Little, Brown promotes Clare Smith and Lucy Malagoni

Little, Brown Book Group has made two "key" promotions within its editorial team: Clare Smith, publishing director at Little, Brown/Abacus, has been promoted to fiction publisher at Little, Brown/Abacus, while editorial director Lucy Malagoni has been promoted to publishing director for Sphere Fiction.

Smith will report to Little, Brown managing director Charlie King, who described Smith as "one of the smartest and most commercially-minded publishers in the business". He added: "I could not be more excited about working with her in her expanded role to further build the sales and profile of the L,B Abacus fiction list."

Since joining the company in 2011, Smith has acquired titles including Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You and Gabrielle Zevin’s The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, as well as bringing authors Jane Harper, Oliver Harris and Janice Y.K. Lee to the list. In 2013, she launched digital-first literary imprint Blackfriars, whose authors include performance poet Hollie McNish and US comedian and actor Rob Delaney. 

In her new expanded role, she will take financial and strategic responsibility for the L,B/Abacus fiction list, working in partnership with L,B/Abacus managing director Richard Beswick, who will be responsible for growing the imprint’s non-fiction business as well as continuing to acquire new fiction. 

Malagoni, who is promoted to publishing director for Sphere Fiction, will report to Sphere Fiction publisher Cath Burke. Credited by Burke as "a tremendous champion of her books”, Malagoni acquired and published Clare Mackintosh, whose debut psychological thriller I Let You Go went on to sell over half a million copies, according to Little, Brown, with 305,000 copies selling in total in print in the UK through Nielsen. She also assumed a “key" role on Little, Brown's publishing team for J K Rowling, as well as taking on responsibility for fiction brands such as Val McDermid, Dennis Lehane and Carl Hiaasen.

Burke said: "Lucy is a brilliant colleague and a tremendous champion of her books and of the entire Sphere Fiction list. We are delighted to be promoting her and I am thrilled to be working with her even more closely on publishing the exceptionally talented authors we are so lucky to work with here at Sphere."