Pathak moves to Pan Mac after six years with Orion

Francesca Pathak will be joining Pan Macmillan as publishing director in a newly created role to expand Pan Fiction after six years at Orion.

Pathak will take on her new role on 20th June and report to Pan Macmillan publisher Lucy Hale. She will grow the Pan Fiction imprint and acquire new talent across crime and thriller, reading group and aspirational fiction. 

She has spent six years at Orion where she is publishing director with a focus on crime fiction. 

Originally, Pathak started her publishing career at Cornerstone, working across fiction and non-fiction before moving to Orion as a senior commissioning editor in 2016. She was made publishing director in June 2019. A Bookseller Rising Star in 2019, she has published books by Steve Cavanagh, Mari Hannah, Araminta Hall, Ben Kane, Emma Kavanagh and Victoria Aveyard as well as acquired the forthcoming Hollywood studio-set thriller Complicit by Winnie M Li. 

Pathak said of her newly created role: “In almost six years at Orion I’ve learnt so much from many wonderful authors and colleagues and although it is sad to leave them behind, I’m so excited about the opportunity of working with Lucy and the brilliant teams at Pan Macmillan. The wider commissioning remit is something I’m really looking forward to and I can’t wait to start building my list for the future.” 

Hale said: “I am delighted that Fran is joining us at Pan. She is a real talent with already a great track record in crime fiction, which I know she is going to build on with us here. And I’m just excited that we will be working together to grow the Pan list in other areas of fiction too.”