THIS WEEK
The Black Issue 2022 Company Spotlight: Jacaranda Books
Brandes celebrates a decade of publishing with Jacaranda—and plots US expansion
Covid lockdowns in 2020 failed to halt the momentum of Jacaranda Books and its groundbreaking Twenty in 2020 campaign, and the list is now preparing to celebrate a decade’s trading by moving into the US market
Natasha Onwuemezi @tashaisblue
F
orbes’ 30 Under 30, Powerlist’s most influential Black Britons, The Bookseller’s Rising Stars—these are just a few of the accolades that have been
bestowed upon the staff of indie publisher Jacaranda Books, which this year is celebrating 10 years in business. With recent achievements such as the groundbreaking Twent in 2020 campaign, opening a US office and partnering with Hachete for sales and distribution, it would be easy to think it’s been plain sailing for the publisher, but speaking to founder Valerie Brandes, one thing she says really resonates. “Understand,” she says, “the overnight success you hear about, is years, decades even, in the making.” Brandes founded Jacaranda in 2012 aſter “struggling to find [her] feet” in the publishing industry. She was looking for an editorial role and had returned to the workplace aſter raising her children, who were nine and 12 at the time. She says: “Being so much older and seeking my first role in UK publishing put me at a distinct disadvantage.” When she eventually landed a role in publishing, it was at Profile Books, but as office manager, not in editorial, where she wanted to be. “From there I felt the only way for me to not only carve out a career, but also publish the kinds of books I wanted to read—and I was not finding them—was to do so myself.” Thus came Jacaranda.
Twenty in 2020 emphatically counters any notion that Black British writing cannot compare on quality, marketability or sales
Making an impression
From those humble beginnings, Brandes is now firmly situated as one of publishing’s foremost changemakers. In 2017 and 2018, she was named one of the 100 most influential Black Britons by Powerlist, and in 2022, she even replaced Angel Tube station on the Northern Line on TfL’s Cit of Women commemorative map to mark International Women’s Day. Aſter what Brandes describes as “initial uncertaint and the inherent vulnerabilit of starting in a new industry, with few networks, and having to grow while many are second-guessing you, don’t believe in you, or are wanting you to fail”, the press stayed firm to its initial ethos and kept its mission to publish diverse and inclusive literature clear and front of mind. The culmination of this ethos came in the form of the press’ “most ambitious publishing to date”: the commit- ment to publish 20 Black British writers in 2020. Of course, this was the plan before life as we knew it changed
16 20th May 2022
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