Founder
Hemali Sodhi
The founder of A Suitable Agency, Hemali Sodhi has over two decades of experience in publishing, communications and brand strategy.
Passionate about books, and with a proven expertise in communications and brand management, she has conceptualised and worked on a number of pioneering and award-winning marketing campaigns. Her focus has been on building brands – consumer-facing as well as corporate – and over the years she has worked with many renowned writers from around the world.
Hemali loves travelling, reading, and dogs. The Book of Dog, an anthology of original writings edited by her, was published in January 2022.
Associates
Smriti Khanna Mehra
Smriti Khanna Mehra has led media planning and communications at two of the largest publishing houses in India in a career spanning fourteen years. She enjoys challenges; building and nurturing interpersonal relationships has been her strength throughout.
Smriti enjoys reading, traveling and aerobics. Based in Delhi, she lives with her husband and eight-year-old son.
Ambar Sahil Chatterjee
Ambar Sahil Chatterjee has worked in publishing for over a decade. His last position was as senior commissioning editor with one of India’s leading publishing houses, where he acquired and published a prestigious classics’ list as well as an eclectic list of contemporary fiction. He has worked closely with a diverse range of eminent writers and translators. When not immersed in books, he loves to dabble in film and theatre.
Naomi Barton
Naomi Barton has worked in both journalism and publishing (at The Wire and Penguin Random House) and wears many hats. She’s an expert in digital communications and brand building, while also being an accomplished writer and editor. She’s looking for books which bring a critical new take to the social issues of our time, and additionally loves genre fiction – particularly fantasy and romance. In her free time, she lives on the internet.
Shivendra Singh
Shivendra Singh is passionate about creating conversations around books and taking the works of a variety of writers to new readers. He has been in publishing for over seven years; in his last position he led the marketing and publicity for the literary fiction and non fiction lists at a leading publisher. He has worked closely with an eclectic range of renowned writers.
In addition to books and writing, Shivendra’s interests include philosophy, art, politics, photography, and travel.
Shruti Jain
Shruti Jain brings her love for books to do all things literary at A Suitable Agency as a Social Media Associate. With a Master’s in Indian History and prior experience as an Editorial Associate at a leading digital history publication, she combines her expertise in content creation with a deep love for literature and culture.
Active on her Instagram page (@bookishruti), she can be found reading fiction sometimes, romanticising Dilli, most of the time, and pretending to have it all together, all the time. When not behind the screen, she’s probably rearranging her bookshelf for the hundredth time, or collecting postcards from her unplanned adventures.
Consulting Editor
Ranjana Sengupta
After working as a journalist for many years (including in the Hindustan Times and Indian Express) Ranjana Sengupta moved to publishing where she now has over two decades of experience as an editor specializing in non-fiction. Her main areas of interest are Politics, History, Memoirs, Foreign Policy—especially in the area of India-Pakistan relations—and Biography, and she has always enjoyed matching an idea to an author as well as helping authors navigate the writing process.
She has worked with a wide range of writers, including many eminent Indian scholars, civil servants, politicians and journalists, and several such books have received major awards. She was formerly deputy publisher with a leading publishing house. She is also the author of Delhi Metropolitan, A City Biography (Penguin, 2007).