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.

JEANETTE ZWART

FICTION; LITERARY FICTION; NARRATIVE NON-FICTION;  ADULT, YA and CHILDREN’S BOOKS, SALES; MARKETING; AUTHOR TOURS

With over 20 years in general book publishing, much of it as Vice President of Sales responsible for independent retail and library jobber sales for such major publishers as Penguin USA and HarperCollins, Jeanette Zwart has a national reputation as someone who knows how to identify titles with the greatest potential for success in the retail and library channels, and for getting retailers to partner with the publisher  to set up a title for optimal sales.  She sees retailers, publishers and writers as working in tandem to find the right reader for every book.

Jeanette has worked on many bestsellers including Lauren Oliver’s Young Adult novels Before I Fall and Delirium; and Veronica Roth’s DIVERGENT trilogy.  Adult non-fiction titles she’s worked on include such non-fiction titles as It Worked For Me:  Lessons In Life and Leadership, Colin Powell’s inspirational lessons from a life of public service and leadership; diet and health books including the Dr. Atkins books; Mehment Oz’s You: The Owner’s Manual and  Drew Manning’s  Fit2Fat2Fit: The Unexpected Lessons from Gaining and Losing 75 lbs on Purpose (seen recently on Dr. Oz and other national media).

She has a special expertise in building mid-list and debut authors, and is proud of her contribution to the success of books like Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin; A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash; Canada by Richard Ford; Serena by Ron Rash; and Round House by Louise Erdrich.

Contact:  zwart.jeanette@gmail.com
Phone: 917-225-9450