SUSAN AIKENS

CHILDREN’S BOOKS, YOUNG ADULT & CHAIN RETAIL MARKETING

I’ve always felt that there was something inherently noble about selling books, especially children’s books. I’ve devoted my entire professional career to putting great books into the hands of children. I was Borders’ Senior Buyer for Children’s Books. I bought both fiction & non-fiction for kids, ages 6–teen. Over the last 10 years, I’ve bought thousands of new titles including Harry Potter, the Wimpy Kid series, Rick Riordan’s books, and the A Series of Unfortunate Events books. I worked at the Borders corporate headquarters for 17 years. Prior to joining Borders, I managed a Doubleday Bookshop.

PAULA BALZER

MOMMY BLOGGER, PARENTING, HOME DESIGN, MEMOIR WRITING

Paula Balzer covers parenting for New York Family Magazine and is their home design blogger. She has also written for Modern Bride, Writer’s Digest magazine and one of New York City’s largest parenting blogs, www.achildgrows.com. She is also a co-founder of adhocmom, a popular blog for freelancing moms. A lover of memoir, Paula is the author of Writing & Selling Your Memoir (Writer’s Digest Books/July 2011). She is a frequent speaker on the topic of memoir writing and teaches writing workshops in Northern New Jersey.

JENNIFER NORTHCUTT

FICTION including COMMERCIAL, AFRICAN AMERICAN, LITERARY and YA FICTION

Jennifer Northcutt is a former Senior Book Buyer for Borders Group Incorporated. In the 14 years that she worked for the company she bought a variety of book categories from contemporary and literary fiction to young adult fiction. Within each category she implemented marketing strategy surrounding such book brands as The Twilight Saga as well as popular authors such as Lisa Genova, Jodi Picoult, and Nicholas Sparks. Jennifer is also known for the various author interviews that she conducted with such names as Richard Russo, Stephenie Meyer and Jeanette Walls.

Email: northcutt10@gmail.com