Publisher of the Year
Publisher of the Year Winner and Shortlist
Proudly sponsored by World of Books
It was a challenging time for some in the trade in 2025, with volumes down, retail pressures mounting and concerning signs about reading levels. Not for these nine publishers, who all produced compelling books, brilliantly marketed. Successes came from a notable diversity of genres, and from both audio and print, and backlist as well as frontlist. The nine-strong shortlist includes three divisions of Hachette and three independents.
Winner
Little, Brown
Hachette’s Little, Brown Book Group has been a model of publishing consistency in recent times. It has been shortlisted in nine of the 12 years since it last won this award, and it is once again Publisher of the Year after a stellar 2025.
Under CEO Charlie King it turned in a fourth record year in a row. The numbers speak for themselves: TCM sales were up by 11% to £61.6m, with e-book and audio rising by double digits too, and 41 different titles reaching the Sunday Times bestseller lists. Fiction dominated, with Rebecca Yarros providing three of the year’s top 20 books and Freida McFadden’s The Housemaid ranking third overall. SFF list Orbit delivered 11 of the Sunday Times hits.
There was also a hatful of literary awards, led by the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction winner Rachel Clarke’s The Story of a Heart. Other high performers on the non-fiction side included Ozzy Osbourne’s Last Rites and Julia Bradbury’s Hack Yourself Healthy. It was all powered by outstanding marketing and publicity.
Beyond the commercial results, judges admired the growing diversity of Little, Brown’s list, a sound approach to AI, the support for charities and communities, and the care of both staff and authors, some of whom have been with Little, Brown for decades. “Simply put, they’re the best team in the business,” said one grateful author.
“Little, Brown is firing on all cylinders… it's hard to fault them,” agreed the judges. “They had an exceptional year on both the top and bottom lines. They’ve grown despite the odds, served major, market-defining authors, and delivered both commercial and prize success.”
This shortlist includes the winner of Independent Publisher of the Year.
The Shortlist
Canongate
Canongate hit another milestone in 2025, breaking its way into the TCM’s top 20 publishers after sales jumped 14%. Miranda July’s All Fours was a big contributor to that, alongside evergreen authors like Matt Haig. It was a particularly good year for the rights team and there were multiple awards, including the Wainwright for Chloe Dalton’s Raising Hare, while editors lured some big names to the list. “They make it look so effortless,” said one author.
HarperFiction
HarperCollins’ fiction division scored 35 Sunday Times bestsellers in 2025, including eight number ones. RF Kuang’s Katabasis was its top earner – part of a stellar year for the Voyager imprint – while the Magpie imprint flew in fantasy and there was a first top 10 for the Hemlock Press crime list. Philippa Gregory and Karin Slaughter were two examples of deft brand repositioning and there was excellent work on estate publishing and special editions.
John Murray
2025 was a big year for John Murray, with the integration of the Quercus and Dialogue divisions. Although now unified, there is still a lot of personality about the group, and eight different imprints made the Sunday Times top 10 lists. Lucy Steeds’ debut The Artist, Waterstones’ Book of the Year, was one of the stars of the show, alongside a wealth of big author brands. There were nearly 100 prize nominations too. “John Murray is the model publisher,” said one author.
Little, Brown
The Little, Brown Book Group is shortlisted for the fourth time in a row after another record year. It had 41 different Sunday Times bestsellers and Rebecca Yarros – published by Editor and Imprint of the Year contender Gina Luck and Piatkus – gave it three of the year’s top 20 books. Freida McFadden’s The Housemaid was third on the TCM’s all-titles chart, but there were dozens of newer hits too, and some impressive debuts. The Orbit and audio lists motored as well.
Nosy Crow
Nosy Crow rarely troubles the bestseller lists, and yet it has become the UK’s 10th biggest children’s publisher in just 15 years of business. That is partly because sales come from a wide range of brilliantly published titles rather than a blockbuster or two, and partly because global sales now account for more than two thirds of sales. Testimonials from booksellers, authors and global partners show the esteem in which it is held; “They set the standard for children’s publishers,” said one.
Orion
Orion had the best 12 months in its 34-year history in 2025, with print, e-books, audio and exports all at record highs. Its biggest TCM title was a debut, Florence Knapp’s The Names, which came from the small but mighty Phoenix list, as did Orion’s third top-seller, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People. A total of 35 books reached the Sunday Times lists, and beyond the blockbusters there was great brand-building and debut-breaking.
Transworld
Transworld was a standout division for Penguin Random House in 2025. There were major new releases like Dan Brown’s The Secret of Secrets and Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s Nobody’s Girl, but performance was strong right across print, digital and audio. Fiction was strikingly diverse and another highlight was the launch of the Wayward TxF imprint with FairyLoot. One bookseller called Transworld “a team that genuinely cares about every book.”
Usborne
Usborne’s remarkable consistency over decades of publishing rolled on into 2025, when it was the TCM’s 10th top publisher. As usual, this was down to strength in depth and global work, and the biggest numbers came from in-house authors like Fiona Watt, the year’s eighth biggest author in the TCM. Newer books helped Usborne win 10 awards, and beyond the UK its titles were published in a remarkable 137 languages. Charitable work and staff care were outstanding.
Wonderbly
Wonderbly’s personalised, print-on-demand and direct models means it can fly under the radar in the trade, but it has grown into a very substantial business and achieved more record growth in 2025. There were particularly sharp spikes in the US as well as the UK, and in its newspaper history books as well as children’s stories. Growth is almost certain to continue under the stewardship of Penguin Random House, which acquired Wonderbly in the middle of the year.
