You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
HarperCollins has made a string of promotions in its HQ and Mills & Boon publicity team with Lucy Richardson becoming head of publicity, while Joe Thomas and Isabel Smith also step up.
Richardson, currently publicity manager, joined the team in October 2016. This year, she won the Publishers' Publicity Circle Award 2019 for Best Paperback Original Campaign on Charly Cox’s début poetry collection She Must Be Mad. She has also worked on campaigns for Emma Barnett’s PERIOD. and Radio 2 Book Club pick Nightingale Point by Luan Goldie.
Thomas (pictured right), who joined in August 2017, is promoted from senior press officer to publicity manager. He won a 2019 the Publishers' Publicity Circle Newcomer Award for The Plus One by Sophia Money-Coutts and more recently, the Publishers' Publicity Circle Quarterly Award for The Prison Doctor by Amanda Brown.
He has also worked on campaigns for Gizzi Erskine’s Slow, which was also shortlisted for the Publishers' Publicity Circle Annual Cookbook Award 2019, and Linwood Barclay’s Elevator Pitch. Thomas is currently leading the campaign for This Lovely City by Louise Hare, HQ’s lead spring début.
Smith (pictured left) started as an intern, before becoming publicity assistant in July 2018. Now a press officer, she has assisted on brand campaigns such as Adele Parks’ I Invited Her In, for which she was shortlisted for the Publishers' Publicity Circle Annual Award 2019 for Best Paperback Original Campaign alongside divisional publicity director Sophie Calder. In November 2019, she spearheaded the campaign for Humble The Poet’s début book Unlearn. Smith will report to Richardson.
Calder said: "The award-winning publicity campaigns that Lucy, Joe and Izzy have orchestrated throughout 2019 have delivered critical acclaim and sales success for authors across the division. These promotions recognise their unique talent, commitment and determination. I can’t wait to see what they will achieve next both individually and as a team.”