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Bookouture reveals eight promotions and new hires and expansion of SFF imprint
Bookouture has announced eight new roles – a mix of promotions and hires – along with expansion of its young SFF imprint Second Sky.
It has also been shortlisted as Imprint of the Year at the British Book Awards – for the fourth time in five years and the third year in a row – and follows the publisher’s “incredible success in 2024, which saw the second consecutive year of significant double-digit sales growth”.
Ruth Tross has been promoted to executive publisher. Tross joined the company in 2019, and has published some of Bookouture’s biggest authors, including Angela Marsons and Leslie Wolfe. She has also led the launch of Bookouture’s new science fiction and fantasy imprint, Second Sky, “which has seen huge growth since its first publications in 2023”, including the bestseller Kaylie Smith’s Phantasma.
Managing director Jenny Geras said: “In addition to running her editorial team and publishing all of her authors brilliantly, Ruth has for some time been the organisational driving force of Bookouture’s 36-person editorial team and the huge workload that this entails. In addition to all of this oversight, alongside Jack Renninson she has project managed Second Sky’s launch and publishing with rigour, commercial skill and forensic attention to detail. I’m delighted to recognise that with this well-deserved promotion, and look forward to seeing the editorial team and our publishing continue to develop under her expert eye.”
Second Sky is also expanding, with Sophie Judge joining the team at the end of March to double its title count. Judge is currently assistant editor at Hodderscape, where she has been part of the team working on brands like Adalyn Grace and Callie Hart, and publishing her own list of authors including Guy Gavriel Kay, Robert Jackson Bennett, Fonda Lee and Lauren Wisebron.
Tross said: “We were blown away by Sophie’s genre knowledge, enthusiasm and her keen focus on readers. We can’t wait to see what she acquires for the Second Sky list, and to see the imprint hit new heights in the coming years.”
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Two more commissioning editor hires on the fiction team include Brittany Golob, who joins from the Orion mid-career editorial and marketing traineeship, having previously worked as a journalist for more than 10 years. And Lizzie Brien is promoted to commissioning editor, having been with the company as a publishing executive since 2021, and publishing authors including Dee MacDonald and Jean Fullerton.
Bookouture has also announced further promotions in its communications team, with Melanie Price promoted to digital marketing and campaigns director. In this new role she will lead the growth and development of Bookouture’s marketing and publicity strategy alongside digital communications director Alex Crow, and will have creative oversight of all marketing and publicity campaigns.
Crow said: “Melanie is one of the most talented marketers I have worked with and has been instrumental to our success over the past few years. Her new role is recognition of her brilliant commercial intuition, creative planning and strategic execution.”
Kim Nash is also moving into the newly created role of author community director, tasked with championing and developing Bookouture’s community of authors and running training sessions to support authors in their careers.
Crow said: “Kim has been with Bookouture since the very beginning and the close relations she has forged with our authors, both past and present, has made us into the company we are today. As a published author herself, she is a passionate advocate of author wellbeing and is better placed than anyone to champion our community of writers and support the development of their careers.”
Finally, Bookouture has also made two internal promotions of staff “integral to the smooth running of their departments”: Mandy Kullar becomes editorial manager, and Hannah Richmond becomes digital sales executive.
The new roles follow what the publisher called its “incredible success in 2024, which saw the second consecutive year of significant double-digit sales growth”.
