Company spotlight: Bluebird

Carole Tonkinson reveals the ethos behind her new lifestyle imprint 

Just months into her new role, Carole Tonkinson has certainly hit the ground running. We meet eight weeks after founding her own lifestyle imprint at Pan Macmillan, and she has already acquired eight books. 

It is something of a back to basics move for Tonkinson. Bluebird—“books for life”—will publish around 20–24 books a year, mainly focusing on areas she cut her publishing teeth on: diet, mindfulness, parenting, inspirational memoir and the personal development side of business.

Her move to Pan Mac was something of a surprise. The Philadelphia native had been with HarperCollins since  the mid-1990s, after moving across the pond when her academic husband got a job in the UK. She headed HC’s MBS arm Thorsons for more than a decade—where she published the Dalai Lama and Paulo Coelho—before becoming the publisher of HarperCollins’ overall non-fiction arm, a role she held for the past five years.

The separation from HC was difficult, but in a way cathartic. “I did have a gleeful moment, unfollowing on Twitter all the boybands I had to follow for my last job,” she laughs. “But the culture of Pan Mac is content—it’s all about the books. That’s my style: less corporate. When I worked with [former HC group publisher] Belinda Budge, it was like we were in our own little world. And I had huge respect for [former HC c.e.o.] Vicky Barnsley, as she wasn’t really a corporate person. 

“I had 18 years at HC. I was happy for almost the entirety of my time. But I couldn’t pass up a chance to start a brand new list in areas that are meaningful to me. “

Bluebird operates much like Mantle, the fiction imprint run by Maria Rejt, in that it is slightly outside of Pan Mac’s regular channels; Tonkinson reports directly to adult books publisher Jeremy Trevathan. Tonkinson says: “Someone told me it is the lone genius model. That’s accurate, except that I’m not a genius and I won’t be alone.“ Assistant editor Olivia Morris joined last month from Simon & Schuster, while the team will be rounded out with the hire of a marketer.  

On and on

Tonkinson’s initial acquisitional spree is indicative of the buoyancy of the inspirational lifestyle market. Mindfulness continues to surge; healthy eating titles are on the up; while top business titles now focus more and more on the personal.

“I feel the market is hungry for this sort of content and it’s a sustainable model,” Tonkinson says. “These books aren’t the £1m advances. Some are costly but they are the sort of books that can go on and on. We’re thinking about titles that can backlist—we’re thinking about sustainability.”

Tonkinson thinks the upsurge in the market is partly because of the pressures of 21st century life.  She says: “We’re living more stressful lives than ever. Digital is on all the time, people work all the time. We check our work email on Saturday night. I think there is a sense of: ‘Where is the off switch? And how do we rise to the challenges and opportunities of this moment?’” 

Conversely, books become more important in the digital age, she believes: “In these areas there is tons of free content. There was a moment a few years ago where we worried books would get replaced. But people feel reassured by an expert and by books. They want a real authority. If this is going to be how they raise their kid or how they change their health or their approach to work, they don’t want a 12-step Huffington Post article.”

She adds: “The books we are going to be publishing in the list have a chance to change people’s lives. I know that sounds corny and idealist and so terribly American. But a bluebird is an American bird, and so am I.”