Chelsea Green Publishing outlines its plan for UK market expansion

Though several publishers have been hit hard by the economic impact of coronavirus, one that has been thriving during this period is Chelsea Green Publishing (CGP), which specialises in non-fiction books on the politics and practice of sustainable living. CGP was launched by American husband-and-wife team Ian and Margo Baldwin in Chelsea, Vermont, in 1984. They decided to branch out into publishing in the UK a couple of years ago after its distribution moved to Publishers Group UK and it saw “amazing growth” in sales on these shores. President and publisher Margo Baldwin says: “It seemed to us that there was an opportunity with the UK for the kind of publishing we did.” Former Faber marketing director Matt Haslum came on board as managing director of CGP UK in March 2018.

According to Baldwin, CGP has been “surviving just fine” throughout lockdown. In fact, the publisher reports three record-breaking months in a row for book sales in the US, and remains on track for at least 40% growth across its US and UK businesses in 2020. This is partly down to the fact that the topics the indie’s publishing covers are now a bigger part of the mainstream conversation than ever. Baldwin says: “We like to think of ourselves as being on the leading edge of things. That’s showing right now in the sense that people are really interested in growing their own food, being more self-sufficient, and rethinking what an economy that takes care of everyone looks like.” Shortly after lockdown began, a CGP title from almost 25 years ago, Toby Hemenway’s Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Homescale Permaculture, reappeared on US regional bestseller lists. “These books that have been our major backlist for years are suddenly selling like hotcakes,” laughs Baldwin.

Another example of the success that CGP has seen during lockdown is the reception to social activist Ruairí McKiernan’s Hitching for Hope: A Journey into the Heart and Soul of Ireland. Though it was published on 26th March, just as Irish bookshops were closing, the book went on to be an Irish Times number one non-fiction bestseller. Baldwin attributes this to McKiernan’s ability to quickly adapt plans for a promotional hitchhiking tour around Ireland to launching the book on digital platforms instead, as well as the fact that the subject matter—it is set in Ireland following the collapse of the country’s Celtic Tiger economy in 2008—has unexpectedly had “incredible resonance right now”.

Haslum describes the past couple of years growing the publisher in the UK as “an amazing journey”. He is joined in the UK operation by marketing and events manager Rosie Baldwin, and recently appointed head of editorial and production Muna Reyal, who was previously a food and lifestyle publisher and editorial director at Headline, BBC Books and Ebury. Starting in the new role on 1st August, her remit will be to “look for today’s inspiring new voices with big ideas and a passion to create change”, as well as overseeing the publisher’s UK editorial and produc- tion functions. The three-strong team is supported by two contractors, UK commissioning editor Jonathan Rae and UK operations manager Bev Blee, with a paid intern, Harshita Lalwani, also starting in August.

From left Margo Baldwin, Matt Haslum and Muna Reyal

Targeted markets
The UK team moved over the bridge from its Waterloo base into Somerset House on the Strand a year ago, and is beginning to commission. It published two UK original titles in 2019 and has eight coming out this year, with an ambition to eventually release 12–15 titles a year to comple- ment the US list. Haslum says CGP is thinking about how to localise its publishing for the UK market, and target areas it can be strong in. He defines these areas as nature and conservation writing, resilient sustainable living, “big ideas” non-fiction, politics, complementary health and CGP’s “farm to table” list, “which covers everything from soil health right the way through to food titles”.

Though CGP is seeing “a lot more competition” in its traditional specialist areas, Baldwin feels it still has an advantage over bigger publishers, as they “don’t have the deep background that we do in these subject areas, so they often don’t really get it right”. Haslum agrees that the publisher’s strength lies in its experience, and its different approach. For example, CGP often discovers authors in non-traditional spaces, such as agricultural and regenera- tive farming conferences. He says: “We aren’t necessarily coming up against lots of other houses looking for that work, but we know there’s an opportunity there because we know our audience.”

Baldwin notes differences between trends in CGP’s niche area of publishing in the UK and US. In the US, there is “a very strong farming agriculture line of books” not found in the UK, while nature writing is “much stronger in the UK than it is in the US”. Haslum identifies gardening and small-scale growing as an area where CGP can have quick growth in the UK. Baldwin adds: “I think there are more subtle differences in terms of price points and what sells where... we’re still learning all of that. That’s why it’s great to have Matt on board because he comes at it from a different vantage point.”

Looking ahead, Haslum predicts “probably the most congested autumn in the history of our business”. CGP is publishing several big autumn titles. In September alone, it will release Material: Making and the Art of Transformation by craftsman and first-time author Nick Kary, which Haslum describes as “a lovely meditation on what makes us human through what we craft with our hands”. It also has slated Bank Job by artist Hilary Powell and film- maker Daniel Edelstyn; it tells of how the duo launched a project to cancel more than £1m of debt from their local community by printing their own money in a disused bank in Walthamstow. Towpath: Recipes & Stories comes from the founders of the Towpath Café on Regent’s Canal in Hackney, Lori De Mori and Laura Jackson; and Baldwin calls Derek Gow’s forthcoming Bringing Back the Beaver “a wonderful natural history story” about restoring beavers to the UK. Another eagerly awaited title is the first new book in eight years from award-winning author Sandor Katz, Fermentation as Metaphor (15th October), which the publisher describes as a “treatise on the meaning of fermentation”.

Ethics and sustainability
As a business, CGP is driven by ethical and sustainable practices. As such, it prints in North America and the UK exclusively, while all its paper stock is either FSC-certified, recycled or responsibly sourced and non-toxic. Haslum says: “We’re very passionate about that, which can sometimes provide a challenge for price points.” CGP UK’s sales are currently looked after by Watkins. When it comes to marketing books in the UK, one of the aims to grow the business is to establish stronger connections with non- traditional and high-street retail outlets. Another strategy is to work with key organisations, such as conference and events partners, and to pitch authors for publicity and events on an ongoing basis. The US branch of CGP has spent a lot of time on its direct-to-consumer (D2C)market- ing, which has resulted in the growth of its web sales, and Baldwin says the next stage in its UK growth will be to develop a D2C marketing and website programme.

Though Baldwin jokes that CGP does not “even show up on the radar of the publishing scene in New York City”, she feels that the publishing scene in the UK is “much friend- lier somehow”, with independent presses “more visible and [the market] not so dominated by the huge corporate houses”. Haslum continues: “When you take a step back and look at it, an independent house like CGP deciding to open an office in central London seems like quite an odd thing. Usually you’d associate that with a company in a major metropolitan area, rather than a small town in snowy Vermont, which is quite a lovely story in itself.”