Judy Hilsinger, APR
Chief Executive Officer
Hilsinger Mendelson West
Judy Hilsinger has successfully drawn on more than thirty years experience in publicity, promotion, publishing, broadcasting and market research to create the nation's preeminent literary public relations agency.
From Hilsinger-Mendelson's office in Los Angeles, Ms. Hilsinger has developed national publicity for Dominick Dunne's Another City, Not My Own; writer/producer Linda Bruckheimer's book, Dreaming Southern and The Southern Belles of Honeysuckle Way, Vanity Fair's Maureen Orth, and interior designers Steve Tomar and Stuart Lampert (featured in Architectural Digest). In addition, she coordinated West Coast media interviews for Erin Brockovich's Take It From Me, Stephen J. Cannell's Shane Scully series of thrillers, David Breashears' The Last Climb and Everest, for which Breashears was a spokesperson; Great Dames by Vanity Fair's Marie Brenner, Tim Cahill's Dolphins; Robert D. Ballard's Return to Midway, and Shelby Marlo, who People Magazine has dubbed "The Dog Whisperer," and her book, Shelby Marlo's New Art of Dog Training. She coordinated press at the Los Angeles publication parties for Sumner Redstone, author of A Passion to Win, and Quincy Jones' Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones.
She contributes year-round to campaigns for Stephen J. Cannell and Anne Geddes as well as working extensively on a range of National Geographic Books titles. Recently, she coordinated West Coast media for Diane Johnson's Into a Paris Quartier and national publicity for Andrew Gumbel's Steal This Vote: Dirty Elections and the Rotten History of Democracy in America.
As a sidebar to her work at Hilsinger-Mendelson West, she has created Heartfelt Books & Films, a literary agency/management firm servicing the Christian and spiritual market.
From 1973 to 1977, Ms. Hilsinger was senior publicity manager for Bantam Books in New York City, responsible for national publicity and promotion campaigns for titles ranging from "instants" such as 90 Minutes at Entebee, which sold one million copies in three months, to Arthur Hailey's The Moneychangers and James Herriot's successful series, All Creatures Great and Small.
She produced and directed news, talk and interview programs, frequently rated first in their time slots, for WWDC-Radio, WMCA-Radio, WCBS-TV and WNBC-Radio in Washington, D.C., and New York from 1966 to 1973. Prior to that, as a market research investigator for Proctor & Gamble from 1964 to 1966, Ms. Hilsinger was one of 125 women to conduct extensive coast-to-coast interviews regarding consumer products.
Founder and past president of the Northern California Book Publicists' Association, she has been President of the Literary Publicists of Los Angeles, which she co-founded in 1989. In addition, she is past President of the Board of Directors of the Public Relations Society of America, Los Angeles Chapter (1996), has served on its Board for seven years, and is a member of The Hollywood Women's Press Club. She has served on the national board of Children's International Summer Villages and taught publicity courses at the University of California, Los Angeles.
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Sandi Mendelson
Chief Executive Officer
Hilsinger Mendelson East
Sandi Mendelson has established Hilsinger-Mendelson as the nation's preeminent literary public relations firm, as well as leading the successful expansion of its services to include image- and brand-building campaigns for diverse industries.
Since launching Hilsinger-Mendelson's New York office in 1983, Ms. Mendelson has created brand awareness campaigns for such authors as personal finance expert, Suze Orman; world-renowned baby photographer Anne Geddes; entertainer and entrepreneur, Suzanne Somers, and award-winning food writer Nigella Lawson, for whom she established a U.S. presence. Taking authors well beyond the bestseller lists, she directs PR, marketing, and branding for artist Sandra Magsamen's publishing and licensing team, and continues to create or has created brand awareness campaigns for such prominent entities as Parade, National Geographic Books, M.I.L.K., Ltd., Binney & Smith's Crayola, and The Quill Awards, the first national book award that includes consumers in its voting process.
Responsible for a number of national and New York Times bestsellers, Ms. Mendelson orchestrated national publicity campaigns for Suze Orman's #1 New York Times bestsellers The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom and The Courage to Be Rich, as well as The Road to Wealth; Suzanne Somers' Slim and Sexy Forever, Suzanne Somers' The Sexy Years, Suzanne Somers' Eat, Cheat, and Melt the Fat Away, Somersize Desserts, and Suzanne Somers' Fast & Easy, and for Anne Geddes, whose books have sold more than 15 million copies worldwide and whose first coffee-table book, Down in the Garden, she guided to become the #1 gift book of the year, on the New York Times bestseller list for more than 12 weeks, followed by domestic and European tours for Geddes' internationally acclaimed Until Now, Pure, and her New York Times bestseller, Miracle. Her campaigns included those for bestsellers Northern Lights by Nora Roberts, Halloween by Jerry Seinfeld, How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson, Sammy's Hill by Kristin Gore, and Gavin de Becker's The Gift of Fear, on the New York Times bestseller list for four months, as well as his Fear Less and Protecting the Gift. Ms. Mendelson also contributed to the campaigns for Skywriting by Jane Pauley, One Dangerous Lady and Social Crimes by Jane Stanton Hitchcock, Amy Fine Collins' The God of Driving, Arianna Huffington's Pigs at the Trough, James Cameron's Aliens of the Deep, Barbara Delinsky's An Accidental Woman, and NBC-TV mental health contributor Dr. Gail Saltz's Becoming Real and Amazing You!
Ms. Mendelson played a pivotal role in the successful launch of the International eBook Award Foundation, and the inaugural and 2001 Frankfurt eBook Award. She also designed the campaign for the national launch of Binney & Smith's Crayola Kids Magazine, and generated substantial worldwide coverage for the opening of The American Poets' Corner. In addition, she orchestrated the re-launch of the National Geographic Society children's magazine, World, and raised the profile of Town & Country and Worth magazines.
A member of the Executive Committee of the UJA-Federation's Publishing Division, as well as the Executive Committee of Books For A Better Life, she served on the board of the Publishers Publicity Association. She is an active member of the Women's Media Group, and was a former Communications Advisory Board member of the New York City Partnership and New York Chamber of Commerce. A supporter of The CityKids Foundation in New York City, she has served as vice president of the Northern California Book Publicists' Association, and was a distinguished guest lecturer at U.C. Berkeley and San Francisco State.
Ms. Mendelson continues to be an insatiable advocate for her clients, applying her more than 25 years of expertise in the fields of publicity, promotion and publishing to provide clients with the invaluable strategies necessary for them to find and capture a distinctive share of their marketplace.
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