The Best Book Editors

Lizzy Goudsmit Kay was a Senior Commissioning Editor at Transworld Publishers, a division of Penguin Random House, home to authors including Kate Atkinson, Dan Brown, Bill Bryson, Lee Child, Richard Dawkins, Paula Hawkins, Rachel Joyce, and Sophie Kinsella. Lizzy commissioned and edited T.A. Cotterell’s What Alice Knew; Leona Deakin’s Gone, Lost, and Hunt; and Livia Franchini’s Shelf Life. As an editor, she worked with John Lewis Stempel, Clare Beams, Ella Risbridger, Olivia Gatwood, Sabrina Cohen-Hatton, Christopher Somerville, Lynne Kutsukake, Angela Findlay, Jane Robinson, Amanda Berriman, Abbie Ross, Edward Stourton, Nick Robinson, Sarah Langford, and Sue Black. Lizzy is also a published author. Her debut, Seven Lies, sold in a major deal to 30 publishers worldwide. It became an international bestseller and has been optioned for TV by Drama Republic. As an experienced editor across all genres, Lizzy has an eye for market trends and potential agent matches. Lizzy studied English Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Josie Humber was a Senior Commissioning Editor at Hodder & Stoughton (Hachette), home to authors including Jodi Picoult, Stephen King, David Nicholls, and Erin Kelly. She began her publishing career at Transworld (Penguin Random House) before moving to Mantle (Macmillan). Josie worked with a mixture of bestselling brand authors such as Kate Mosse, Kate Morton, and Joanna Trollope, as well as debut authors like Laura Shepherd-Robinson, Mary Paulson-Ellis, and Ray Celestin. At Mantle, she edited a wide range of fiction, including Natalie Haynes’s A Thousand Ships (shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction) and Laura Shepherd-Robinson’s Daughters of Night (shortlisted for the Theakston Crime Novel of the Year and the Historical Writers’ Association Gold Crown). At Hodder & Stoughton, Josie worked on the commercial and literary fiction lists, covering historical fiction, crime, thrillers, women’s fiction, and upmarket novels with prize-winning potential. As an acquiring editor, Josie has read hundreds of submissions from literary agents over the years and has outstanding insight into what commissioning editors look for. She has a BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Leeds.

Emily Kitchin was an Editorial Director at HQ (HarperCollins), home to authors including Adele Parks, Linwood Barclay, Sarah Morgan, Carrie Hope Fletcher, and Erica James. Emily began her publishing career at the literary agency A.P. Watt before moving to Headline Publishing and then Hodder & Stoughton. While Editorial Director at HQ, she curated a list of commercial fiction titles, including Murder on the Dance Floor by Strictly Come Dancing’s Head Judge Shirley Ballas and Sheila McClure (one of the top-selling debuts of 2023), and Ashley Poston’s The Dead Romantics, a New York Times bestseller. Emily has worked with bestselling authors such as Holly Bourne, Jennifer L. Armentrout, YouTuber Oli White, Amy Engel, Katie Marsh, Sarah Maine, Elin Hilderbrand, Emily Giffin, and Leia Stone. With over 15 years of experience in publishing, including editorial and acquiring new titles, Emily is a caring and collaborative editor with a passion for commercial fiction. Emily studied English Literature at the University of Sheffield.

Tash Barsby was a Commissioning Editor at Transworld Publishers (Penguin Random House), home to authors including Kate Atkinson, Dan Brown, Bill Bryson, Lee Child, Richard Dawkins, Paula Hawkins, Rachel Joyce, and Sophie Kinsella. She began her publishing career at Hachette Children’s Books and subsequently worked at Vintage Books, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster before moving to PRH. Starting in the copy-editorial department, Tash rose to Commissioning Editor and worked across bestselling commercial fiction with authors such as Shari Lapena, Fiona Barton, Lesley Kara, and Tess Gerritsen. Tash acquired the debut thriller from Sarah Pearse, The Sanatorium, an instant Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick. She also published Emma Curtis, A.A. Dhand, Andrea Mara, Lauren North, Rebecca Reid, and Bloody Scotland Crime Debut of the Year winner Deborah Masson. At PRH, Tash mentored aspiring authors, an experience that gave her a passion for discovering raw talent. Tash has a BA (Hons) in English Literature and American Studies from the University of Manchester.

Craig Leyenaar was a Commissioning Editor at Titan Books, the publisher famous for science fiction, fantasy, horror, crime, and thrillers from authors including Stephen King, V.E. Schwab, James Lovegrove, Mickey Spillane, Paul Tremblay, Christina Henry, M.L. Rio, and Charlie Jane Anders. Craig also worked at Gollancz, part of the Hachette group and home to authors including Brandon Sanderson, Joe Abercrombie, Joanne Harris, Sarah Pinborough, Joe Hill, Hank Green, Patrick Rothfuss, Alastair Reynolds, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Ben Aaronovitch. Among the novels Craig published are the last two novels of The Witcher series from Andrzej Sapkowski, the critically acclaimed and multiple-award-nominated The Vanished Birds from Simon Jimenez, and the award-winning illustrated edition of Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Books of Earthsea. Craig also edited authors including J. Michael Straczynski, Ed McDonald, Chloe Neill, Nicole Jarvis, J.S. Barnes, Tori Bovalino, Joshua Phillip Johnson, and Alexander Dan Vilhjálmsson, and he has published fiction from brands including Marvel, Disney, Sony Pictures, and Kojima Productions. Craig is a graduate of the University of Cape Town and has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Warwick.

Elizabeth Kulhanek was an Associate Editor at Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette and home to bestselling and acclaimed authors such as Nicholas Sparks, James Patterson, Lisa Gardner, Christopher Hitchens, Rudolfo Anaya, Tia Williams, and Ally Condie. Over more than a decade in editorial, Elizabeth worked on titles from some of Grand Central’s biggest and bestselling authors, including David Baldacci, Scott Turow, Harlan Coben, Sandra Brown, Octavia E. Butler, Min Jin Lee, Leesa Cross-Smith, Melinda Taub, and Kira Jane Buxton. Elizabeth spearheaded Octavia E. Butler’s reissue program, resulting in the author’s first New York Times bestseller for Parable of the Sower. Elizabeth edited Scott Turow’s New York Times bestselling thrillers The Last Trial and Suspect. Her acquisitions included national bestseller Nala’s World by Dean Nicholson; Melinda Taub’s The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch (a New York Times Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Pick); and Leesa Cross-Smith’s This Close to Okay (a Book of the Month early release) and Half-Blown Rose (an Amazon and Barnes & Noble Book Club pick). Elizabeth has a BA in English from Ohio State University and studied Publishing at Columbia University, New York.

Krystle Appiah was an Editor at Macmillan Children’s Books, home to authors including Marcus Rashford, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Tomi Adeyemi, and Julia Donaldson. Krystle began her career at Walker Books, working with New York Times bestselling author Angie Thomas and on the Carnegie Medal-longlisted poetry collection Somebody Give This Heart a Pen by Sophia Thakur. During her time at Macmillan, Krystle worked on a broad range of children’s books, from Sir Lenny Henry’s The Boy with Wings to Padraig Kenny’s The Shadows of Rookhaven, while championing new authors and working toward greater diversity and inclusion. Krystle is also an author and screenwriter. She was one of 40 writers selected for the London Library’s Emerging Writers Programme, and her debut novel Rootless won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Debut Author. She has a degree in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Kent.

Gillian Holmes was an acquiring editor and copy editor at Penguin Random House for the Arrow Books imprint, where she acquired authors such as Katie Flynn, who, before her death, was the bestselling saga writer in the country. Gillian also worked with bestselling authors Kathy Reichs, Dorothy Koomson, Cathy Woodman, Tony Parsons, Rosie Goodwin, Amanda Prowse, Jane Corry, Katie Price, Alan Titchmarsh, Jackie Collins, and Amy Silver (aka Paula Hawkins). Gillian has worked in the publishing industry for over 30 years, with experience at Carlton Books, Quarto, and Simon & Schuster. She has worked on commercial fiction and non-fiction with authors such as Jo Brand, Jonathan Ross, Jane Goodman, and Keven Sampson (whose Away Days, acquired by Gillian, became a bestseller and was later made into a film). As an acquiring editor of film and TV tie-ins, she oversaw franchises including Star Wars and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Gillian is also an author and ghostwriter. Her World War II saga series, written under the name Ginny Bell, comprises four books with another due in 2025.

Francine Toon was a Commissioning Editor at Sceptre, Hodder & Stoughton’s literary imprint. With over a decade’s worth of experience that began at Chambers Dictionary, Francine has edited a broad range of genres, including literary, crime, historical, and reading group fiction. She has worked on the novels of Stephen King, John le Carré, Fredrik Backman, and Erin Kelly. As an editor of literary fiction, Francine published award-winning authors such as Ned Beauman, Jessica Andrews, Rowan Hisayo-Buchanan, Kopano Matlwa, and Huma Qureshi (a graduate of The Novelry). Francine is also a published poet and author. Her award-winning debut novel Pine was a No.1 Sunday Times bestseller, Waterstones Thriller of the Month, and a Best Book of the Year for Stylist and the Telegraph. It won the 2020 McIlvanney Prize, was shortlisted for Bloody Scotland’s Scottish Crime Debut of the Year, and was longlisted for the Highland Book Prize and the Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award. Francine also features in Of the Flesh, an anthology of modern horror, and her poems have appeared in the Sunday Times, two of the Best British Poetry anthologies, Poetry London, and Ambit. Francine studied Classics at Edinburgh University.

Sorcha Rose was an Editor at Hodder & Stoughton, a division of Hachette and home to authors including John Grisham, Stephen King, B.A. Paris, Vaseem Khan, and Lucy Score. After interning in publishing at Legend Press and HarperCollins, Sorcha eventually worked directly with bestselling authors such as John Grisham, Peter Robinson, and Sophie Hannah, as well as on Erin Kelly’s Sunday Times bestseller The Skeleton Key and Will Dean’s The Last Thing to Burn (shortlisted for the Theakston Crime Novel of the Year, longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger). Sorcha specialized in crime and thriller and edited Rachelle Atalla (The Pharmacist, shortlisted for Scottish Fiction Book of the Year) as well as Catriona McPherson, Patricia Marques, Mira V. Shah, Fiona Sherlock, Annie Hartnett, and Kylie Ladd. As an acquiring editor, Sorcha gained great insight into what literary agents, commissioning editors, and the current commercial market are looking for. Sorcha was a key organizer of Hachette’s Grow Your Story program, which helped writers from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic backgrounds gain access to the world of publishing. She has a BA in English Literature from the University of Sheffield.

Nic was Senior Commissioning Editor at Headline, part of Hachette, and their boutique romance imprint Headline Eternal, home of bestselling authors such as Sarah Adams, Erin Sterling, and Mariana Zapata. Nic edited a wide range of commercial, historical, romance, and mystery fiction from authors such as Christina Courtenay, Muna Shehadi, Jo Watson, Julie Brooks, and Rebecca Hardy. She also acquired romcoms from Jennifer Hennessy and New York Times bestseller Maisey Yates. Previously, Nic spent over nine years in editorial at renowned romance publisher Harlequin Mills & Boon, where she worked with authors including Michelle Smart, Jackie Ashenden, Kelly Hunter, Ann McIntosh, Marcella Bell, and Lydia San Andres. Nic has hosted craft workshops at romance writing conferences across the world. She has a BA (Hons) in English Literature from the University of Exeter.

Georgia Summers was an Editor at Tor, an imprint of Macmillan, home to authors including Cassandra Clare, Olivie Blake, Adrian Tchaikovsky, T.J. Klune, Arkady Martine, and Travis Baldree. Starting in publishing at OneWorld Publications before moving to Macmillan, Georgia worked closely with a range of science fiction and fantasy debut authors such as Shelley Parker-Chan and Freya Marske. She was the commissioning editor for international cozy fantasy bestseller Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree and Daughter of Calamity by Rosalie M. Lin. Additionally, she oversaw reissues of Kushiel’s Legacy, the classic romantasy series by Jacqueline Carey. Georgia is also a published author. Her debut, The City of Stardust, was pre-empted in a significant two-book deal for Hodderscape in the U.K. and Orbit in the U.S. as well as several other countries. It was a No.1 Sunday Times bestseller in its launch week, an Amazon Best Book of the Month, and an Indie Next pick. Georgia has previously been a copywriter, a bookseller, and a librarian of rare books. She has a BA (Hons) in Creative Writing from Trinity College Hartford.

Simran Kaur Sandhu was an Editor of middle-grade and Young Adult fiction at Macmillan Children’s Books, home to authors including Hilary McKay, Meg Cabot, Sir Lenny Henry, Judy Blume, and Eva Ibbotson. With prior experience at HarperCollins, Profile Books, and Serpent’s Tail, Simran worked with award-winning authors of groundbreaking children’s and YA fiction, including Tomi Adeyemi, Costa Book of the Year winner Frances Hardinge, Rainbow Rowell, Josephine Angelini, and Sita Brahmachari. Simran built her own YA list, editing titles including Branford Boase Award winner Muhammad Khan’s Mark My Words, George Lester’s Boy Queen, and YA Book Prize-shortlisted Melt My Heart by Bethany Rutter. Simran’s middle-grade fiction works included Pooja Puri’s A Dinosaur Ate My Sister (inaugural Marcus Rashford Book Club pick) and the How to be a Hero series by Cat Weldon. She brought international YA poetry star Nikita Gill to Macmillan, landing CLiPPA shortlistings and a Jhalak Prize longlisting. Simran has worked as a freelance editor and consultant for writers worldwide and was the first Literature Coordinator for the Asian Woman Festival. She studied English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Warwick.

Sadé was an Editor at two imprints of HarperCollins: 4th Estate, home to Hilary Mantel, Anthony Doerr, Jonathan Franzen, Asako Yuzuki, Ann Patchett, and Yiyun Li, as well as the William Collins imprint, home to Brian Cox, David Attenborough, Christina Lamb, Elizabeth Hinton, Max Hastings, Mark Carney, and Kathryn Mannix. Sadé worked with a diverse array of fiction and non-fiction from acclaimed authors such as Coco Mellors, Emmanuel Iduma, Joyce Carol Oates, Rodrigo García, Hannah Durkin, and Jonathan Escoffery. She is actively involved in literary advocacy as a trustee of the historic Portico Library and an advisory board member for independent literary publishers And Other Stories. She has read for the Women’s Fiction Discoveries Prize and mentored aspiring writers at the HarperCollins Author Academy. Sadé has a BA in English Literature and American Studies from the University of Manchester.

Natasha Qureshi was Commissioning Editor at Hodderscape, Hodder & Stoughton’s SFF imprint, home of international bestsellers Frank Herbert, L.R. Lam, Isabel Ibañez, Roshani Chokshi, and Pierce Brown. Originally joining as Assistant Editor, Natasha worked with authors such as Chloe Gong, Kerri Maniscalco, Sangu Mandanna, Adalyn Grace, and Stephanie Garber. She acquired and worked with authors such as Cecy Robson, Ella Fields, Thomas Olde Heuvelt, Frankie Diane Mallis, Hayley Dennings, Jennifer L. Armentrout, Lexi Ryan, Tad Williams, Paula Lafferty, Kylie Lee Baker, and Micaiah Johnson (shortlisted for the 2024 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction). Natasha has also worked with popular subscription and bespoke retailers such as FairyLoot, Illumicrate, Goldsboro Books, and Broken Binding. Previously, Natasha also worked at Oxford University Press and Bloomsbury Publishing before moving to Titan Books, where she co-edited the novels of Nicole Jarvis, Matt Hill, Stark Holborn, Marian Womack, J.L. Worrad, Hannah Mathewson, A.J. Hackwith, R.L. Boyle, A.G. Slatter, Andrew Cartmel, Aliya Whiteley, Tim Major, and a CWA Dagger Award-winning anthology by Maxim Jakubowski. Natasha has a BA in English and American Studies with Creative Writing from the University of Kent and an MA in Publishing from Oxford Brookes University.