InsideLiterature'sFinest

By Saul Robles

LONDON — Perminder Mann’s Soho office is what you’d expect from a publishing executive who’s spent twenty years in the business: proofs stacked everywhere, half-drunk coffee, the low hum of a team working through lunch. Mann is one of the most influential figures in British publishing, though she’d probably wince at the description. She’s more comfortable talking about books than her own rise.

Mann’s background is unusual for someone at her level. Born and raised in Southall, West London, to first-generation Indian immigrant parents, she is the eldest of eight siblings. She didn’t come up through the traditional editorial route. After studying theatre and media at De Montfort University, Mann began her publishing career in sales at Macmillan and Transworld, later working with international children’s publishers Hinkler and Phidal before spending time in the toy industry. She returned to publishing in 2010, joining Bonnier as a sales manager.

She rose through the ranks at Bonnier Books UK, being named CEO in 2017. Under her leadership, Bonnier Books UK became the seventh largest publisher in the UK with sales of more than £80 million. In February 2025, it was announced that Mann would become CEO of Simon & Schuster International, effective May 1, 2025—a significant step up in scope and prestige. She now leads Simon & Schuster UK and oversees Simon & Schuster Australia and Simon & Schuster India, reporting to CEO Jonathan Karp.

A Mission Beyond the Bottom Line

Mann has a reputation for questioning industry conventions. In 2020, she became the first CEO of a major UK publisher to announce a full flexible working policy for all office staff—well before the pandemic made such policies standard. Under her leadership, Bonnier Books UK also introduced enhanced parental leave and an industry-first pregnancy loss policy. In 2020, Bonnier Books UK was awarded the London Book Fair International Excellence Award for Inclusivity in Publishing.

Her willingness to take risks extends to the books themselves. In 2014, Mann co-founded Blink Publishing, an adult non-fiction imprint at Bonnier Books UK. That same year, Blink became the first UK publisher to collaborate with a vlogger when it signed YouTube creator Alfie Deyes for The Pointless Book. The book became a massive bestseller, with over 6,000 fans turning up to the launch at Waterstones Piccadilly—numbers the store said it hadn’t seen since the Harry Potter days. The Pointless Book series went on to sell over half a million copies.

Jonathan Karp, CEO of Simon & Schuster, described Mann as “known for being a strategic thinker, an innovator, and a team builder,” adding that her “vision for Simon & Schuster’s future is exciting and expansive.”

Jim Zetterlund, Chairman of Bonnier Books UK and COO/CFO of Bonnier Books globally, praised Mann as “an exceptional and innovative leader for Bonnier Books UK, transforming the business and helping to drive it to significant growth.”

Expanding the Global Narrative

Mann’s career has coincided with a necessary, if slow, reckoning regarding diversity in publishing. She has been recognized among the UK’s most powerful leaders by The Guardian and Operation Black Vote, and appears annually in The Bookseller’s list of the 150 most influential people in publishing. She serves as President of the Publishers Association, Chair of the board of trustees for Arts Emergency (a mentoring charity), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and Honorary Visiting Professor at City, University of London.

In a 2025 interview at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Mann emphasized her people-first approach: “I personally believe our business is about people. It’s about the relationships between authors and the great people who work for you.” At Simon & Schuster International, she’s focused on cross-border collaborations that bring authors from smaller markets to global distribution, while championing what she calls “diverse voices and storytelling from around the world.”

The Balancing Act

The industry is dealing with a lot right now—AI, digital disruption, consolidation. When discussing AI at the 2025 Frankfurt Book Fair, Mann acknowledged that “recent copyright disputes have left the industry nervous and distrustful,” but said she sees potential for AI to improve sustainability and well-being. She also helped launch the “National Year of Reading 2026” campaign as former president of the Publishers Association, emphasizing that “having access to the right books can be transformative.”

In 2025, Vogue named Mann one of the 25 women shaping Britain today. For her, the recognition marked a journey that began in Southall and led to the helm of one of the world’s most influential publishing houses—a path that mirrors her long-held belief that publishing should make room for voices and perspectives that have too often been left out.