Morgan swaps One More Chapter for Gollancz as Ormsby-Potter steps up

Bethan Morgan is moving from One More Chapter to Gollancz as senior commissioning editor, while there is also a promotion for Claire Ormsby-Potter.

Morgan has spent three years at One More Chapter commissioning, editing and publishing her own list of authors. They include B P Walter’s The Dinner Guest, which was also selected for Waterstones Thriller of the Month, a Kindle Top 100 bestseller and was longlisted for the 2022 Polari. 

At One More Chapter she also spearheaded a partnership with Spread the Word that offered support for more than 30 new under-represented writers. She has also been involved with reading submissions for the Future Worlds Prize, set up by Orion author Ben Aaronovitch. 

In her new role, Morgan will have “an open brief” to drive new science fiction and fantasy acquisitions for the frontlist with a focus on diversifying the future output of the list. She replaces Rachel Winterbottom, who left Orion in September.

Morgan will report directly to Sarah Benton, Orion’s executive publisher for commercial fiction, and will work with her and the Gollancz team “to set and build a new vision and strategy for the future”. 

She said: “To say joining the team at Gollancz is the privilege of a lifetime would be a galactic understatement. These books have governed my shelves for as long as I can remember and I’ve spent my entire career hoping fervently for this exact moonshot to inch into the realms of possibility. There couldn’t be a more exciting time to take up the torch as the list grows and diversifies into the second century of its history and it’s such an immense joy to be able to share that honour with Sarah, Gillian, Marcus, Brendan, Claire, Áine and all the wider teams at Orion.”

Meanwhile, Ormsby-Potter is also promoted to assistant editor and will start acquiring for the list. She has been editorial assistant for Gollancz and Gateway, working predominantly on the list’s backlist including the SF Masterworks. 

In her current role she has driven the publishing of the “lost classic” Peter Beagle’s The Last Unicorn with a high-spec edition that launched Gollancz’s own e-commerce channels and has also worked on a new “Best of” range for the Masterworks with new, yellow covers. In her new role she will still commission backlist classics, while also commissioning for the frontlist. She will continue to report to Gollancz’s publishing director Marcus Gipps, who will also have a new brief to keep growing the backlist by actively acquiring new estates and lost classics for the imprint. 

Benton said: “I can’t wait for Bethan to join us at Gollancz. Her passion, knowledge and respect for the genre combined with her incredible commercial and digital experience is just the mix of skills we need as we look to the future. Gollancz has had an unrivalled history as the number one publisher of SF and fantasy, winning Imprint of the Year in 2021. It’s now the perfect time to bring fresh energy and vision to the team to appeal to a new generation of genre readers. I also couldn’t be happier to be promoting Claire, a true advocate for the genre with exceptional knowledge and taste. I can’t wait to see what she does in her new role.”