Kate Smith | Commissioning Editor
Before becoming an editor, Kate Smith worked for several years as a publicist at Penguin managing campaigns for bestselling and debut authors across various genres including popular science, history, politics and classic fiction.
Kate’s passion for the craft of storytelling led her to transition from publicity to editorial. She is drawn to commercial fiction with an original, unexpected premise and loves writing that hooks you from the very first sentence, with a particular fondness for women’s fiction, psychological thrillers, science fiction and historical fiction.
Kate is the author of two middle-grade novels published by Hachette. The Astonishing Future of Alex Nobody was published in June 2021. Kate’s second book, Olive Jones and the Memory Thief, was published in June 2022 and has been called a ‘rollicking espionage adventure’ by the Financial Times and ‘refreshing’ by the Sunday Times.
Kate grew up on the island of Guernsey. She studied Philosophy and English at Edinburgh University taking courses on time travel and the philosophy of mind. She now lives in London where she enjoys playing basketball, going on long walks and watching great films and TV shows. She also loves eating ice-cream, no matter the time of year.
“It was a pleasure to work with Kate. She read and thoroughly understood my book, and pitched it to exactly the right papers and magazines. As an author herself, she understands the pressures involved in having one’s work published.”
John Barton
Author of The Word
“‘One of the hardest working publicists in publishing, If you want to ensure that your book gets the attention it deserves, there’s no better than Kate Smith.”
Sharon Moalem
New York Times bestselling author of Survival of the Sickest
“Kate is the best publicist I’ve ever worked with, and I have proof: During two whirlwind days in snowy London, after a welter of BBC radio appearances Kate wrangled me onto the stage of the London Palladium, an affair otherwise limited to genuinely famous authors. Oh, and sales of my book instantly rocketed. Boom. Irrefutable proof.”
Jay Heinrichs
New York Times bestselling author of Thank You for Arguing
