The Class of 2025 39
Rebekah West Piatkus
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Naomi Weeks b small
Born and raised in the West Midlands, Naomi Weeks grew up yearning to write and illustrate books for kids and, at the age of 18, self-published her own book. She fell in love with the process of publication and decided on a career in children’s books. While at the University of Bristol she hunted industry experience, which included a placement at Penguin Random House and, providentially, working on a freelance metadata project for b small. That led to more freelancing for b small post-graduation and, in 2021, it brought her on board for the newly-created post of marketing and publicity manager. She has been essential to b small’s increased footprint – last year saw a 30% spike in revenue from her work on direct sales and partnerships. Weeks’ personal highlights include resurrecting b small’s YLLA language learning competition, being shortlisted for the 2025 Ola Gotkowska Young Independent Publisher Award and launching a network of children’s publishing professionals from the South West and Wales.
How about this for starting with a bang: Rebekah West’s first acquisition after joining Piatkus in 2022 as a junior editor was Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth Wing; the second author she bought was Elsie Silver. Both writers have become the absolute bedrock of the Little, Brown division’s recent success, chalking up number-ones galore. And these were not dead certs – Yarros barely had a UK footprint, while Silver was self-published – but it speaks to West’s nous and already fully developed editorial eye. No wonder she describes her three years at Piatkus as “a whirlwind” as she rapidly progressed to editorial director. Yarros and Silver are the tip of the iceberg, too, as West is building her romance/fantasy stable, including the recent gaudy poach of Hannah Grace in a five-book deal. West wants to give back: “A personal goal for me this year was going into schools and talking to students about the industry; I also feel strongly about supporting libraries, because they were such an important part of my own journey.”
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Ella Whiddett Bonnier Books UK
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A year-eight teacher’s recommendation of Patrick Ness’ Chaos Walking trilogy kickstarted Ella Whiddett’s love of books. She was particularly intrigued by the acknowledgements in the back, which, in some ways, were the impetus to a career in publishing. An English literature degree at Cambridge led to a David Higham Associates internship and then her first full-time job as an editorial assistant at Little Tiger in 2018. She moved to Bonnier children’s fiction team three years later to work across the Hot Key and Piccadilly imprints. She has been an astute commissioner ever since, making her mark with a range of bestsellers and award-winners including Waterstones Children’s and Branford Boase honouree Nathanael Lessore. She is looking forward to bringing out Sam Prentice-Jones’ queer fantasy Arcana and BookToker Ova Ceren’s debut, The Book of Heartbreak. The key to acquiring, she reckons, is “trusting your gut… I know that if a book makes me laugh or cry it is doing something right”.
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Sponsored by
41 Tamara Zimet Edinburgh International Book Festival
Australian Tamara Zimet says that “it somehow never occurred to me to make my love of literature a job” – but she eventually did just that, chucking a career in fashion PR for a publicity role at Melbourne’s Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas. That led to the Sydney Writers’ Festival, where she progressed from programme co-ordinator to associate director and also launched feminist festival Broadside. While waiting for Broadside funding, she saw the Edinburgh International Book Festival was looking for a new deputy programme director. EIBF had always loomed large in her mind so she jumped at the chance, taking up the post in 2020. She has since progressed to EIBF’s director of programming, in a half-decade of “digital festivals, hybrid festivals, moving sites twice and our offering growing exponentially – and I still feel wildly lucky to be doing this job with my extraordinary team”.
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JOSEPH LIN
Features
Rising Stars
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