Opening the Book Promotions was set up in 2001 to meet the specific needs of public libraries in promotion and display. Helen Thomas and Rachel Van Riel are co-directors and the company is based in Birmingham where we have a showroom.
Helen Thomas - Director
Helen has worked in the book trade for over twenty years. She started her career as a bookseller and gained extensive experience working both in general and academic bookselling. After successfully overseeing a refurbishment of a major city centre bookshop Helen was asked to join Dillons Bookstores' Head Office to help to manage their expansion programme specifically looking at store layout, developing shelving systems and stock range. Her role was further expanded and she became Head of Marketing for Dillons Bookstores responsible for a budget of over £2 million per annum.
Today, as well as being a director of Opening the Book Promotions, Helen runs Book Communications, an independent consultancy working within the library and literature sectors. Book Communications has project manged a wide range of library-based initiatives, including arts-based consultation for Bolton Libraries, writing Brent's successful Big Lottery application and programming Young Readers, Birmingham's children's book festival.
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Rachel Van Riel - Director
Rachel commissioned Helen’s company, Book Communications, to work on the first national reader-centred promotion for libraries - Open Ticket for the Branching Out programme in 1999. Following the success of further joint promotions, especially The Mind’s Eye for the Public Libraries Group of CILIP, Helen and Rachel decided to set up an independent company to bring the best of reader development and retail approaches together.
Opening the Book Promotions is now a leading player in the library market. Rachel divides her time between her original company, Opening the Book, and working with Helen and the team at Opening the Book Promotions.
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Jane Jackson - Sales and Marketing Manager
Jane has worked in marketing and advertising for over 10 years. With a love of the arts and a marketing education, she decided to combine the two by working firstly in a theatre and then the BBC. She later became Promotions Manager at Dillons Bookstores, where she managed a national programme of marketing activity for the group.
Jane left Dillons Bookstores for an intended 3 month stint exploring the world but returned 2 years later having worked in various marketing agencies in New Zealand and Australia.
Since returning to the UK, Jane has worked for McCann Erickson advertising implementing marketing campaigns for various retailers & fmcg brands and in August 2004, joined Opening the Book as Sales & Marketing Manager.
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Anya Agnew - Sales Co-ordinator
Anya Clark joined Opening the Book Promotions in April 2007 and is responsible for keeping our customers happy - from dealing with enquiries and processing orders to keeping you informed and listening to your comments and suggestions.
Anya has a varied and interesting range of experiences, including working for the police as a trained scene of crime officer and handling the recruitment for Create a Future (a charity that promotes science and engineering in schools). Anya is a keen reader and is enjoys discussing and sharing her reading experiences with her colleagues at Opening the Book.
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