2015
Rights Professional of the Year SPONSORED BY: THE FRANKFURT BOOK FAIR
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[ TH E
S HORTLI ST ]
Kate Hibbert is prolific, and hugely popular among her colleagues at Little, Brown Book Group and with overseas publishers too
Alexandra McNicoll is a rising star of rights who has revived the backlists of many authors on Conville & Walsh’s roster
Alex Nicholas racked up more than 100 deals last year across multiple rights areas for Orion Children’s Books
The Penguin rights team is an eight-strong unit that constantly turns up new business and mines Penguin’s unrivalled backlist
WINNER: RACHEL MILLS, PFD
PERSONABLE, PROACTIVE AND tireless in her pursuit of deals, Rachel Mills is everything a rights professional should be. She has massively increased Peters, Fraser & Dunlop’s foreign rights income since joining just over four years ago, and last year her team struck more than 160 deals in several dozen countries. Her approach is strategic and comprehensive, ranging across TV and other media as well as books—such as with Bear Grylls, for whom she inked more than 30 foreign deals last year. She has been adept at estate business too, notably relaunching the books of Georges Simenon in many territories. Working directly for her authors without publisher intermediaries, she is widely admired by PFD’s clients. “Every author should be so lucky as to have the wonderful Rachel Mills
KEY STRENGTHS
handling their foreign rights . . . she is one of a kind,” said one of them. Mills is affable and charming wherever she goes on her extensive travels, and is universally admired for an approach that always keeps sight of the pleasures of publishing in addition to being perfectly professional. “Not only one of the nicest people I know but also one of the best in the trade,” said one foreign publisher. Judges echoed the long list of testimonials that supported Mills’ entry for this award. “It’s tiring just reading about her work,” they said. “Rachel is a very well-rounded rights professional and right at the heart of developing big author brands. She has made foreign rights an essential part of PFD’s business.”
Prolific multimedia rights dealing in 2014
Steered a five-fold increase in PFD’s foreign rights business Deals directly with publishers in more than 50 countries Strategic direction of rights and excellent leadership of her team
Pinelopi Pourpoutidou and Mauro Spagnol (Michael O’Mara) form an effective double act, selling across wide-ranging lists and territories
Paula Ziedna grew Usborne Publishing ’s rights business yet again, and set up its new imprint in Germany too
The Frankfurt Book Fair is the international publishing industry’s biggest trade fair, with 7,100 exhibitors from more than 100 countries, around 270,000 visitors, over 4,000 events and around 9,000 accredited journalists in attendance. It also gathers key players from other media, including the film and games industries. Since 1976, the fair has featured an annual Guest of Honour country, which showcases its book market, literature and culture to attendees in a variety of ways.
www.book-fair.com
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