Laura Dawson

Current

Consultant at LJNDawson.com

Past

Digital Consultant at McGraw-Hill Companies
Director, Product Development, MuzeBooks at Muze, Inc.
Consultant at Book Industry Study Group

Director, Content at Sirsi
Director, Content Development at Barnes & Noble
Product Manager at Muze
intern at Simon & schuster

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4 more...

Education

Mount Holyoke College
Mama Gena's School of Womanly Arts

Recommended

7 people have recommended Laura

Connections

426 connections

Industry

Publishing

Websites

My Website

Laura Dawson’s Summary

Laura Dawson is a 20-year veteran of the book industry. From 1987-1988 she was an editorial assistant at Doubleday; she then served stints as an author's assistant and children's bookseller in Brooklyn and Manhattan. In 1990, she was an assistant manager at Barnes & Noble's medical shop at the flagship store on 5th Avenue, and in 1995 she transitioned from selling books in a brick-and-mortar environment to managing the books database at Muze, Inc.

In 1998 she left Muze for Barnes & Noble, and was one of the original members of the website team there, directing the database from which the B&N.com website runs. She was a founding member of the ONIX Committee (and continues to serve on the BISAC Metadata Committee which further develops the ONIX standards). In 2001, Dawson moved to Sirsi Corporation, where she developed content for library interfaces. In 2003, she became an independent consultant, with a brief hiatus as Director of Product Management at Muze; her website is http://www.ljndawson.com.

Laura Dawson’s Specialties:

Book marketing
Content development
Book industry standards and taxonomy
ESL training for professionals
MS Project
Product management
Marketing/evangelization
Digital media delivery
Library services

Laura Dawson’s Experience

Consultant

LJNDawson.com

(Privately Held; Myself Only; Publishing industry)

December 2006 — Present (3 years )

Consultant to publishers, libraries, distributors on digital supply chain, downloadable content. Project management, white papers, market research, best practices recommendations.
Digital Consultant

McGraw-Hill Companies

(Online Media industry)

2007 — 2009 (2 years )
Director, Product Development, MuzeBooks

Muze, Inc.

(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Online Media industry)

April 2006 — November 2006 (8 months)

Developing books-related media information products for booksellers, libraries and other multimedia markets.
Consultant

Book Industry Study Group

(Non-Profit; 1-10 employees; Publishing industry)

2004 — 2004 (less than a year)
Director, Content

Sirsi

(Online Media industry)

2001 — 2003 (2 years )
Director, Content Development

Barnes & Noble

(Public Company; Online Media industry)

1998 — 2001 (3 years )
Product Manager

Muze

(Online Media industry)

1995 — 1998 (3 years )
intern

Simon & schuster

(Online Media industry)

1986 — 1986 (less than a year)

Laura Dawson’s Education

Mount Holyoke College

A. B. , English - writing , September 1983 — June 1987

Activities and Societies:

Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude
Mama Gena's School of Womanly Arts