NICE TO MEET YOU

I'm Valerie Peterson and I've always been bookish...

... for pleasure first and later, for as a book publishing professional, then as an author. I've written/co-written four traditionally published books — and counting.

For six years was the contracted Book Publishing Industry Expert for the giant media platform DotDash Meredith, a professional area I inaugurated for them. Some of my hundreds of articles are still up on the site. In my private consulting, I've helped publishers and authors position themselves n their journey to "published".

Working in-house for major publishers (Random House, Doubleday, Wiley), my jobs included marketing, strategic leadership, and acquisitions sign-off authority. The innovative branding, re-branding, PR, and marketing campaigns I developed and implemented have been award-recognized, have amplified attention to languishing lines of books, and have helped get books on bestseller lists. I've worked on campaigns for authors ranging from James Lee Burke to Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, from Julia Child (I was young, ahem) and Mark Bittman, to major lifestyle franchises like Better Homes & Gardens, Betty Crocker, and Frommers Guides. 

My journalism has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, and national magazines — and have received recognition for my screenplays, teleplays and the short films I've written and/or directed.

I'm originally from Yonkers, NY and graduated with an English degree from Fordham University in the Bronx and I currently live in Manhattan. In addition to being bookish, I'm TVish, mystery-ish, foodish, and wine-y — and love too many authors to list here ;) 

Why BookishNYC?

Writing is hard. Publishing is hard. Successful publishing is harder. 

And — despite my deep publishing background when I started publishing books —there was so much I didn't realize until I was in the thick of it. 

 with authors and publishers for years and for years was paid to share my knowledge on a major media site —  BookishNYC is my way of making the knowledge available. 

Speaking

I've taught and have spoken about book publishing and book marketing at a variety of conferences and events from Massachusetts to Montana to Montreal — and beyond.

My speaker's kit outlines my topics, parameters, and how to get in touch in order to engage me.