Foot in the Door: Recent Episodes
Chloe Honnef
A podcast about all things publishing and how to get your foot in that door. Join your host, Chloe Honnef, each episode where she interviews someone in the industry.
Melanie Saward is a proud descendant of the Bigambul and Wakka Wakka peoples. She is a writer, editor, and university lecturer based in Tulmur (Ipswich), Queensland. Her writing has been published in Flock, Overland, Kill Your Darlings, New Australian Fiction 2019, and she is the managing editor of Djed Press.
Danielle Binks is a Melbourne-based writer and literary agent with Jacinta di Mase Management.
In 2017, she edited and contributed to Begin, End, Begin, an anthology of new Australian young adult writing inspired by the #LoveOzYA movement, which won the ABIA Book of the Year for Older Children (Ages 13+).
The Year the Maps Changed, Danielle’s bestselling middle-grade novel, was a 2021 Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Notable Book, and is 2022-forthcoming in North America with Quill Tree Books. Her first solo YA novel The Monster of Her Age, released in 2021.
Danielle is also teaching the Writing Stream for the Associate Degree of Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT University.
Jack Mitchell grew up in Sydney’s Inner West and spent five years at Sydney University studying performance, film, and English. He has worked in bookstores in Sydney and in London, and is also an actor who enjoys performing in plays when the city is not locked down.
Sarah Hollingsworth grew up in Tasmania and studied for a BA in English Literature at University of Tasmania, before relocating to Melbourne where she received a Graduate Diploma in Publishing and Communications from the University of Melbourne. She worked for eight years in academic and trade publishing, holding various publicity, sales and marketing roles at Melbourne University Publishing and Hardie Grant Publishing. At the start of 2020 she moved to Writers Victoria to take up the role of Marketing and Communications Manager.
You can view the Australian Publishing Wages Google Doc here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1f7wJXdvz8larHA8gRwrEuOYAF7YqVpA9Li7fsW_HsHo/edit#gid=1417976645
Justine Sless writes, teaches, researches and performs stand-up comedy. She has an MA by research in creative writing, and has had stories and articles published in anthologies and academic journals. Justine is co host of Sless to Harsel an IGTV show that is an irreverent twice weekly, two minute chat about books and writing. She is also on the board of Writers Victoria.
Noè Harsel is Chair of Writers Victoria, host of Live Write (an online writers’ group), and co-host of Sless to Harsel. She has published articles and short stories in a number of magazines and anthologies.
Links:
https://www.instagram.com/slesstoharsel/
https://writersvictoria.org.au/
Hannah Ludbrook is a Senior Publicist at Hardie Grant Publishing. She has over four years of industry experience, starting out as a Bookseller in an independent bookshop in London. She went on to work for Penguin Random House UK before returning to Australia and joining the Hardie Grant team. She will read anything but has a soft spot for crime thrillers.
Coco McGrath is an editor and writer based in Melbourne. Her work has been published in The Lifted Brow, Stilts, Kill Your Darlings and The Big Issue. She is an Editor at Affirm Press.
Kathleen O'Neill is a Marketing Executive at Hardie Grant Publishing. She has worked in the industry for three years after completing a Master of Creative Writing, Editing and Publishing at the University of Melbourne. Katty specialises in copywriting and book metadata, and has a particular interest in the ways readers discover books. Last year, she co-managed Hardie Grant’s inaugural Spark Prize. She writes fiction in her spare time and reads and reviews books on Instagram @chapterkat.
Pooja Desai is an award-winning designer currently working as the Head of Design for Hardie Grant Children's Publishing. Before stumbling upon her one true love – publishing – her design career has spanned across packaging, product, magazines, marketing and digital. In her free time, Pooja runs her own freelance business working with NGOs such as Footscray Community Arts Centre, Road to Refuge and Human Rights and Arts Film Festival.
Angus Dalton is a Marketing & Publicity Executive at Simon & Schuster Australia and is the co-founding editor of Sweaty City, an independent magazine about climate change and urban ecology that launched in February 2020. His stories about octopuses, city-dwelling water dragons and rogue rescue dogs have appeared in Best Australian Science Writing 2019, Voiceworks, Overland and Australian Geographic. He has worked as the Editorial Manager of Good Reading magazine, the Editor-in-Chief of Grapeshot magazine and has been a Fiction Intern at Kill Your Darlings.
Kate Whitfield came to trade publishing via magazines and copywriting and later travel guides, working as an editor at Lonely Planet for almost ten years. In 2014 she came to Allen and Unwin as an editor of books for children and young adults and since then has worked on many bestselling and award-winning books with authors such as Paul Jennings, Wendy Orr and Barry Jonsberg.
Radhiah Chowdhury is a Muslim Bangladeshi-Australian author and editor living on unceded Bidjigal Land in Sydney's West. She is currently a commissioning editor and senior audiobook producer at Penguin Random House Australia, and was the 2019-2020 Beatrice Davis Editorial Fellow. Her most recent picture book, The Katha Chest, was published by Allen & Unwin in April 2021.
If you would like to read Rhadhiah's Beatrice Davis Editorial Fellowship report, see link below: https://www.publishers.asn.au/news/bdef-report-offers-australian-publishing-pathways-to-inclusivity
Kajal Narayan started her publishing career at Rockpool Publishing and joined Pantera Press in 2020 after working at HarperCollins for five years, most recently as a Senior Marketing and Communications Executive.
Lauren Ravida has worked in the book industry since 2014, starting out as a bookseller at Dymocks during her gap year. She is now the sales and distribution coordinator at Affirm Press, overseeing the Australian distribution of publishers such as The School of Life, The Experiment and Imagine That. She is passionate about publishing diverse stories and making books as accessible and inclusive as possible.
James Kellow has 30 years of publishing experience in Australia and the UK. Formerly HarperCollins ANZ CEO, he cut his teeth at Reed International in the early 1990s before landing the most creative role of his career as marketing director at Fourth Estate in London, then one of the UK’s leading independent publishing houses. James is known for his passion for the book industry, his championing of authors, and his focus on Australian stories.
Margot Lloyd has worked in the publishing industry since 2012, mainly as an editor, but also as an occasional rights manager, publisher, and dishy at book launches. She has been at the University of Queensland Press in the role of senior editor since July 2020.
Felicity Dunning is an editor who works across fiction, non-fiction, academic, poetry, children’s and young adult titles. She has worked at the University of Queensland Press since 2016 after starting her career in education publishing and has a passion for editing books that promote positive social and environmental changes.
Alex Adsett is a literary agent and publishing consultant with more than twenty years’ experience working in the publishing and bookselling industry. She has managed Alex Adsett Literary since 2008, and has helped hundreds of authors review and negotiate their publishing deals. As an agent she represents more than 45 authors of all ages and genres, including Melissa Lucashenko, Isobelle Carmody and Ruby Hamad. She regularly speaks on copyright and contracts around Australia, is an alumni of the Australia Council Arts Leaders Program 2019, and serves on the board of the Small Publishers Network.
Jasmin McGaughey is a Torres Strait Islander and African American author and editor. She is currently in the midst of a Master of Philosophy in creative writing. She also works at the Queensland State Library in the black&write! team as a Junior Editor. Jasmin is a recipient of the Wheeler Centre’s 2019 Next Chapter Fellowship and her work has appeared in Overland, Kill Your Darlings, Voiceworks, Homer, and Hot Chicks with Big Brains.
Hello, and welcome to the Foot in the Door podcast. A podcast about all things publishing and how to get your foot in that door. Here is a quick intro explaining a bit more about what the podcast is about and why I am starting it. Enjoy!