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Katie Sassienie Ladybird
Katie Sassienie’s first full-time job in the industry was a two-year spell in adult publishing at Headline, but she found her home when crossing over to become an assistant editor at Hachette Children’s Group (HCG) in 2019. She was then promoted five times in fewer than five years for her creativity, commercial eye and an ability to bring in bestselling and award-winning picture books, often by debut or early- career authors and illustrators. Others took notice of this year’s Shooting Star – the Rising Star we annually salute a little more than others on the list – as Penguin Random House Children’s came calling in March 2025 and poached her to be editorial director on the Ladybird list. Sassienie is at a slightly odd time as most of her
acquisitions for Ladybird are pending – even some of her buys at HCG are still in train. She is justifiably proud of her half-decade at her former house, including supercharging Hollie Hughes and Nila Aye’s Little Bugs, Big Feelings series, bringing agent/bestselling middle-grade author Sam Copeland into picture books, and editing Benjamin Zephaniah’s poetry picture books (most illustrated by Aye). She was also instrumental in the in-house IP Magic Pet Shop range – written under the pseudonym Matilda Rose and illustrated by Tim Budgen; in five years under her care, the series grew into a beloved brand with over 800,000 copies sold across 13 titles in eight languages. Her work with the late Zephaniah is an example of
Sassienie’s proactive approach, as she first contacted him after seeing him read his poem, People Need People, on TV; the adaptation was a commercial hit and won the 2024 Queen’s Knickers Award. There was a similar reaching out to Cariad Lloyd after listening to the comedian’s Griefcast podcast. Those conversations led to a five-book deal (done with fiction editorial director Rachel Wade), the first of which, Where Did She Go (illustrated by Tom Percival) is one of those rare picture books that deals directly with death. Sassienie says: “I was really sad to leave that behind
[at HCG] as it feels like a kind of a once in a career type of book. There are actually lots of kid’s titles about death, but they are often done in a metaphorical way. But [Cariad and Percival’s book] is just ‘Grandma’s dead’, but done beautifully and sensitively; sometimes kids just need that straightforward approach.” Londoner Sassienie studied English and drama at the
University of Sussex and “liked the combination of literature and the creativity of the theatre side”. That balance – and formative experiences working with underprivileged children at a youth organisation and as a book club co-ordinator at an inner-city London school – convinced her children’s publishing was her calling. Even when she joined Headline, she notes, part of her tasks were kids’ adjacent as she worked on the Fortnite licensing team. She admits picture books are at a difficult point, especially for breaking new voices. “Across the board it’s tricky,” Sassienie says. “Supermarkets, for example, are losing shelf space so we’re finding they’re tending to back brands people are familiar with.” So how do you get that cut- through? “You have to love the book, but go out and engage booksellers – and our sales team at Ladybird are brilliant at this – and get them to love it as much as you do.” Sassienie has barely put her feet under her Ladybird
desk, but says: “I’m excited about what I can learn here; PRH Children’s feels like a place with loads of opportunities… [but ultimately] I just want to keep pushing myself creatively and hope that every book I work on is a new challenge.”
Cheyney Smith Macmillan Children’s and First Ink
Twice-promoted in 2024, Cheyney Smith ended the year as head of marketing, alongside scooping Futurebook’s Future Leader of the Year Award and a BMS Award for her campaign for Hafsah Faizal’s A Tempest of Tea. Her decade in the industry began with an internship at Wigtown Book Festival, then another at Macmillan Children’s Books (where she has since had 10 different job titles), starting in editorial before realising marketing offered her the “perfect combination of creativity, collaboration and strategy”. Career highlights have included working on The Gruffalo 20th anniversary campaign and Axel Scheffler’s Drawing Europe Together project, for which she arranged an art exhibition in Waterstones Piccadilly. She also co-chairs race and ethnicity staff network RISE. Her aspiration is to become communications director, while she hopes the industry can change the trajectory for children’s reading levels and become more inclusive “both internally and with the books we publish”.
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Josh Smith Faber
A Christmas temp job at Waterstones Newcastle during university was a Damascene moment for Josh Smith; on the shop floor he “became obsessed” with contemporary fiction and how books end up in the hands of readers, and knew he had to become part of that world. Post-graduation, he juggled a series of jobs (“bookies and banks, mainly”) while doing a publishing MA which eventually led to a three-month Faber internship. He says: “I loved the pace and ever-shifting nature of the work… it felt like the most exciting place to be; Max Porter, Eimear McBride and Sebastian Barry were winning prizes left, right and centre, and a debut, Conversations with Friends, was about to launch.” He stayed on in an entry-level publicity job and has been at the venerable indie ever since, working his way up to deputy publicity director. In his eight years, he has presided over a host of campaigns for established writers (David Peace, André Aciman, Kazuo Ishiguro) and debuts (Michael Amherst) alike. And, memorably, for orchestrating publicity for Sally Rooney’s last two bestsellers.
Sean Smith Igloo
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A year into an architectural technology degree, Sean Smith left to find a new direction, discovering an interest in “how numbers can be used to show what you already know, but also reveal answers to questions you hadn’t thought to ask”. In 2019 he joined Northamptonshire- based Igloo Books to provide sales support, where he started building reports that had not been requested to show his potential for an analytical role. It has “only gone up from there” as he is now established in the finance team, working with all the business’ departments. He feels not having any previous finance or commercial experience has been “a real benefit” in helping him to discuss complex datasets in a simplified yet effective way with colleagues. Igloo’s finance director Sundip Sahota says Smith has implemented new systems that have “evolved the way in which Igloo looks at data from top to bottom” and his insight is “directly influencing our commissioning decisions and helping to reframe the publishing list for future growth”.
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Features
Rising Stars
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