Beyond borders: Meet The Bookseller Rising Stars cosmopolitan Class of 2025
The 15th edition of The Bookseller Rising Stars features a list of the trade’s up-and-comers that is more international in its make-up, and outlook, than ever.
The Bookseller’s Rising Stars, our annual list that recognises the British and Irish book trade’s up-and-comers, is compiled blind; candidates are selected on the merits of the submissions with little regard for external factors. Yet trends emerge from each roster’s make-up, the most interesting of which for the Class of 2025, the 15th year of the initiative, is the number of Stars originally from foreign climes.
A quarter of the 42 members of this year’s tranche have come into the industry from abroad, with Stars from mainland Europe, East Asia, the Americas and Down Under. Edinburgh International Book Festival programme director Tamara Zimet is the farthest travelled: her hometown of Melbourne sits approximately 17,000km from the Scottish capital. We have a record four Rising Stars who originally hail from that fascist and authoritarian regime, the United States of America. Add those who have told us, as part of their submissions and interviews, that their parents were émigrés to these sceptred and emerald isles, and 43% of our list is composed of Stars who may be able to bring a more international background to their roles.
Maybe this is the result of some unconscious pro-immigrant, anti-Faragist (and the now-seemingly “small boats”-obsessed Keir Starmer) bias by our selection committee. Full disclosure: the selection committee is me, a Massachusetts native with an Irish passport. But a generation of superstar trade professionals with a diverse world view is unquestionably a good thing for a book industry that needs to appeal internationally and have fresh ideas about reaching new readers.
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It should be said that the homegrown contingent has this wider picture in mind, too. Every year after their selection, we canvas the Stars with general, open-ended questions about the wider industry. The through-line for this year’s answers were about how to expand the parameters of the trade: how to grow audiences, interest reluctant readers, cross borders. This may be expected in those in jobs whose nature is outward-looking, such as Hachette rights supremo Zoë King (of whom Little, Brown and Hachette International CEO Charlie King says “rarely have I seen someone make such a profound, measurable impact at a relatively early stage in their career”), or fiction-in-translation specialists Stella Sabin and James Tookey, co-publishers at Peirene Press. But this is also a key ingredient for those in less obvious roles; for example, Waterstones Hampstead’s Ed Thompson says his experience buying for the chain’s Amsterdam and Brussels outposts as helping him be a more well-rounded manager.
A generation of superstar trade professionals with a diverse world view is unquestionably a good thing for a book industry that needs to appeal internationally and have fresh ideas about reaching new readers
Growing readership and a global approach is a priority for Ladybird editorial director Katie Sassienie, this year’s Shooting Star –the person on the list we choose to salute a bit more than the others. In her previous position at Hachette Children’s, Sassienie assembled an award-winning, bestselling and territory-crossing list, a template she aims to build on in her new role for the PRH Children’s division. She adds: “I feel hopeful in my role, confident that the knowledge I share, the connections I make and stories I commission are important and tangible early steps towards the goal of creating a more inclusive literary landscape.”
Though some previous Shooting Stars had kids’ books as part of their remits – notably FairyLoot founder Anissa de Gomery in 2024 – Sassienie is the first to be wholly from the sector. The Rising Stars sponsor, the Frankfurt Book Fair, will give Sassienie an all-expenses-paid trip to FBF 2025, with the opportunity to appear on seminar panels and have one-on-one consultations with industry insiders. Additionally, The Book Society will be bestowing on Sassienie, and the previous 11 Shooting Stars, free membership to the society as well as free attendance at selected dinners and parties.
Riding side-by-side with the theme of 2025’s globalised, cosmopolitan Rising Stars are those of diversity and inclusion. There is a palpable collective frustration (dare I say anger?) from this year’s cohort at the general contraction of diversity and inclusion across the trade in commissioning and staff support, and that change-driving companies and initiatives are shuttering. Several Stars independently made the salient point that the commercial argument for the closure of some of the schemes and imprints is absolute rubbish – and is disproved every week in the bestseller lists: the hottest genre in books right now, fantasy and romantasy, is notably inclusive. You should listen to these Stars, MDs and CEOs, for as Orion head of publicity Aoife Datta neatly sums up: “The publishing industry looks inwardly at its own peril.”
Rising Stars 2025: The Class of 2025 – click here for the full list of entries.
