We are Team ED
Emma Draude, Founder &
Managing Director
Emma founded EDPR in 2010. She is a multi-award-winning publicist who has worked in the publishing industry for 30 years. Emma has worked on campaigns for a host of bestselling names including Lemn Sissay, Alan Cumming, Matt Lucas, Nadiya Hussain, Peter Kay, Angie Thomas, Dorothy Koomson, Stacey Dooley, Lesley Pearse, Victoria Hislop, Juno Dawson and Jason Reynolds.
She is actively involved across all key accounts and works with many of the agency’s long-standing brand authors. Her recent award recognitions include the 2021 Publisher's Publicity Circle Debut Campaign of the Year and a shortlisting for British Book Award Campaign of the Year for Poor by Caleb Femi. She previously won the 2018 British Book Award PR Campaign of the Year for her work on The Hate u Give by Angie Thomas, and in 2023 was shortlisted for the PPC Non-Fiction Hardback campaign of the year for the Emmy and BAFTA award-winning screenwriter Abi Morgan’s This Is Not A Pity Memoir.
Emma was named one of the Top 150 Most Influential People in Publishing by The Bookseller in December 2022.
Shona Abhyankar, Associate Director
Shona’s career in the book industry began as a Waterstones bookseller, followed by working in bookshops in Sydney and Melbourne, as well as time with a literary agency in Sydney.
She has been in publishing PR for over 25 years with extensive experience both in-house and agency-side. Shona’s award-winning campaigns include the UK edition of Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg and the celebration of Elmer’s 30th Anniversary, delivered in collaboration with Andersen Press. Shona’s previous authors include Arianna Huffington, Kit de Waal, Vikram Seth, and Abi Morgan. Recent campaigns include How Westminster Works…and Why it Doesn’t by Ian Dunt and Limelight by Daisy Buchanan.
Shona is a former mentor for the Publishers Publicity Circle, co-founder of the Primadonna Festival and co-host of the Primadonna podcast, The World as it Should Be.
Emma Dowson, Account Director
Emma Dowson started her career at Penguin Books before moving to Transworld Publishers, and has worked in the industry for more than 20 years. She has created campaigns for many bestsellers including Terry Pratchett, Cathy Kelly, Veronica Henry and crime writers Denise Mina and Elizabeth Haynes. Her non-fiction highlights include campaigns for Bill Bryson, Bradley Wiggins and Joe Jackson, and she directed PR for the Wimbledon BookFest for 5 years.
Emma’s specialities include crime fiction, graphic novels, and festivals and prize PR, recently working with bestselling crime authors Robert Gold and Simon McCleave, and graphic novelists Sabba Khan, Kate Beaton and Brian Talbot. She also works across the James Cropper Wainwright Prize, Wimbledon BookFest, Creative Future Awards and the BBC National Short Story Award. She is a mentor for the Publishers’ Publicity Circle.
Sabina Maharjan,
Senior Campaigns Manager
Sabina has over 15 years PR experience across the arts and entertainment industry. Before joining EDPR she worked for children’s publishers David Fickling Books and Macmillan Children’s Books, and has worked with bestselling authors and illustrators including Philip Pullman, Frances Hardinge, Catherine Rayner, David Olusoga and Julia Donaldson.
At EDPR she has worked on the PR campaign for Waterstone’s Children’s Book of the Year Nura and the Immortal Palace by M. T. Khan, published by Walker, and with publishers Simon & Schuster, Zephyr and Knights Of on campaigns across their children’s list. She also works on a number of literary awards including the Yoto Carnegies, James Cropper Wainwright Prize and Creative Futures.
Sabina is passionate about representation in the arts and has sat on inclusivity and diversity boards to raise awareness in the industry. She has been shortlisted for the Publisher’s Publicity Circle Award for her work on books by Sir Lenny Henry and David Olusoga, and is also a mentor for Arts Emergency, a charity which helps young people flourish in the arts and culture sector.
Katie Cregg, Campaigns Manager
Katie joined the EDPR team in October 2023 as Campaigns Manager. She started her career as a Waterstones bookseller, before entering publishing PR in 2018 at Transworld as Publicity Assistant. She assisted the team with a wide range of fiction and non-fiction titles from the legendary Lee Child to the beloved Markus Zusak and executed campaigns for saga, literary and crime fiction. In 2020 she moved to Ebury as Publicity Officer where she worked on campaigns for Sunday Times Bestseller Wintering by Katherine May, Saturday Times Bestseller This is Vegan Propaganda and a range of authors under the Self Hub imprints Vermilion, Rider and Happy Place Books which specialise in self-development, health and well-being and parenting titles.
Katey Pugh, Campaigns Assistant
Katey worked as an independent bookseller for three years before moving publisher side to join Bonnier Books as a PR intern. Her work included support for the publicity and marketing departments across five children’s imprints. Campaigns worked on included the reissue of Jane Hissey’s much loved classic, Old Bear, to contemporary favourites like The Dream Book by Bia Melo and Gwen Millward’s Meet the Wildlings.
Katey joined the EDPR team as Campaigns Assistant in February 2024 and runs our social channels as well as supporting the team on a wide variety of campaigns across adults, children’s and events. She is passionate about queer literature and contemporary fiction with a socio-political message.
Ernie, Brand Ambassador
Ernie has been part of the EDPR family for 8 years.
As well as offering stress-relief and lots of cuddles, he is a real team-player and brings everyone together via his need for constant attention!
We love him!
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