Sarah Cole

Sarah Cole is passionate about publishing as a platform for change. Her research focuses on book culture and the intersection of innovation, profitability, and sustainability. She is currently examining the sustainable integration of generative and agentic artificial intelligence into the book publishing workflow. Her teaching emphasizes critical thinking, ethics, and international perspectives in book publishing, entrepreneurship, innovation and the complete end-to-end publishing process.

Before joining Emerson, Cole was most recently a publishing director at John Murray Press, a division of Hachette UK based in London. There, she managed three imprints: Chambers, Teach Yourself, and John Murray Learning.

Cole has been at the forefront of digital innovation in publishing. As part of the Special Projects Team at Cambridge University Press (UK), she was responsible for publishing the first fully online ELT (English Language Teaching) course, and spearheading a new online learning department. At Hachette UK, she launched the first enhanced ebooks, the bestselling e-commerce website, and several top-selling iOS and Android apps.

Cole specializes in nonfiction. Her publishing highlights include bestselling Rebel with a Clause (UK edition) by Ellen Jovin; Everyday Shakespeare, featuring quotes from the lesser-known corners of Shakespeare’s plays and poems, by Ben and David Crystal (OBE); the world’s naughtiest dictionary, Words from Hell, by Jess Zafarris, and books to teach over 70 languages.

www.thatsarahcole.com