Fred N. Grayson has been in the publishing business since 1967, where he began as Marketing Director of Cambridge Book Company, publishers of High School Test Preparation books, Texts and Review Books. He formed his own publishing company, Park Lane Press, in 1970. After selling the company to Simon & Schuster in the mid-70s, Mr. Grayson became Editor-in-Chief of its Reference and Educational Division (later know as the Monarch Press Division).
After leaving Simon & Schuster in 1976, Mr. Grayson formed Trafalgar House Publishing, Inc., which later became known as American BookWorks Corporation. Representing hundreds of authors, he has developed books in conjunction with dozens of large and small publishing companies, including Peterson’s, Arco Publishing, Wiley Publishing, Prentice Hall, HarperCollins, McGraw-Hill, Bantam Books, Kaplan, Facts On File, and others.
In 1997, Mr. Grayson founded and developed petswelcome.com, an on-line travel service for people who travel with their pets. Petswelcome.com has become the largest pet-travel website on the Internet with more than one million visitors a year, featuring more than 25,000+ pet-friendly venues, including lodgings, pet sitters, boarding kennels, emergency veterinarians, etc. In 2001, a book based on the website, “The Portable Petswelcome.com” (created by Mr. Grayson and his partner) was published by Howell Book House (a division of John Wiley), and won the annual award for the year’s best reference book, by the Dog Writers’ Association of America.
Mr. Grayson has a B.A. degree in English Literature from Alfred University, NY, and an M.S. degree in Psychological Counseling from C.W. Post (Brooklyn, NY). He served in the U.S. Air Force and retired as a 1st Lieutenant. He has also authored numerous books, primarily in the areas of test preparation and reference.
Valerie Levy Grayson, Esq. began her publishing career in 1978, as a reporter and then Managing Editor of The Phoenix Newspaper, in Brooklyn, NY. In 1979, she joined the Monarch Press division of Simon & Schuster, and soon after was promoted to become Editor in Chief. At Simon & Schuster, she oversaw all editorial, business, and production operations of that division, including development and negotiation of all book contracts. In 1984, she became Executive VP and Associate Publisher of Nautilus Communications, Inc, a New York-based publishing company, that published both general interest titles as well as city-wide yellow page directories.
She briefly left the publishing business in 1989 to attend the Pace University School of Law in New York, where she received a J.D. in 1991 (graduating cum laude, was a Ranking Scholar, and Dean’s List student). During that period, she also served as primary research assistant to the former Chief Judge of the State of New York, Lawrence H. Cooke, and worked part-time as a law clerk in the legal department of Simon & Schuster.
Since 1991, she has served as Vice President of American BookWorks Corporation, developing and overseeing educational, trade, and general-interest publishing projects, served as General Council, and has now joined E-LiteraryAgent, Inc.
Ms. Grayson holds a B.A. degree in Hispanic Languages and Literature from SUNY at Stony Brook, as well as a J.D. from Pace University School of Law (admitted to both the New York State Bar, Appellate Division, and Connecticut State Bar), is listed in Who’s Who in America (since 1984), and has authored two books.