Finished your manuscript? Welcome to the next chapter, ‘How to Pitch Your Story’, an exclusive online event and the final talk in our three-part series of Publishing 101s. This event will explore the role of the publicist in the publishing world, how authors and publicists work together to build a campaign and how to talk about the project that has formerly lived inside your head to the outside world.

Featuring Cynthia Hamilton, Kimberley Nyamhondera and Jessica Spivey and chaired by Georgina Moore, this one-hour discussion will offer insights into the work of a book publicist, the campaigns behind some of their titles and how they work with authors to identify the stories, themes and ideas at the heart of a book, and how these can be used to build a compelling publicity campaign. The discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A, moderated by the chair. Attendees are encouraged to submit questions in advance to help shape the conversation.

Whether you’re an aspiring author, preparing for publication or simply curious about what happens on the promotional trail, ‘How to Pitch Your Story’ will offer practical insight into the art of telling a book’s story and getting it into the hands of readers.

About the speakers

Cynthia Hamilton is Head of PR & Marketing for the Cheltenham-based publisher The History Press and joined the PPC committee as an Independent Representative in 2025. Her extensive experience in the trade includes bookselling, publishing sales and, most recently, marketing and publicity. Cynthia has held senior positions in a variety of independent houses and has promoted a medley of non-fiction authors – from iconic boxer Frank Bruno to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York. Armed with a first-class MA in book history from the School of Advanced Study in London, she is also a published award-winning performance poet and former BBC Radio 4 dramatist.

Georgina Moore (Chair) is an award-winning book publicist, who has worked in the publishing industry for twenty-five years, most recently as Executive Director at the arts PR agency Midas, and before that at Headline where she was Communications Director. Georgina has worked with a raft of bestselling authors including Lucy Foley, Philip Pullman, Patricia Cornwell, Maggie O’Farrell, Patrick Gale, Adele Parks, Harriet Tyce and many more. Georgina is also a Sunday Times bestselling novelist of two books, The Garnett Girls and River of Stars. Her third novel, Summer House, will be published in 2027.

Kimberley Nyamhondera is Head of Publicity at Pan Macmillan and previously worked across fiction and non-fiction at Hodder & Stoughton and Little, Brown Book Group. She has worked across a range of genres including political memoir (working with Nicola Sturgeon and Jacinda Ardern), narrative non-fiction by Sarah Wynn-Williams, debut literary fiction including The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley and Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda and with Sunday Times-bestselling authors such as V.E Schwab.

Jessica Spivey is a Publicity Manager at Vintage, Penguin Random House, where she works with authors of fiction and non-fiction, including Gisele Pelicot, Margaret Atwood, Isabella Hammad, Sophie Elmhist, Lauren Elkin, Édouard Louis, Susan Stokes-Chapman and Lady Brenda Hale. She also works closely on the Vintage Classics list, where the authors tend to be harder to get hold of for PR. Before joining Vintage, she worked with award-winning independent publishers Les Fugitives and Hope Road, and as a freelance translator.