Kate Byrne to join HQ as publishing director

Kate Byrne, currently editorial director at Headline, is joining HQ as publishing director, reporting to commercial fiction publisher, Kate Mills. Byrne will join HarperCollins on Monday 2nd September 2024.

Having begun her career at Headline in 2006, Byrne was the driving force behind the launch of romance imprint Eternal, later taking the reins of Headline’s digitally-focused Accent list.

Her authors included Jasmine Guillory, Jill Shalvis and Jo Watson as well as Erin Sterling and Mariana Zapata. She was seconded to Little, Brown in 2023 as fiction publishing director at Piatkus, becoming part of the UK team behind Rebecca Yarros and Fourth Wing. While there she acquired Chloe Walsh and Tracy Wolff.

At HQ she will work with Mills to grow HQ’s fiction list, focusing on contemporary and historical fiction, and romance. Mills said: “Kate brings a wealth of publishing experience to the HQ list. With her editorial expertise, excellent market knowledge and keen eye for a smart acquisition, she’ll be a huge asset to the team as we continue with the ambitious growth of our fiction list.”

Byrne said: “I will be sad to leave the wonderful colleagues and talented authors who I have been privileged to work with during my many happy years at Hachette, and I am incredibly proud of the legacy of the Headline Eternal list, which was a dream come true to create and run.

“However, the opportunity to join Kate, Lisa and their fantastic team at HQ  has proven irresistible. Having long admired their bold and dynamic commercial list, I am thrilled to be taking this exciting next step in my career with them, and look forward to  contributing to their compelling vision for future growth.”