The Bookseller 150 is sponsored by Mosaic Executive Search
Tracey Markham Audible Country manager (UK)
Markham has been country manager at Audible since 2007, a time when audio- books were still firmly a physical proposi- tion. She backed the right horse: in 2007 Audible reported sales just shy of £3m, with 16 staff on the payroll. In 2018 its UK sales reached £106m, with the business now employing 94 staff. Such growth is not the work of just one person, of course, but under Markham’s steward- ship the business has focused in the right areas, driving publishers ever forwards in their production of new audio, and help- ing to develop Audible’s own list.
Fairs, festivals & events
Syima Aslam Nick Barley Peter Florence Kate Mosse Jacks Thomas Nicola Tuxworth Gaby Wood
Laurence Howell Audible Vice President, content
New Entry
If Markham is the business head of Audible, Howell is the creative force, developing a publishing programme that
now also includes original audio and podcasts. Among them are hits Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Collection, read by Stephen Fry, of course; a musical version of The War of the Worlds; and Hag, a short-story collection of folklore tales. Audible is now talked of in the same breath as Netflix, with its publishing as outstanding as its retailing. Howell can take much of the credit for that.
Syima Aslam Bradford Literary Festival Director
New Entry
Since launching the Bradford Literature Festival five years ago, Aslam has grown it from a two-day programme to 2019’s
10-day extravaganza, featuring 400 events and 500 writers, with speakers including Jeanette Winterson and George the Poet. Its USP is its commitment to accessibility and inclusion, and to repre- sent Bradford’s diverse community: around half its attendees hail from a BAME background, while events are free to refugees and asylum seekers, benefits recipients and people on state pensions.
Peter Florence Hay Festival Director
Green Ever
Festival founder Florence this year took on another mantle– chair of the “rebel” Booker Prize judging panel. While the
controversial move to crown two winners split the book industry, it certainly got people talking. Meanwhile, Hay Festival unveiled a major rebrand ahead of the flagship summer event, which hosted more than 600 speakers and sold 278,000 tickets. Hay Festival Winter Weekend celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, and plans were announced for a 2020 festival in Abu Dhabi.
Jacks Tomas London Book Fair Director
The 2019 edition of London Book Fair introduced a line-up of live podcasts, with headline authors including Ian McEwan and Holly Bourne, and podcast- ers were recognised for the first time as part of its UK Book Blog Awards. With Brexit dominating conversation at Olympia, the fair was home to a Café Europe, while Swedish publisher Dorotea Bromberg received the LBF Lifetime Achievement Award. In another first-time move, LBF’s Cameo (Creativity Across Media: Entertainment and Originality) awards made their US début in May.
TheBookseller.com
Kate Mosse Women’s Prize/author Chair/author
The Women’s Prize officially became a charity in early 2019 and expanded its patron scheme, a move co-founder Mosse said “will enable us to be even more ambitious”. The award, now sponsored by Baileys, NatWest and newest addition Fremantle, was won by Tayari Jones’ An American Marriage in June. With sales rising 164% in the week of the announcement, it has now shifted a whisker under 100,000 copies in print—making the Women’s Prize a more powerful sales motivator than an endorsement from Barack Obama.
Nicola Tuxworth Cheltenham Literature Festival Director
New Entry
The world’s longest-running literary festival turned 70 this year, with a record-breaking number of tickets sold (over
140,000), its most diverse programme yet, and a new broadcast partnership with Sky Arts. Its Seven at Seventy cele- brations included seven guest curators— among them writers Max Porter and Tessa Hadley—working with Tuxworth’s programming team; and the festival’s work continued year-round too, with education and outreach schemes. As Tuxworth says, “here’s to 70 more years”.
Gaby Wood Booker Prize Literary director
Wood may have expected a quieter year in her role as literary director of the Booker Prizes following 2018’s 50th anni- versary celebrations, but 2019 has been just as noteworthy. Back in February, it was revealed the prizes had a new spon- sor in Crankstart, an announcement that was welcomed by the trade. Less univer- sally praised was the Booker panel’s shock decision to crown two winners, a move Wood later had to defend amid backlash from some in the industry. However, elsewhere it was hailed as “an absolute gift for bookselling”.
23
Nick Barley Edinburgh International Book Festival Director
Barley’s 10th year as director of EIBF saw Nicola Sturgeon take to the stage along- side Arundhati Roy, with appearances from a host of other big names, includ- ing Elif Shafak, Simon Armitage and Cressida Cowell. Attendee numbers grew to 265,000, while the expanded festival bookshops contributed to an increase in book sales of around 5%. In May, EIBF announced a new collaboration with the Bradford Literature Festival, Northern Lights, designed to unite publishers from Scotland and the North of England.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64
