THIS WEEK Audiobooks
Laurence Howell Richard Lennon Tracey Markham Miles Stevens-Hoare
The Lead Story The Bookseller 150
Miles Stevens-Hoare W F Howes Managing director
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Stevens-Hoare leads 20-year- old audiobook publisher and libraries supplier W F Howes during a pivotal moment for
the business, with audio sales booming and the battle for audio rights intensify- ing. In 2019, W F Howes published more than 1,000 audiobook titles, an increase of 156% since 2012. As the company has expanded its output it has grown, now employing more than 50 staff. If it wants to challenge Amazon and Audible in the digital content space, Stevens-Hoare will have a key role to play.
Design & creative
James Annal Suzanne Dean Jon Gray & Jamie Keenan Julian Humphries Donna Payne Jim Stoddart
Richard Lennon Penguin Random House Audio publisher
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Since moving from Vermilion in 2016, Lennon has grown and broadened the publisher’s output, putting PRH in pole
position in the burgeoning audiobook marketplace. Lennon was made audio publisher last year, bringing with him Sam Halstead as editorial director, and James Keyte as commissioning editor. Key launches this year include the Penguin Classics in Audio list and the Ladybird Audio Adventures series, which picked up a FutureBook award last month. He is recruiting, again.
Suzanne Dean Vintage Creative director
The cover for the biggest literary event of the year; perhaps even the decade? Little problem for Vintage’s design doyenne Dean, who enlisted minimal illustrator Noma Bar to create the strik- ing neon cover for Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments. It was a resuscitation of their earlier collaboration on its prequel, The Handmaid’s Tale: both use negative space and a restrained colour palette— and immediately feel like modern classics. Yet it’s packaging backlist titles in covetable, display table-friendly livery that remains Dean’s signature.
James Annal Pan Macmillan Art and design director
In a blog post for The Bookseller in October, Annal made his work on Elton John’s memoir Me sound remarkably straightforward. Given the book had to be signed off by Macmillan’s global stakeholders and Elton’s entourage, it assuredly was no easy task. The cover— a colourful rework of a monochrome image—has been branding dynamite across platforms, a far cry from drab, airbrushed celeb fare. There have been strong visuals for a number of Pan Mac’s fiction brands too, including the unmis- takeable recent breakout C J Sansom.
Julian Humphries Fourth Estate/William Collins Art director
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While much of HarperCollins’ hits of recent years have come under the umbrella of fiction art director Claire Ward, Julian
Humphries of HC’s literary lists was no slouch in 2019. Most notable was his work on a sure-fire hit of 2020, pivoting the aesthetic of Hilary Mantel for the third in her trilogy, nodding to recent commercial historical fiction successes. Under Humphries’ art direction, Jack Smyth’s Matchbox Classics won the Brand/Series Identity gong at the British Book Design & Production Awards.
22 13th December 2019
Jon Gray & Jamie Keenan Academy of British Cover Design Designers/co-founders
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There’s a good chance your favourite jacket of the year was designed by Gray or Keenan, two of the go-to
contacts in art directors’ black book of freelances. From the livery for Zadie Smith’s Grand Union (Gray) to Ben Marcus’ Notes from the Fog (Keenan), their work never misses the mark. Yet the duo are listed mostly for their championing of fellow designers through their stewardship of the Academy of British Cover Design awards, a staple of the book design sector’s calendar.
Donna Payne Faber & Faber Art director
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Faber, with one of the UK’s most iconic design histories, keeps the bar high year in, year out under Payne. She
oversees a team that produces a string of eye-catching designs, including Sally Rooney’s ouevre (designed by Gray); Max Porter’s Lanny, reprised by Jonny Pelham in a Waterstones-exclusive hard- back as impressive as its original; and the inventive Faber Stories series. Not that Payne is shy of chipping in, too: her work on Leïla Slimani’s Lullaby didn’t go unnoticed by this year’s Nibbies judges.
Jim Stoddart Penguin Art director
Overseeing the design department at Penguin for 18 years is no small task, but Stoddart’s steering of a skilled team of designers ensures the erstwhile publisher’s output remains nimble, fresh, surprising and remarkably consistent, given its breadth. Yet sadly the biggest news story to emerge from the list’s design studio this year was a tragic one: the loss of Penguin General and Michael Joseph art director John Hamilton, who passed away aged 55. Stepping up to fill his sizeable boots will be Richard Bravery, a senior designer since 2007.
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