Assistant Editor at Canongate Books and edits literary fiction. Jo has worked at Canongate for four and a half years.
A Napier graduate, Alan Grierson has worked in the publishing industry for over 25 years. The vast majority of this time has been spent in the Professional, Academic and Educational sector with his main focus being in Editorial and Production. For the past 6 years, Alan has devoted his energy to setting up Bright Red Publishing and helping to establish it as one of the UK’s leading independent publishing companies.
John MacPherson has worked in publishing for 12 years. He co-founded Bright Red in 2008 and has been instrumental in commissioning and developing their award-winning print and digital products.
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Design and Production
Fiona Binning, Designer, CMYK Design
Fiona has worked on most things design-related, having over the past 30 years been involved in signage, vehicle and yacht livery, exhibition displays, advertising, book design and, for the past 10 years, magazine design.
She loves a challenge and believes that good communication conquers all – even on a fraught Friday in the design studio!
Lauren Lee, Designer, White Light Media
Lauren is an award-winning graphic designer working at White Light Media, makers of Hot Rum Cow magazine. Fresh out of university with an art history degree under her belt, she decided to dip her toe into the design world and never looked back.
Starting as an intern, Lauren worked her way up to senior designer at an agency in Atlanta, Georgia. In her free time she runs a popular lifestyle blog with her identical twin sister at AsianCajuns.com.
Leah McDowell, Design & Production Manager, Floris Books
After studying for a degree in illustration, Leah studied MSc Publishing at Edinburgh Napier. She has worked at Floris Books ever since in Design & Production where she manages everything from illustrators to excel spreadsheets. Designing covers for children’s fiction and working with illustrators on children’s picture books are the best parts of her job. Other than that, her role is to ensure that all quality standards, budgets, and schedules are met on the 100+ books Floris produce each year.
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Marketing and Publicity
Fiona Brownlee, Managing Director, Brownlee Donald Associates
Fiona Brownlee is a board level executive with over 23 years PR, marketing and rights experience, primarily in the publishing industry, both in London and Edinburgh. She brings a strongly commercial approach to the strategic leadership of organisations and a global outlook. Able to see the wider picture she enjoys finding creative solutions to issues and uses strong interpersonal skills and enthusiasm to establish new partnerships. She underpins all this with efficient planning, organisation and budget management.
She has been on the board of the Edinburgh International Book Festival for the last ten years and since forming Brownlee Donald Associates has been asked to join the PPC (Publisher’s Publicity Circle) Committee in London and ASLA (the Association of Scottish Literary Agents) based in Edinburgh.
Daniel Lambie, Head of Client Services & Development, Connect Communications
Daniel is an experienced corporate communicator, journalist and publisher. He is currently Head of Client Services and Development at Connect Publications, Scotland’s largest contract publisher. While managing publications for a number of external and membership bodies, Daniel’s speciality is in internal communications. He has won awards for internal publications he manages for four clients: BSkyB plc, NHS, Standard Life plc and William Grant & Sons. Previous to joining Connect, he was part of an inhouse team at Standard Life which was charged with communicating significant structural change within the organisation. This experience means he is well versed in structuring and guiding complex communication projects.
Lindsay Terrell, Marketing Executive, Canongate Books
Lindsay Terrell moved from Louisiana to Scotland to obtain an MSc in Literature and Modernity at the University of Edinburgh. Upon graduating, she began an internship in the marketing and publicity departments at Canongate Books, and completed short-term contracts with the Edinburgh International Book Festival and with London literary club night, Book Slam. She is now Marketing Executive at Canongate, where she has worked for nearly four years.
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Journalism
Niki Boyle, Up Front Editor, The List
Niki Boyle is Up Front editor at The List and Digital Content Editor at list.co.uk. He has worked at The List for five years, in that time also holding the positions of editorial intern, editorial assistant, digital writer and assistant editor. His main interest is in film, but he’s also written extensively on music, comedy, theatre, books and The Fringe.
In addition to The List, Niki has also made contributions to Film4.com and BBC Radio Scotland. He likes cycling and dogs, but it unsure about the idea of cycling dogs.
Christina McPherson, Writer, White Light Media
After working as an English teacher in South Korea, Christina returned to Scotland and studied MSc Publishing at Edinburgh Napier University. She then secured a writing position at White Light Media, a magazine publishing agency, where she has now worked for just under two years. She writes for and edits numerous magazines for clients including Standard Life, EICC and Equiniti, whilst also looking after the distribution for White Light’s award-winning magazine, Hot Rum Cow.
Nick Rougvie, Freelance Journalist
Nick Rougvie has worked in the media for 15 years as a journalist; producer; editor and presenter across both radio and television.
Following a degree in Modern History, Nick began his career working at a local radio station in Dundee as a news reporter before moving north to Aberdeen and the bright lights of television. While working with STV North, as a presenter and reporter, Nick covered major events in Scotland and further afield including the G8 summit in Auchterarder and the Iraq War.
After five years in front of the camera, Nick returned to radio and joined the BBC as a producer on the daytime news output. Stepping into the output editors chair for the first time, Nick was in charge of the Newsdrive programme as RBS headed for collapse, Russia invaded Ossetia and the Beijing Olympics got underway – all in the space of 2 hours!
Nick regularly stepped back into the presenters role across the station’s output including stints on Good Morning Scotland, conducting the big interviews that set the news agenda across the country.
Nick moved away from the frontline of journalism and joined Scottish Rugby as Head of Media Op-erations. At a time of great change for the governing body, he oversaw an overhaul of their digital communications and social media, while playing an active role in the match-day operations and media management of both the Scotland national rugby team and the country’s two professional outfits.
Nick has returned, however, to the news business and now operates as a freelance journalist. He runs media training in the oil and gas sector as well as advising companies on PR and crisis com-munications. He also crops up rather too regularly on TV.
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Sales
Vikki Reilly, Sales & Marketing Liaison, Birlinn
Vikki started off in the book trade in 2001 as a bookseller in James Thin/Blackwells on South Bridge, Edinburgh. After a few years bookselling, offering free proofing services and gaining an MLitt in Publishing Studies at Stirling University, she joined Mainstream Publishing in 2004, in the sales department. She moved on to Mercat Press in 2005 and Birlinn Ltd in 2007 where she remains hunkered down at the sharp end of sales & marketing. As well as representing Birlinn and all its imprints, she represents a number of other publishers, including Usborne and EUP, throughout the East of Scotland. And, when called upon, she produces the Edinburgh Literary Death Match shows when they roll into town…
Gillian Robertson, Owner, Looking Glass Books
After an absence of 13 years overseas Gillian returned to her home town of Edinburgh in 2012, where she set up and manages Looking Glass Books – a small independent bookshop and cafe in central Edinburgh. From opening a mere two years ago, Looking Glass Books has quickly established itself at the heart of Edinburgh’s literary community. Shortlisted for The Bookseller Awards Independent bookshop off the Year Award 2014, they host a hectic schedule of author events, book groups, workshops and other bookish delights! In difficult times for the independent book selling industry Looking Glass Books has flourished as a real hub of activity in central Edinburgh for readers and writers alike…
Steph Scott, Export Sales Manager, Canongate Books
After graduating with a Philosophy degree from Glasgow University, Steph headed off to Sri Lanka to do an internship with a national newspaper based in Colombo. She then travelled across the Far East and worked in Australia for six months. Returning to Scotland, Steph worked in Waterstone’s for three years then joined Canongate. She has worked at Canongate ever since in the Sales team, managing international sales of English language editions. Steph’s focus is to develop print sales in emerging markets, she looks after accounts in these territories: The Netherlands, Southern Europe, The Indian Subcontinent, The Middle East, South Africa, USA, and manages relationships with sales agents in regions that Canongate doesn’t cover directly.
Watch this space and our Facebook page (facebook.com/sypscotland) for details of more industry experts coming soon!
Reserve your place by searching for ‘SYP Career Speed Dating’ at www.eventbrite.co.uk
(free for members, £3 for non-members)
We’ll be in touch soon to find out your particular area of interest and give you a bit more info about the event.