Emily Murdock Baker founded EMB Editorial in 2016. After graduating Cum Laude from Boston University’s School of Communication with a degree in film, she began her career in Hollywood. She worked primarily in development for several production companies, and also on set as a PA. Credits include Righteous Kill, Royal Pains, and The Starter Wife.
After nearly three years in Los Angeles, Emily returned to her first loves: books and the East Coast. She spent seven years at Penguin Random House imprints Penguin Books and Viking, editing fiction and nonfiction, and producing enhanced e-books for Antony Beevor’s D-Day and Manning Marable’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Malcolm X, as well as countless author videos. Books she’s edited have been New York Times bestsellers (Midnight in Peking, The Secret Rooms, The Crash Detectives), won multiple Edgars (The Wicked Girls, Midnight in Peking), Macavity Awards (The Killer Next Door), Crime Writers of America Dagger Awards (The Siege), Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year (Someone Else’s Skin), Crime Thriller of the Year at the UK National Book Awards (The Carrier), and have been nominated for the Anthony Award (The Killer Next Door, The Wicked Girls), a James Beard Award (The Waldorf Astoria Bar Book), shortlisted for the Guardian Prize for First Fiction (Tony Hogan Bought Me An Ice Cream Float Before He Stole My Ma), and been named a Kirkus Best Book of the Year (City of Devils), a Publisher’s Weekly Summer Reads Pick (The Imperfects), and a Most Anticipated Read by Vogue, Vanity Fair, and The Washington Post (Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls).
In both development and book editing, Emily’s favorite part of her job was working with authors to shape their work. Founding EMB Editorial means that she can focus on working directly with authors full time. In other words, she gets to spend most of her time doing her favorite part of her job.
Originally from Maine, Emily lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter, a cat named Ruth Bader Ginspurr, a motley assortment of house plants, and a vast collection of books. She loves Scotland, the Patriots and the Red Sox, baked goods of all varieties, trashy television, and a strong cup of tea. She has never lived more than 30 minutes from an ocean.