Industry Innovator Spotlight Interview: Rachel Bressler of The Park Literary Group

Rachel Bressler is Executive Director, Corporate and Publisher Relations, at The Park Literary Group. Founded in 2005 by Teresa Park, the agency “represents fiction and nonfiction with a boutique approach: an emphasis on servicing a relatively small number of clients, with the highest professional standards and focused personal attention.”

Rachel joined the agency just five months ago, and is the first person to hold this newly-created position. Her previous position was VP, Associate Publisher at Ecco/HarperCollins Publishers. Publishing Business Today asked her how she likes her new job, and to describe what she does.

Is the position you hold unusual at literary agencies?

I haven’t heard of anybody else doing exactly what I’m doing. I do think this is kind of a new job that Teresa Park thought of on her own. I like to think of myself as a facilitator, advocating on behalf of our authors,

What are your job responsibilities?

I make sure decisions that get made are in favor of our authors. I can help to review jackets, catalogue copy, cover copy, print ads, and online ads. There’s so much that’s back in the authors’ laps these days, especially because of social media.

Authors want an advisor and that’s what the agent’s job is. I’m not an agent. I’m supporting the authors we already have and acting as a conduit between the author and the publisher and even retailers. I’m trying to figure out third-party promotions, thinking about other brands that might align with our brands, how can we bring different brands together. I’m looking for new opportunities and doing out-of-the-box thinking to widen readership to do anything we can to change the game a little.

You’ve had an interesting career path. Tell us about it.

It’s really exciting for me, especially because my background has been so varied. I started in retail, worked in sales and marketing, have a background as an associate publisher. A literary agency is one side of the business I never worked in. It’s exciting to come at this job from this perspective and focus on the authors, which is really what my job is all about.