Publicity Campaign of the Year
Publicity Campaign of the Year Winner and Shortlist
Proudly supported by the Publishers’ Publicity Circle
This shortlist is formed of 10 of the campaigns that were honoured at the Publishers’ Publicity Circle’s annual awards. There are four from Penguin Random House – including a double nomination for Sriya Varadharajan – plus two from Simon & Schuster Children’s and, representing the often overlooked retail side, one from the Booksellers Association. All but two of the superb publicists have made this shortlist for the first time. In the words of Waterstones’ Bea Carvalho, chair of the PPC’s judges, all the campaigns “showed depthless creativity, care and panache”.
Winner
Alison Barrow and Izzie Ghaffari-Parker
Nobody's Girl
Doubleday
The campaign for Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s Nobody's Girl demonstrated publicity at both its most sensitive and commercially effective.
Giuffre’s memoir, co-written with Amy Wallace and named Overall Book of the Year at The British Book Awards 2026, received exceptionally careful handling from PR director Alison Barrow – a multiple past Nibbies winner – and publicity manager Izzie Ghaffari-Parker.
This was one of the year’s most high-profile books, and coverage could easily have veered towards sensationalism. But Doubleday compiled a campaign with total integrity that prioritised respectful media coverage over big splashes. They dealt calmly with a tight turnaround, embargoes and leaks, and steered Nobody’s Girl to the top of the news agenda. Serialisation and interviews with Wallace were well handled too. A “less is more” approach goes against publicists’ instincts, but in this case it was vital to manage exposure.
The book’s performance in commercial terms has been remarkable, with TCM sales of 144,442 copies in 2025, and more than one million globally across all formats. Of course, the societal impacts have been far greater, with the campaign ensuring that the courage and resilience of Giuffre and other victims was the core message, and that she leaves behind a powerful legacy.
The British Book Awards judges admired the complete professionalism of Barrow and Ghaffari-Parker. “They handled an incredibly sensitive and high-profile story with real care and control. It never tipped into noise or exploitation and kept the author’s voice at the forefront, which is as it should be. The balance is very hard to get right and they did it brilliantly.”
All 10 campaigns on this shortlist were winners at the Publishers’ Publicity Circle’s annual awards.
The Shortlist
Sriya Varadharajan, Jenna Petts
Alchemised by SenLinYu
Penguin Michael Joseph
Publicity for SenLinYu’s fantasy novel Alchemised had to deal with a lot of complexities, including IP sensitivities, US-set messaging and some negative social media. The Penguin duo of Sriya Varadharajan and Jenna Petts came up trumps with well-chosen author interviews, great activity to harness the power of the SFF community and a tour that sold out in 24 hours. TCM sales reached six figures in just two months.
Alison Barrow, Izzie Ghaffari-Parker
Nobody's Girl by Virginia Roberts Giuffre
Doubleday
The campaign for Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s Nobody's Girl was publicity at its most sensitive. Alison Barrow – a multiple previous Nibbies winner – and Izzie Ghaffari-Parker handled all the media planning with great care and dealt calmly with embargoes and leaks. The results have been extraordinary, with TCM sales of nearly 150,000 copies and well over one million across all formats and outlets. Most importantly, Giuffre’s own words have been kept at the heart of the conversation.
Francesca Pearce, Aoife Datta
Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis
Orion
Francesca Pearce and Aoife Datta’s publicity made Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis one of the buzziest debuts of 2025. They pitched hard for reviews and broadcast coverage before widening the lens to cultural influencers. As well as highlighting the dark humour of the book, the publicity fed into conversations around immigrant experiences and religion. It paid off handsomely, with sales topping 50,000 by the end of the year.
Jess Dean
The Adventures of Rap Kid by MC Grammar
Simon & Schuster Children's Books
Jacob Mitchell, better known as MC Grammar, was a publicist’s gift of an author, and Jess Dean’s campaign for The Adventures of Rap Kid made top use of him. There were lively school events that reached several thousand children, along with high-profile broadcast slots. It slotted well into S&S’ work with retailers – which is shortlisted for the Marketing Strategy of the Year Award – and made good use of World Book Day, for which Mitchell was an ambassador.
Ellen Abernethy, Deborah Goodman
Fearless by Lauren Roberts
Simon & Schuster Children’s Books
This publicity campaign from S&S’ Ellen Abernethy and DGPR’s Deborah Goodman helped to make Lauren Roberts’ Fearless one of the biggest YA publishing moments of the year. They squeezed every opportunity out of Roberts’ week in the UK with some frenzied events. Digital publicity amplified the buzz and reached adults as well as teens. The book rocketed to number one on The Bookseller’s Official UK Top 50 with first-week sales of 43,000.
Ellie Hughes, Sriya Varadharajan
Death at the White Hart by Chris Chibnall
Penguin Michael Joseph
The publicity campaign for Chris Chibnall’s Death at the White Hart from Ellie Hughes and Sriya Varadharajan deftly turned a writer previously known for his screenwriting into one of the crime debuts of the year. It leveraged his Broadchurch credentials by starting coverage in the local area and maximised his limited promotion time with targeted interviews and festival appearances. The campaign has nicely teed up a major crime-writing brand for the future.
Simon Armstrong
Independent Bookshop Week 2025
The Booksellers Association
The campaign for Independent Bookshop Week from Simon Armstrong of the Booksellers Association shows the power of publicity in retail as well as publishing. It made shops rather than books the stars of the show, emphasising their vital role to communities and culture, and produced a wealth of eye-catching displays and digital collateral. Local coverage of the week is always good, but well-strategised national exposure increased sharply.
Zabiba Kohli
Boustany by Sami Tamimi
Ebury
Zabiba Kohli’s campaign for Boustany made it much more than just another cookbook. It carefully approached publicity from cultural and emotional angles like the role of food in Palestinian identity and resistance, then took good care of author Sami Tamimi when coverage encountered some political backlash. Kohli also ensured the book stood on the merits of its recipes as well as its message, including via cooking demonstrations in bookshops.
Steven Cooper
Strange Pictures by Uketsu
Pushkin Press
Uketsu’s Strange Pictures was one of the word-of-mouth hits of the year. But that word rarely starts without publicists, and Steven Cooper’s campaign lit a fire under the book. It made excellent use of the enigmatic author and moved the book out of the Japanese mystery niche and into the mainstream. Strange Pictures became the fastest-selling title in Pushkin’s history, and its follow-up, Strange Houses, has continued the momentum.
Amaani Banharally
The Secret Painter by Joe Tucker
Canongate
Joe Tucker’s The Secret Painter could have been limited to niche and local appeal, but Amaani Banharally’s campaign gave it a national profile. It picked media channels and angles carefully, ensuring that coverage avoided clichés and sensationalism, and followed up with well-planned events that took good care of an inexperienced author. Coverage was such that the book had to be reprinted the same week it was published.
