Meet Our Judges & Partners in Pitch Week III

The team we have assembled to judge the Pitch Week competitions, and to provide key components of the Literary Trifecta, includes:

• Kenichi Sugihara, Vice President of Global Marketing SelectBooks
• Katharine Sands, a top literary agent with the Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency (NYC) and
• Catherine Marenghi, a Boston-based publicist and writer with a career spanning three decades. Former principal and founder of Marenghi PR, a nationally ranked public relations agency, representing authors and thought leaders.

Here, in brief, are the highlights about each Pitch Week partner.

• SelectBooks, a leading NY-based independent publisher, will give our winning Pitch Week contestant a pre-negotiated book deal. Select has a solid roster of non-fiction authors and is now actively engaged in broadening its offerings into mainstream fiction. Kenzi Sugihara, Select’s CEO, says the company is interested in publishing all types of fiction, with only two exceptions: children’s picture books produced in color or adult books with primarily pornographic content. Select is a family-run enterprise with a stellar reputation, in the publishing world, for taking good care of its writers. The company has extensive U.S. and global distribution channels.
• Katharine Sands, a highly sought after agent with the Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency, NYC, will provide career transition and strategic advice to the winning contestant. A literary agent with the Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency, Katharine Sands has worked with a varied list of authors who publish a diverse array of books. 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. Katharine is the second of our Pitch Week Judges.
• Catherine Marenghi is a Boston-based publicist and writer with a career spanning three decades. Formerly principal and founder of Marenghi PR, a nationally ranked public relations agency representing authors and thought leaders, she has secured top-tier press coverage, speaker placements, and awards for business and technology leaders. Her book publicity experience has focused on nonfiction authors, including John Diebold, international management consultant and author of Making the Future Work; and Paul Gillin, social media expert and author of The New Influencers. Catherine is also the author of a memoir, Glad Farm, that was a finalist in the Pitch Week II book publishing competition. She is the third and final judge in Pitch Week III.