Pan Macmillan, Waterstones among the winners at British Book Awards

Pan Macmillan has been named Publisher of the Year at the British Book Awards for the second time in three years, reports the Bookseller.

Pan Macmillan’s consumer sales were up 30% in 2016, which is attributed to having two of the three highest-grossing authors of 2016: Joe Wicks and Julie Donaldson. The judges said Pan Macmillan was ‘incredibly strong in nearly every area it published into in 2016’. ‘There’s a palpable sense of enthusiasm and energy about it … this is a company that just keeps building and building and building,’ said the judges.

Waterstones was named Book Retailer of the Year following a year in which the bookselling chain returned to profitability. ‘Last year showed that publishers simply cannot do without Waterstones,’ said the judges. ‘Its staff do a phenomenal job. They’re brilliant at taking books people haven’t heard of and turning them into something huge.’

Other winners included Nosy Crow for Children’s Publisher of the Year, with the publisher recording a sales jump of more than 70% in 2016; Head of Zeus for Independent Publisher of the Year; Collins Learning for Academic, Educational and Professional Publisher of the Year; and John Murray for Imprint of the Year.

Dublin’s The Gutter Bookshop was named Independent Bookshop of the Year, the first time a store in Ireland has won the title; and Tales on Moon Lane in London won Children’s Bookseller of the Year.

In the books category, Sarah Perry’s The Essex Serpent (Serpent’s Tail) was named Book of the Year. More than 104,000 copies of The Essex Serpent were sold after it was named Waterstones Book of the Year in 2016. 

The Harry Potter and the Cursed Child playscript (Little, Brown) was named the inaugural Bestseller of the Year, having sold 847,886 copies in its first week of release, and a total of 1.46m copies in 2016.

Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s The Girl of Ink & Stars (Chicken House) won Children’s Book of the Year, and Garth Greenwell’s What Belongs To You (Picador) picked up Debut Book of the Year. To see all the winners in the books category, click here.

Category: Awards International news