Amy Gary's Professional Biography

Amy Gary has worked in the book retailing and publishing industry for over 20 years. She has worked in bookstores, as a book publisher's sales representative, as Sales Manager for Oxmoor House, as Marketing Director for Books-A-Million and co-founded a children's publishing company that was sold to Disney's publishing company, Hyperion Books for Children. After the sale of her company she became a literary agent, specializing in children's works and non-fiction, including being the agent for the Margaret Wise Brown estate. Articles about her and her work have appeared in Vanity Fair, Los Angeles Times, Publisher's Weekly, Entertainment Weekly, Special Reports, Horn Book and many newspapers.

Along with Cyd Moore, an illustrator of over 25 children's books, she co-founded Picturebook, a directory of children's book illustrators that is distributed to the trade, educational and electronic publishing community, along with art directors and advertising executives. Picturebook immediately became an essential tool for creative directors and editors looking to hire illustrators of works for children.

During her career she has planned promotions for and worked with many well-known authors and celebrities including Pat Conroy, Emmitt Smith, Walter Cronkite, Burt Reynolds, Jeff Foxworthy, Regis Philbin, Dolly Parton, Anne Rice, Hillary Clinton, Dan Quayle, Barbara Bush, Former President Jimmy Carter, George Foreman and Joan Collins. She has booked authors on Good Morning America, Oprah, Donahue and the Today Show. Many of the marketing promotions she planned have been featured on national television news shows, such as CNN and NBC Evening News.

In 1990 she found almost 100 unpublished works by Margaret Wise Brown, the popular children's author of Goodnight Moon and TheRunaway Bunny. She continues to edit and manage the rights to the works she discovered in addition to another 200 unpublished works she has since uncovered.

Her recent books sold include many children's books, a diet cookbook, an architectural textbook, music books and a financial guide for women. Susan Jeffers, Steven Johnson and Lou Fancher are some of the illustrators who have brought life to Ms. Brown's unpublished works. Maurice Sendak and Rosemary Wells are scheduled to illustrate two of the books she has worked on.

Amy lives in Birmingham, Alabama with her husband, Nap, and their fourteen year-old daughter, Emily; thirteen year-old son, Britt; six year-old son, David; and fourteen year-old dog, Suzy Q.