Summer Dawn Laurie entered the world of children’s book publishing in 1997 at Chronicle Books for Children, working in both the marketing and editorial departments. In 2000 she joined Tricycle Press, the children's imprint of Ten Speed Press where as Senior Editor she worked on over 50 books published across varied genres—picture books, board books, novels, activity books, fiction and nonfiction.

After seven years she became an independent editor, working directly with authors and publishers.

Since 2007 Summer has worked as a children’s bookseller, starting the Wild Girls Mother-Daughter Book Club and running a monthly children's writers' critique group. For 15 years, Summer managed the children’s and teen programming of San Francisco’s annual Litquake literary festival. She was the founding chair of the NCIBA Children's Alliance and currently sits on advisory councils for both BAC Group and the ABC Group of the ABA.