Winchester swaps HarperCollins for Bluebird and One Boat as head of publicity

Amy Winchester is leaving HarperCollins to become head of publicity for Pan Macmillan imprints Bluebird and One Boat. 

Winchester joins Bluebird from HarperCollins, where her campaigns include Lucy Foley’s latest hardback bestseller The Paris Apartment, launching the Marple short-story collection and a sold-out bookshop tour for the paperback of Bella Mackie’s How to Kill Your Family.

Prior to that, she was head of publicity at Unbound, where her campaign for The Good Immigrant was shortlisted for a PPC award. At Unbound, she was the organisation’s first full-time in-house publicist, building the PR department, delivering campaigns and developing corporate strategy. She has also worked as a freelance publicist, including for Midas. 

At Bluebird and One Boat, she will be the team’s lead publicist, reporting to communications director Jodie Lancet-Grant and managing senior publicity executive Narjas Zatat. She will work across the imprint’s brands, including Vex King, Pinch of Nom, Russell Brand and Jack Monroe, as well as new voices such as TikTok psychologist Dr Kirren Schnack and “To My Sisters” podcast creators Courtney Daniella Boateng and Renee Kapuku. She will also work with Lancet-Grant on corporate PR strategy for the imprints. 

Her arrival follows the departure of senior publicity manager Jessica Duffy who was appointed editorial director at Orion Spring in March.

Lancet-Grant said: “I am delighted to be expanding our team with someone of Amy’s calibre. She brings a wealth of experience to the role and I’m particularly excited that her experience is so varied. She has already impressed me with the quality of her creative ideas, her can-do attitude and her thoughtful campaign planning.” 

Winchester added: “I’m so thrilled to be part of the award-winning team at Bluebird and I can’t wait to get to work bringing their diverse range of conversation-leading authors to market. Bluebird really is home to one of the industry’s most dynamic and exciting lists, and it’s a real pleasure to be working across such a breadth of authors and titles.”