Helen Huthwaite promoted to Avon publishing director

Avon's editorial director Helen Huthwaite has been promoted to publishing director as the imprint expands and launches a new logo.

Sabah Khan has been appointed to the HarperCollins imprint as PR manager from publicity agency PHA Media where she was account director, and recruitment is in progress for new marketing and editorial roles. Avon has also unveiled a refreshed logo, set to be printed on their books from summer 2017.

Huthwaite began her career at HarperCollins in 2009 and joined Avon a year later as editorial assistant. Her first acquisition was Mhairi McFarlane’s bestseller, You Had Me At Hello, published in 2012 which sold 78,815 copies for £301,369 (Nielsen BookScan). More recently Huthwaite has published C.L. Taylor, Paul Finch, Kitty Neale and Rachel Wells. In 2015 she launched a project to provide manuscript services for aspiring authors in order to raise £30,000 for charity.

Huthwaite said she felt "immeasurable pride" at her promotion.

“I couldn’t be prouder to lead the Avon team – there isn’t a more committed, hardworking and talented bunch in the industry," she said. "Avon has long been home for me and 2016 was a spectacular year, I feel immeasurable pride to see it going from strength to strength, with our long list of industry-leading commercial authors producing some of the most talked about books in publishing.”

The publisher said last year was the best in Avon’s history, with eight Sunday Times bestsellers, 14 Kindle top 20 bestsellers and six Kindle numbers ones.

Oliver Malcolm, Avon’s publishing strategy director, described Huthwaite as a "fantastic leader". He said: “After some incredibly hard work, we have had some lovely surprises in the last few months, not least being shortlisted for Imprint of the Year at the 2017 British Book Awards. Having said that, Helen’s promotion to publishing director shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone – she is a fantastic leader, and someone who places the development of her authors’ careers at the centre of all decision-making.”

It was announced last month that Avon's commissioning editor Natasha Harding would leave to join e-book publisher Bookouture as associate publisher.