PAST WINNERS
2019 Andrew Sharp
2018 Karine Marko The Quarto Group
2017 Kate Hibbert Little, Brown
2016 Michele Young Pan Macmillan
2015 Rachel Mills PFD
RIGHTS PROFESSIONAL OF THE YEAR
OVERVIEW As with the other individual-focused categories at the British Book Awards, this shortlist is dominated by women and new talent, nominees appearing has a notable bias publishing, where rights and coeditions publishers that these eight professionals and teams represent all had decent years in the UK—but tenacious dealmaking and ceaseless quests for new markets ensured that their international dimensions were
KRYSTYNA KUJAWINSKA Krystyna Kujawinska of Orion steered rights teams across a range of imprints and person- ally carved out sizeable sales growth in China, Korea and other Asian markets, plus some challenging European territo- ries. She works equally hard for established authors, including Simon Sebag Montefiore and Joe Abercrombie, and newer acquisitions such as Rachel Winters and M J Arlidge.
REBECCA FOLLAND Rebecca Folland of Hodder & Stoughton, John Murray Press, Quercus and Headline led a cross-division rights team that racked up nearly 2,000 separate deals in 2019, their value up by more than a third year on year. Holly Miller, Elaine Fox and Noreena Hertz were among the authors to benefit, and Folland breathed new life into backlist rights for her divisions, too.
STEPHANIE PURCELL Stephanie Purcell of Simon & Schuster is shortlisted here for the third year in a row. Her team sealed around 800 deals and Purcell handled US, Spanish, Italian and book club markets, securing big numbers for S&S’ children’s books, among them Tim Marshall, Grace Easton and Jessica Smith’s Prisoners of Geography and I’m Sticking With You by Smriti Halls and Steve Small.
EVE ROBERTS Eve Roberts of Macmillan Children’s Books worked the publisher’s wide range of children’s brands hard in 2019, taking properties like The Gruffalo, Moomin and Dear Zoo to yet more new markets, and finding new deals for estate authors including Lewis Carroll and Rudyard Kipling. She personally quadrupled Spanish income and has tripled Campbell Books’ coeditions.
ANNA SHORA Anna Shora of Pan Macmillan has ensured her publisher’s recent UK hits have reverber- ated around the world too, taking Kate Allinson’s and Kay Featherstone’s cookbook Pinch of Nom into 16 languages and Adam Kay’s cross-format hit This is Going to Hurt into 35. Across its lists, Pan Mac increased translation deals by a fifth. “A complete pro,” said one literary agent.
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LIANE-LOUISE SMITH Liane-Louise Smith at Madeleine Milburn Literary, TV & Film Agency is the sole liter- ary agency pro on the shortlist. After joining at the start of 2019, she hit the ground running with committed support of C L Taylor, C J Tudor and Gail Honeyman, among others, and grew international rights sales by more than half. “A rush of energy,” said one publisher of her.
PRH CHILDREN’S RIGHTS TEAM Penguin Random House Children’s Rights Team of 13 is shortlisted en masse for this award. They restructured into three new divisions in 2019, leading to sharp growth in coeditions in more than 50 languages. There were more big deals for PRH properties, including Peter Rabbit and Spot, and a reinvigoration of the Ladybird brand.
MICHELA PEA Michela Pea of Nosy Crow has been instrumental in the children’s indie’s phenomenal rights growth since she joined the firm in 2016. She and her small team struck nearly 700 coedition deals and grew business in China by more than 50%. Pea also uncovered new customers, took its list of territories close to 50 and kept a beady eye on opportunities in the backlist.
2014 A Joyce/Z Knopp Canongate/Penguin
NOREENA HERTZ BENEFITED FROM THE WORK OF
REBECCA FOLLAND
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