She wanted to be a book editor, so Elizabeth Blue Guess ’10 took an entry sales position, “just a foot in the door,” at Hachette Book Group.
“It actually ended up being a perfect fit.”
Eight years later, Guess is the sales director of author brands, dreaming up creative ways to sell books written by such famed authors as Nicholas Sparks, David Baldacci, Elin Hilderbrand and Michael Connelly. Oh, and James Patterson, whom she calls “Jim” after spending two years focusing exclusively on the ad man-turned-author, who – more than most authors – “likes especially being involved in all of the ideation and the advertising plans for every book. …
“We realized having this sort of focused energy on some of our other authors would probably be a good idea,” she said. “So we broadened my scope a little bit to the other big commercial authors.”
Guess considers herself a “service person,” working collaboratively with individual sales representatives on major campaigns for those authors. After the sales team learns about a new book six to eight months before it is due to reach sellers’ shelves, she schedules brainstorming sessions with an individual rep whose client is, say, Barnes & Noble or Target, so as not to step on any toes. For the last several months, her major focus has been Patterson’s collaboration with Dolly Parton, “Run, Rose, Run,” published this month.
Earlier in her career, Guess sold to independent bookstores in metropolitan New York, a job she so relished that she said she may have made a career of it, had the Patterson gig not lured her away. She came to know her clients’ personalities – “what works at one store might not work down the street” – and engendered trust “that you’re making a recommendation that they think their customers will pick up.”
Her climb on the sales ladder has been rewarding – she recently was named a “rising star” by Publishers Weekly – and Guess, though an English writing major at DePauw, “quickly found that sales was just a really great balance of reading, talking about books, but also the business side of things, which was very appealing to me once I started to learn about how it all works.”
DePauw Magazine
Spring 2022
The book seller
The reader
The publicist
The children’s book publicist
The ad director
The sales director
The literary fiction editor
The nonfiction editor
The assistant editor
The literary agent
The illustration agent
The ghostwriter
The niche publisher
The accidental author
The self-published author
The children’s author and illustrator
The bestseller
The fiction author
The nonfiction author
From Inkling to Ink: How a book becomes a book
The memoirist-in-the-making
DePauw Magazine - From Inkling to Ink: How a book becomes a book
DePauw Stories
A GATHERING PLACE FOR STORYTELLING ABOUT DEPAUW UNIVERSITY
Browse other stories
-
Academics
More Academics
-
Alumni
More Alumni
-
Arts & Culture
More Arts & Culture
-
Athletics
-
Men's Track & Field - Ocasek Finished Eighth at Midwest Twilight Qualifier
-
Women's Lacrosse - Kennedy and Howard Selected to All-Region Team
-
Baseball - Seven Tigers Earn All-NCAC Honors
More Athletics
-
-
On Campus
-
Leadership doesn't wait
-
CNBC anchor Jon Fortt ’98 to give commencement address
-
DePauw names its first vice president for institutional equity
More On Campus
-
-
News
-
Faculty approves new academic programs in business, film and media arts
-
Taglauer Green to receive Old Gold Goblet; other awards announced
-
Four DePauw students win Gilman scholarships to study abroad
More News
-
-
People & Profiles
-
Math prof-turned-administrator named new vice president for finance and administration
-
President featured as one of Indiana’s influential women
-
Two DePauw alums covering invasion of Ukraine
More People & Profiles
-
-
Have a story idea?
Whether we are writing about the intellectual challenge of our classrooms, a campus life that builds leadership, incredible faculty achievements or the seemingly endless stories of alumni success, we think DePauw has some fun stories to tell.
-
Communications & Marketing
101 E. Seminary St.
Greencastle, IN, 46135-0037
(765) 658-4416News and Media
-
News media: For help with a story, contact:
Mary Dieter, university editorial director/director of media relations.
marydieter@depauw.edu
765-658-4286 (o)
or 317-809-5417 (c).