This week marks four years since independent publisher Scribe began publishing in the UK. Originally founded in Melbourne in 1976, the company’s London office has been active since June 2013, and this year founder and publisher Henry Rosenbloom will expand Scribe’s operations into the US.
Since beginning to publish in the UK, Scribe has become known for its quirky, intelligent nonfiction, bold literary fiction and books in translation. Its biggest hit, Giulia Enders’ Gut has sold nearly 170,000 copies, and its titles have received widespread acclaim, including Andrew Hankinson’s experimental biography You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat] which won the CWA Nonfiction Dagger Award, and the much-praised novels Mrs Engels by Gavin McCrea and Nightmare in Berlin by Hans Fallada.
Year-on-year growth has been rapid, with Scribe UK’s breakthrough year being fuelled by Gut’s surprise success in 2015, which was then followed by a 15% increase in revenues in 2016, taking the company past the £1m mark on BookScan, with a further 17% growth in the year to date so far in 2017. Scribe UK Ltd is on track to achieve net revenues of £1million by the end of this year, with recent successes including the groundbreaking memoir South of Forgiveness and BBC Radio 2 Book Club pick What The Dog Knows.
Initially established with the help of Publicity Director Rina Gill, and now helmed by Publisher-At-Large Philip Gwyn Jones and Managing Director Sarah Braybrooke, the UK team also comprises Publicity and Editorial Manager Molly Slight, Marketing Coordinator Sophie Leeds and Publicist Adam Howard. With the support of editorial, production and design staff in Scribe’s Australian office Scribe UK currently publishes around fifty books a year.
Reflecting on the development of the UK company, Rosenbloom said, ‘I’m pleased to see that it’s possible for the empire to strike back — and even to be welcomed in the homeland. Scribe UK’s establishment and rapid growth is a tribute to our terrific staff in both countries, and to the cause of publishing very good books as well as possible.’
