The Bookseller 150 is sponsored by Mosaic Executive Search
Charlie Redmayne HarperCollins Chief executive officer
David Walliams, Gail Honeyman, Ant Middleton, A J Finn and BOSH! continued to sell well for HC in 2019, and new standouts included Bridget Collins’ The Binding, Adele Parks’ Lies Lies Lies and Nigel Slater’s Greenfeast volumes. As well as a new global deal with Agatha Christie Ltd, the publisher announced enhanced parental leave and a blind recruitment process, and bolstered its sales team, adding Ben Wright, Debbie McNally and Kirsty Bradbury. Helen Garnons-Williams, Tom Killingbeck and Anna Kelly stepped up in editorial, too.
Jane Ross CGP
Managing director
Another year, another 12 months of eye-popping returns for the Cumbrian indie test-guides dynamo. CGP’s most recent results show a none-too-shabby revenue of £35.4m (+8%) and after-tax proft of £11.4m (+17%). Ross, who will celebrate five years in charge early next year, has focused on diversification and expansion of the list over the past year or two—particularly successful have been its revision question cards range. Fun fact: 17 of the top 20, and 73 of the top 100 test guides through the TCM in 2019 are published by CGP.
David Shelley Hachette Chief executive officer
Revenues are slightly down at Hachette owing to slow Education sales, but there was a standout performance from digital imprint Bookouture and Short Books, acquired by Octopus in June. Bestsellers included The Fast 800 Recipe Book, memoirs from Billy Connolly and Anne Glenconner, plus old hands Martina Cole and John Grisham. Long-serving employees Clare Harington and Malcolm Edwards left the firm, as did Lucy Hale, the latter as part of a shake-up that saw all trade division m.d.s appointed to the board and reporting to Shelley.
Peter Usborne & Nicola Usborne Usborne Books Founder/deputy m.d.
The children’s indie continues to go from strength to strength under the father and daughter team. Sales through the TCM for 2019 are up 8.8% year on year to £19m, while the firm continues to see consistent growth through non-tradi- tional retail channels. Its novelty and activity range, particularly the That’s Not My… series, drives sales, but fiction is also thriving, with Usborne scoring four out of the seven nominations on this year’s Branford Boase shortlist. Its fiction edito- rial director, Rebecca Hill, was rewarded with the Editor of the Year Nibbie.
Vicky Williams Emerald Publishing Managing director
New Entry
Williams steered Emerald to sales of £50m in her second year in charge (though she knows the business inside and
out, having worked at the Yorkshire- based social sciences indie in various roles for 20 years). Her early(ish) tenure at the top had a nice start when Emerald took home the 2019 Nibbie for Academic, Educational & Professional Publisher of the Year. Two big 2019 digital launches have been Open Access site Emerald Open Research, and its Emerald Insight research platform.
TheBookseller.com
Tom Weldon Penguin Random House Chief executive officer
Green Ever
It’s been a pretty good year for Weldon’s PRH, nearing a double-digit rise in TCM value sales, albeit against a rela-
tively weak 2018. The Penguin divisions have led the way, with Michael Joseph the star. Of PRH’s four books in the UK’s 2019-to-date top 10, MJ published three, led by breakout Instagrammer Mrs Hinch’s Hinch Yourself Happy, the overall group’s bestseller of the year so far. The move of much of the group to the new digs in One Embassy Gardens will loom large on Weldon’s 2020 agenda.
Kate Wilson Nosy Crow Managing director
Wilson’s indie won its second Children’s Publisher of the Year title at the 2019 Nibbies for its breadth of creative publishing, collaboration with partners (among them John Lewis, the British Museum and the National Trust), and its excellent care of authors and staff, as well as its commitment to inclusivity. Sales through the TCM for the year are up 7.4% to £4.5m, against a strong 2018, while it continues to thrive overseas. Catherine Bruton’s No Ballet Shoes in Syria also bagged the Children’s Fiction Books Are My Bag Readers’ Award.
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Michael Schmidt Carcanet Managing director
New Entry
Schmidt founded Manchester- based Carcanet in 1969 when he was 22 (and its influential “political wing” magazine,
PN Review, in 1973) and over the past 50 years it has published scores of Nobel laureates and Forward and T S Eliot prize-winners. Poetry publishing is not easy, and Schmidt has often reinvented Carcanet to ensure it remains relevant and cutting-edge. That remains true in its Golden Jubilee year, with a rebrand and a clever multichannel social media campaign spreading the word.
Asi Sharabi Wonderbly Chief executive officer
New Entry
Sharabi co-founded and leads one of children’s publishing’s most innovative and exciting start-ups. Its personalised
books have been a hit worldwide—its products have sold into 200 territories— and in a few short years have estab- lished a business that turned over £21.2m in its last set of accounts. The range has expanded to 25 book and activity kits, including My Golden Ticket, a person- alised “tour” of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, made in partnership with the Roald Dahl estate.
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