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.

Annabelle Wright, Head of Publicity

Annabelle works across a wide range of titles and campaigns at EDPR including brand authors Milly Johnson, Katie Fforde and Dorothy Koomson. She has been shortlisted for the Publisher’s Publicity Circle Annual Awards eleven times, many for campaigns working closely with Emma, including their Debut Campaign of the Year for Poor by Caleb Femi. She runs the PR for inclusive children’s publisher Knights Of, including the campaigns for Elle McNicoll’s Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and Blue Peter Prize winning debut A Kind of Spark, the YA debut by Candice Carty-Williams, Empress & Aniya and the British Book Award shortlisted Girlhood Unfiltered by Ebinehita Iyere and Milk Honey Bees.

Annabelle has worked on cross-industry literacy initiatives including the Reading Agency’s Summer Reading Challenge, and works on the BBC National Short Story Award, BBC Young Writers’ Award and the Yoto Carnegies. She is on the Publisher’s Publicity Circle Committee.

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.

Courtney Jefferies,
Campaigns Assistant

Courtney joined EDPR in 2021 after graduating from Bath Spa University. She supports the team across all campaigns, from picture books to literary fiction, and works closely with children’s publishers Knights Of and Zephyr on titles including Vivi Conway and the Sword of Legend by Lizzie Huxley-Jones and The Adventures of Billy Shaman: The Rage of the Sea Witch by Roland Chambers, as well as supporting Emma Draude with brand authors such as Lesley Pearse.

Passionate about improving diversity within the publishing industry and accessibility to the industry for all, Courtney wants everyone to see themselves in books and strives to work on inclusive titles that bring excellent representation for everyone, no matter their race, disability, religion or identity. She also manages EDPR’s social media channels, including Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.