Nosy Crow hat-trick at the Independent Publishing Awards after just a year of publishing - Nosy Crow Skip to content
Posted by Kate, March 9, 2012

Nosy Crow hat-trick at the Independent Publishing Awards after just a year of publishing

Well, you could knock us down with a feather.

At the end of our first year of publishing and second of existence, we’ve won in not one, not two, but three categories of the Independent Publishing Awards.

We won the IPG Children’s Publisher of the Year, the IPG Newcomer Award, and The Nielsen Innovation of the Year Award.


Me with Nosy Crow’s three awards

We were also shortlisted in an additional three categories (IPG Independent Publisher of the Year, Frankfurt Book Fair International Achievement Award and The London Book Fair International Achievement Award).

Given that just 14 awards are given (and some of them are for things we couldn’t win, like being the Academic and Professional Publisher of the Year), this was a pretty remarkable strike rate. To be honest, we were pretty chuffed when we received the news that we were shortlisted for several awards at the end of last week and this exceeds all our expectations.

The awards are run by the Independent Publishers Guild (IPG), in association with The Bookseller and The London Book Fair, and the winners were announced at the Annual Conference of the IPG.

The sixth annual IPG awards featured 21 companies and four individuals, shortlisted across 14 categories.

Nosy Crow was recognized as IPG Children’s Publisher of the Year for its books and apps that “bring reading alive for children and parents”. The judges said that, “What Nosy Crow has achieved in just two years is phenomenal. Its marketing has been faultless and its publishing is full of energy.” The judges especially liked the high production values of our books and apps and our use of web and social media to build and maintain close relationships with customers and suppliers.

In the category of IPG Newcomer, Nosy Crow was celebrated for its impressive commercial success after just two years in existence. The judges admired the twin focus on books and apps, and our “sense of ambition”. They said, “Nosy Crow has produced a string of beautiful books and apps in a very short space of time. It has picked up impressive sales from a standing start.”

Nosy Crow was awarded the Nielsen Innovation of the Year Award (for which no shortlist was announced) for its creative and interactive apps including ‘The Three Little Pigs’, ‘Cinderella’ and ‘Bizzy Bear on the Farm’. The judges were impressed by its adoption of digital technology right from its launch, by its in-house development of apps, and by strong marketing, PR and sales. “Nosy Crow has adapted to change and embraced it with some terrific work. It is easy to produce apps for the sake of it, but Nosy Crow has done something very innovative and special.”

It’s just amazing to see Nosy Crow honoured in three categories at the end of its first year of publishing. It’s such a tribute to the whole Nosy Crow team who have worked so hard and with such commitment to build a list from scratch, and it’s a particular honour for our completely brilliant in-house app team. It’s also a great tribute to the authors, illustrators and other creative talents who entrusted us with their work from the beginning of our journey. We’re grateful to the shops, librarians, reviewers, international publishing partners, and, above all, mums, dads and other grown-ups who bought and appreciated our books and apps over the course of the last year. Being recognized in this way by the IPG, a community of publishers who exhibit such professionalism, focus and sense of their readers, is particularly inspiring for us. To paraphrase Adele at the Grammys, ‘the Crows done good’.

Because it’s not, you know, cheap to go to conferences like this and Nosy Crow is careful with its cash, and, more importantly, because we’ve only got a few days to go until the Bologna Book Fair, I was the only Crow at the awards ceremony, though I feel rather sad that more of us weren’t there to celebrate.

Still, there’ll be cake later today, you mark my words.

Of course, it wasn’t all about Nosy Crow. Here’s the full list of Independent Publishing Awards winners:

The Bookseller Trade Publisher of the Year: Constable and Robinson
IPG Children’s Publisher of the Year: Nosy Crow
IPG Academic & Professional Publisher of the Year: SAGE
IPG Children’s Publisher of the Year: Nosy Crow
IPG Education Publisher of the Year: Jolly Phonics
IPG Specialist Consumer Publisher of the Year: Osprey
IPG Newcomer Award: Nosy Crow
Neilsen Innovation of the Year Award: Nosy Crow
The London Book Fair International Achievement Award: Woodhead Publishing
Ingram Digital Publishing Award: Constable and Robinson
The Frankfurt Book Fair Digital Marketing Award: TopThat!
IPG Young Independent Publisher of the Year: Andrew Furlow, Icon Books
GBS Services to Independent Publishers Award: Adrian Driscoll
IPG Diversity Award: Barefoot Books
IPG Independent Publisher of the Year Award: Constable and Robinson

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