Ryan Chapman
Online Marketing Manager, Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Ryan Chapman has recently transitioned to Farrar, Straus and Giroux as Online Marketing Manager after a few years in Macmillan’s Online Marketing department. He’s privileged to have collaborated on digital campaigns for Thomas L. Friedman, Alex Ross and Naomi Klein. Before publishing, he created online education content for a dotcom in Seattle and DJed in Prague. He speaks often at conferences and programs the infrequent 7×20x21 event with a few of his most respected and contentious colleagues.

FSG | Chapman/Chapman | @chapmanchapman

Laura Dawson
Publishing Industry Consultant, LJNDawson

Laura Dawson is a 20+ year veteran of the book industry, specializing in its technology issues. She has worked at Doubleday, Muze, Barnes & Noble.com, SirsiDynix, and as an independent consultant whose clients have included R. R. Bowker, Chuckwalla, McGraw-Hill, the Book Industry Study Group, Ingram Library Services, Audible, IBS/Bookmaster North America, Harvard University Press, Yale University Press, Lexis-Nexis, Cosimo Books, and Dial-A-Book.

ljndawson.com | @ljndawson

Pablo Defendini
Producer/Showrunner, Tor.com

Pablo Defendini is the producer/showrunner of Tor.com, and a general rabble-rouser. He was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico (one of the most SFnal places on Earth). He worked in advertising and media production before becoming Mass Market Designer for Tor Books, from which he made the jump to his current position. He is secretly a Cylon. (DBW Profile)

Tor.com | thenewsleekness.com | @pablod

Jane Friedman
Publisher & Editorial Director, Writer’s Digest

Jane Friedman is the publisher and editorial director of the Writer’s Digest brand community, where she oversees Writer’s Digest magazine, Writer’s Digest Books, and the Writer’s Market series. She is the author of the Beginning Writer’s Answer Book and blogs on the industry as part of the Writer’s Digest community at There Are No Rules. She is a vegetarian, bourbon-drinking editor, at least mostly sane, living life forward, even though you can only understand it backward. (DBW Profile)

writersdigest.com | There Are No Rules | janefriedman.com | @janefriedman

Ami Greko
Director of Business Development, AdaptiveBlue

Ami Greko is the director of business development for AdaptiveBlue, working primarily with their social browser plug-in, Glue. She has previously worked as a publicist at Viking Penguin and FSG, marketing director at Folio Literary Management, and digital marketing manager at Macmillan.

getglue.com | thenewsleekness.com | @ami_with_an_I

Don Linn
Principal, Linn & Company, LLC

Don Linn has a sordid past as a mergers and acquisitions investment banker; cotton and catfish farmer in deepest Mississippi; book distributor (as owner/CEO of Consortium Book Sales & Distribution); publisher (The Taunton Press); serial entrepreneur and general ne’er-do-well. He was a founder of the late Quartet Press and is currently an investor in OR Books, while consulting with and advising other publishing entities. He’s a graduate of Harvard Business School and Vanderbilt University, and is endlessly fascinated with the convergence of technologies with media and the opportunities and business models arising from their collision. (DBW Profile)

baitnbeer.com | @DonLinn

Dominique Raccah
Publisher, Sourcebooks Inc.

Dominique Raccah is the publisher of Sourcebooks, the company she founded in 1987. From that small start, Raccah has directed a continuously growing entrepreneurial creative organization that morphed into a general trade house which happily produces everything from bestsellers in fiction, children’s books and poetry, to number one titles in both baby names and college guides, eleven New York Times Bestsellers and more than twenty national bestsellers. Sourcebooks today has over 70 employees, publishes over 300 new titles each year and is proud to be the largest woman-owned trade book publisher in the country. Dominique currently serves as co-chair of BISG.

sourcebooks.com | poetryspeaks.com | @draccah

Kate Rados
Director of Digital Initiatives, Chelsea Green

Kate Rados is Director of Digital Initiatives for Chelsea Green Publishing. Before this position, she was the Director of Digital Markets for Sterling. Kate never takes off her consumer hat, attributes her theater training as the best resource for dealing with any situation and is a self-proclaimed gadget geek. In her spare time, Kate is a vocalist and can frequently be seen rocking out in karaoke bars across Manhattan.

chelseagreen.com | katerados.com | @katerados

Debbie Stier
Senior Vice President, Associate Publisher, HarperStudio
Director of Digital Marketing, HarperCollins

Debbie Stier currently has two roles at HarperCollins. As SVP, Associate Publisher for HarperStudio , her duties range from assessing and acquiring projects, to devising and executing marketing plans, as well as making sure the trains are all running smoothly with the sales, art and production departments.

In her role as the Director of Digital Marketing for HarperCollins, she is responsible for educating and evangelizing digital trends throughout the company. The trends encompass how people communicate, what technologies they are using, how other industries are using technology, and how this all applies to book publishing.

theharperstudio.com | debbiestier.com | @debbiestier

Bridget Warren
Former Co-Owner — Vertigo Books, College Park, MD

Bridget Warren is an experienced literary programmer and marketer.  She co-owned  Vertigo Books for almost 18 years. Vertigo Books opened November 1991 at Dupont Circle in DC with a specialty in international politics, world literature and African American studies.  In April 2000, Vertigo Books moved to College Park, MD and was known for its excellent selection, knowledgeable staff and sense of community.

Warren now serves as head of public relations and programming for a Washington, DC-area library system.

vertigo-books.com | @vertigobooks