Appointed CEO in 2017, Perminder Mann has spearheaded the evolution of Bonnier Books UK into an agile, modern and sustainable publisher: achieving record profits; delivering a host of bestsellers; and expanding its influence by broadening its publishing through new imprints and pioneering partnerships.
Perminder has built a reputation as an open and progressive leader, fostering a culture of inclusion, and creating a purpose-driven work environment where people are empowered to do their best work, and given the trust, time and flexibility to deliver.
Under her leadership, Bonnier Books UK became the first major UK publisher to announce a fully flexible working policy, and introduced an industry-first pregnancy loss policy. She also drove the publication of the company’s first Inclusion & Representation Action Plan, designed and accelerate progress in the industry.
A publishing innovator, Perminder previously co-founded Blink Publishing, the first imprint to collaborate with a vlogger: the multi-bestselling Alfie Deyes. She has been recognised as one of the UK’s most powerful leaders in surveys conducted by Green Park, Guardian and Operation Black Vote in 2017 and 2020; and regularly appears on The Bookseller 150.
Perminder is Chair of the Publisher’s Association Consumer Publishing Council; Chair of the board of trustees of award-winning mentoring charity and support network, Arts Emergency; fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a member of the advisory board for Kingston University’s publishing programme.
Nailing Publishing Job Applications: CV and Cover Letters explores the various methods of applying to opportunities in the industry. Speakers will offer insight and guidance on a range of application processes, the key elements to communicate and how best to do so as well as practical advice both for those looking to enter the industry, and those looking to get ahead to the next stage of their careers.
Rhiannon Griffiths is a Senior Consultant at Inspired Selection, the specialist publishing recruitment agency. Rhiannon studied Law at Exeter University but discovered a passion for the publishing industry after shadowing a literary agent during her second year. To get a better understanding of the industry, she attended a Get into Book Publishing course in 2017, which is where she found out about Inspired Selection, and she joined the team later that year as a Resourcer. After 6 months she was promoted to Junior Consultant, and then promoted to Consultant where Rhiannon worked on the Temps desk, across Academic, Educational and STM Publishing. Rhiannon is now a Senior Consultant placing candidates in permanent, interim, contract and temporary roles within Educational publishers, EdTech and Education organisations.
Head of Operations Claire Gilbert (she/her) leads on recruitment at publishing consultancy at Oriel Square. She has implemented a recruitment approach aiming to increase inclusion in the industry. Prior to working at Oriel Square, she held edtech publishing roles at companies including OUP, Boardworks and Educake. Twitter: @clairelish
Richard Clarke (he/him) is a Recruitment Coordinator at Creative Access, working within the recruitment team at Creative Access – a leading diversity, equity and inclusion organisation in the UK with deep expertise across the creative economy. Providing progressive career support and development for talent from communities under-represented in the creative industries, Richard has experience working with employer partners including Penguin Random House, Bonnier Books, Atlantic Books, Hachette and the Publisher’s Association. Richard specialises in working with entry-level candidates in roles across the creative industries, offering tailored help, advice and guidance as well as dedicated CV and Cover Letter support.
Helen Bugler is the Lead Publishing Skills Coach at LDN Apprenticeships. She has been helping young people from all kinds of diverse backgrounds get started on their publishing careers for the last couple of years now. It’s a really rewarding job. They have just got to 50+ apprentices now, who have passed the apprenticeship and are working in the industry because of this programme. Before that Helen was Editorial Director for major textbook publishing at Macmillan International Higher Education. Helen worked for Macmillan for 30 years, starting as a European Sales Rep and transferring to Editorial after a couple of years. Preferred pronouns are she/her. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helencbugler/
Expectations vs Reality explores what we’ve expected and thought of the publishing industry when “looking from outside” and how our views have changed while working in publishing. Are things different? What surprises have we encountered on our ways?
Maria Omena is currently on a secondment as Marketing Manager for Study Skills at SAGE Publishing. (She joined SAGE in 2020 as a Marketing Assistant, as a placement during her MA in Publishing and Creative Writing.) She was SYP London’s Social Media Manager in 2021. In 2022, she was shortlisted for the London Book Fair Trailblazer awards and won a Printing Charity Rising Star Award.
Ellie Hudson is a Campaigns Manager at Penguin General, Penguin Random House UK. A marketing manager with nearly six years’ experience in the Book Publishing Industry, Ellie started in sales at PRH before moving to work as a Marketing Assistant at Cornerstone, followed by a Marketing Exec at Penguin General where she has stayed since. She has worked on some of the biggest commercial authors, from Richard Osman and Emily Henry, to Tana French and Jane Corry. Ellie currently lives in Glasgow.
April Peake (she/her) is a Commissioning Editor at Penguin Random House and UK Chair of the Society of Young Publishers. She has held acquisitions roles at Bloomsbury and Oxford University Press, and she chaired SYP Oxford in 2020. Now working in audio, April commissions across non-fiction and comedy genres; her print editorial experience spanned the visual arts, humanities and social sciences. April began her publishing journey at university where she was Company Secretary and Executive Director of OSPL, the UK’s only student-run publishing house. Instagram & Twitter: @aprilpeake
Elle Brenton-Rounding is Senior Sales and Business Development Manager at Bonnier Books UK, Children’s, where she has been since March 2021. She is co-head of the foreign sales department, focusing primarily on North America and global business development; she has personally sold rights into over 40 languages and is experienced in negotiating across all kinds of rights, including audio and dramatisation deals. She has worked in publishing since 2016, starting in special sales at Octopus Books, doing a stint in academic publishing in the middle, and joined Bonnier after overseeing the fiction rights department at Little Tiger. She won the LBF Trailblazer Award in 2022, having been previously shortlisted twice before, and was runner up for the Inaugural Sharjah Rights Connection Award 2022. She was the 2020 London SYP Chair and guest lectures in social work departments on her MA dissertation research, The Use of Bibliotherapy in Supporting Bereaved Children, and on publishing courses.
A panel discussion exploring different publishing initiatives around the UK and the drive to improve accessibility, diversity and inclusivity in the industry. The speakers will be discussing the impact of their own projects as well as wider perspectives of the challenges and positive changes in publishing.
Cat Mitchell is a Lecturer in Publishing and the Programme Leader for the Creative Writing and Publishing BA at the University of Derby. She previously worked in the publishing industry, including four years at Penguin Random House. She is currently researching disability in publishing, and in 2021 published the Access Denied report, which investigated barriers for disabled job seekers and employees in the industry.
Christina Storey is the Social Media and E-Commerce Executive at HarperCollins and the founder of the Publishing Hopefuls Facebook group which was created in May 2020 which now has 4.5K members.
Irum Fazal is founder and director of Asian Women Writers, an international mentoring organisation for unpublished writers. Irum is a poet who has read her work at the Southbank Centre, Wigmore Hall and galleries. She studied at Cambridge and Birkbeck.
James Spackman is a London based literary agent with The bks Agency, publisher of cycling imprint Pursuit and presentation coach, as The Book Pitch Doctor. In his career he has worked in sales, marketing and management for Bloomsbury, Hachette and Osprey. He founded The Spare Room Project, which helps interns find free accommodation in London and facilitates free online micro-mentoring conversations (The Spare ZOOM Project).
Expanding Publishing explores the jobs in publishing outside traditional publishing houses and editorial departments.
Lauren Steele is a Bookshop Manager at Waterstones. Having completed a Masters in Art History, Lauren joined Waterstones as a bookseller in 2019. She gained experience across different Waterstones bookshops across London and in 2022 became Bookshop Manager at Waterstones Crouch End. Alongside her professional career in bookselling, Lauren is also founder of online directory The Indie List, which seeks to promote independent publishers, and runs her own book blog, LozLit. She is one of the SYP London Book Club Coordinators for 2022.
Half-French and half-British, Mathilde Rimbert grew up in Paris, Oslo and Bratislava. She came to the UK to study English Literature at university and has lived here ever since. After interning in the Books Department at PFD, she joined London Literary Scouting in 2017. As a book scout, she works with foreign publishers to curate their translated fiction and non-fiction lists, helping UK books travel internationally. More recently, Mathilde has increasingly focused on book-to-film scouting, sourcing and recommending titles to Film and TV production companies for adaptation.
Rebecca Fletcher is a Senior Marketing Executive at Cambridge University Press, the academic publishing division of the recently merged Cambridge University Press & Assessment. As part of the Higher Education team, she is responsible for the marketing of their Life Sciences and Engineering textbooks.
Silé Edwards began her career in publishing with several internships across the industry whilst studying for a degree in English with Creative Writing at Goldsmiths University. After graduating, she worked at the Publishers Association, supporting their campaigns and other communication functions. She then moved to Curtis Brown as an assistant in the Book Department, where she supported deals for an extensive and eclectic list of clients. She now represents a dynamic list, from writer Kuchenga, Natalie and Naomi Evans, the co-founders of EverydayRacism, to birthing coach Illiyin Morrison and viral poet Della Hicks-Wilson. Her recent deals include Yewande Biala’s RECLAIMING (Hodder), THE MIXED-RACE EXPERIENCE by Natalie and Naomi Evans (Square Peg), and digital bestseller LOVE, WINE AND OTHER HIGHS Lauren Rae (Little A). She is also a trustee for an award-winning mentoring charity Arts Emergency.
The Impact of Publishing explores how global issues affect the current challenges facing publishers, the ways in which publishers can strive for a greener book trade, and the good sense and importance of aligning ethical business practices with book making and selling interests.
Will Dady (he/him) is the founder and publisher of Renard Press, a small climate-positive indie press with big aspirations. Brought up in rural north Norfolk, Will moved to London via Aberystwyth to pick out a path into publishing, and ended up making it home. After working in various roles encompassing editorial, marketing and design for small independent publishers, Will set up Renard Press in 2020, where he publishes classic and contemporary fiction, non-fiction, theatre and poetry, with a particular emphasis on providing a platform to marginalised voices. Twt: @WillHDady/@renardpress, Insta: @willhdady/@renardpress
Jon Barton is the founder and public face of Vertebrate Publishing, the country’s leading publisher of outdoor adventure books. An outdoor enthusiast with over twenty years’ publishing experience, he’s the author of Vertebrate’s best-selling Peak District Mountain Biking and White Peak Mountain Biking guides. A keen runner, climber and mountain biker, he spent much of his twenties touring the world as a ‘professional’ (his words) climber and has now settled down to inspire others to have adventures for themselves.
Paths to Publishing explores different routes into publishing, including changing careers and how to identify relevant transferable skills.
Chairing: Alice Bidetti is a Senior Consultant at Inspired Selection, the specialist publishing recruitment agency. She studied English Literature in Rome and then moved to London to complete a Masters in Publishing at UCL. Before joining Inspired Selection in 2019, Alice interned with the Welbeck Group and Simon & Schuster, and then worked in an account management role for a digital B2B publication. At Inspired Selection, Alice specialises in placing candidates in role within the Academic publishing sector. Alice works on a mix of permanent, contract and temporary assignments for clients within the scholarly, STM and academic fields.
Eleanor Marie Rose is a Marketing and Publicity Assistant at Bonnier Books UK in the children’s division. Prior to this, Eleanor worked as a Production Assistant at Bloomsbury Publishing for 2 years. Eleanor also manages a publishing YouTube channel; independently seeking gaps in publishing knowledge to plan, film and edit videos for viewers to learn. Her videos include interviews with publishing professionals, book reviews and general knowledge of the industry.
Katie Greenstreet, a Literary Agent, joined Paper Literary in 2022 after six years working across ICM Partners in New York and C&W/Curtis Brown in the UK. Her first love is suspense of all stripes spanning the commercial to literary spectrum, but she is also on the hunt for upmarket historical fiction, book club fiction, sweeping love stories and family sagas, and lightly speculative novels that shine a light on real world issues. In previous roles, she has worked with Pulitzer, Booker, and Nobel-winning writers and her current list includes debut authors Sarah Thomas, Brooke Robinson, and Karen Ball.
Lizz Burrell is an Editorial Assistant at HarperFiction, working in their Crime and Thriller team. She has an MA in Publishing from UCL and loves reading genre fiction, in particular crime, romance and fantasy. She’s excited to be starting her career in editorial and is passionate about championing the work of underrepresented authors in the industry. She also runs Assistants in Publishing, an informal group with monthly meetups for people beginning their careers in the industry.
Shortlisted for Career Coach of the Year, Suzanne Collier is known as THE person to see if you want to get ahead in book publishing. She’s a fully qualified Registered Career Development Professional (RCDP) who specialises in book industry roles. Suzanne provides all-level career support for both companies and individuals, especially those undergoing career changes and helps with anything from CVs, covering Letters, through to pushing for promotion, redundancy support and issues such as work-related stress. Suzanne is the founder of bookcareers.com, runs an award winning salary survey for the industry, and has been shortlisted by the IPG four times for Services to Publishing. Her book HOW TO JOB SEARCH IN BOOK PUBLISHING will be published in early 2023.
The Book Journey explores the journey of the book creation on the case study of Arrival by Nataliya Deleva. We are joined by the author herself and the publishing team of The Indigo Press, who has brought this book to live. Have you ever wondered about the full publishing process? The Book Journey answers those questions.
Phoebe Barker, a Marketing Manager, is a digital marketing specialist with experience in campaign creation and website development. She has a Creative Writing degree, is qualified with the Chartered Institute of Marketing and previously worked in roles with technology start-ups undergoing venture capital growth.
Honor Scott, a Managing Editor, joined The Indigo Press in 2020. She has a degree in Liberal Arts and experience in journalism, copywriting and translation.
Susie Nicklin, the Founder, Publisher & Commissioning Editorm began her career at The Bodley Head publishers and co-founded foreign rights specialist The Marsh Agency in 1993. She was Director of English PEN from 2002 – 2005, and inaugurated its translation programme (now PEN Translates). She was Director of Literature at the British Council from 2005 – 2013, creating international literary partnerships and events. From 2015 – 2019 she was the owner of award-winning independent bookshop Dulwich Books, and she produced and directed ten literary festivals in that time. She founded The Indigo Press in 2018.
Nataliya Deleva was born in Bulgaria and now lives in London. Her debut novel, Four Minutes, was originally published in Bulgaria (Janet 45, 2017), where the book was awarded Best Debut Novel and was shortlisted for Novel of the Year (2018). It has since been translated into German (eta Verlag, 2018), English (Open Letter Books, 2021) and Polish (Wydawnictwo EZOP, 2021). Nataliya’s second novel, Arrival was published by The Indigo Press in February 2022.
When we talk about publishing, we often fall into a trap of thinking only about the creative process behind it. But not only firmly set in the creative industries market, publishing is also a business. Publishing as Business explores what that means for the industry as a whole. What drives publishing? Creativity or profit?
Beth Fennell has worked in rights for 5 years and is currently a Rights Executive at Penguin Random House Childrens, licensing into Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Romanian, Slovakian and Ukrainian languages.
Emma Grundy Haigh is Editorial Director at Joffe Books. Throughout her publishing career, she has worked on Man Booker Prize shortlisters, illustrated children’s books and award-winning commercial fiction for publishers big and little. She loves working closely with authors to unknot tangled plot lines, push villains to their furthest extremes and draw out the weakness of the hero until they become strengths. She runs the Joffe Books Prize for crime writers of colour, which is now in its second year.
Laura Battle is the Key Account Manager at Abrams and Chronicle, managing Waterstones and WH Smiths. Having completed her Masters in Publishing from Kingston University in 2019, she started her career within the industry at Hardie Grant, an independent publisher, as the UK and International Sales Assistant. The following year she became the International Sales Executive working across all territories, before moving over to Special Sales looking after key high street retailers as well as gift wholesalers. After three years at Hardie Grant, she moved to Pan Macmillan as Key Account Executive within the supermarkets team where she looked after two accounts and supported on a third.
Currently the Online Key Account Manager at Nosy Crow, Priya Bual found her passion for publishing after a short internship at The Plum Agency. After gaining a Publishing MA at Kingston University, during which she interned at Little Tiger Press and Laurence King Publishing, she joined The Quarto Group in 2018 as the UK Sales Assistant. Working within the Trade team, she moved over to Online I. 2019, becoming a Sales Executive. Now working with Nosy Crow’s incredible children’s books, she brings these titles to all kinds of Online platforms, from Amazon and other large online retailers, to smaller indie Online Shops.
Tom Conaghan is the publisher of Scratch Books – a small press dedicated to the craft of the short story. In its Reverse Engineering series, celebrated writers discuss the inspiration and decisions that led them to their finest stories. Tom’s reviews and essays have appeared in The Observer, The TLS, The Irish Times, The LA Review of Books, amongst others. He is also the commissioning editor at The Word Factory.
Publishing Reportage explores how we engage with the industry through publishing-specific newsletters and the opportunities this journalistic area of our industry presents to aspiring editors and publishing hopefuls.
Chelsea Graham is the Founder and Editor in Chief of The Publishing Post, a magazine run by and for publishing hopefuls that intends to demystify the publishing industry and ensure that experience in the publishing environment is open to all. She is also a Printing Charity Rising Star of 2022 and currently works in Audio at Bloomsbury.
Omara Elling-Hwang (she/her) is the Founder of WriteUnite, a nonprofit working to amplify the voices of young people worldwide by publishing their creative work, and is also one of the Directors of The FLIP. She previously worked at HarperCollins.
Sian Bayley joined The Bookseller magazine as a Senior News Reporter in May 2021, and covers all the goings-on in the book industry, from rights deals to BookTok. She has worked as a journalist for four years, previously at news agency The Local Democracy Reporting Service and The Evening Standard.
Soraya Bouazzaoui is one of the hosts of the Main Characters Podcast, book columnist for Aurelia Magazine and founder of Book B*tches Magazine. Soraya began her career as a bookseller for Waterstones, eventually moving into Children’s Fiction as an editorial assistant. While working as a freelance writer, she also became a literary scout, eventually moving into agenting for a year, before realising how much she missed being an editor and found a home publishing romance at Harlequin fiction. She is also 1 of 3 hosts of the Main Characters podcast, which was launched during the pandemic, and a book columnist for Aurelia Magazine, named Literal Hotties.
The Digital Sphere explores the impact of the new technologies on the publishing industry. Ebooks, audiobooks, digital platforms, social media – you name it. Times are changing and the publishing industry is the same. Are we consuming books in the same way we did before? Have advertising strategies changed?
Laura Summers is Director and Co-founder of BookMachine, a fast-growing community for publishing professionals and a creative agency specialising in digital product development, events and marketing for the book industry. Laura started her career in-house, working at leading education publishers – Pearson Education, Oxford University Press and Cengage Learning, before moving into the world of start-ups, which culminated in co-founding her own business, BookMachine, in 2010. She also runs the BookMachine Creative Agency, which launched in 2017 as part of the BookMachine offering. It is renowned for stand-out digital marketing and a highly-experienced digital product team, and Laura leads the growing team of specialists working with leading trade and education publishers globally. Follow Laura on Twitter @LauraSummersNow & Connect with Laura on LinkedIn
El Foster (she/her) is a project manager, planning strategist and creator in the publishing and wider creative spheres. She has been part of the freelance team at Tandem Collective for two years now and is very passionate about the Tandem community, collective and being part of digital firsts.
Emma Quick, Head of Marketing at Bonnier, started her career in marketing at the UK’s oldest literary magazine before moving into children’s publishing in 2018. In 2020, she launched the first UK publishing TikTok channel, @HotKeyBooks, for the YA imprint at Bonnier Books UK. She is a Book Marketing Society Award Winner and was also shortlisted for the FutureBook marketing campaign award in 2021.
After completing an MA in Publishing, Kjell Eldor-Evans started his career developing eBooks, Apps and digital products at Hachette UK. As a freelance consultant, Kjell now works within the publishing industry, and in adjacent spaces, developing digital marketing and product strategies. Kjell also lectures on the Publishing MA at Kingston university.
A panel discussion with four Bookseller Rising Stars on the future of the publishing industry. We’ll hear their take on the key question of our conference: Where is publishing going from here?
Sofia Akel is a cultural historian and producer, researcher, Black British studies lecturer and founder of the non-profit, Free Books Campaign. From leading institutional strategies to tackle systemic racism to entire reviews of organisational practice, her work spans numerous sectors including the creative, educational and charity industries, publishing multiple leading research studies.
Tanuja Shelar recently joined Lume Books as their Marketing Manager. She markets crime, historical fiction and romance books. Currently, Tanuja co-hosts ‘Oh My Lit!’ a podcast that celebrates writers of colour. Tanuja is also an SYP Alum and has previously volunteered as Deputy Chair of SYP London and as Chair of SYP UK. She was nominated as a Bookseller Rising Star in 2020.
Amy Mae Baxter is Senior Editor at Dialogue Books (Hachette) and the founder and editor-in-chief of Bad Form, a multi-award-winning books magazine by and about writers of colour. She graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2019 and began her editorial traineeship at Penguin Random House the same year. She was named a Bookseller Rising Star in 2021, and a Big Issue Changemaker of 2022.
Leodora Darlington joined Orion as Publishing Director in 2022, having previously worked at Amazon Publishing, Canelo, and Bookouture. In her previous roles, she published one of Bookouture’s most popular titles of 2020 (The Dancing Girls), Canelo’s most popular titles of 2021 (The Nurse), and thus far, one of Amazon Publishing UK’s most popular titles of 2022 (Death in the Sunshine). Her primary focus at Orion is on landing the biggest talent for the crime and thriller list at Orion Fiction, although she also has scope to acquire for other Orion imprints. When it comes to her publishing, she loves to blend creativity and science, which has enabled her to both grow established bestsellers and also create new success stories. Previous authors she has worked with include: Angela Marsons, D. S. Butler, Frances Mensah Williams, J. A. Corrigan, J. R. Ellis, Kathryn Croft, Lucy Goacher, M.M. Chouinard, Matt Brolly, Shalini Boland, and Steph Broadribb. Leodora is also the founder of Owned Voices, which aims to help bring under-represented voices in publishing to mainstream fiction.