Editor of the Year
WINNER REBECCA HILL, USBORNE
Usborne has built its phenomenal reputation and sales on its non-fiction, activity and early years publishing, but Rebecca Hill’s amazing success with its growing list of older fiction in 2018 has added new depth to the children's publisher's output. It is this work that makes her the first children’s publisher to win
the Editor of the Year award—though she and her authors haven’t been short of recognition over the past few years. Hill was named a Bookseller Rising Star in 2017, and followed that up last year with the Branford Boase Award—unique in the prize world in that it recognises the contribution of editors to children’s books; in her case, Mitch Johnson’s début, Kick. She also edited The Bookseller’s 2018 YA Book Prize winner, Will Hill’s After the Fire, and had books up for the Blue Peter Book Awards and Waterstones Children’s Book Prize too. She is longlisted again for the Branford Boase Award in 2019 for not
just one but two books: P G Bell’s The Train to Impossible Places and Sophie Anderson’s The House with Chicken Legs, which was Usborne’s top-selling fiction book of the year. As well as débuts, Hill steered the success of established writers including Holly Bourne and Geraldine McCaughrean—who scooped the Carnegie Medal and the Independent Bookshop Week Children's Book Award for Where the World Ends. It is a remarkable awards hit rate considering Usborne published only
21 new fiction titles in 2018. And the list’s commercial performance was just as impressive, with TCM sales shooting up by more than a quarter. Hill’s authors clearly adore her—“not many days pass where I don’t
feel incredibly lucky to have her in my professional and personal life,” said one—and judges were hugely impressed by her achievements. “It’s a brilliantly curated and successful fiction list… she’s breaking new ground for Usborne."
SHORTLIST
FRANCIS BICKMORE, CANONGATE Steered Matt Haig into new genres and phenomenal sales, and reinvigorated Canongate's acquisitions
JESSIE BOTTERILL, BOOKOUTURE Former literary agent who has used her eye for talent to build several big author brands at Hachette’s digital-first list
ALISON HENNESSEY, RAVEN BOOKS Has quickly established Bloomsbury’s new fiction list as a major player in crime and thrillers
LOUISA JOYNER, FABER & FABER At the heart of Faber’s remarkable 2018, she was the editor behind Anna Burns’
THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS WINNERS 2019 Man Booker Prize winner Milkman
ARABELLA PIKE, WILLIAM COLLINS A driving force for HarperCollins’ serious non-fiction, with 2018 hits from Max Hastings and Helena Morrissey
MICHAEL SCHMIDT, CARCANET PRESS Hugely respected poetry editor and champion of diversity in publishing’s output for more than half a century now
ANNA VALENTINE, ORION PUBLISHING GROUP Force behind Trapeze, and publisher of hits from Noel Fitzpatrick and the Ordnance Survey among others last year
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Led a 28% hike in fiction sales for Usborne in 2018
Numerous children’s book prize wins and shortlistings
Outstanding author care and
widespread admiration from agents Breaking new talent into children’s books,
with 13 débuts among 21 new titles in 2018
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