Judy Piatkus

Judy Piatkus is a well-respected publisher and entrepreneur, counsellor and author. She is the founder of Piatkus Books, one of the pioneers in mind, body and spirit publishing in the UK, which she sold last year, after almost 30 years.

Piatkus Books was not her first publishing venture. Having set up a company with a partner at the age of 24, she sold out to him four years later, and with the capital she accrued from the sale went on to found Piatkus Books. Her new project was to become one of the world’s leading imprints in lifestyle titles incorporating health, self-help, popular psychology, mind, body and spirit and business. Piatkus also publishes fiction, biography, music, popular culture and a wide range of other topics. Some of the early titles she published included The Little Green Avocado Book which was the first in a series of gift books, and Colour Me Beautiful by Carole Jackson which was to influence the fashion tastes of millions of women worldwide.

With limited capital of her own, Judy launched the company and grew it organically to a turnover of £10 million while continuing to remain independent and fully in control of all the shares. In the summer of 2007 she sold the company to Little Brown who will continue to develop the Piatkus brand.

In 1979, when Judy launched the company, women entrepreneurs were something of a rarity and so, from the start, Judy attracted a reputation as being a forward-thinker. The alternative health titles which Piatkus published in the 1980s were ahead of their time and the mind, body and spirit list of the 1990s with its resulting publicity introduced many new topics to an unsuspecting public which subsequently became part of mainstream daily life.

Piatkus Books are sold all over the world and Judy has travelled widely to help her colleagues promote her titles, particularly in English-speaking countries. Piatkus titles have become No.1 bestsellers in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, and are also sold widely in the Far East.