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Little Brown's young adult imprint Atom is to expand, doubling the number of new titles over the next two years, focusing on series for the older teen market and increasing its digital content.
Samantha Smith has been promoted to editorial director and will report to deputy publisher David Shelley. She was previously a commissioning editor at the imprint. Smith said: "We're committed to continuing the high standards of publishing that have made Atom such a success to date. So many fantastic authors are writing YA right now. It's an extraordinary area and I'm thrilled to be given the opportunity to develop our list."
Shelley added: "This is a market that's incredibly open to new digital innovation and it's important to us to provide the right format for the right audience . . . I'm also delighted that Sam is going to be taking this forward for us. She is a very talented editor, with a great feel for this growing area of the market."
Early next year the publisher will be launching a re-designed social website, www.atombooks.co.uk, which Atom will use to find out readers' preferences. Smith said: "It's incredibly important for us to be able to talk to our readers—both consumers and booksellers—and find out what's working for them. What do they like and, we hope, love about our books? What do they like about other books in the market? How can we publish better for them? We see the website as being the perfect forum for that conversation."
Atom was founded in 2002 as the sister imprint of Orbit, Little Brown's science fiction and fantasy list. The imprint has had much success over the last year with the Stephanie Meyer series.