Trapeze's Katie Brown to include Queenie's film-style credits in all titles

Trapeze has included film-style closing credits for its publishing team in hit new book Queenie and plans to roll out the idea across other titles.

The Candice Carty-Williams debut, currently riding high in the bestseller list, includes two pages of credits at the end, listing everyone who worked on the book. It takes in the editorial team, marketing department, designers, production, sales staff and everyone in between.

It was an idea taken from publisher Sharmaine Lovegrove at Dialogue Books, who did it for the first time with The Leavers by Lisa Ko a year ago. Lovegrove told The Bookseller the move had gone down a storm with the publishing world on social media at the time but Katie Brown at Trapeze was the first person to follow suit.

She said: “I started doing this in April 2017 with the first Dialogue publication The Leavers and will do them in every book. It was important to thank my colleagues, to ensure inclusivity, and also to demystify the industry to readers so people can see the range of jobs that go into making a book.

“Also, I used to work in film and TV so I am used to credits being important.”

Trapeze commissioning editor Katie Brown has also had a positive response on social media to the idea and said she planned to include credits in all her books, while there is also interest in the idea from the rest of Orion.

Alongside revealing the names of people working “behind the scenes”, Brown said the credits also reveal career paths people can take into publishing.

She said: “Before I knew working in publishing could even be a thing, I would have found a credits page so illuminating – to see all the different roles laid out, and how varied they are. There is a job in publishing for all skillsets and interests, and I think highlighting that in the books themselves might make publishing feel more open and more possible as a career path for anyone who might be interested but not know the first thing about the industry.”

Brown added: “A credits page is a small thing I know, but I hope it’s a small positive thing we can do as an industry to break down barriers between publishers and readers, as well as to acknowledge all those people who work so hard to get books into readers hands.”