Bloomsbury hires new head of Harry Potter publishing

Bloomsbury Children’s Books has hired Mandy Archer to head up its Harry Potter publishing team.

As editorial director and head of brand, a newly created role, Archer will lead the creative team driving Bloomsbury’s brand development programme and be responsible for the long-term Harry Potter publishing strategy. She will start the role on 18th September and report to director and editor-in-chief Rebecca McNally.

Archer is a freelance publishing consulting and collaborated with Bloomsbury on the 2017 Harry Potter History of Magic books and exhibition at the British Library. She co-founded editorial and design studio 38a The Shop and was previously creative head of children’s books at BBC Worldwide.

“The prospect of working on the Harry Potter list is every editor’s dream come true and an opportunity I could not resist,” said Archer “I feel extremely proud to be joining such a dedicated and professional team, and look forward to playing a key role in the next chapter for this exceptional brand.”

McNally added: “It’s a joy and privilege to work on Harry Potter, from the Jonny Duddle reissues to the glorious, imagination-expanding illustrated editions and last year’s phenomenal 20th anniversary campaign and publishing. It matters very much that everything we do with this extraordinary brand shows our commitment to quality and integrity and I’m delighted that we’ve persuaded the wonderful Mandy Archer to join our team and lead this next stage of publishing magic.”

The Harry Potter series by J K Rowling started life with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in 1997 and went on to comprise of seven novels, a play and several companion volumes. The books have been translated into 80 different languages, including Albanian, Azerbaijani, Hawaiian and Manx.