Great writing from a diverse range of lived experience adds richness, innovation and joy to publishers’ lists.
Headline, a leading imprint of Hachette UK, is a major publisher committed to actively making their publishing content as diverse as the readers they want to reach. We are delighted to partner with them to connect writers from various class backgrounds, gender-identities, ethnicities, sexualities, neurodivergences to demystify the mainstream publishing world.
If you are an emerging writer and struggle to find yourself reflected on UK bookshelves, we invite you to join us for a day of candid talks from authors, agents and the Headline publishing team. You will discover how editors and agents work together, what the ‘editorial process’ consists of and what the ingredients are for brilliant book campaigns. You could get to speed-date someone from editorial, sales, marketing or publicity and have all your questions answered. You’ll come away from the day feeling enlightened, inspired and with some free books!
Date: Saturday 15th November Location: The Old Courtroom
Timing: Doors 12.30pm for a 1pm start. Finish 5.30pm
Does this sound like it’s for you? Book now!
The Afternoon’s Programme
1 – 1.50pm – From Idea to Book Deal – Meet the Agents and Editors
What does a literary agent actually do? How do you choose the right one for your book? And what makes a submission stand out? Join two literary agents and two fiction commissioning editors to pull back the curtain on the publishing world – uncovering how to find an agent, how publishers commission, what makes a book appealing, and how editors and agents work together to support their authors, as well as answering all of your burning questions about how to go from great idea to a book deal.
Chaired by Jessie Goetzinger (Commissioning Editor at Mountain Leopard Press) and featuring Areen Ali (Senior Commissioning Editor at Wildfire Books), Kiya Evans, (Associate Agent at Paper Literary) and Jess Molloy, (Agent in the literary department at Curtis Brown).
1.50 – 2.10pm – Break
2.10 – 3pm – Reaching Readers: Sales, Marketing + Publicity in Publishing
Ever wondered what goes into getting a book reviewed in a newspaper or featured on the radio? Or how best to promote a book on social media? Or how a book ends up in a Kindle sale, or in your local bookshop? Then this is the panel for you! Hear from the Sales, Marketing and Publicity teams at Headline on their roles, how they work together to reach readers and top tips for authors on the best ways to promote their books.
Chaired by Joe Thomas (Deputy Publicity Director) and featuring Jess Harvey (Key Account Manager), Federica Trogu (Press Officer) and Marta Juncosa (Senior Marketing Manager).
3 – 3.20pm Break
3.20 – 4.10pm – Speed Date a Publisher!
Got a publishing question you’ve always wanted to ask? Then grab a 10min slot to chat to a publishing professional from Headline. Want to work in books? Chat to us about the variety of roles in the industry. Want to write a book? Come and ask about finding an agent, pitching your book and different routes to publication. Interested in Publicity or Marketing? Then come along!
Featuring two fiction editors, two non-fiction editors, two publicists and two marketers.
Jessie Goetzinger (Commissioning Editor Fiction) and Areen Ali (Senior Commissioning Editor Fiction)
Martin Redfern (Publisher, Non- Fiction) and Raiyah Butt (Commissioning Editor Non- Fiction)
Caitlin Raynor (Publicity Director) and Joe Thomas (Deputy Publicity Director)
Lucy Howkins (Marketing Director) and Marta Juncosa (Senior Marketing Manager)
4 – 4.10pm – Break
4.10 – 5pm – Meet the Authors – Patrick Gale and Eleanor Shearer
Join New Writing South’s Anna Jefferson as she chats to Patrick and Eleanor about their writing careers, the types of stories they feel it is important to tell, and the new novels they have coming out in 2026.
Patrick Gale is one of this country’s best loved novelists. His most recent works are A Perfectly Good Man, the Richard and Judy bestseller Notes From An Exhibition, the Costa-shortlisted A Place Called Winter and Mother’s Boy. His original BBC television drama, Man In An Orange Shirt, was shown to great acclaim in 2017 as part of the BBC’s Queer Britannia series. His new novel, Love Lane is out in March.
Eleanor Shearer is a mixed-race writer and the granddaughter of Windrush generation immigrants. Her debut novel River Sing Me Home was a finalist for the 2024 Dayton Literary Peace Prize Fiction Award, shortlisted for the Grand Prix des Lectrices ELLE 2025 in France and also shortlisted for the Prix Fragonard 2025 in France. It was a Good Morning America Book Club pick, and has been optioned for TV by AL Films and BBC Films. Her second novel Fireflies in Winter is out in February.
5 – 5.30pm – Informal drinks and conversation
To wrap up the day, do stay to mingle with the team and the authors, grab a drink and some goodies including book proofs and feel free to ask any final questions.
About the participants
Jess Molloy joined the literary department of Curtis Brown in October 2019 having previously worked in the talent and comedy department and within talent management for over eight years. She is an Agent in Cathryn Summerhayes’ office, co-agenting and assisting on Cathryn’s extensive and eclectic client list as well as running her own carefully curated list. She represents a mix of fiction and non-fiction authors including the Sunday Times Bestselling author Fern Brady, Lucy Webster, Tatty Macleod, Mollie Goodfellow, Sara Pascoe, Travis Alabanza and winners of the Discoveries Prize, Sui Annukka and Rosie Rowell.
Kiya Evans joined Paper Literary as an Associate Agent in 2025. She started her career at Mushens Entertainment in 2020, first as an intern, before becoming an assistant in 2021, working closely with a list of Sunday Times and New York Times bestsellers, including Richard Osman, Abigail Dean, Jessie Burton, Claire Douglas, and Saara El-Arifi. She became an Associate Agent in 2023. Kiya has judged numerous writing prizes, including the Brick Lane Books Short Story Prize 2023, as well as the First Novel Prize and the inaugural Goldfinch Novel Award in 2024. She is a judge for this year’s Cheshire Novel Prize, and is actively building her list.
Patrick Gale was born on the Isle of Wight. He spent his infancy at Wandsworth Prison, which his father governed, then grew up in Winchester before going to Oxford University. He now lives on a farm near Land’s End. One of this country’s best-loved novelists, his most recent works are A Perfectly Good Man, the Richard and Judy bestseller Notes From An Exhibition, the Costa-shortlisted A Place Called Winter and Mother’s Boy. His original BBC television drama, Man In An Orange Shirt, was shown to great acclaim in 2017 as part of the BBC’s Queer Britannia series, leading viewers around the world to discover his novels.
Eleanor Shearer is a mixed-race writer and the granddaughter of Windrush generation immigrants. She splits her time between London and Ramsgate. Her debut novel River Sing Me Home sold in 20 territories. It was named as one of Time magazine’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2023, was a finalist for the 2024 Dayton Literary Peace Prize Fiction Award, shortlisted for the Grand Prix des Lectrices ELLE 2025 in France and also shortlisted for the Prix Fragonard 2025 in France. It was a Good Morning America Book Club pick, and has been optioned for TV by AL Films and BBC Films.
Joe Thomas is Deputy Publicity Director and Commissioning Editor at Headline. He works on publicity campaigns across genres but with a focus on narrative non-fiction, which he also acquires for the Wildfire list. He’s worked in publicity for 9 years with previous roles at HarperCollins and Bloomsbury, and has won multiple annual and quarterly Publishers’ Publicity Circle awards for his campaigns. He was also the most recent chair of the Publishers’ Publicity Circle, and founded the Pride at HC employee network.
Caitlin Raynor is Publicity Director at Headline and works on campaigns across all genres. Her previous roles include Blackwells Bookshop as a buyer and events programmer, as a publicist at Usborne Publishing and at communications agency Four Colman Getty, working on campaigns as diverse as the reopening of the National Portrait Gallery, The Booker Prize, World Book Day and the midnight launches of several Harry Potter books. During her 20 years at Headline, she has led PR campaigns for a huge range of authors and genres across both fiction and non-fiction including Victoria Hislop, Deborah Harkness, Jennifer Saint, Sir Jackie Stewart, Andy Murray and Raymond Blanc. Caitlin is the recipient of several awards including a PPC annual award and The Bookseller Association’s Publicist of the Year Award in 2021.
Raiyah Butt is Commissioning Editor at Headline. She works in the non-fiction team, commissioning across sports, pop culture, history, true crime and gift & humour. She started at Headline in January 2023 as Editorial Assistant and has since assumed her new role in June 2025. She participates in the Thrive and Muslim Employee Networks at Hachette and is on Headline’s Mirror Board, which aims to implement or improve divisional initiatives and processes.
Martin Redfern joined Headline in 2023 after six years as a literary agent at Northbank Talent Management. He was previously an Editorial Director at William Collins and BBC Books. In 2024 he helped to launch Headline Press, where he is commissioning expert-led non-fiction with broad commercial appeal in the fields of politics and current affairs, history, business narrative, popular science and memoir. His authors include Theresa May, Caroline Wheeler, Valentine Low, Michael Sheridan and Victoria Bateman.
Lucy Howkins is Marketing Director at Headline. She runs a team based in Bristol, Sheffield and London. Her first publishing job at Bloomsbury saw her making kites for bookshop displays of Khaled Hossein’s The Kite Runner, and in her current role she’s trying to work out how to get Matthew McConaughey into a bookshop window. She does talks in schools and universities about how to get into publishing and how to deliver a marketing campaign. She’s based out of the Hachette Bristol office which is 500m from her favourite bookshop, Bookhaus.
Federica Trogu is a Press Officer at Headline, where she works on publicity campaigns across genres. She worked in publicity for four years with previous roles at Penguin Random House and Penguin Audio, where she had a brief stint in digital marketing. She is also part of Hachette Gender Balance Network and Headline’s Mirror Board.
Jess Harvey is a Key Account Manager in Headline’s Sales Team. She’s worked in publishing for six years, five of those within the Hachette UK umbrella after her start as UK and Export Sales Assistant at independent colour publisher Ryland Peters & Small, CICO Books. She currently manages supermarket accounts – Tesco, ASDA and Sainsburys – for Headline, Quercus and John Murray Press, prior to this role she was in Hachette’s Group Online and Digital Sales team focussing on Audio and eBook accounts as well as Amazon supply chain.
Marta Juncosa is a Senior Marketing Manager at Headline, where she plans and implements campaigns across a variety of fiction, non-fiction and illustrated books. Before joining Headline, she worked at HarperCollins for eight years – she has experience in sales, business development and campaign management within the publishing industry.
Areen Ali is a Senior Commissioning Editor at Wildfire which an imprint within Headline. She commissions across a broad range of fiction ranging from the literary to commercial – including a variety of fiction in translation from South Korea. She also enjoys working on original IP projects, working collaboratively with authors to develop an idea. She started at Headline in June 2022 as Editorial Assistant and worked her way up. She has been on Headline’s Mirror Board since 2024 and regularly mentors through SYP and Northumbria University’s Publishing MA programme.
Jessie Goetzinger is a Commissioning Editor at Mountain Leopard Press, a new fiction imprint at Headline. Over the last three years at Headline, she has worked on campaigns for Victoria Hislop, Lucy Diamond, Maggie O’Farrell, Alison Weir, Maggie Stiefvater, Dorothy Koomson, Wicked tie-in publishing and more. She is now commissioning across a wide range of commercial fiction genres and loves everything from a zeitgeisty book club novel to a glossy suspense mystery – and is always on the hunt for TikTok’s next big romantasy hit.