Sohini Mitra

Background

About Sohini Mitra

A publishing professional with over 18 years of experience, I oversee and head the children's and YA list at Penguin Random House India. Working with a team of commissioning editors, I create and curate the publishing programme keeping in mind trends, reader tastes, list shape, profitability, commercial viability and long shelf life of the titles acquired for the division. Highly passionate about children's books and publishing and having spent more than a decade in the industry, I have gathered the expertise of working on children's content particularly collaborating with literary giants such as Ruskin Bond, Sudha Murty, late Dr Kalam, Roopa Pai, Devdutt Pattanaik, Namita Gokhale, Anita Nair, Paro Anand, Subroto Bagchi, among many other stalwarts whose books I've had the fortune of commissioning and editing. I've also worked on a varied range of books, from classics to lifestyle, chick lit to reference. Many of the titles I’ve worked on have gone on to win prestigious awards (Crossword Award for Children's Literature, Comi Con Award, The Hindu-Goodbooks Award, Publishing Next Award, Parag Honour Books, South Asia Book Awards, to name a few).My current job role entails acquiring books for the children and YA imprint, and overseeing the publishing cycle of the books acquired—from the nascent manuscript stage to the finished product. This also includes being hands-on with the designing part of the process to create beautiful and visually appealing books which are a treasure to keep. Skill Sets:• Overseeing and heading a division/imprint, publishing 80+ titles• Building a list of strong, edgy and commercially viable titles in multiple genres• Networking and building a pool of authors • Supervising a team of editors• Working closely with the marketing team to plan promotional strategies• Project management-from scheduling titles, allocating resources, delegating responsibilities, working on book jackets to overall supervision.