WHO WE ARE
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.
Jo Bennett, Associate Director
Jo Bennett has delivered bestselling book campaigns for over a decade at Walker Books, Penguin Random House Australia, and as Head of Campaigns at Ebury, Penguin UK.
At Penguin she worked on some of the most impactful non-fiction campaigns in self-development, wellbeing and smart thinking, including global bestsellers The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and Spark Joy by Marie Kondo, The Book of Hygge by Louisa Thomsen Brits, The Choice by Edith Eger, How Not to Be Wrong by James O'Brien and Think Again by Adam Grant.
At EDPR, Jo works across the business and drives all non-fiction campaigns including smart thinking, politics, current affairs, memoir, self-development and wellbeing. She also has extensive experience in music and festival PR and marketing, and brand development.
Alongside her work at EDPR, Jo is a skilled editor and journalist with a sharp eye for detail, and a talent for crafting headline-grabbing stories that drive exceptional campaigns.
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.
Christina Borg, Office Manager
Christina has many years of experience in office administration. She began her career in the books’ world in 2001, firstly as an Assistant, and then Desk Manager for the Sunday Times’ Literary Reviews section, where she spent over eighteen years. Before officially joining EDPR in 2023, she worked at G. Heywood Hill Booksellers in subscriptions, and for a short period in the rights department of children’s books agency, Bright.
Christina trained at Liverpool School of Art in Fine Art. Her love of reading and literature grew alongside her appreciation of art history. Her spare time activities include pen & watercolour painting, sketching and freelance illustration. Her artworks are available on Saatchi Art.
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