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Divisional heads
Paul Baggaley Venetia Butterfield Richard Cable Fathima Dada Francesca Dow Kate Elton Katie Espiner Larry Finlay Mandy Hill Albert Hitchcock Jamie Hodder-Williams Emma Hopkin Colin Hughes Steven Inchcoombe Charlie King Richard Kitson Sara Lloyd Sharmaine Lovegrove Lisa Milton Louise Moore Hilary Murray Hill Ann-Janine Murtagh Kate Parkin Belinda Rasmussen Oliver Rhodes Rebecca Smart Melanie Tansey Jeremy Trevathan Lis Tribe
Paul Baggaley Picador Publisher
Baggaley will close out 2019 bidding adieu to Picador, his home for 11 years, to become Bloomsbury’s editor-in-chief. A fitting year to leave, though, as his list scored its second Imprint of the Year in four years at the Nibbies. Justifiably so, as the literary division has been rich in hits and prizes of late: Adam Kay, the Secret Barrister, A J Pearce, Robin Robertson, and on and on. He leaves the imprint with arguably the sharpest commissioning team in town, including Ravi Mirchandani, George Morley and Francesca Main.
Venetia Butterfield Penguin Life Publishing director
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Butterfield became publishing director of Viking 14 years ago, before setting up Penguin Life in 2016 and taking on Portfolio.
In March, she was given a new crown: publisher of Penguin General, a freshly created role to recognise her “excep- tional contribution”. This year has seen her department toast massive success: Michelle Obama’s record-busting Becoming has shifted a further 171,000 copies in 2019, while Elif Shafak’s 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World was shortlisted for the Booker.
Richard Cable Vintage Managing director
Vintage has had a show-stopping year, with Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments jointly winning the Booker Prize. But perhaps even more impressive was the Atwood fever generated around the globe, as her literary agency Curtis Brown desperately fended off phishing attacks to intercept the manuscript, while real-life “Handmaids” greeted international journalists at a press conference in London. The Handmaid’s Tale sequel went on to defy the phishers and smash records instead, shifting 103,000 copies in the UK in its first week.
Francesca Dow PRH Children’s Managing director
There has been a slight drop in sales and market share for PRH Children’s, though it still remains by far the biggest kids’ publisher, with TCM revenue of £43.5m thus far in 2019. Standout authors were Jeff Kinney (responsible for five of its top seven books of the year), Philip Pullman (co-published with David Fickling Books and Dow’s list’s biggest earner this year), and American YA star Karen McManus. Alex Moyet joined the team in the newly created role of brand director, while Ladybird relaunched its trade brand and publishing.
TheBookseller.com
Fathima Dada Oxford Education Managing director
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OUP’s education divisions had two “challenging” years on the trot, according to c.e.o. Nigel Portwood (more to do with the
major territories’ economies and govern- ment budgets than OUP’s output). To meet the increased pressure, this autumn Oxford Education and Asia Education were merged into a single global entity, with Dada at the helm. Dada has the nous; she joined OUP from Pearson and is deeply experienced in delivering digital services—which is where OUP’s schools future lies.
Kate Elton HarperCollins Executive publisher, fiction/non-fiction
The Avon, HarperFiction and HarperNonFiction boss has had a nicely balanced year. Ant Middleton has been the non-fiction star, with First Man In and the follow-up, The Fear Bubble, shifting £2.3m through the TCM. Old “new” hands lead the way in fiction—Gail Honeyman’s 2017 release Eleanor Oliphant... has sold £1.5m in 2019, and is by some £700,000 the division’s top seller. A J Finn‘s 2018 crime début The Woman in the Window is second—the author’s sales were not dented by the (in)famous New Yorker article earlier this year.
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