Introducing the mentors for the SYP South West team, who are running both the Into and Ahead streams. Into is dedicated to helping those looking to secure their first permanent role in publishing; Ahead is focused on helping those within publishing roles push on in their career.
The South West Committee is covering the following areas of the UK and Ireland: Avon, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Somerset and Wiltshire.
If you are based in the areas listed above, you could be paired with one of the mentors listed below. Applications open at 9.00am on Monday 20 May 2024 and close at 11.59pm on Sunday 16 June 2024. Apply to the scheme here.
Let us introduce you to our mentors taking part in the 2024 SYP UK & Ireland Mentorship Scheme …
Dr Jo Parsons is an experienced editor and writer for both academic and popular writing. She has a PhD in literature and a 2-book series with Edinburgh University Press. She also has several academic and creative writing publications. She is also a ghost writer for fiction and non-fiction books, as well as working on her own popular romance fiction. She is a lecturer in English and Creative Writing at Falmouth University.
Hayley Symonds is Sales Director at Paper Engine, an independent publisher of novelty product, and print and design partner for key UK trade publishers (Usborne, Pan Mac, Nosy Crow, PRH and more). Hayley has a decade of experience in Sales and Brand Partnerships at Penguin Random House. Now, she mainly focuses on non-trade publishing across all adult markets, as well as, children’s novelty.
Julia Brockley has held senior-level publisher/commissioning roles at a number of companies including, Palgrave Macmillan, (Springer-Nature), Routledge, (Taylor & and Francis), Chadwyck Healey, (ProQuest), SAGE Publishing, and Berg Publications, (Bloomsbury Academic). During her career, Julia has commissioned and managed journals, (including society-owned ones), digital resources and books, spanning all product categories, (textbooks, major reference works, and monographs). Many of her textbooks are now in their fourth or fifth edition, and a number of her launch journals including New Media & Society, (1999), and The Journal of Visual Culture, (2002), helped define their respective disciplines and continue so to do. Julia believes passionately in the social value of publishing and is inspired and excited by the pace of change in the industry.
Leanne Felton began her career as a primary school teacher before setting her sights on publishing. She completed an editing course and a remote editorial internship, before joining the freelance editorial team at FriesenPress, a self-publishing service based in her home province of BC, Canada. Shortly after this she hopped the pond to Bath Spa University to pursue her MA in Children’s Publishing. After graduating, she joined North Parade Publishing, starting in sales and moving into editorial, where – in her own words – she truly belongs.
Megan Farr is a Lecturer in Publishing at Bath Spa University and is currently working part-time at Chicken House as Publicity and Marketing Manager. She is also finishing a PhD in Children’s Publishing. Megan’s publishing journey started 24 years ago when she did some work experience with Seren Books. Since then, she has worked in PR, marketing and communications roles in children’s publishing for companies including Barefoot Books, Little Tiger Press, Macmillan Children’s Books, Hot Key Books, Firefly Press, Graffeg and Chicken House.
She has also worked in magazine publishing for the New Welsh Review, as well as, BookTrust and Literature Wales.
Mel Tyrell started out as a bookseller in central London, before becoming a book buyer for Borders UK. Her first publishing role was as Sales Manager at Ebury (part of PRH) where she looked after key accounts and sales strategy. She moved to Somerset and worked in sales for South West publishers F&W and AudioGo before starting her current role as Regional Account Manager for Faber and Faber and the Independent Alliance in 2013.
Samantha Stewart has been managing editorial processes in global publishing houses for the last thirty years, working most recently at Penguin Random House and HarperCollins Publishers. She is now a Lecturer in Publishing at Bath Spa University, an Editorial Consultant for the big-five publishers in London, and an author of books for young people. Her middle-grade fantasy book, Fireblood, was published in March 2023.
Steve McNaught is Editor and General Coordination Manager for Arkbound Foundation, having helped setup the organisation in 2015 as a social enterprise publisher (‘Arkbound’). Throughout this time he has helped in the development of various literature based projects, overseen the organisation’s growth, and enabled it to secure a wide range of awards, funding and recognition. Amongst these, has also received personal commendation from the Mayor of Bristol, George Ferguson, in 2016, alongside then HRH Prince Charles in the same year. In his time with Arkbound, he has worked directly with over 100 aspiring and published authors, predominantly people who come from disadvantaged and marginalised backgrounds, seeking to publish books that cover important social or environmental themes.
Laura has worked in publishing for more than 15 years. Laura spent over seven years in a publishing house as a Children’s Editor, responsible for a number of award-winning picture, board, activity and non-fiction books. She then moved into freelance work and now edits and writes all sorts of books for a variety of publishers, including Little Tiger, Ladybird, Scholastic, OUP, Quarto, Make Believe Ideas, Lonely Planet Kids and more. Laura holds a BA in English: Rhetoric and Professional Writing and an MA in Creative Writing. Laura grew up in Canada but now lives on the south coast of Wales.
Jennifer Irish has been working in publishing for 20 years. She is currently a Rights and Co-edition Sales Manager for Curious Universe, based in Bath. However, before she made the switch to Foreign Rights, she spent most of her publishing career working in UK Special Sales for Hachette, OPG, Ryland Peters & Small and Bounce Sales & Marketing. All of her publishing experience has been focused on either illustrated non-fiction or children’s books. She is looking forward to helping young aspiring publishing professionals start or progress their careers in either UK Sales or Foreign Rights.