HarperCollins acquires 'transformational' début by sports and performance psychologist Dr Kate Hays

HarperCollins Publishers has acquired a "transformational" début from sports psychologist and head of women’s performance psychology at the Football Association, Dr Kate Hays.

Former HarperNonFiction publisher Adam Humphrey bought UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) from Rory Scarfe of The Blair Partnership. HarperNonFiction editor-at-large (sport), Jonathan Taylor, will now be overseeing the publication of How To Win: Lessons in Success From the Front Line of Performance Psychology, which publishes into hardback, e-book and audiobook on 30th January 2025.

The synopsis said: "Working for over 20 years as a sports psychologist, Hays has practised alongside some of the world’s greatest athletes and coaches, including Olympians such as Tom Daley and professional rugby union teams, as well as helping to create history with the Cambridge women’s rowing team. She is currently the head of women’s performance psychology at the Football Association, working closely with the Lionesses and their head coach Sarina Wiegman as the team won the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 and reached the final of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup."

It added: "From this wealth of experience, Hays has developed a blueprint to help cultivate a winning mentality—the building blocks of success. This framework acts as a life-changing resource for long-term, sustainable success, whether that’s personal or professional, as an individual or as part of a group. Comprising four easy-to-follow stages, How To Win lays out this blueprint for change for the first time." 

Hays said: "I am so excited to be distilling all the knowledge and experience I have gleaned during my career into How to Win. I sincerely believe that my building blocks of success blueprint provides a launchpad to help anyone experience a tangible sense of progress in whatever they want to achieve."

Taylor added: "Kate’s experience of working in elite sporting environments has allowed her to develop a brilliantly accessible framework for transforming performance, a framework that can be successfully applied both within and outside the world of sport. Anyone can discover long-term and sustainable success using Kate’s methods."