Sara Schneider
Associate Director of Publicity
Sara Schneider has a favorite work moment that comes around every single day. "I love it when my caller id lights up and tells me that someone in the media is calling about one of my books," she says. "Sometimes I actually stand up to take the call because I'm too jazzed to sit down."
Sara grew up in the very traditional household of Sue and Bob Golier. After graduating from Fox Chapel High School in Pittsburgh, Sara scoured the country to scope out all of her college possibilities. She eventually opted for the University of Vermont because she quite literally 'fell in love with it" on her visit to the campus one snowy and dreary March day. She would finish with a degree in International Economics and a minor in Economics.
Shortly after graduation, Sara followed her heart and heightened sense of adventure to New York where she began to climb the ladder of a very successful career in the book business. First, she landed a job as the Subsidiary Rights Assistant at Random House Children's Books. "I worked on books that I read to my kids today," she says.
She then moved on to Villard Books, also part of Random House. She would eventually leave Random House to take the role of Senior Publicist at Avalon Publishing Group.
Sara stepped out of the book publishing business for a couple years and was an account executive at PR21 (now Zeno Group), a subsidiary of Edelman Public Relations, where she specialized in Tech PR.
Her love of books brought her back to the publishing world, and a two-year stint at Free Press, a Simon & Schuster imprint, would follow. Soon she was faced with an important choice. After Max, her first son, was born she decided she wanted to be home with him more than her job would allow. Serendipitously, Goldberg McDuffie Communications would call and offer her the opportunity to do just that.
Her work there brought her to the attention of Barbara Henricks, who became one of Sara's mentors. When Barbara left Goldberg McDuffie to form her own company in January of '06, Sara was one of her first hires and is currently Associate Director of Publicity.
Sara has always loved books, but she loves book publicity even more. "I like meeting interesting people. Instead of just reading about authors on their book jacket, I actually get to know them." She's worked with a wide variety of authors over the years including: Dorothy Allison (Cavedweller), Joyce Carol Oates, Eric Jerome Dickey (Liars Game, Cheaters), Carlos Eire (Waiting For Snow in Havana, a National Book Award winner), Martin Seligman (Authentic Happiness), Tom Rath (How Full is Your Bucket? and StrengthsFinder 2.0), and George Will (With a Happy Eye, But...).
She also enjoys spreading the word about the books she's excited about. Sara is also a trained pastry chef and in her spare time enjoys baking cakes and especially cupcakes for friends and family.
Sara lives in Dobbs Ferry, NY with her husband, Doug, and two sons, Max and Gus.