Lizzy Goudsmit Kay

The Bestselling Author & Editor

Previously Penguin Random House

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Before joining The Novelry, 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, Paula Hawkins, Rachel Joyce and Sophie Kinsella.

Lizzy was known during her eight years at Penguin Random House for being a thorough and relentless editor, determined that every manuscript should be the very best that it could be. She loves discovering a manuscript with genuine potential and then working hand-in-hand with an author. She cherishes her relationships with her writers, enjoying the collaborative nature of the work. She commissioned and edited TA Cotterell’s What Alice Knew, Leona Deakin’s Gone, Lost and Hunt, Mahsuda Snaith’s The Things We Thought We Knew and How To Find Home and Livia Franchini’s Shelf Life. She has also worked as an editor 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.

As Editorial Director at The Novelry, Lizzy oversees all manuscripts for submission and also works more broadly on our writers’ stories to help finesse clear pitches, with an eye to market trends and potential agent matches.

Editor by day, bestselling crime fiction writer by night.

Lizzy’s debut novel sold for seven figures to thirty publishers worldwide – in several pre-empts and many auctions – and became an international bestseller. So, you could say, she knows what she’s doing. She’s proven her practical understanding of how commercial fiction works.

‘A tense nerve-shredder.’ – Val McDermid

‘You'll be turning the pages deep into the night.’ – Harlan Coben

‘A hugely exciting new voice in crime fiction.’ – Lucy Foley

Her work as an author gives Lizzy a unique insight into both sides of the publishing coin and rare expertise. Lizzy can empathise as a writer while thinking strategically as a publisher to help authors ensure their novel is as strong as it can be.