At a time when much of publishing remains focused on finding the next big thing, Pellerin Books is taking a different approach.

Founded by Laura Palmer and Jessie Sullivan, two publishing professionals with decades of experience in editorial, marketing and commercial strategy, the new independent publisher is built around a simple idea: that great authors deserve more than a brief launch window to find their readers.

With a focus on long-term career development, data-driven discoverability and author transparency, Pellerin is rethinking how commercial fiction is published in the digital age. Our Industry Insights series explores the processes that bring books to fruition so we were excited to pose questions to Laura and Jessie. Keep reading to discover the problems they believe the industry needs to solve, the opportunities they see for experienced authors, and the thinking behind their ambitious new venture.

What problem were you trying to solve when you founded Pellerin?

At its heart, Pellerin was founded to solve a problem that many people inside publishing recognise but often struggle to address: too many talented authors are being left behind.

Traditional publishing has evolved into a model that relies heavily on finding the next breakout success. Publishers acquire a large number of books, but because resources are finite, attention and investment become concentrated on a relatively small number of titles. The result is that many excellent authors – often with proven talent and loyal readers – can find themselves sidelined if their book doesn’t immediately take off.

That isn’t because publishers don’t care. Most editors and marketers are deeply passionate about their authors. It’s simply a consequence of an industry under pressure, where shelf space has shrunk, competition for attention has exploded, and everyone is being asked to do more with less.

We founded Pellerin because we believe there is another way. We wanted to build a publisher designed around long-term career development rather than short-term wins. We work with experienced authors who still have enormous potential waiting to be unlocked, and we commit to helping them reach readers over time, not just during a brief launch window. Ultimately, we’re trying to create a model that serves authors, readers and books more effectively.

– Laura Palmer

The midlist has long been described as “squeezed” - do you think that’s accurate?

Yes, although I think the reality is slightly more nuanced than that phrase suggests.

The challenge isn’t that the midlist lacks quality. In fact, some of the most consistently enjoyable, reader-loved books sit firmly in the midlist. The challenge is visibility. Readers today have more choice than ever before, but there are fewer traditional routes to discovery. Bookshop space is limited, newspaper review coverage is limited, and publishers are releasing more books than ever.

That creates a situation where a small number of titles receive a disproportionate amount of attention, while many others struggle to break through the noise. Once an author’s sales begin to soften, it can become increasingly difficult to regain momentum, regardless of the quality of their work.

What’s exciting to us is that digital discovery changes that equation. Online, readers aren’t looking at a table with twenty books on it. They’re searching by mood, genre, theme, recommendation and personal taste. That creates opportunities for authors whose careers may have stalled in a more traditional environment.

The midlist isn’t lacking readers. In many cases, readers simply haven’t found those books yet. Our job as publishers is to close that gap.

– Laura Palmer

Pellerin guarantees marketing spend for the first 12 months of a book’s life - why was that such an important principle to build in?

Because discoverability doesn’t happen by accident.

One of the biggest misconceptions in publishing is that a book either ‘works’ organically or it doesn’t. In reality, books succeed when enough of the right readers are given the opportunity to discover them. If a book isn’t visible, even the most talented author can struggle.

Historically, publishers concentrated much of their effort around publication because that’s where the industry was designed to succeed. For decades, books lived or died on physical shelf space. A retailer might give a new title a few weeks or months in-store, and if it didn’t sell strongly enough, those copies would be returned to the publisher to make room for the next wave of releases. Publishers naturally built their teams, budgets and workflows around maximising that short launch window.

In the print-first era, a book’s life was often measured in weeks. In the digital era, a book’s life can be measured in years.

The challenge is that reader behaviour has changed much faster than those systems have. Today, most fiction discovery happens online, where books can remain visible indefinitely and readers are finding them through search, recommendations, algorithms and social communities long after publication. Visibility is no longer determined by whether a book is still on a table in a bookshop – it’s determined by whether readers can continue discovering it.

We wanted every book we publish to have a genuine opportunity to find its audience. Guaranteeing marketing support was therefore a foundational principle for us. It means we’re committing from the outset to actively helping readers discover a book, rather than asking that book to prove itself before support appears.

Importantly, it’s also about trust. Authors deserve clarity about how their books will be supported. We wanted to remove uncertainty and build a partnership where expectations are transparent from day one.

– Jessie Sullivan

You’re publishing ebook, audio and paperback simultaneously on a global scale - how important is that in today’s market?

It’s incredibly important because readers don’t think in formats – they think about stories.

One reader may consume everything on an e-reader. Another might listen exclusively to audiobooks during their commute. Someone else may only buy paperbacks. Increasingly, readers expect books to be available in the format that best fits their lives.

Historically, formats were often released at different times because of production limitations or sales strategies. Today, we think that approach risks creating unnecessary barriers between books and readers.

By publishing globally across ebook, audio and paperback simultaneously, we’re allowing readers to engage with a story however and wherever they prefer. It also gives authors the best possible opportunity to build momentum across multiple audiences at once.

From a commercial perspective, it’s important too. Different formats perform differently in different territories and among different demographics. The broader your availability, the greater your opportunity to connect with readers.

Our role isn’t to tell readers how they should read. It’s to ensure they can discover great stories in the format that suits them best.

– Jessie Sullivan

A large part of your list includes previously published titles with a proven track record - what excites you about bringing these books back to market?

Honestly, it’s one of the things that excites me most about what we’re building.

Publishing has always been very good at celebrating what’s new. But readers don’t care whether a book was published six months ago or six years ago – they care whether it’s a book they’ll enjoy reading.

Over the years I’ve worked with countless authors whose books were beautifully written, well reviewed and genuinely loved by readers, yet never quite received the long-term support needed to reach the widest possible audience. In many cases, those authors still have enormous untapped potential, and so do the books they’ve already written.

What excites us is the opportunity to help those authors reach a new stage in their careers. Sometimes that means bringing previously published books to new readers. Sometimes it means publishing brand-new books and helping them connect with their audience from the outset. In both cases, the principle is the same: connecting the right readers with the right stories.

We can revisit positioning, cover design, audience targeting and marketing strategy through the lens of what we now know about reader behaviour. 

There is something incredibly satisfying about helping a great story find the audience it always deserved. Publishing can sometimes become too obsessed with finding the next big thing. We think there’s enormous opportunity in recognising the value of talented authors who are already here, and giving them the time, support and belief needed to build the next chapter of their careers.

– Laura Palmer

How do you think reader behaviour has changed - and how has that influenced your model?

Reader behaviour has changed dramatically over the last decade, but perhaps the biggest shift is that discovery has become far more personal.

For much of publishing’s history, discovery was controlled by a relatively small number of gatekeepers. If a bookseller chose your book for a promotion, if a newspaper reviewed it, or if a retailer gave it prime shelf space, you had a strong chance of reaching readers. If those things didn’t happen, it was much harder to break through.

Today, those traditional gatekeepers still matter, but they’re no longer the only route to discovery. Readers are increasingly finding books through online recommendations, digital retailers, social communities, creators, search engines and algorithms. They’re building reading habits around their individual tastes rather than relying on a handful of institutions to tell them what to read next.

That’s a huge opportunity for authors because there are now many more pathways between a book and its ideal reader.

One of Pellerin’s core beliefs is that a new book to a reader is simply a book they’ve never read before. Readers rarely care about publication dates. They care about whether a story looks exciting, whether it fits the mood they’re in, and whether someone they trust has recommended it.

That understanding sits at the heart of our model. We focus on long-term discoverability rather than short-term visibility. We invest heavily in understanding audiences, analysing behaviour, and ensuring books remain easy to find long after publication.

In the past, publishers spent much of their time persuading gatekeepers to stock or promote a book. Increasingly, our job is to help the right readers discover it directly.

If readers are discovering books differently, publishers need to evolve too. We built Pellerin around that reality.

–Jessie Sullivan

You’ve built bespoke technology that allows authors to log in and see how their books are performing - what was the thinking behind that?

The thinking behind the Pellerin Dashboard came from a combination of things we’d been seeing for years.

Firstly, we believe authors should be treated as partners in their own careers, not passengers. If someone has entrusted us with years of creative work, they should be able to understand how that work is performing, what we’re doing to support it, and what decisions are being made around it.

Secondly, we could see how empowering data had become for self-published authors. Many successful self-published writers are incredibly sophisticated business owners. They know which formats are working, which promotions are driving sales, which territories are responding, and how readers are discovering their books. That information helps them make better decisions and gives them a real sense of control.

By contrast, traditionally published authors can sometimes feel disconnected from what’s happening once publication begins. Sales information may arrive infrequently if at all, marketing activity can feel opaque, and decisions are sometimes communicated after they’ve already been made. That’s not usually because anyone is trying to be secretive; it’s often a by-product of systems that were never designed for real transparency.

With Pellerin, we wanted to exist in the middle ground: to give authors the insight and visibility often associated with self-publishing, but with the support, resources and expertise of a publisher.

The Dashboard gives authors direct access to their sales, royalties and marketing activity in one place. They can see what we’re doing, what’s working, and how their books are performing across different formats and territories.

For us, transparency isn’t just about sharing information. It’s about creating a more collaborative relationship between publisher and author. The best publishing partnerships are built on trust, and trust grows when everyone is working from the same information.

–Jessie Sullivan

There’s clearly a strong author-first ethos at Pellerin - how does that translate into the day-to-day publishing process?

Our author-first ethos underpins so many of our practical decisions – and it means that the way in which we operate, day to day, is quite different to most publishers. 

It all starts with communication. We believe authors deserve honest conversations about their books, whether the news is good, bad or somewhere in between. Publishers can sometimes fall into a habit of shielding authors from information, but we’ve found that transparency almost always leads to better relationships and better decisions.

It also influences how we structure our list. We deliberately publish fewer authors because we want every writer to receive meaningful editorial attention and strategic support. We’d rather do an excellent job for a smaller number of authors than spread ourselves too thin.

Day to day, it means involving authors in discussions about positioning, marketing and long-term planning. It means sharing data, celebrating successes together and working collaboratively when something isn’t performing as expected.

Most importantly, it means recognising that publishing is a journey rather than a launch date. Our responsibility doesn’t end when a book is released. In many ways, that’s when the real work begins.

–Laura Palmer

With capacity for up to 100 authors, how are you thinking about scale?

Very deliberately.

One of the reasons Pellerin exists is because we wanted to challenge a model that has become common across parts of publishing. Traditionally, publishers acquire a large number of books because nobody can predict with certainty which ones will become major successes. The result is often that a relatively small proportion of authors receive the majority of the time, attention and resource, while others receive much less support.

We completely understand why that happens. Publishing is a difficult business and resources are finite. But it isn’t the model we wanted to build.

Our approach is based on doing more with less. Rather than publishing hundreds of authors and then concentrating support on a select few, we deliberately limit the size of our list so that every author receives meaningful editorial attention, marketing support and long-term strategic thinking.

That’s why we’ve capped our capacity. Growth isn’t about publishing as many books as possible; it’s about ensuring we can maintain the quality of the experience for every author we work with.

Technology helps us do that more efficiently. By bringing sales, marketing and production data together in one place, we can spend less time on administration and more time supporting authors and making good publishing decisions.

Success for us isn’t having the biggest list. It’s having a list where every author knows they’re valued, supported and being given a genuine opportunity to reach readers.

-Jessie Sullivan

What have been the biggest surprises (or challenges) in building Pellerin so far?

The biggest challenge has probably been resisting the temptation to recreate the publishing houses we’ve spent our careers working in.

When you’ve worked in an industry for a long time, it’s surprisingly easy to accept certain practices simply because they’re familiar. Building Pellerin has forced us to question almost everything. Why are authors given so little visibility into their sales data? Why do so many marketing campaigns stop so soon after publication? Why do books often disappear from active promotion so quickly?

Asking those questions is the easy part. Building practical alternatives is much harder.

A good example is transparency. Lots of publishers would say they value transparency, and I’m sure they do. But if you genuinely want authors to have access to meaningful information, you need systems, workflows and technology that make that possible every day.

In many ways, we’ve been building two businesses simultaneously: a publisher and the infrastructure that supports a different way of publishing. It’s been challenging, but it’s also been one of the most rewarding parts of the journey.

–Jessie Sullivan

Looking ahead, what does success look like for Pellerin over the next 2–3 years?

Of course, we want to build a commercially successful publishing house. But if that’s all we achieve, I think we’d feel we’d missed the bigger opportunity.

What would really make us feel successful is proving that some of the assumptions underpinning modern publishing aren’t as inevitable as they sometimes seem.

For decades, the industry has operated on a model that publishes a large number of books and then concentrates the majority of its resources on a very small number of authors. We understand why that model exists, but we believe there is another way: publishing fewer authors, supporting them more consistently, sharing information more openly, and investing in their careers over a much longer period.

If, in a few years’ time, we’ve helped talented commercial fiction authors achieve a genuine second act in their careers, that will be incredibly rewarding. If, at the same time, we can also show that transparency strengthens author relationships rather than complicating them, that will feel like progress. 

I’d also love to see some of our ideas influence the wider industry. We don’t believe we have all the answers, but if aspects of what we’re doing encourage other publishers to think differently about author care, transparency or long-term investment, that would be a wonderful outcome.

Ultimately, I’d love agents to see us as the first place they think of when they have a talented commercial fiction author who isn’t yet reaching their full potential. If we’ve earned that reputation, and built a thriving business while doing it, I think we’d be very proud of what we’ve achieved.

–Laura Palmer

And finally - what’s one book on your list that perfectly captures what Pellerin is trying to do?

MURDER AT HONEYSUCKLE HARBOUR by Julie Haworth is the first book in a new cosy crime series starring a vet detective, and it combines all the things we’re trying to do at Pellerin Books. 

Julie is a brilliant, award-winning author of romantic fiction whose print sales at her previous publisher were dwindling – not because of anything wrong with her writing, but because of shrinking shelf space in supermarkets. Based on market research, plus good old-fashioned publishing instinct, we encouraged Julie to hop across the genre fence and try cosy crime – a genre that is hugely popular with readers online, yet still not too saturated with great storytellers.

This series will, we believe, be commercially successful. But it has also been huge fun to work on. That combination of commercial rigour and genuine joy in the work – applied to authors who deserve to reach more readers – is exactly what Pellerin Books is here for.

–Laura Palmer