Pan Macmillan buys stake in non-fiction publisher New River Books
What's the deal? Pan MacmillanDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has acquired an undisclosed stake in New River BooksDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, the Islington-based independent non-fiction publisher behind a string of recent bestsellers. New River will keep publishing independently under co-founders Aurea Carpenter and Rebecca Nicolson.
What each side brings: New River was founded in 2022 by the former Short Books publishers and releases 12 books a year across self-development, social science, nature, and lifestyle with a small team. Pan Macmillan is one of the UK's five largest non-fiction publishers and gains an acclaimed indie list; New River gains a larger partner's backing and distribution reach.
What changes? From July 2027, Pan Macmillan will handle New River's sales and distribution, replacing the current arrangement with HachetteDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. Hachette will manage those functions until the end of June 2027.
The track record: New River's debut, Jessie Inchauspé's The Glucose Goddess Method , went straight to No. 1 in the non-fiction paperback charts. Sandra Parsons' Age Less and Sunna van Kampen's The Good, the Bad and the Healthy were both instant Sunday Times bestsellers.
Why now? The deal builds on Pan Macmillan's push into non-fiction, where it has grown most among the top five UK publishers, with value sales up 9.3% year on year (NielsenDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → Total Consumer Market, 2026 vs 2025).
What they said: "Non-fiction is an area of growth and ambition for Pan Macmillan and New River is exactly the kind of publisher we want to be working with," said chief executive officer Joanna Prior. The co-founders called it "hugely exciting to be partnering with Joanna Prior and her outstanding team."
The signal: Large publishers are increasingly taking equity stakes in nimble independents rather than absorbing them, keeping editorial independence intact while adding scale and distribution. Pan Macmillan's move signals that non-fiction remains a prime battleground for growth in UK publishing.
Read more: theculturenewspaper.com
Image credit: snigl3t
