THIS WEEK


Country Focus: Scotland Q&A


lockdown videos of his labradors, Olive and Mabel, and signed him up to write Olive, Mabel & Me, which turned out to be a bestseller in 2020. The huge interest in that book kept us incredibly busy and it helped so many people through those difficult times.


Black & White will continue to look for great new books and opportunities and we’ll be looking for significant growth Campbell Brown


With so much of life on


Campbell Brown Managing director, Black & White Publishing


Campbell Brown talks to Caroline Carpenter about how the press has fared throughout the pandemic


01 How has Black & White Publishing coped during


the pandemic? What have been the highlights or challenges? When the pandemic arrived in 2020, it was obviously a very worrying time for all of us. The uncertainty about what was going to happen was very difficult for the business at first, just as we were getting ready to announce our key autumn list for that year. But we adapted quickly and, fortunately, we were already in a good position to be able to work remotely, so that wasn’t too much of


18 18th February 2022


an issue. We also took some tough decisions about what to publish and what to delay until things were more settled. The team at Black & White were brilliant too, with half the team working as normal through those months of furlough to keep things on track. Overall, I think we dealt with the challenges well. As it turned out, there were lots


of highlights for the list, helped by so many determined authors who delivered manuscripts on time in difficult circumstances. We had spotted Andrew Cotter’s brilliant


pause, the pandemic also gave some people time to turn their hand to new ventures or develop ideas they wouldn’t normally have had the opportunity to pursue. Coinneach MacLeod, “the Hebridean Baker”, is a great example of this, as the baking videos he uploaded to TikTok went viral. His book was brilliantly received in 2021 and he’s a star baker of the


future. We also published Peter Sawkins, winner of the 2020 “Great British Bake Off”, an incredible baker and a joy to work with. He’ll be following up Peter Bakes with a new book in 2022. From an uncertain start to the


pandemic, it turned out to be a very busy time for Black & White and one of our most successful periods ever.


02 You were bought by Bonnier Books UK last summer. How


did the deal come about? My colleague Ali McBride [publishing director] and I have long admired Bonnier Books UK under c.e.o. Perminder Mann’s leadership. So when she got in touch for a chat, it soon became clear that we had a lot in common, in the way we work and what we are trying to achieve. One of the biggest challenges for any indie publisher is being able to offer authors what the big publishers can, particularly on the sales and marketing front, both in the UK and further afield. As we were in a growth phase for the business, this was already on our minds—how could we offer authors more and sell more


books? How could we make our plans for growth a reality? Another key issue for us was


freeing up time to do what we really want to do—commission new books and spend time working with our authors. So having Bonnier Books UK’s help with back-office functions was also very attractive. With the company also in a growth phase, everything about the deal made sense and we have really enjoyed getting to know their fantastic team. Like us, they have an independent spirit, and it feels very much like us but on a bigger scale.


03 What impact has the acquisition had on the


business, and what impact do you expect it to have going forward? We are now well advanced with integrating Black & White into Bonnier Books UK’s systems and workflows. We’re already seeing the benefits of this in terms of organisation, support and freeing up more time to concentrate on new books and authors. And on the sales and marketing side, the benefits are really starting to come through. Going forward, Black & White


will continue to look for great new books and opportunities and, with Bonnier’s backing, we’ll be looking for significant growth in the years ahead.


04 Looking ahead, what are your ambitions for Black &


White Publishing? What areas will you be focusing on growing? Black & White has changed so much over the past 20 years but one of the great joys of working in publishing is that it never stands still. Stories will always be at the heart of what we all do, but how we deliver those stories continues to evolve. We remain very ambitious, and we’re always looking for brilliant new ideas and projects. In the years ahead we will be continuing to grow our successful non-fiction list, doing what we do now but also adding some new directions, and we’re planning to add more new fiction and YA titles. This has been hugely successful for us in the past and, with Bonnier’s support, we’re really looking forward to getting back to publishing more fiction.


In July 2021, Bonnier Books UK acquired independent Edinburgh-based publisher Black & White Publishing, which now runs as a standalone imprint of the company. Black & White Publishing was founded in 1999.


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