Hilary Murray Hill

Samantha Smith will join Scholastic UK on May 20th as Fiction Publisher. Samantha is currently Editorial Director at Little Brown, where she has worked with authors including P.C. and Kristin Cast, Chris Colfer and Stephenie Meyer.  She will report to Hilary Murray Hill, MD of Scholastic Children’s Books, who has overall responsibility for Scholastic’s trade publishing in the UK.  

Hilary commented, ‘‘Samantha’s appointment will enhance our exceptional editorial team and take the Scholastic fiction list forward in new directions.  I am absolutely delighted that we will be working together”. Samantha said, ''I'm thrilled to be joining Scholastic. It's a house with a brilliant publishing history, one that I very much grew up with, but that remains a vibrant and dynamic part of children's publishing today and is incredibly well-placed to meet the challenges of the market going forward. I'm looking forward to working with the in-house team and their outstanding authors.”

Scholastic has partnered with animal welfare charity the RSPCA for a two-year publishing deal, with the children's publisher to produce a range of RSPCA fiction, non-fiction, annuals and stickerbooks. The publisher will donate a minimum of 15p to the RSPCA for every book sold. The fiction, non-fiction and annuals will be for children aged seven and older, with the stickerbooks aimed at four-to-five-year-olds.

Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company announced today that Catherine Bell, UK sales and marketing head of DK, will be Co-Managing Director and Head of Publishing, Marketing and Trade Sales for Scholastic UK, effective September 10, 2012. Steve Thompson, currently Managing Director of Book Fairs for Scholastic UK, will become Co-Managing Director, Operations.