Hodder’s Cooper to join PMJ as senior commissioning editor for fiction

Lily Cooper is joining Penguin Michael Joseph (PMJ) as senior commissioning editor for fiction from Hodder, where she is currently commissioning editor.

Cooper will join the imprint on 18th September, and will report to publisher Joel Richardson. She will have a broad remit at PMJ, focused predominantly on book club and reading group fiction.

Cooper joined Hodder as an editorial assistant in 2017. Previously she was at HarperCollins, where she was part of the 2015 Graduate Trainee Scheme intake, and worked for a year at HarperVoyager.

At Hodder she oversaw publications including The Girl With the Louding Voice by Abi Daré, which was shortlisted for debut of the year at the Nibbies, and The Fair Botanists by Sara Sheridan which was selected as the 2022 Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year. She worked with authors including Anne Griffin and Rowan Coleman. Recent acquisitions include Vanessa Chan’s debut novel The Storm We Made, in a seven-way auction.

Cooper said: “I have spent a wonderful six years at Hodder, working with talented authors and colleagues alike. But the opportunity to join Penguin Michael Joseph was too good to turn down. I look forward to working with Joel and the rest of the team in bringing brilliant new voices to the list.”