Hodder Studio imprint launches with Moore as publisher

Hodder & Stoughton is launching Hodder Studio, a new imprint aiming to “reimagine storytelling” which already has a list of more than 25 titles.

The imprint will publish fiction and non-fiction across formats, ranging from hardbacks and immersive audio to specially commissioned Twitter tales and short podcast series.

Under Hodder c.e.o. Jamie Hodder-Williams, the imprint is led by publisher Myfanwy Moore (pictured), previously a TV producer and controller of comedy at the BBC.

Harriet Poland, formerly a commissioning editor and business affairs manager at Audible, and Sara Adams, who joins from Harvill Secker, are both editorial directors.

They are joined by assistant editors Izzy Everington, who has worked at PRH and Orion, and Bea Fitzgerald, previously at Scholastic and Hachette Children’s. The editorial assistant is Kwaku Osei-Afrifa who has worked at Canongate, Titan and most recently Unbound.

David Shelley, c.e.o. of Hachette UK, said: “I am very excited about Hodder Studio: the team is dynamic, entrepreneurial and alive to both what new generations of readers want from books, and also to different, innovative means of delivering this to them. I think they will be a real force.”

The editorial team are acquiring books with “international aspirations”, exploring original partnerships and developing new relationships with audiences, the publisher said.

Among the titles due out in autumn is Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith's Inside No 9: The Scripts, published on 12th November and campaigning comedian Grace Campbell's debut memoir and manifesto Amazing Disgrace on 29th October.

The Consolation of Nature, a curated diary from nature writers Michael McCarthy, Jeremy Mynott and Peter Marren is out on 15th October, while “Horrible Histories” writer and actor Susie Donkin has retold the Greek Myths in Zeus is a Dick, published on 5th November. Comedian Tom Allen's “touching, funny, emotional ride of a memoir” No Shame comes out on 12th November.

The imprint has already released e-book short Good Decisions in Strange Situations by leading academic Dr Sheheryar Banuri this year alongside a 90-minute “real-time” gardening audiobook by gardener, journalist and novelist Alice Vincent called Seeds from Scratch.

Further books, audiobooks, e-books and podcasts coming next year include titles from musician Jessie Ware, improvisation comedian Pippa Evans, brand strategist Elizabeth Uviebinené, stand-up comic Phil Wang, teacher and science enthusiast Alom Shaha and digital investigator Michael Grothaus. Fiction will include a literary dystopia from Laura Maylene Walter, speculative fiction from Beth Lewis, and “hilarious, moving and frank” fiction from Sukh Ojla.

Hodder-Williams said: “I’m really excited about what this team of diverse talents can bring to our publishing - challenging us to think differently about the opportunities for storytelling in new ways in the rapidly changing media landscape.”