Jan Kardys, President

Jan L. Kardys’ diverse book publishing career included executive positions at ten of the major book publishers – Doubleday, St. Martin’s Press, Scholastic, Macmillan, Scribner’s, Little, Brown & Company, Warner Books, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Lippincott & Crowell, Publishers, Simon & Schuster/Prentice Hall and Condé Nast Publications. Her experiences are in editorial, art/production, subsidiary rights, contracts, copyrights, permissions, book agenting, editing, writers conferences, and now as a freelance editor and publishing consultant. Jan also worked for Google for three years and has Internet sales/marketing training.

[email protected] – (203) 938-7405

Barbara Ellis, Vice President, Editorial Services

Barbara worked for Knight Ridder Newspapers for many years, first as a feature writer, interviewing notable people and also writing a sailing column.  She became an editor and then editor-in-chief.

Barbara has lived in Miami for the past two decades, working with writers. She does everything from basic line-editing to plot and character development to complete manuscript evaluation. She can help you produce a dynamite query letter, do a book summary, or expertly guide you through the process of writing a non-fiction book proposal. And if you need it, she is a writing coach, or can even ghost write your book. She has worked with writers in many different fiction and nonfiction genres, including memoirs and business books.

Besides enjoying what Miamians call Paradise, Barbara and her kids are dog lovers and rescuers.

Katharine Sands

Literary Agent
A literary agent with the Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency, Katharine Sandshas worked with a varied list of authors who publish a diverse array of books. Highlights include Spiritual Pregnancy: Nine Months that Change Your Life Before You Give Birth by Dr. Shawn Tassone and Dr. Kathryn Landherr; Talk to Strangers: How Everyday Random Encounters Can Expand Your Business, Career, Income and Life by David Topus; The New Rules of Attraction: How to Get Him, Keep Him and Make Him Beg for More by Arden Leigh; Stand Up for Yourself: Resolve Workplace Crises Before You Quit, Get Axed or Sue the Bastards by Donna Ballman; Making Healthy EZ with Dr. Oz guest, Dr. Julie Chen; Dating the Devil (producer: Vast Entertainment) by Lia Romeo; XTC: SongStories; Chasing Zebras: THE Unofficial Guide to House, MD by Barbara Barnett of Let’s Talk TV; CityTripping: a Guide for Foodies, Fashionistas and the Generally Style-Obsessed; Writers on Directors; Ford model Helen Lee’s The Tao of Beauty; Elvis and You: Your Guide to the Pleasures of Being an Elvis Fan; Glow! The Natural Path to the Radiant, Healthier, Happier, Younger You by Dr. Pina; New York: Songs of the City; Taxpertise: Dirty Little Secrets the IRS Doesn’t Want You to Know; The SAT Word Slam, Divorce After 50; Trust Your Gut; Make Up, Don’t Break Up with Oprah guest Dr. Bonnie Eaker Weil to name a few. She is the agent provocateur of Making the Perfect Pitch: How to Catch a Literary Agent’s Eye, a collection of pitching wisdom from leading literary agents. Recently contributed “Grey is the New Black” to Fifty Writers on Fifty Shades of Grey, a nonfiction look at the cultural phenom of the bestselling novel. You can reach her at [email protected].
Actively building her client list, she likes books that have a clear benefit for readers’ lives in categories of food, travel, lifestyle, home arts, beauty, wisdom, relationships, parenting, and fresh looks, which might be at issues, life challenges or popular culture. When reading fiction she wants to be compelled and propelled by urgent storytelling, and hooked by characters. For memoir and femoir, she likes to be transported to a world rarely or newly observed.

Sahed Rana Neka

Sahed is a Web Designer as well as a graphic designer. Experienced in:
Wordpress, Weebly, Dreamweaver, Html5, Css3, Photoshop, Powerpoint, InDesign, and other programs.

Sahed is eager to work with writers and help them design an effective and powerful website or blog. Unicorn Writers’ Conference highly recommends his work.

Please contact Sahed at [email protected] or Skype: neka.sahed