 | |
| Status | Active |
|---|---|
| Traded as | LSE: BMY |
| Founded | 26 September 1986; 39 years ago (1986-09-26) |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Headquarters location | London, England |
| Distribution | Macmillan Publishers Services (UK) United Book Distributors (Australia) Hachette Book Group (US) |
| Key people | |
| Publication types | Books, digital content products, and online resources such as databases |
| Imprints |
|
| ISIN | GB0033147751  |
| Founder | Nigel Newton |
| Headquarters | United Kingdom |
| Revenue |  £342.7 million (2024)[2] |
| £40.6 million (2024)[2] | |
| £32.3 million (2024)[2] | |
| Official website | www |
Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. Bloomsbury's head office is located on Bedford Square[3] inBloomsbury, an area of theLondon Borough of Camden. It has a US publishing office located inNew York City, an India publishing office inNew Delhi, an Australian sales office inSydney CBD, and other publishing offices in the UK, including inOxford. It is listed on theLondon Stock Exchange.
The company was founded in 1986 byNigel Newton, who had previously been employed by other publishing companies. It was floated as a public registered company in 1994, raising £5.5 million, which was used to fund expansion of the company into paperback and children's books.
For much of its existence, Bloomsbury was a minor player in the British publishing scene. In 1997, Bloomsbury took a chance on publishing theHarry Potter series after it had been rejected by multiple publishers. That decision catapulted the company’s fortunes, asHarry Potter would go on to become the best-selling book series in history.
A rights issue of shares in 1998 further raised £6.1 million, which was used to expand the company, in particular to found a U.S. branch. In 1998, Bloomsbury USA was established. Bloomsbury USA Books for Young Readers was established in 2002, and in 2005, Bloomsbury acquired Walker & Co, a small company dedicated to publishing nonfiction.[4] The Walker brand was discontinued in 2015 and sold to Walker Publishing Company.[5][6]
Bloomsbury US was established in 1998 in New York, New York, as a general interest publisher of both adult and children's books. It is known for its high-quality fiction and non-fiction as well as its extensive academic publishing branch.[7]
Its notable titles have include Anthony Bourdain's global bestsellerKitchen Confidential, Jesmyn Ward's National Book Award winnerSalvage the Bones, the works of 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature winnerAbdulrazak Gurnah, Susanna Clark's Women's Prize for Fiction winnerPiranesi, Renée Watson’s Newbery Honor BookPiecing Me Together, Martin W. Sandler's National Book Award winner1919, and titles by renowned authors Paul Beatty, Roz Chast, Edmund White, Elif Shafak, Carol Anderson, Mark Kurlansky, Miriam Toews, Samantha Shannon, and Deborah Levy.[7]
In 2021, Bloomsbury US acquired ABC-CLIO LLC, the established academic publisher of both print and digital materials, for $22.9 million.[8] In 2024, Bloomsbury US finalized the asset purchase of Rowman & Littlefield, an independent academic publisher, for $83 million.[9] The sale included rights to the publisher's academic imprints and associated titles, doubling the size of Bloomsbury US's Academic & Professional divisions.[9]
In December 2008, Bloomsbury opened a branch inDoha, Qatar in a joint-partnership withQatar Foundation.[10] The partnership created a publishing house,Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing; it worked mainly with English and Arabic literature.[11]
Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Journals (BQFJ), anopen access andpeer reviewed academic publisher, was created in December 2010 as a joint venture with Qatar Foundation. Journal research articles were published through BQFJ's websiteQScience.com.[12] The company's partnership with Qatar Foundation ended in December 2015 and all of Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing works were incorporated in Qatari-owned HBKU Press. At the time of BQFP's dissolution it had published over 200 books. BQFJ's works were also incorporated in HBKU Press.[13]
In 2012, Bloomsbury established a publishing office inIndia.[14]
In 2018, an article disclosed that much of the profit in the children's division was due to theHarry Potter series byJ. K. Rowling.[15]
In May 2023, an article inThe Verge reported that the cover of the UK edition ofHouse of Earth and Blood, published by Bloomsbury, uses an AI-generated image.[16]
Among the companies, book lists and imprints that Bloomsbury has acquired are:[17]
