SPOTLIGHT
SPOTLIGHT IS ILLUMINATING NICHE AREAS OF PUBLISHING THROUGH A LIVE LECTURE SERIES
Spotlight is our event series that brings often-overlooked parts of the publishing industry into focus. Offered each month, we invite emerging and established industry leaders to host in-depth discussions on lesser-known topics in publishing. Spotlight creates a space for us to grow our understanding of the book business, explore specialty areas, gain insights from experts, and discover pathways they may not have considered before.
PROGRAM BENEFITS
Explore the industry’s hidden gems: Discover unique career paths and industry sectors.
Expert-led insights: Learn directly from industry professionals.
Network-building opportunities: Connect with speakers, peers, and other industry members.
PAST EVENTS
From the practical to the creative, our Spotlight topics covered areas vital to publishing’s evolving landscape, featuring industry speakers who are redefining these fields.
Here are just a few of our past events:
Jihye Shin-Perez on “Providing Mutual Aid Through Books”
In this Spotlight, we will discuss the intersection of community-facing bookstores and mutual aid, and how to encourage these initiatives in the current political and economic environment. This event will take place at the Nonbinarian Bookstore.
Our speaker is Jihye Shin-Perez. Jihye Shin-Perez (she/they) is a career bookseller with over ten years of experience in independent bookstore environments. She is also the poetry editor for the independent literary magazine Deep Overstock Press. Her work focuses on the poetics of the analog-digital, liminial and futurist difference. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, where she co-owns the Nonbinarian Bookstore and serves as its buyer.
Annette Pollert-Morgan on “YA Editorial Acquisition”
In this Spotlight, Annette Pollert-Morgan will discuss editorial acquisitions in the young adult and middle grade space.
Annette Pollert-Morgan is an executive editor at Sourcebooks Fire and Young Readers, where she acquires and edits young adult and middle grade fiction across genres. Annette has had the privilege of editing #1 New York Times bestselling books with Marieke Nijkamp, Laura Nowlin, and L.J. Smith, as well as bestselling novels with Carina Finn, Megan Lally, Natasha Preston, and Tom Sniegoski. Her authors have received a National Book Award Honor, a Stonewall Honor, and the Pura Belpre Award. She acquired and edited Juno Dawson’s This Book Is Gay and other nonfiction titles too.
Annette loves working with debut authors to launch and build their publishing careers and is always looking for narratives with distinct voices and inventive hooks that speak to the diversity of the kid/teen experience, especially those books that keep one up late reading “just one more chapter” and leave you feeling more than when you started. Over the years, Annette has worked at Penguin, Simon and Schuster, and Bloomsbury, as well as freelanced.
Dominique Jones on “BIPOC in Book Design”
In this Spotlight, Dominique Jones will discuss navigating the publishing industry as a black designer, through her personal experiences working in-house and through her self-founded non-profit dedicated to BIPOC designers.
Dominique Jones is a Brooklyn-born Senior Designer at Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Random House. She’s known for her striking book covers and organization, Blk + Brwn Book Designers, Inc. to foster diversity within the publishing industry and empower conversations around inclusion.
Nita Basu on “All Things Audio”
In this Spotlight, Nita Basu will pull the curtains back on a rising star department in the publishing world, and give a behind-the-scenes look into the audio industry and consumer habits. If you've ever been curious to know what really goes on in-and-out the recording booth, this is a Spotlight event you don't want to miss!
Nita Basu is the Associate Director of Social Media, Publicity, and Marketing at Hachette Audio, where she has worked for more than eight years. In her role, she oversees marketing, publicity, and advertising, leading efforts to connect with audiobook listeners and reach new audiences. Nita is proud to collaborate closely with authors, narrators, and Hachette’s print teams to bring audiobooks to life and champion the voices behind them.
Nita’s prior experience includes Macmillan, Penguin Random House, and Diversion Books before joining the audiobook world in 2017. She has represented Hachette Audio at major industry events including New York Comic Con, BookCon, BookExpo America, and RWA. Actively engaged in the publishing community, Nita has served on the Board of the Publishers Advertising and Marketing Association (PAMA) and for the past eight years has been a member of the Audio Publishers Association’s (APA) PR Committee. She is also a former co-lead of Hachette’s Non-Majority Religion Employee Resource Group and served on the company’s Diversity Advisory Board.
A lifelong audiobook listener herself, Nita enjoys listening while knitting, backpacking, and even doing housework.
Lilian Sun, Ruiko Tokunaga, and Maisa Nammarion “Book Production”
In this Spotlight event, a panel of HBG production managers will discuss the ins and outs of four-color production and what really goes on during the manufacturing process. If you've ever been curious to know who makes the physical books you buy, this is a Spotlight event you don't want to miss!
Lilian Sun
Lillian Sun (she/her) is currently Senior Production Director of Children’s Books at Hachette Book Group. At Hachette, she has worked on various titles for Black Dog & Leventhal, Running Press Kids and all the imprints within Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, including their graphic novel line, LB INK. Together with her tenure at HarperCollins Children’s Books, she has nearly thirty years of manufacturing book production experience that covers a wide breadth of book types, formats and genres.
She has had the pleasure to work with such venerable voices and talents in the children’s industry, including Katherine Applegate, Victoria Aveyard, Peter Brown, Christopher Denise, Kevin Henkes, Molly Idle, Jon Klassen, Christoph Niemann, Veronica Roth, Lemony Snicket, as well as the legendary estates of CS Lewis, Shel Silverstein, and Maurice Sendak.
Ruiko Tokunaga
Ruiko Tokunaga (she/her) is the VP, Production and Manufacturing at Hachette Book Group. She started her career as a Production Assistant at Simon & Schuster Children’s Books and held various positions at HarperCollins Children’s before moving to Hachette just over 10 years ago.
When not at work, she is probably reading or planning her next vacation. A lifelong New Yorker, she currently resides in Brooklyn with her cat, Pig.
Maisa Nammari
Maisa Nammari (she/her) is based in Boulder, Colorado, and is a production assistant managing the production of Little, Brown’s 1-color frontlist titles. She joined Hachette Book Group’s Boulder office in 2023, having previously been a publishing professional hopeful, interning at Writers House and Thompson Literary Agency. She is a co-lead of HBG’s Employees of Color Employee Resource Group.
Maisa loves gardening, pottery, and living near the mountains with her fiancé, dog, two cats, and several dozen houseplants.
JOIN US
Be part of the conversation. Spotlight is open to the public and will begin hosting periodic in-person events in 2026. Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Eventbrite to stay up-to-date with our upcoming events.