Senior reshuffle at Bluebird as Sloane steps up

Hockley Raven Sloane has been promoted to editorial director at Bluebird as Jodie Lancet-Grant expands her role and consultant Katie Roden joins the team.

Sloane, currently commissioning lead for One Boat, Bluebird’s sustainability imprint, has been promoted to editorial director for both Bluebird and One Boat. She joined Bluebird in 2016 as editorial assistant and her first major commission was Nancy Birtwhistle’s Clean and Green, which became a Sunday Times bestseller. Her forthcoming titles include Garden to Save the World by Joe Clark, which was acquired in a pre-empt.

Separately Bluebird’s Lancet-Grant will expand her remit to commission across the Bluebird and One Boat lists. Previously communications director for the imprint, she was made associate publisher in October 2022 and has been building a curated list of LGBTQ+ titles, while also continuing to run the communications function.

Lancet-Grant is currently also interim publisher, leading the team between the departure of Carole Tonkinson and the arrival of Lizzy Gray from Ebury, named as the new Bluebird publisher last week. She now moves to the editorial team full-time and will commission more widely with immediate effect. She is also the author of children’s books The Pirate Mums and The Marvellous Doctors for Magical Creatures (both published by Oxford University Press), and chair of judges for the children’s and YA category of the Polari Prize.

Communications consultant Roden is taking over the role of Bluebird communications director on a temporary basis.