Before Barb and I started jobsharing, I worked as Special Promotions Manager at Harcourt, setting up school appearances with authors, putting together the department’s seasonal catalog, and creating press materials and plans. I started my children’s book marketing career at Houghton Mifflin and Company in Boston working as the marketing assistant while I went to grad school at Boston College. I have a Masters in English Lit and am somewhat embarrassed to admit that I have read Pride and Prejudice at least fifty times (I know, I need a support group). I’m lucky enough to live with my family in Coronado, California, an island community across the bridge from downtown San Diego, and love walking the beach with my pup in search of dolphins.
Sarah before Barb
We worked with Cathy for many, many years at Harcourt, so it was second nature to call on her immeasurable talents when we started Blue Slip Media in 2009. We were lucky that she said "yes!" and hasn't looked back since! You can see Cathy's touch on all of our activity kits and curriculum/discussion guides. She also helps us make bookmarks, bios, postcards, and anything we can dream up look professional, exciting, and downright GORGEOUS. When she's not hard at work for us, she enjoys bike riding and beachcombing near her home in beautiful La Jolla, a wee bit north of downtown San Diego.
The Blue Slip Team:
Barbara Fisch and Sarah Shealy
Some Tips and Interviews
- Some thoughts on marketing on Jewish Books for Kids
- Our publicity and marketing pointers on GROG Blog
- Our guest post about marketing middle grade fiction on Smack Dab in the Middle
- Our interview with Cynthia Leitich Smith on her blog, Cynsations
- Read a few of our tips for published writers on Darcy Pattison's website
Great Links
The old saying that two heads are better than one certainly applies in our case! We began jobsharing the Senior Publicist position at Harcourt Children’s Books in 1993 (see fun PW article about us) and have never looked back. We each had second babies, were promoted to Associate Directors of Publicity in 2002, and survived company mergers (three times!), all the while doing the work that we love—talking about books we adore, calling an author to schedule an interview, coming up with the perfect pitch for a new title, sharing a laugh with a reviewer friend. Now we finish each other’s sentences and truly can’t imagine not talking about children’s books every day. That’s why we created Blue Slip Media (see fun PW article about Blue Slip).
Before jobsharing with Sarah, I wore suits with really big shoulder pads and had big hair to match. As Harcourt's children's books Marketing Director it sort of came with the job. Before that, I was Subsidiary Rights Manager for a number of years, negotiating both foreign and domestic rights. My publishing career almost never happened, as I was looking for temporary work when I interviewed for a job in the children's books department at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. As fortune would have it, they hired me for a permanent position and I never looked back. I live with my family and a sweet and zany rescue dog in the hills east of San Diego.
Photo by Roxyanne Young
Barb before Sarah
Photo by Roxyanne Young
Meet our designer, the incomparable Cathy Reynolds!
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