Working with Words: Exploring Careers in Publishing, Writing & Storytelling

Join us for an exciting event jointly organised by the Department of English in the School of the Arts, Queen Mary University London and The Wilbur & Niso Smith Foundation.

A debut author has written a novel. What happens next?

Three publishing professionals will take you through the steps that take that novel from the author’s computer to the bookshop shelves. You will hear from an agent, an editor and a publicist, who all work in different parts of the industry and are vital to this process.

Each speaker will share what they do, how they got there, and what their day-to-day looks like, using real-life industry examples. If you’re curious about a career in publishing, this will help you consider which role might be the best fit for you.

The speakers are:

John Baker, Literary Agent at Bell Lomax Moreton Agency

John Baker (he/him) joined the agency in 2019, cultivating a list shaped around his passion for science fiction, fantasy, horror, and action/adventure fiction. John focuses on authors writing in the Adult, New Adult, and YA spaces. Some of John’s client include the Sunday Times Bestselling S. A. MacLean, Future World’s prize winner, Mahmud El Sayed, Imagined Futures prize winner, Kenechi Udogu, Wilber and Niso Smith prize winner, Matt Monterio and A. M. Shine, author of THE WATCHERS, recently adapted by M. Night Shyamalan.

John also leads the wider agency's film & TV desk, is the Secretary of the Association of Author’s Agents, and the co-chair of the AAA’s Bridge Committee. John also serves on the Kingston University MA Publishing Advisory Board and is part of the faculty for this year’s Futurescapes Writers Programme. Before Bell Lomax Moreton, John completed the Kingston Publishing MA and has worked at Gollancz, Blake Friedmann, Usborne, and Little Tiger.

Cal Kenny, Senior Commissioning Editor at Sphere (Hachette)

Cal Kenny is senior commissioning editor at Sphere, an imprint of Little, Brown UK. Cal acquires and publishes commercial fiction across the list, but specialises in crime fiction and thrillers. Their reading taste errs towards the strange, dark and psychologically complex, and they are drawn to distinct, voice-led fiction. They are the head of the Pride network for LGBTQ+ staff and allies, a member of The Future Bookshelf, Hachette’s home for all creative writing schemes and awards, and the head of Grow Your Story 2025, a mentorship and workshop programme for unpublished, unagented writers.

Hope Ndaba, Senior Publicity Manager at Bonnier Books UK

Hope is senior publicity manager at Bonnier, having previously worked at FMcM as communications manager. She has delivered publicity campaigns for a range of titles from

Dialogue Books and ran marketing campaigns for clients such as Thomas Heatherwick and prizes such as the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. Prior to this, Hope also worked in both marketing and publicity at Picador Books, launching debuts such as Julia May Jonas’s Vladimir and Maddie Mortimer’s Booker-longlisted Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies.

Outside of her day-to-day, she serves on the And Other Stories board of trustees, and recently participated on a panel for the PEN Translates Award.

Panel Chair:

Dr Rachael Allen, BA (Goldsmiths), PhD (Hull)

I was born and grew up in Cornwall, moving to London to study English Literature at Goldsmiths University. At Goldsmiths I started an event and anthology series called clinic, which developed into a small press. I have been publishing ever since, working for a decade at the literary quarterly Granta Magazine, and publishing a poetry list for Granta Books. My authors include writers like Will Harris, Daisy Lafarge, Holly Pester, Stephanie Sy-Quia, Will Alexander and others. I completed a PhD at the University of Hull. My doctoral research identified an anglophone, feminist lyric emerging in the Anthropocene, looking at the poets Ariana Reines, Sylvia Legris, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge and Selima Hill, and the collection of poems I wrote during this time, Kingdomland, was published by Faber and Faber in 2019.

The panel will be followed by a Q&A and reception, so you have a chance to ask the speakers questions about their experience and the career you’re most interested in.

Arrival from 6.15 p.m. for a 6.30 p.m. start, closing at 7.45 p.m. The event will be followed by a reception until 9.00 p.m.