Rachel Neely is a Bookseller Rising Star

We are so proud of our brilliant agent Rachel Neely who has been named a Bookseller Rising Star for 2024!! ⭐🎉 The Bookseller's Rising Stars is an annual list of the book industry’s up and comers. The Class of 2024 highlight the importance of continuing to open the industry to diverse backgrounds, spearheaded by the first retailer to be named Shooting Star.

Rachel joined Mushens Entertainment in 2022, selling a book within a month (Elle Machray’s Remember, Remember to HarperNorth; Machray was an Observer best new novelist pick in 2024) with her first six-figure deal coming soon after (Carmella Lowkis’ Spitting Gold).

Since then, there have been an eye-popping amount of big-money pre-empts and auctions, including Sue Hincenbergs’ The Retirement Plan, one of the hits of this year’s London Book Fair. “I took a roundabout way,” Neely says, “but I ended up in the right job.”

The Belfast native applauds the industry’s recent inclusivity moves: “As someone from a lower socioeconomic background than your traditional publishing professional, that’s close to my heart. I would like the industry to double down [and attract] employees and authors from all walks of life”.