Sheffield publisher Vertebrate wins Small Press of the Year at the British Book Awards

Vertebrate Publishing has been awarded Small Press of the Year at the annual British Book Awards.

The awards, hosted this year by Lauren Laverne and Rhys Stephenson, celebrate the world of books by honouring UK writers, illustrators, publishers, agents and bookshops.

Previously announced as regional winners for the North of England, Vertebrate has had an outstanding year in its field of outdoor adventure publishing, surging past £1m in turnover for the first time, with ‘excellent’ customer care and strong direct sales from its website.

Vertebrate’s managing director, Jon Barton, who collected the award at the ceremony, said: “At the start of lockdown it was the hardest moment of my career when I had to get the team together and say I really don’t know what’s going to happen, all I’m going to do is try and keep everybody together but we’ll have to make some really massive sacrifices.

"I thought it would go on for two weeks and then it was obviously going to go on for longer.

"The team that I work with all got on with it and here we are two years later doing better than ever.

"We did a lot of good work; we sold a lot of books and we had fun doing it.”

The British Book Awards described Vertebrate as “a business that exemplifies the strengths of small presses: passionate about its subject, closely connected to its readers and nimble in its responses to opportunities and challenges alike. Vertebrate is such a focused and energetic business and it knows its market inside-out.”

The award follows the announcement that Vertebrate was awarded Specialist Consumer Publisher of the Year in the Independent Publishing Awards earlier this month.