Eden Church

Eden Church graduated from Humber’s Creative Book Publishing program in 2018. She’s now the assistant marketing manager for Hanover Square Press and the Harlequin Trade Publishing backlist program. We caught up with Eden to see what she’s been working on and what her current position entails.

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What is your current job title and what does that mean on a daily basis?

I’m the assistant marketing manager for Hanover Square Press and the Harlequin Trade Publishing backlist program. I strategize and execute the marketing campaigns for all titles on the Hanover Square Press list—from memoirs to historical non-fiction to literary fiction to genre titles. What does that mean, you might ask? I do everything from book advertising, co-ordinate influencer campaigns, help design creative, read manuscripts, work on cross-promotional partnerships, meet with authors and agents, coordinate mailings, manage a budget, process invoices, advise on consumer positioning, and help with social media strategy. A unique part of my job (at least within the context of publishing in Canada) is that I mainly focus on the American market. For our backlist (books more than one year old) program, I work on the marketing of our varied and growing backlist, and I also host a monthly program/social media takeover on our corporate social channels (@BookClubbish) called Weekend Reading with Eden. For more details on that, you’ll have to tune in!

Can you tell us about your favourite project you’ve worked on or a project that you are particularly proud of? Please include links and/or images, if possible.

Early in my career, I worked on the marketing campaign for Pam Jenoff’s New York Times bestseller The Lost Girls of Paris. That was an amazing experience and on a whole other level! It was everything I had imagined doing when I envisioned working in publishing.

More recently, I have had the great pleasure of working with some wonderfully talented debut authors—Sam Lansky on his Indie Next Pick novel Broken People, and John Fram on his debut The Bright Lands, which is a southern queer thriller set in the world of small-town Texas high school football.

Late in September 2020, we launched a title I’m very proud to have worked on, the national bestseller Rise Up by Reverend Al Sharpton. The message of this book is so, so important: Change can’t wait, and we can all do our part to help bring it about. I was so thrilled to work with his wonderful team to help bring this book to consumers.

How did your time at Humber help you get where you are now?

I worked hard during my time at Humber to make as many great connections as I could, and they’ve made my work experience immeasurably better. Introducing yourself to someone in the industry, even if you think they’re too important to care about you, is always a good idea, and often you’ll be surprised by their willingness to speak with you!

Give us a tip (or tips) for students and recent grads hoping to follow in your footsteps.

• Absorb everything you can, even if you think it won’t be relevant to your chosen career path. I promise you, it’ll come in handy at some point.
• Always introduce yourself and ask people questions about what they do in the industry.
• Make sure you understand how bookstores work. It’s always helpful to know where your product meets the consumer.
• If you want to work in marketing, you have to be involved in the market: listen to podcasts, follow blogs and other media sources, and take a dip into Bookstagram. Most importantly, think about what you see working in the market, and why you think it’s working.
• Even if you don’t consider yourself a “math person,” make friends with data.

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Eden Church is a book nerd through and through. She’s the assistant marketing manager at Hanover Square Press (an imprint of HarperCollins) and the Harlequin Trade Publishing backlist program. She has marketed both fiction and non-fiction New York Times and USA Today bestselling titles, including The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff, Hurricanes by Rick Ross, Rise Up by Rev. Al Sharpton, and John Adams Under Fire by Dan Abrams and David Fisher. When she’s not planning the best way to bring a new book to readers, she can be found fangirling over all things bookish on her monthly Instagram segment with BookClubbish, Weekend Reading with Eden. Don’t let her near an animal or a book if you don’t want a picture of it to end up on her Bookstagram, @therequiredreadinglist.

Follow Eden on Twitter at @requiredRL and on Instagram at @therequiredreadinglist. Check out Weekend Reading with Eden at @BookClubbish on Instagram.