Jennifer Richards

JENNIFER RICHARDS-BALLOT has 22 years experience in all facets of publicity and public relations. Since launching OVER THE RIVER PUBLIC RELATIONS with Rachel Tarlow Gul in 2000, Jennifer has spearheaded wide-ranging media campaigns for major names such as Greg Bear, Eileen Goudge, Robert James Waller, and Tory Johnson (CEO of Women For Hire) and produced effective regional media tours for budding talents like DeLauné Michel (The Safety of Secrets), Alan Jacobson (author of the Karen Vail series), and pre-eminent biographer James McGrath Morris (Pulitzer). In addition, she has executed corporate PR for distribution and publishing companies, like Client Distribution Services and Goodfellow Press.

Prior to her work at OTRPR, Jennifer was Associate Director of Publicity at The Ballantine Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc. There she worked with many New York Times bestselling authors including Anne Rice, Jeff Shaara, Edward Klein, Adele Puhn, and Susan Orlean. In addition, she directed the company's women's fiction publicity program, which included such writers as Kristin Hannah, Suzanne Brockmann, and Mary Jo Putney. Jennifer also served as the director of Internet publicity, arranging online author interviews and features on major Websites. Prior to working at Ballantine, Jennifer was Publicity Director at St. Martin's Paperbacks where she worked on celebrity biographies, true crime, mystery, and romance. At SMP, she initiated “quick-strike” publicity campaigns for their growing line of instant nonfiction.

She is a graduate of Syracuse University and lives in the metropolitan New York area.

Rachel Tarlow Gul

RACHEL TARLOW GUL has successfully drawn on 17 years of book publicity experience to co-found OVER THE RIVER PUBLIC RELATIONS. While at OTRPR, she has managed major media campaigns for the authors in Nextbook and Schocken's The Jewish Encounters Series, including the acclaimed poet, David Lehman; cultural critic Adam Kirsch; the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, David Mamet; and the New York Times bestselling author, Sherwin Nuland. Rachel has also worked with hardcover, trade paperback, and mass market books in a wide variety of genres including memoirs ("Loving Mailer" by Carole Mallory), mystery/thrillers ("To The Death" by Patrick Robinson), budget guides ("Bitches on a Budget" by Rosalyn Hoffman) and nonfiction ("Sala's Gift" by Ann Kirschner).

Prior to OTRPR, Rachel was a Publicity Manager at The Ballantine Publishing Group. She has worked with many New York Times bestselling authors including Karen Armstrong, Jackie Chan, Judith Guest, Jonathan Kellerman, Gail Sheehy, Andrew Weil, and Naomi Wolf. She also spearheaded the publicity campaigns for the phenomenal blockbusters Reviving Ophelia by Dr. Mary Pipher and Sugar Busters! She was the department liaison to the national author promotions offices at Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books-A-Million, Media Play,
and Waldenbooks.

Rachel is a graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University and lives in the metropolitan New York area.