About
Meet Elissa + Jason
Book Club Concierge is a husband-and-wife business built on two lifelong loves: great books and great hospitality.
Elissa has spent her career finding the right book early. Jason has spent his making guests feel at home. Together, we help companies, communities, and hotels create experiences people remember, with the right book at the center.
The book scout
Meet Elissa
Elissa Smith has been recommending books long before algorithms tried to do it.
She is the founder of Evolving Story Book Scouting and The Book Club Concierge — a book-to-screen scout and an indie bookseller. As a consultant, she has scouted for Elizabeth Banks, Paul Feig, Keshet Studios, and BET Studios, sourcing books for film and television adaptation.
Before that, she worked in-house at Lionsgate across the film studio, Lionsgate TV, UK TV, and Starz, helping acquire books including Queenie, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, and London. Earlier, she sourced material for Amblin, NBC, Original Film, and Illumination, with development roles at Sony TV and 3 Arts Entertainment.
Her job has always been finding the right book early — at international book fairs and in New York publishing, but also through authors, readers, publicists, and content creators. She champions under-represented voices across every genre.
She understands that not every good book makes a great shared experience. Her strength is finding the kind of books you don’t find on a list — but wish you had — and turning them into something people want to gather around.
The hotelier
Meet Jason
Jason Smith has spent more than 15 years in hospitality, where the details are the experience.
He built his foundation in luxury service at The Ritz-Carlton, then spent more than five years at Lotte New York Palace, rising through food and beverage leadership to Assistant Director of Food & Beverage and Director of In-Room Dining. He has also held General Manager and Director-level roles with Morgans Hotel Group, Notar Hospitality, and Café Tallulah, running food and beverage, guest services, and the business behind them.
From there he moved to the people side of hospitality: three years at Collective Retreats, most recently as Director of Talent Experience & Culture. Today he leads people development, talent, training, and culture as a People Development Director.
That path has taught him that community and shared experiences matter as much to employees as they do to guests. Book Club Concierge sits on both sides of that coin: the right book can bring a team together just as easily as it gives a guest a reason to stay.
He also spent five years teaching as an adjunct at NYU, and he founded My Rider, a guest-preference platform that helps hotels personalize every stay. At Book Club Concierge, he brings the operator’s view: how a program fits a property’s calendar, team, and guests, and how to turn it into something the hotel can sell.
Track record
Her picks end up on screen.
A scout’s job is to find the book before everyone else. A few she has scouted or helped acquire:
Queenie
Candice Carty-Williams
Acquired at Lionsgate; now a Hulu series
The Hollywood Reporter(opens in a new tab)The House Across the Lake
Riley Sager
Acquired by Netflix, with Paul Feig eyeing to direct
Deadline(opens in a new tab)London
Jo Nesbø
Lionsgate film with Oscar Isaac, directed by Ben Stiller
Variety(opens in a new tab)Family Reservations
Liza Palmer
Drama series in the works at NBC
Deadline(opens in a new tab)Suburban Hell
Maureen Kilmer
Adaptation at Legendary from Paul Feig and Sam Raimi
Deadline(opens in a new tab)An Absolutely Remarkable Thing
Hank Green
Acquired at Lionsgate
Read along
Can’t Put It Down
Elissa’s newsletter of under-the-radar book recommendations. It’s a good preview of how she picks.