Martin Hughes is the outgoing CEO and Publishing Director at Affirm Press, the Melbourne-based book publisher he founded and which was recently acquired by Simon & Schuster. He previously worked as editor of The Big Issue magazine; as a writer, editor and photographer with Lonely Planet Publications; and in journalism and public relations in Ireland and the UK.
Meeting and being mentored by Graeme was my first lucky break, and the second was meeting Keiran Rogers, who had been national sales manager of Hardie Grant. I sought out his advice when publishing our first commercial book – an illustrated biography of Peter Brock – and Keiran and I got fired up about the prospects of the business we envisaged, a dynamic and optimistic combination of strong social values and sales focus. That’s when the company really started as a full-time enterprise, in 2015.
