Consortium staff

Our people are dedicated professionals who care deeply about books and believe that the dissemination of ideas—especially those that might otherwise go unheard—is a vital and honorable task.

Julie Schaper, VP, President

Julie Schaper has worked for Consortium for twenty-five years. Prior to Consortium she held positions at HarperCollins Publishers in New York City, Putnam (Penguin USA) and the now defunct Pages & Pages Bookstore in Louisville, KY. She has worked in publishing for over thirty years and previously served as a board member for the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP), Rain Taxi Review of Books and Friends of the Hennepin County Library. She is the co-editor with Steven Horwitz of Twin Cities Noir (Akashic Books) and Amplified (Melville House).

Jim Nichols, VP, Sales

Jim Nichols manages the Consortium sales force and advises client publishers on general sales matters, planning and analysis. Prior to joining Consortium in 2001, he held sales positions at Kodansha International, working in their offices in Tokyo and New York, publishing works by Kenzaburo Oe, Morihei Ueshiba, Nobu Matsuhisa, and others. Jim has worked in book publishing for over 25 years, and previously served as a board member for Coffee House Press and for Midwest Independent Booksellers Association. While in Japan he completed an apprenticeship as a guild member of the Kinko Ryu, and is certified to teach Shakuhachi Zen bamboo flute.

Arin Anderson, Sales Assistant

Arin Anderson has dreamed of working in the publishing industry ever since she was little and was ecstatic to join Consortium as a sales assistant beginning in 2023, supporting the sales team in their day-to-day operations and working with their many publishers. She graduated with a BA in English and Classical Languages from the University of St. Thomas, where she developed a love for knitting, dancing, and event planning.

Jayashree Anderson, Sales & Support Representative

Jayashree Anderson was a career bookseller, starting with Borders Inc in 2005 and mostly recently as the Gift & Toy Buyer for Red Balloon Bookshop in St Paul. Jaya is now the Sales & Support Representative for Consortium with an emphasis on Gift & Specialty sales. In 2018, she moved to the Twin Cities from Orlando, where she spent most of her bookselling years as a children's specialist and storyteller. When not working, she can be found reading the latest romcoms (or fantasy or sci-fi or horror), with a paintbrush in hand, or writing her own novels. She lives with her husband in Minneapolis surrounded by books and records.

Jordan Bascom, Marketing Specialist

Jordan Bascom writes Consortium’s weekly trade newsletters and collaborates on the brand’s digital content and general marketing strategy. She previously served as the publicist for Milkweed Editions, where she worked with authors Margaret Renkl, Jake Skeets, Faith Sullivan, Elizabeth Rush, and others. Besides books, she also likes television.

John Baynes, Business Operations Manager

John Baynes has been with Consortium for nearly 30 years. During his time at Consortium he has done nearly every job other than Sales & Marketing. He is now focused on publisher reporting and client statements. Long, long ago he went to Macalester College and majored in Russian Area Studies and minored in Revolutionary History. He has forgotten most of that and has filled his head with ISBNs instead. He lives with his wife and two cats in a small house in Minneapolis.

Ruth Berger, Trade Sales Manager

Ruth Berger has been with Consortium for nearly twenty years, where she manages the commissioned sales representatives, works with independent booksellers, and oversees the twice yearly presales and sales conferences. She has a BA in Theater and Psychology and has an MFA in creative writing. Her essays and short memoir can be found in a variety of literary journals on and offline. She lives with her artist wife, a puppy named Kitten, and two actual cats (Monkey and Ru) in Minneapolis.

Katherine Bright-Holmes, Business Development Director, London Office

Katherine Bright-Holmes is Consortium’s business development director and works with prospective, new, and current publishers. A graduate of the University of Cambridge, she speaks French and Italian and has worked for over thirty years in all areas of trade, academic, feminist, and specialist publishing for large and small independent publishers in London. She joined Consortium in 1999 and, since then, has run Consortium’s overseas office from London and Lake Maggiore, Italy. She specializes in helping independent publishers navigate the North American market.

Josh Brown, Manager, Operations & Metadata

Josh Brown has been with Consortium Book Sales & Distribution since 2014, assisting clients with inventory management and operational issues. Josh has spent the past two decades in the publishing industry working for and with award-winning publishers and best-selling authors. He received his MBA in 2019. His childhood was filled with comic books and Star Wars toys. Ironically, his adulthood is filled with comic books and Star Wars toys. He currently lives in Minneapolis with his wife and two sons.

Mary Burns, Metadata Support Specialist

Mary Burns assists publishers and internal staff in all matters pertaining to CoreSource, from tipsheets to troubleshooting metadata issues to preparing the adult and childrens’ digital catalogs. She brings with her interests in comics, Japanese works in translation, African American studies, and technology issues. She has served with pleasure at Consortium since 2017.

Michael Croy, Sales Manager

Michael Croy wants to live in a world filled with innovative businesses, one where books come bundled with dark chocolate and 5 day weekends are the accepted norm. In his waking hours as a publishing sales professional with over 25 years of experience, he’s worked as a retail sales and national account manager at Random House and directed the Retail Field sales team at Simon & Schuster. After he spent a year with a Silicon Valley start-up he learned there’s no place like home, landing at Consortium where he embraces poetry and prose written in ink and printed on paper.

Jennifer Dedman, ICG Services Manager

Jennifer Dedman started working in the publishing industry in 2001 and has an extensive background in print production. She helps Consortium publishers navigate the services offered by Ingram including Lightning Source. Although she has a degree in English and started working in bookstores during college, her first career was in transportation and logistics where she developed a deep and lifelong love of conveyor belts and conveyor systems. Jennifer lives in Colorado with her husband, two boys, and a miniature dachshund named Walter. Her two boys are quick to claim Walter is her favorite even though she is often convincing in her denials.

Lindsay Eidel, Manager, Client Relations

Lindsay Eidel has been with Consortium since 2005 in various roles. She currently works with new and prospective publishers to bring them safely into the Consortium family. She is also a Client Relations Manager for designated clients. Drawing on her background as a paralegal, she handles all client contracts.

Kristina Hall, Manager, Marketing Services

Kristina began her career in books at Consortium in 2014. After some time in children's publishing and higher ed, she returned to Consortium in 2023 and now manages CBSD's marketing efforts and publisher marketing opportunities. She lives in Minneapolis and enjoys art and drawing, traveling, podcasts, and exploring the Twin Cities.

Anna Landsverk, Metadata Operations Assistant

Anna Landsverk joined Consortium in 2023. She assists publishers with day-to-day updates in CoreSource and metadata best practices. Previously, she interned at New Rivers Press in snowy Fargo/Moorhead and held various roles in children’s publishing. Anna has dabbled in design, journalism, nonfiction writing, economics, and high-speed package sorting, but her greatest love has always been kids’ books. She can usually be found reading picture books, jamming to hyperpop, or playing outside.

Elizabeth O’Brien, National Account Manager

Elizabeth O’Brien joined Consortium in 2016. Previously, she has been a bookseller at Magers and Quinn in Minneapolis, an editorial intern at Graywolf Press, and a slush pile reader for Harvard Review. She holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Minnesota, where she served as editor of the literary magazine Dislocate, and she is the author of a poetry chapbook, A Secret History of World Wide Outage (Diode Editions, 2018). She lives in Northeast Minneapolis with her family.

Madison Padilla, Client Relations Coordinator

Janna Rademacher, Client Relations Manager

Janna Rademacher is a Client Relations Manager, serving as a liaison to many of our publisher clients. She has been in the publishing business for twenty years, much of the time as Managing and Marketing Director at Graywolf Press. Previous to Consortium, Janna was a publishing consultant to a wide range of independent presses in the US and UK. She has two black cats, two sons and is known as having the second loudest laugh in publishing.

Bill Richter, Senior Client Manager

Bill Richter has nearly thirty years of experience working in book distribution and publishing. He worked for nine years at PGW beginning as a customer service representative before becoming a sales assistant and a sales representative. After a couple of years outside of the book industry, he become a sales representative for Nolo and before coming to CBSD, he spent thirteen years as a client manager for Ingram Publisher Services. In his spare time, he writes short stories, enjoys hiking and road trips, and on a good day, he is a slightly better than average recreational league soccer player.

Jaime Starling, Sales Specialist–Amazon.com

Jaime Starling has worked at Consortium since 2008. Previously she worked at Stone Bridge Press and Viz Media. Before, during, or in between these jobs she has been a cinema usher, pub wench, tour guide, booth bunny, test subject, washerwoman, scrapper, etc. She has a few degrees, certificates and cross-stitch samplers on a wall in her home office. She lives in Minneapolis in an old mansion that probably has a room available for rent. It is not haunted . . . yet.