It became a fully independent company on 1 January 1993 when Nick Hern acquired the list from Random House, and he subsequently won The Sunday Times "Small Publisher of the Year Award" in 1994.

[2] The first title published by Nick Hern Books was Nicholas Wright's Mrs. Klein, which opened at the National Theatre in August 1988 before transferring to the West End and Broadway.

[3] There followed plays by Caryl Churchill, Arthur Miller, Mike Leigh and Stephen Sondheim, alongside theatre books by Simon Callow, Michael Coveney, Antony Sher and Richard Eyre.

by, amongst others, Peter Brook, Simon Callow, Declan Donnellan, Oliver Ford Davies, Paul Kalburgi, William Gaskill, Barbara Houseman, Antony Sher, Max Stafford-Clark, Harriet Walter, Timothy West and Richard Eyre.

Screenplays published by Nick Hern Books include: Nick Hern Books handles performing rights for most of the plays it publishes, issuing licences for amateur performance both within the United Kingdom and abroad, through its worldwide partners, including Dominie Drama in Australia, Play Bureau in New Zealand and DALRO in South Africa.