'I’ve never experienced a true cultural zeitgeist that didn’t begin with a book...'

Emily Souders talks about how book PR will survive AI, working with debut writers vs working with huge brands, and the impact of prizes in the book world...

Hi everyone, happy Tuesday!

Today I’m delighted to welcome Emily Souders, Campaigns Director at Riot Communications. She’s here to talk about book PR, and she generously shares her advice for writers, why she thinks PR will survive AI, and how all good crazes begin with books…

Having joined the company over seven years ago, Emily now co-leads the Riot Communications campaigns team, leading communications for several high-profile clients, including Bloomsbury, HarperCollins, Amazon Publishing, and Moomin Characters. Riot Communications is an award-winning PR agency specialising in arts, entertainment and culture. At the core of their business is book publishing, and they support a number of publishing houses, literary heritage brands, and individual authors on bespoke book campaigns. Most recently, this has included Caroline O’Donoghue’s latest YA novel, and the centenary of Winnie the Pooh. Alongside this, they also have several literary retainer clients, including the Nero Book Awards and Moomin Characters.

Hi Emily, welcome to the Honest Editor. Can you start by telling us a bit about your current role, and your journey into publishing?

I am currently a Campaigns Director at Riot Communications, an arts and culture agency. I have been at Riot for eight years, starting as a Junior Manager after beginning my career at Golin via their Bright Young Things program. It all started at university really - although I did history, all my friends were English students, and I got involved in societies and doing PR on campus for events. I was very fortunate to meet the person who would give me my first internship at a History Soc party!

You work with a wide range of authors, brands and publishers. What has been a career highlight for you?

There have been so many highlights! Some recent ones would be seeing our ‘years-in-the-making’ campaign for the 80th anniversary of the Moomins (“Moomin80”) come to life. The aim of the campaign was to highlight the values of the brand to UK audiences, as although awareness of the Moomins is good in the UK, there is less awareness of the core brand values of love, tolerance and respect for nature. The first Moomin book, The Moomins and the Great Flood, sees Moomintroll and Moominmamma forced to seek refuge from a natural disaster.

For the project, we approached and partnered with Refugee Week, who felt like the perfect partner and whose core values aligned closely with Moomin Characters. The project saw the commission of four public artworks across the UK, working with displaced artists and community groups.

Seeing the Moominhouse come to life at the Southbank Centre was wonderful. Nearly 10,000 people attended a workshop or event related to one of the four Moomin-inspired artworks, and over half a million people had the opportunity to see one of the artworks.

Riot Communications also work with the Nero Prize. What do you think is the significance of prizes in today's book market - what part do they play?

Working on the Nero Book Awards is always a pleasure. I used to work on the Costa Book Awards and the Desmond Elliot Prize, and remember the outpouring of despair when it was announced they wouldn’t be continuing. However, the loss of prizes in quick succession seems to have provided a catalyst for the creation of new prizes, and I feel we have quickly moved from headlines about the death of literary prizes to many new ones.

I think book prizes are key for spotlighting brilliant work across many genres and tastes. As we know, there is a plethora of books published every week and having a way to bring a spotlight onto brilliant writing is key for authors, especially debuts. We clearly see in the Amazon charts and Nielsen data the immediate impact that being shortlisted for or winning a Nero Prize has on book sales.

How does working with an individual author differ to working on a bigger brand like Moomin Characters? How do you keep a brand relevant for changing audiences?

I really enjoy the variety of my job, and working with individual authors versus established brands brings very different opportunities and challenges.

With fiction authors in particular, you’re building their public profile alongside promoting their books, but it’s important to strike a careful balance.

You want to elevate them as a voice without overexposing the person behind the work so readers can still fully immerse themselves in the story, rather than conflating the author too closely with it.

With a brand like Moomin Characters, there’s a legacy to protect, so it’s about balancing consistency with fresh, creative ways to stay relevant. Moomin Characters is a wonderful, creative company that truly lives its values, so it is a pleasure to work with them on creative ideas.

More generally, keeping a heritage brand relevant comes down to understanding evolving audiences while staying true to its core identity, finding new ways to connect without losing what people already love about it. It is something we’re very experienced at at Riot, with our work with Moomin Characters, Pippi Longstocking, Peter Rabbit, Winnie the Pooh, and more!

What are you excited about at the moment?

We’re currently working on our 2026 Moomin Pride event with our partner, the London-based queer bookshop, The Common Press. It is a real passion project, and I thoroughly enjoy creating a safe space and fun event for the LGBTQ+ community.

Tove Jansson lived openly as a queer woman in a time it was still illegal in Finland, so she has become a real icon for the community.

Do you work with debut writers, too, and if so, how do you go about making them stand out in the crowd?

I do indeed! It’s always rewarding working with debuts. In order to make them stand out, I start by having an in-depth conversation with the author, learning about any personal stories that may have influenced the writing of the book, and figuring out how this relates to current cultural discourse. It’s also helpful to learn from the author what they want to talk about as part of the promotion of the book. If the author is passionate about something, this often translates through any interviews/features we secure for them. The pure books space is getting smaller in media, so having a wider, more features and interview-led campaign gives more opportunity to get the message of the book out there - and often you get far more key messages across in a feature or interview than a review (as lovely as they are to have!)

A debut author I loved working with was T.M. Payne. She was a brilliant example of a keen and collaborative debut author who was so happy to work closely with us on her PR campaign.

It’s worth noting that often there isn’t PR support for debut authors, so for any writers who may be reading this, my advice would be to make sure you, as the author, understand what PR and marketing support you are getting. If you aren’t getting any, decide whether you want to pay for some or do something grassroots yourself. It’s hard because you feel you’re at the finish line getting published - but really it is just the beginning!

What advice would you give for writers who want to reach readers today? How can they know if working with Riot is a good fit for them?

Knowing your audience is key. When we’re hired by a writer, one of the first things we do is understand and analyse that key audience. If a book will resonate with a Gen Z audience, we focus on media and platforms where Gen Z are - as lovely as getting a big broadsheet feature is, it won’t necessarily move the dial in a way that best serves the book.

At Riot, we work with a wide variety of authors and books: fiction and non-fiction, authors with a publisher, and self-published authors who require PR support on a consultancy basis.

My advice for someone wanting to explore PR for their book campaign is that Riot will seek to do more than just get you reviews: we provide tailored campaigns from the outset and remain agile throughout, shifting our approach and responding to what the campaign needs at timely moments.

The industry faces lots of competition for readers' attention: podcasts, Netflix, etc. How do you think publishers can ensure that books can stay front of mind for audiences?

Whilst countless forms of media compete for people’s time and attention, there’s a striking consistency behind the biggest breakout successes and cultural phenomena - more often than not, their foundations lie in publishing.

In 2026, we’ve seen the world go mad for Heated Rivalry (myself included). This week alone, I’ve spotted Boston Raiders hats and even an Ilya Rozanov jersey on my walks. I grew up through the crazes of Twilight and The Hunger Games, and the pattern is hard to ignore.

Beyond the occasional boyband moment, I’ve never experienced a true cultural zeitgeist that didn’t begin with a book.

How has PR changed over the years, and what is the impact of AI at the moment?

PR is constantly evolving, that’s one of the reasons I’m drawn to the industry. It demands continuous learning and the ability to think on your feet; adaptability isn’t optional, it’s essential.

Despite the rise of AI, PR is often cited as a field that will endure, and I agree. At its core, so much of the work is deeply human - understanding how different audiences will respond, anticipating what could go wrong and mitigating it before it does, and building genuine relationships with media, talent, and influencers. Those instincts can’t easily be automated.

1Finally, what one piece of wisdom have you learned in your career thus far?

Keeping calm and thinking laterally will get you far.

Thank you so much, Emily, for sharing your insights. Please do feel free to comment below with any questions or thoughts - I always read them all. And if you have a publishing question that you need clarity on, or someone you’d like to feature on this Substack, do get in touch!

Phoebe x