You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Proudly independent: Magic Cat Publishing plans for the future
Motherhood and a strength derived from hard-won publishing wisdom find Rachel Williams and Jenny Broom gathering momentum with Magic Cat.
Caroline is deputy features editor at The Bookseller and chair of the YA Book Prize, as well as being a co-host of children's book radio
...more
“If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder… he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in.” This quote from American marine biologist, writer and conservationist Rachel Carson has been a guiding principle for Rachel Williams and Jenny Broom since they founded multi-award-winning independent children’s publisher Magic Cat five years ago.
Setting up shortly after becoming mothers, the pair had previously worked together at Big Picture Press and then as co-founders of Quarto imprint Wide-Eyed Editions on hits including the Little People, Big Dreams series and Animalium.
From a founding team of three (they brought Quarto’s Nicola Price on board as art director), Magic Cat has now evolved into a 28-strong workforce. This growth is mirrored in the publisher’s recent financial performance. In 2024, value sales increased 25% through Nielsen BookScan UK’s Total Consumer Market to £650,000 – driven in part by its new picture-book list led by Katie Cotton and Polly Whybrow – and there was 34% topline growth across all operations.
Broom expands: “Behind that 34% headline number is a real effort to push sales internationally, with the US being a big part of that.” Last summer, Anette Dal Jensen joined from Macmillan in the newly created role of US sales and business development director to oversee the company’s growing partnership with Abrams, which includes a newly launched distribution arm.
Williams says: “We work closely with their publishing and sales teams on every book that we put out there to make sure that it’s market appropriate. We have an editor and a marketer based in the US. Jen and I go twice a year to pitch our own books to all the key buyers. So we’ve really invested in our growth there, and it’s starting to pay off.
“We’ve managed to double our revenue in the US year-on-year, taking us to £1.5m sales there, and we’ve more than doubled our sales in Australia and New Zealand as well, going from £188,000 to £418,000 year-on-year,” says Broom. “We’ve also managed to grow foreign rights by 20%, so it’s a multifaceted sales push around the world to keep us growing at the rate that we are.”
We are a creative-led publisher. [We] still spend all our time talking about books
The pair feel this international approach is a great calling card to attract ambitious authors and illustrators to their list rather than a Big Five publisher. “We only publish a small number of books a year [50 in 2025], but we’re now able to offer a global syndicated release across all English language territories.”
It is no wonder that this success has been recognised by the industry, with Magic Cat picking up both the CPI Independent Publisher of the Year Award at the Independent Publishing Awards and the Small Press of the Year Award at The British Book Awards (a category it has now outgrown as its turnover has exceeded £5m) in the past 12 months. These accolades are “extremely meaningful” to the duo. Broom explains: “It was validation of the enormous work that had gone in, but also spurred us on to reach higher and aim for the next level. Our ambition is completely unfettered now as a result of that award. There was a palpable gear shift in terms of who we could approach.”
One exciting example of this is its upcoming board-book series with bestselling chef Jamie Oliver introducing pre-schoolers to food (full details will be announced at Bologna Children’s Book Fair). It is part of the press’ big push on pre-school this year. Magic Cat is expanding into illustrated first readers and chapter books too, kicking off with Kristyna Litten’s Ivy and Bearlock Holmes detective series. When it comes to branching out, the goal for Williams is to “create the market, rather than follow it”. Broom says: "We’ve been very strategic in the way we’ve grown the list. We don’t want to become over-reliant on one particular area.”
Reflecting on the difficulties of the past five years, she jokes that they “definitely didn’t plan for a pandemic”. Williams adds that exiting the EU and the rise in tariffs has hit them hard. “The geopolitical challenges that the world has seen over the past five years have definitely impacted our business, and they have made us more determined to create the books that we think matter.” Transitioning to a team of 28 people has also brought some challenges. “There was no framework and that’s something we’ve had to build and adapt quite quickly as new team members have joined us,” explains Broom.
Flexible working is a cornerstone of the business, with Williams commenting: “A lot of the team here are mums with young kids, and we think that’s a strength for the company, because everyone is tapped into their audience.” Another strength is the make-up of its staff. Broom tells me: “From the very beginning we’ve thought of ourselves as international publishers, so we’ve tried to have that broad outlook in terms of how we’re hiring. We’ve got 11 different nationalities in the team now, and that brings with it a much broader viewpoint on everything.”
The expansion has necessitated the duo splitting some of their responsibilities, with Williams moving into a managing director and co-publisher role and Broom becoming creative director and co-publisher. Commenting on the rate of change, Broom admits: “We didn’t necessarily think it would happen at this pace”, with Williams adding: “But that’s what happens in publishing – you either sink or swim. We were able to establish a few series early on that allowed us to grow. And we have invested, our profit has gone back into the business.”
Despite these transitions, Magic Cat has stayed true to its original vision. Broom says: “As you grow a business, with the demands around all those different operational questions and strategic conversations, it’s so easy to overwhelm your book-thinking time with day-to-day demands. But we are a creative-led publisher. Rachel and I still spend all our time talking about books. We have never forgotten that that’s what gives us a fighting chance.” Williams adds: “It’s our joy and also our USP.”
She continues: “I think we stand out in a market of very big houses that don’t necessarily have the creative time and energy that we put into each of our books.” Broom highlights another advantage of being independent: “If you look at the commissioning process in big houses, everything has to get signed off by the sales team, and that’s done on the basis of comparing the book that you’re proposing to what’s performing in the market. Being able to have more latitude has given us a fantastic opportunity to bring something fresh to buyers.”
Looking to the future, the two predict that the press will “keep growing” in all areas, with Williams stating: “The goal is to stay fiercely independent and, over the next five years, be the leading children’s specialists in the UK and the house that any author who wants to make a children’s book should come to.”
Key Magic Cat titles for 2025
Kristyna Litten
Ivy and Bearlock Holmes: The Case of the Missing Flower
3rd July 2025, 9781917044929, £10.99
Jonathan Drori, Raxenne Maniquiz, Jiatong Liu (illus)
The Stuff That Stuff Is Made of: The Things We Make with Plants
25th September 2025, 9781917044172, £16.99
AJ Wood, Jo Rioux (illus)
The Wizard's Guide to Magical Experiments
11th September 2025, 9781917044653, £20
Robert Macfarlane, Luke Adam Hawker (illus)
The Night Creatures: Firefly
23rd October 2025, 9781917366175, £14.99
