BRAIN TRUST 2017
PubU is developed BY Christian publishers FOR Christian publishers to train, connect, and inspire—through sharing what they know best about their discipline: best-practices, interactive discussions, and action learning.
This year, the Brain Trust is co-led by Jennifer Lyell, VP of Book Publishing for LifeWay Christian Resources, and Dave Schroeder, VP of Marketing for B&H Publishing Group. They are pulling together a strong and diverse group of publishing leaders in six publishing topics for the 2017 event:
- Marketing and Publicity
- Editorial
- Reader Engagement
- Rights
- Data, Delivery & Workflow
- Design
Jennifer Lyell
Brain Trust "Lead"
Jennifer Lyell serves as VP of Book Publishing at LifeWay Christian Resources where she leads the Trade Book business. The hundreds of titles that have been acquired, developed, or managed under Jennifer's leadership include New York Times bestsellers Fervent, The Vow, The Wisdom of Faith, The Resolution for Women, Reshaping It All, ECPA Platinum Award recipient I Am a Church Member, and key brands such as She Reads Truth. She also serves on the board of directors for Reaching & Teaching International Ministries and travels overseas multiple times a year.
Dave Schroeder
Brain Trust "Lead"
Dave Schroeder currently serves as the Vice President of Marketing at B&H Publishing Group in Nashville, Tennessee. He leads the marketing and creative team developing strategies for books, Bibles, kids books, academic, and Spanish language resources. Prior to joining B&H, he served as Account Director at The A Group, an advertising agency, as well as spending six years leading marketing at Thomas Nelson Publishers for the Max Lucado brand and Nelson Books. Dave hails from St. Louis but lives currently in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife and two daughters. In his summers you can find him watching his beloved St. Louis Cardinals, reading a great history book, quoting random movies, and taking adventures with his family. Twitter: @davidmschroeder
Data, Delivery, and Workflow
Executive Director of Business Development,
NPD Book
Kristen McLean is the Executive Director of Business Development at NPD Book, a part of The NPD Group. With more than 20 years of experience in the publishing industry in roles including retailing, sales, marketing, and industry advocacy, she oversees research into the consumer behavior of readers, and she is NPD Books' in-house specialist on both the Children's and the Christian markets. She is the editor of the recent ECPA Landscape Survey of Book Buying Trends in the Christian Market. As part of her role as an industry strategist, Kristen speaks extensively on issues facing the publishing world including the effect of technology and culture on books and reading, and evolving models for publishing. Kristen is deeply interested in the confluence of consumer behavior, technology, literacy, and global information in the Digital Age..
Director of Outreach and Education,
Firebrand Technologies
Joshua Tallent, the Director of Outreach and Education at Firebrand Technologies, has been an eBook developer since 2002 and is a well-known eBook expert and teacher. He serves on multiple industry committees and working groups and teaches at publishing conferences year-round. Joshua provides consulting and training services, helping publishers understand their content better and figure out how to sell it more effectively. He and his team are also the creators of FlightDeck, the most robust EPUB quality assurance tool available. Visit him on Twitter at @jtallent or www.ebookarchitects.com.
Design
Art Director, Baker Books Trade Division, Baker Publishing Group
Patti Brinks serves at the Art Director for Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group. She leads the cover direction and design for all division titles, and has worked with New York Times bestselling authors including Mark Batterson and Ernie Johnson. She lives in Grand Rapids, MI with her husband, two daughters, and son-in-law. When she's not browsing bookstores for cover inspiration, you can find her painting in her studio or motorcycling the country with her husband.
Editorial
Trade Books Publisher, B&H Publishing Group
Devin Maddox is the trade books publisher at B&H Publishing Group. He acquires, edits, and leads a team to sell Christian trade books in Christian and secular retail environments around the world. Devin is passionate about overcoming the barriers that stand between people and the best gospel-centered resources available from the church, for the church. He graduated with a B.A. in Christian Ethics from Union University (Jackson, TN), M.Div. from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY); currently he is completing a Ph.D. in Applied Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (Wake Forest, NC), focusing his research on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s early life and writing. Devin is married to his college sweetheart Cara; they have three boys and live in Nashville, TN.
Marketing and Publicity
VP of Marketing, B&H Publishing Group
Dave Schroeder currently serves as the Vice President of Marketing at B&H Publishing Group in Nashville, Tennessee. He leads the marketing and creative team developing strategies for books, Bibles, kids books, academic, and Spanish language resources. Prior to joining B&H, he served as Account Director at The A Group, an advertising agency, as well as spending six years leading marketing at Thomas Nelson Publishers for the Max Lucado brand and Nelson Books. Dave hails from St. Louis but lives currently in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife and two daughters. In his summers you can find him watching his beloved St. Louis Cardinals, reading a great history book, quoting random movies, and taking adventures with his family. Twitter: @davidmschroeder
Founder of the Useful Group
James loves helping strong organizations be even more effective. Previously serving as Crossway's Executive Director of Marketing & Communications, he was responsible for Crossway Books and the ESV Bible for over seven years. In 2016, James founded the Useful Group, a team of creative professionals specializing in marketing, content, and publishing support for publishers, nonprofits, churches, authors, and other important causes.
Reader Engagement
VP of Marketing for Nelson Books,
an imprint of HarperCollins Christian Publishing Group
Jeff James serves as the Vice President of Marketing for the Nelson Books imprint of the HarperCollins Christian Publishing group. In this role, Jeff is responsible for all marketing and publicity for non-fiction books, including New York Times best-selling authors such as Jen Hatmaker, Lysa TerKeurst, Bob Goff, Donald Miller and others. Jeff joined Thomas Nelson Publishers, a division of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, as Vice President of Marketing for the Nelson Books non-fiction imprint in 2015. In this role he is working to drive innovation and ROI by infusing data-driven insights and processes into the publishing process—including acquisition, development and marketing - to empower authors to reach as many readers with their content as possible. Jeff lives in Nashville, TN, with his two very creative daughters and is involved in developing innovation-based opportunities for others through Create WV, a non-profit economic development organization he co-founded in his home state of West Virginia.
Vice President, Sales and Marketing,
Learning Resources, David C Cook
Chriscynethia Floyd currently serves in the role of Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Learning Resources for David C Cook. Floyd’s 20-year publishing career includes her work as a national buyer at Barnes & Noble and various marketing and sales positions at the Children’s Defense Fund, Perseus Book Group and HarperCollins Publishers (NYC). Prior to joining David C Cook two years ago, Chriscynethia served as the Vice President of Marketing for the trade group and Vice President of Marketing for Zonderkidz at Zondervan (HarperCollins Christian Publishers), and there she helped manage key corporate publishing brands. Chriscynethia is a classically trained singer and has had the privilege of performing around the world, including multiple performances at the White House.
Rights
Founder and Principal, Flagler Law Group
Brian Flagler founded Flagler Law Group in the spring of 2006 to serve the legal needs of publishers and distributors of Christian media. Before founding the firm, Brian served as vice president of administration & general counsel of Multnomah Publishers. Previously, Brian practiced intellectual property law with Davis Wright Tremaine LLP and Troutman Sanders LLP and served as adjunct instructor of IP law at Clayton College & State University. He holds a law degree from the University of Virginia. Brian and his wife Amy have three boys and enjoy hiking the mountain trails and paddling the many rivers and lakes surrounding Asheville, North Carolina.
Senior Rights and Contracts Manager, InterVarsity Press
Ellen Hsu is senior rights & contracts manager at InterVarsity Press, where she has worked since 1997. Ellen works with international and domestic publishing partners to expand the ministry of InterVarsity Press books into other languages and formats. She also manages IVP's publishing agreements and supervises IVP's Editorial Administration and Rights Team. She's a board member for the Licensing and Subsidiary Rights Association.
President, Riggins International Rights Services
Cindy has 24 years international rights management experience. After serving as the International Rights Director for 10 years at Thomas Nelson, she founded Riggins International in 2003 to help other companies market and manage their rights. Through the years she has been responsible for thousands of international licenses. Cindy has also been very active with the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association as one of the founders of their rights managers association. She is a frequent speaker at industry events on the subject of rights, such as at the Christian Booksellers Association MarketSquare workshops.
The Art of Writing Conference
A focused conference for writers, storytellers and publishing curators
November 8, 1-5 pm
Fiction Publicist, Bethany House Publishers
Amy Green has been the fiction publicist at Bethany House Publishers since 2013. Her typical day might involve planning book tours, handling media requests, interacting with reviewers, answering author questions about marketing, and other tasks designed to introduce readers to great books. She graduated from Taylor University with a degree in Professional Writing and was excited to find a job with a publisher whose books she’s loved since childhood. You can find her running Bethany House’s social media and blogging every Thursday at bethanyfiction.com—feel free to stop by and comment anytime!
We thank the following companies for their support of the industry and this event:
For more information on sponsoring this event, contact [email protected]