After a career that spanned working as a literary agent, book publisher, market researcher, and journalist, Jo Henry has officially stepped down as managing director of the U.K. publishing newsletter BookBrunch, a role she has held since 2018.
“Although much has changed in the way we do things, and the techniques we use, the essence of the industry has stayed exactly the same: getting books into the hands of readers,” said Henry, in a statement. “I started in an industry that used a telex for overseas orders, where even quite small publishers had their own rep force of seven or eight 'travelers' going round the country every month and purchasing by libraries was the bedrock of trade publishing, while vertical publishing was unusual.”
Henry’s first role was assistant to Mark Hamilton at literary agent AM Heath before joining Victor Gollancz (then an independent trade publisher), initially in the editorial department, before switching to sales to work as assistant to Nigel Sissons. She became sales director in 1989, just before the company was bought by Houghton Mifflin. When Houghton Mifflin sold Gollancz to Cassell in 1992, Henry was promoted to international sales director for the Cassell group.
In 1995, Henry joined Book Marketing Ltd. as managing director. In 2005, BML was acquired by Publishing News, the “alternative” trade magazine to The Bookseller set up in 1978 by Fleet Street veteran Fred Newman, who also created the British Book Awards, aka the Nibbies. Henry became managing director of the Publishing News group in 2007, looking after the Galaxy British Book Awards alongside the trade-centric British Book Awards.
Publishing News closed in 2008, but BML was acquired by R.R. Bowker, for whom Henry took on a global market research role, operating out of both the U.K. and the U.S. Simultaneously, she began helping Nicholas Clee, former editor of The Bookseller, and Liz Thomson, former editor of Publishing News, launch BookBrunch as an online trade magazine. Henry offered her expertise behind the scenes at BookBrunch alongside her role as VP of the market research division at Nielsen Book (as it was then known), before leaving to join BookBrunch as managing director in mid-2018.
Henry cofounded the Book Marketing Society with Alistair Giles in 2004, and has been chair of BTBS, the Book Trade Charity, as well as the Book Society (then called the Society of Bookmen).
Her plans include travelling around the world, “ideally by train, but cycling and walking are on the agenda,” and “getting to grips” with her towering TBR pile. “I will miss the people, and the parties and the gossip!,” Henry said. “I'm not sure that there is anything I won't miss....”
“PW has had a close relationship with BookBrunch since it was formed, including working as partners on numerous show dailies for the London and Frankfurt book fairs,” said Jim Milliot, former PW editorial director and now editor-at-large. “All of us who have worked with Jo wish her the best in retirement.”
A version of this story first appeared in BookBrunch.
