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Last summer I had the privilege of being featured in Woman’s World magazine’s “Best of…Beach Reads” article and this year they’ve contacted me on behalf of Chick Lit Reviews to share another fantastic summer read! I’m quite excited, especially as I was able to share one of my favorite reads this year, What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty. There are also a number of other fantastic Chick Lit sites mentioned as well as some of my other favorite books this season, so take a look:

Just in case you can’t quite read it, here you go:
“To Laugh Out Loud:
What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
Danielle Smith of Chick Lit Reviews.com promises you won’t be able to put this fun read down. “It’s the hilarious story of 39-year-old Alice, who, after getting bumped on the head, wakes up thinking she’s 29 years old and doesn’t remember having three kids or that she’s going through a divorce. It’s about everything that matters: family, friends, marriage - and did I mention it’s really funny?”"

I’d like to thank Kristina, the Special Features Editor at Woman’s World magazine for contacting me for this fantastic interview!

For more info about What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty take a look at my review posted just yesterday! To pick up a copy of this issue of Woman’s World magazine look for it on Newsstands in the US until this Wednesday!

A while ago we got to interview the very lovely Maura Brickell who works for Headline Publishing, and I can’t believe it’s taken so long for us to post it up! Maura has been a fantastic help to us, keeping us afloat of upcoming titles, letting us run some fab comps as well as great interviews with some wonderful authors! So, enjoy the interview, I know I did!

1. Can you tell us, in as little detail or as much detail as you wish, what exactly it is you do within the publishing industry?

I am Publicity Manager at the very fabulous Headline Publishing Group. It’s tricky to describe exactly what it is I do, but in a nutshell: I am responsible for planning, creating and delivering PR campaigns for approx 6 books a month. This means that I make sure that the book and the author are promoted in the right interviews, features or reviews in magazines, online websites and blogs, in newspapers, on television and on the radio. I also organise events to promote the author and their book, so bookshop events, festivals and library talks. Every campaign is different because every author and book is. I work very closely with authors every day, which is definitely one of my favourite aspects of the job.

2. What was your road to working in publicity?

I got very lucky and wangled a job in the Editorial Department at Bloomsbury after completing a months work experience. I worked as Editorial Assistant to the Editor in Chief, Alexandra Pringle, so it was very much like jumping into the deep end whilst working out how to write rejection letters! The bright lights of the Publicity Department caught my attention early on, so I helped out at events with the Bloomsbury team and when a job came up at Headline I applied straight away. I started as an assistant to the Director, Georgina Moore, which meant I got the chance to work on so very big books, such as Bobby Charlton, Kathleen Turner and Penny Vincenzi, and I’ve worked my way up from there!

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Recently I had the opportunity of being interviewed by Woman’s World magazine for their “Best of…Beach Reads” feature. This was quite an honor as the magazine has a reader base close to 10 million and is featured on newsstands all over the US. So, needless to say, when they contacted me I was ecstatic! The issue was published on June 24th, and I was also sent an image of the actual article to share with our readers here at Chick Lit Reviews. Enjoy!

Just in case you can’t quite read it, my feature is the 4th one in and says the following:
A Powerful Story of Friendship:
Between Friends by Kristy Kiernan - Danielle Smith of ChickLitReviews.com “really connected” with this story of two best friends. “While most ‘chick lit’ is too fashion oriented for me,” she says, “this novel deals with compelling issues we can all relate to, like marriage, fertility and adult female friendship. I also love that it strikes a great balance between sad stuff and moments that make you laugh out loud.“

For more about my feelings about Between Friends by Kristy Kiernan take a look at my review posted not too long ago.

We apologise for taking so long to post up another one of these, but our Industry Interviews are back! From now on, we will make sure we post one a month because we know you all love them so much. Our latest Industry Interview is with the lovely Ally Glynn who works for Simon & Schuster. She’s been so lovely to Chloe and myself, keeping us up to date with books and covers and things as well as sending us some fab books to read! Enjoy!

Q1. You work as a web manager for Simon and Schuster publishers, can you tell us what that entails?

A bit of everything really! I manage the website www.simonandschuster.co.uk, update all of S&S UK’s social networks (so any spelling mistakes on Twitter are mine!), and liaise with bloggers about review copies and online competitions. I also manage and coordinate the digital campaigns for our brand authors such as Jennifer Weiner, Adriana Trigiani, Philippa Gregory and many more!

Q2. How did you come to work in the publishing industry? Is it something you have always wanted to do?

I fell into the book trade when I started working at Ottakar’s bookshop in Clapham Junction on Sundays when I was 17. I worked there during my A Levels and continued to work weekends when I was at university. I moved from store to store, working my way up to Assistant Manager at Waterstone’s Greenwich (Waterstone’s bought Ottakar’s in 2005). After seven years in bookshops, I decided to make the move into publishing, which was no easy feat! Luckily, I had made some contacts in the booktrade and learnt of a position in Simon & Schuster UK in Sales. I got the job in 2008 and quickly moved from sales into digital marketing once they realised what a geek I was!

When I was at school, I had never planned on working in Marketing or in Publishing. I always loved books and reading, but I never thought of a career in books! I was going off to University to study Art and become a teacher, but I just feel in love with Ottakar’s and got sucked into the book world from there!

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With our previous two industry interviews, they’ve actually been with those working at a publishing house, and I realised we didn’t have any book agents to ask to interview so we put the call out amongst authors and the fab Tara Hyland offered up her agent, Maddie Buston who works at the Darley Anderson Agency. She was thrilled to be part of our Industry Interview series and here are her answers!

1. Can you tell us, in as little or as much detail as you like, what it is you do in the publishing agency.

I consider my main roles as a literary agent to be talent spotting, deal making, author care and editing. I need to find talent, work on the manuscript with the writer, submit to the best possible publishers for the book and negotiate the highest advance and royalties as possible. Caring for our authors needs is a huge part of being an agent – helping with book ideas, editorial work, publicity, pitching books at all the major book fairs, drawing up contracts, doing everything to ensure that the publisher grows sales book after book, the list goes on….

I am also head of the Rights Department selling rights to our authors’ works in the US and across the world, and have recently been appointed as Deputy MD of the Children’s Book Agency.

2. How did you end up working as the head of rights & women’s fiction agent at Darley Anderson?

After graduating from St Andrews University I worked in Germany for an international exchange scheme with the European Training Services. I worked for a small independent publisher out there and spent every evening researching the world of literary agents and publishers. I have to admit I didn’t know much about literary agents – not many people can name an agency like they can a publisher. I found the world fascinating, particularly the Frankfurt book fair and applied to do some work experience with Blake Friedmann before landing my first job at A P Watt Literary, TV and Film Agency where I worked in the Rights department. Two years later I moved to the Darley Anderson Agency as the Rights Manager and was promoted the following year to Head of Rights. With a special interest in Women’s and general fiction, I started to take on my own clients that year. I am now also the Deputy MD of the Darley Anderson Children’s Book Agency so will agent exceptional work in that area – particularly YA and cross-over books.

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After the success of our first industry interview with Sherise Hobbs from Headline, we were thrilled to receive the answers to some questions we had sent to the very friendly Hannah Torjussen who works at Little, Brown. We hope you guys enjoy it as much as we did!

1. Can you tell us, in as little detail or as much detail as you wish, what exactly it is you do within the publishing industry?

The publicity department here at Sphere is incredibly busy on a daily basis. We handle a number of media enquiries, with requests for review copies, interviews and features coming in from the national and regional newspapers, magazines, websites, TV and radio stations. I plan and carry out publicity campaigns for around four new titles a month, and this involves writing press releases, sending out review copies to all the literary editors and key reviewers, and pitching to journalists in order to persuade them to feature or review my titles and authors. I also need to stay in constant contact with my authors and keep them updated on any news of coverage, as well as manage their interview and events schedules, which can involve promotional book signings and festival appearances across the country.

2. What was your road to working in publicity?

I have always loved books and after studying English at university I was keen to explore a career in publishing. I sent out hundreds of letters to different publishing companies and managed to get an interview with Darton, Longman and Todd, a small independent theological publishing house in London. My role was publicity assistant, and while publicising academic theology books might sound quite unexciting and dull, I had a fantastic time coming up with all sorts of creative ideas to get the national press to take notice of the books we published – I arranged a themed launch party which was attended by African royalty, I created a brand new website for the company, I designed adverts that appeared on the London underground and I worked on books by the Archbishop of Canterbury. After a year and a half I knew that I definitely wanted to stay working in book publicity but move to a larger, more commercial company. I joined Piatkus, and three months later they were bought by the Little, Brown Book Company. I have since worked my way up to Press Officer, working mainly on the Sphere imprint.

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When Chloe and I first mooted the point about interviewing those that work within the publishing industry, we didn’t really know what the response was going to be. We know that those who work in the publishing industry are incredibly busy so we were thrilled when we got such a great response. Here is our first Industry Interview with the fab Sherise Hobbs who works at Headline.

1. Can you tell us, in as little detail or as much detail as you wish, what exactly it is you do within the publishing industry?

I’m an Associate Publisher in the Fiction department at Headline Publishing Group. This means I get to look after a number of fantastic authors and I’m also one of the editors responsible for acquiring exciting new authors.

2. How did you come to work as a book editor?

After my English degree, I floundered around for a little while trying to work out what I wanted to do. A spell doing work experience in the Fiction department of a large trade publisher made me realise that my dream job did indeed exist – all I then had to do was persuade someone to employ me! Luckily, soon after that, I got a job as an Editorial Assistant at Headline, and I’ve been with this brilliant company ever since.

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