Maxwell PR and Read Media to merge in April

Claire Maxwell of Maxwell PR and Katie Read founder of Read Media are to merge and work in partnership from 1st April. The company will continue trading as Read Media with a view to rebranding in the near future. 

Read was the freelance publicity director for How To Books when she launched Read Media in 2007. The company, now a team of five, has specialised to date in PR for non-fiction and illustrated titles working on campaigns such as the film tie-in of Victoria and Abdul, published by The History Press, and with authors such as Monica Galetti, Dame Mary Peters, Ines de la Fressange, Antonio Carluccio and Sir Dermot Turing. Clients include Kew Publishing, Flammarion, Chelsea Green, Hammersmith Health Books, Bath Publishing, September Books and the FT weekend Oxford Literary Festival. 

Maxwell started Maxwell PR after a period working first as a journalist as then as an in-house publicist at SPCK Publishing, Icon Books and Canongate. Since then she has worked on lead campaigns with John Murray Press, The Indigo Press, Elliot & Thompson, Headline, Quarto and Usborne. She was shortlisted for the PPC Waterstones Hardback Fiction Award in 2018 for her work on Matt Haig’s How to Stop Time (Canongate). 

Commenting on the merger, Read said: “Claire has worked with Read for some time now and I am delighted to formally establish our partnership to grow the business. She is a brilliant book publicist with passion and flair for the work. Given what we have each achieved on our own I am excited to see what we can build together."

Maxwell added: “Working with Katie and the rest of the Read Media team is a joy. I have really enjoyed freelancing and building Maxwell PR on my own but to have a team of publicists around me again is wonderful and I think will only benefit me and my clients. Katie has such a wealth of knowledge and experience, and I am so looking forward to expanding our reach within the industry and working with authors and books we so admire.”