Emma Layfield worked in children’s publishing for 25 years with Hachette UK and is now full-time at Children’s Books North, an organisation that connects and supports published children’s writers, illustrators and publishing professionals living in the North and Scotland. Emma is a board member at Seven Stories in Newcastle and mentors aspiring publishing professionals based in the North.
Fleur Sinclair has owned and run the award-winning Sevenoaks Bookshop in Kent since 2015 and is currently President of the Booksellers Association. She sits on the board of Bookshop.org, the online bookstore that supports local, independent bookshops, and has judged many prizes including the Costa, the Nibbies, Klaus Flugge, MacMillan Illustration and the Merky Books New Writing Prize. Before working in books, Fleur trained in photography and worked in the fashion industry as a photographers’ agent.
Amy Rollason is Journals Manager at Intellect Books (Bristol, UK), an independent, academic, arts and humanities publisher. Rollason brings expertise in accessible publishing and its connection to metadata, discoverability, and product innovation to Intellect.
Ellie has nearly ten years of experience working across all genres and formats of adult trade publishing, with specialisms in digital and influencer marketing. Ellie is also a content creator with over 12,000 followers on TikTok, a freelance journalist with by-lines in Stylist, Glamour and the Huffington Post among others, and a published author of contemporary women’s fiction with HarperCollins US.
Chelsea works at Bonnier Books UK, managing the audio for the commercial and literary fiction across the ZPG division, alongside our Australian Echo list, and some non-fiction across our Manilla Press list.
Chelsea is also the Editor in Chief of The Publishing Post, overseeing the magazine from content creation to production and distribution. Working to promote and celebrate diversity and accessibility within the publishing industry, the magazine is completely free to anyone who wishes to learn.
Michaela and Eleanor are the current SYP UK Chairs and oversee the strategy and running of the Society of Young Publishers. Michaela is a Marketing Manager at Bounce Sales and Marketing which represents over 40 different children’s publishers, many of them independent. Eleanor is a Project Editor at Dialogue which is home to a variety of stories from illuminating voices often excluded from the mainstream.