By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
‘Shooting Star’: Pan Mac’s Laura Ricchetti
As Tom Tivnan at The Bookseller writes in his announcement of the 2019 Rising Stars group of emerging professionals in the UK’s book industry, “Rising Stars is, at its heart, a celebration of the wide array of talent in the trade.”
The annual program recognizes some 40 players in the book business and its “Shooting Star,” is given a trip to the Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 16 to 20), which partners with the trade magazine on the program.
Frankfurter Buchmesse sponsors The Bookseller’s Rising Stars, which originated in 2011.
Tivnan points out that this year’s Shooting Star—Laura Ricchetti, 27, who heads Pan Macmillan’s European and Middle East international sales department—is, for the first time, from the sales side of the business.
There’s also a sad element to Friday’s (July 5) announcement, in that Sophie Christopher, Transworld senior publicity manager and one of the three founders of The FLIP (Female Leadership in Publishing), died unexpectedly on June 3.
As Mark Chandler writes at The Bookseller, also on Friday (June 5), Christopher’s family has launched an online fund-raising page in her memory, already approaching £2,500 (US$3,131) in donations.
It’s the first time, Tivnan notes, that a Rising Star has thus been named posthumously. And Christopher’s FLIP co-founders, Helena Gonda and Ella Horne, say that in tribute to their lost colleague, they’ll continue to press forward with the FLIP’s newsletter and programming.
The Bookseller’s Rising Stars 2019
| 2019 Rising Star | Company | Position |
| Magdelene Abraha | Jacaranda Books | Group editorial and marketing manager |
| Federico Andornino | Weidendfeld & Nicolson | Commissioning editor |
| Jenny Baldwin | Shapes for Schools | Founder and director |
| Lily Bowden | Jessica Kingsley Publishers | Senior marketing and publicity executive |
| Kit Caless | Influx Press | Editor and co-founder |
| Natalie Carter | Black Girls Book Club | Founders |
| Alexander Cochgran | C+W | Translation rights and primary agent |
| Emma Corfield-Walters | Book-ish | Owner |
| Melissa Cummings-Quarry | Black Girls Book Club | Founders |
| Lucie Cuthbertson-Twiggs | Vintage | Publicity manager |
| Matt Devereux | NBNi | Client account manager/marketer |
| Amy Ellis | PLS Permissions | Rights and licensing manager |
| Kay Farrell | Sandstone Press | Assistant publisher |
| Lyndsey Fineran | Cheltenham Festivals | Literature festivals programme manager and commissions manager |
| Helena Gonda | The FLIP/Transworld | Founders |
| Stevie Hopwood | Usborne | Senior marketing executive |
| Sarah Hornsley | The Bent Agency | Agent |
| Rosie Howie | Hodder Gibson | Publisher |
| Ammara Isa | HarperCollins | Senior trade marketing executive |
| Zainab Juma | Penguin Random House | Creative manager, audiences and audio |
| Robyn Law | Society of Authors | Awards manager |
| Laura Lictensteiger | Cengage | Strategic marketing manager |
| Silvia Molteni | Peters, Fraser + Dunlop | Agent |
| Harriet Moore | David Higham | Agent |
| Charlotte Mursell | HQ | Senior commissing editor |
| Rory O’Brien | Pan Macmillan | Key account manager |
| Mairi Oliver | The Lighthouse Bookshop | Owner |
| Francesca Pathak | Orion Fiction | Publishing director |
| Laura Ricchetti | Pan Macmillan | Head of International Sales, Europe and Middle-East |
| Simon Richardson | BBC Radio | Assistant producer |
| Eve Roberts | Macmillan Children’s | Senior rights manager |
| James Roxburgh | Atlantic | Senior editor |
| Molly Slight | Scribe | Editorial and publicity manager |
| Dhara Snowden | Rowman & Littlefield | Senior commissioning editor |
| Hayley Steed | Madeleine Millburn | Agent |
| Jessie Sullivan | Quarto | Deputy head of marketing |
| Kim Walter | Zed | Co-owner and editorial director |
| Hannah Whitty | Plum Pudding | Agent |
| Kishani Widyaratna | Picador | Editor |
| Hannah Wood | Little, Brown | Women’s fiction art director |
| Rowan Yapp | Square Peg | Editor |
Tivnan has reported that this year saw a higher level of submissions than in the past, and he notes that in commentary from the newly named Stars, most of them “talked about expanding readership and getting books and stories into as many people’s hands as possible,” regardless of the sector of the business in which they work.
More from Publishing Perspectives on the Rising Stars program is here, and more from us on Frankfurter Buchmesse is here.