Nosy Crow tag

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

Posted by Kate on Mar 09, 2012

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

Tagged with app awards, apps, awards, independent publishers, independent publishers awards, independent publishers guild, independent publishing, innovation, prizes

Nosy Crow has been shortlisted for four Independent Publishing Awards

Posted by Kate on Mar 02, 2012

We were already feeling a bit giddy from World Book Day – terrific app sales following our one-day World Book Day promotion (sorry if you missed it: they are jolly good value at full-price too) and, of course, arguing about what children’s book character we should be.

And today we’ve had great news. We’ve been shortlisted for four Independent Publishing Awards. And these are concise shortlists – some with only two publishers on them!

So…

We are shortlisted for THE IPG CHILDREN’S PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR AWARD. The judges said, “Nosy Crow, a new arrival in children’s publishing, is shortlisted for its books and apps that bring reading alive for children and parents. Judges especially liked its high production values and close customer engagement. What Nosy Crow has achieved in just two years is phenomenal. Its marketing has been faultless and its publishing is full of energy.”

We are shortlisted for THE IPG NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR AWARD. The judges said, “Nosy Crow is in contention in this category after demonstrating impressive commercial success after just two years in existence. Judges liked its twin focus on books and apps and admired its sense of ambition. 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.”

We are shortlisted for THE LONDON BOOK FAIR INTERNATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD. The judges said, “Nosy Crow impressed judges with its ambition to sell its books and apps around the world right from its launch rather than relying on the UK. They admired its imaginative efforts both to promote export and co-edition sales and to sell its apps in north America. It is a great example of a company looking at a changing market and adapting itself very quickly to it.”

We are shortlisted for the THE FRANKFURT BOOK FAIR DIGITAL MARKETING AWARD. The judges said, “Nosy Crow impressed for its efforts to establish the Nosy Crow brand among readers, suppliers and other partners, making full use of websites, microsites, email, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube among other platforms. Nosy Crow has made very good use of technology and has wholeheartedly embraced the digital market.”

In some way, entering for these awards is startlingly dull: there’s a lot of envelope stuffing involved in entering for four awards! But in other ways, explaining, to tight criteria, what we feel we’ve achieved over our first year of publishing is both useful and cheering.

The awards are made at the Independent Publishers Guild Annual conference next week. The competition’s stiff, so wish us luck!

Tagged with awards, independent publishers, independent publishers awards, independent publishers guild, publishing awards

Sebastian Walker died 20 years ago today

Posted by Kate on Jun 16, 2011

Sebastian Walker founded Walker Books in 1979, aged 37. He died 12 years later, having achieved something remarkable. Walker Books was, and is, an excellent children’s book-only publishing company. He started the business in a back bedroom with a handful of colleagues and a bank loan. 12 years later, Walker Books was turning over £17 million (perhaps the equivalent of £27 million in today’s money), and publishing over 300 titles per year. In the years in which he ran the business, Walker published Where’s Wally by Martin Handford, Can’t You Sleep, Little Bear? by Martin Waddell and Barbara Frith, Five Minute’s Peace by Jill Murphy, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury, and Ten in the Bed by Penny Dale, among other great children’s illustrated books.

I never met him. I was at school when he set up Walker Books, and not many years into my publishing career when he died. I admired him from afar, though, and continue to admire his achievements and legacy. A few months ago, I read his sister, Mirabel Cecil’s, honest, detailed and touching biography, A Kind of Prospero (the title is taken from a phrase Maurice Sendak used to describe Sebastian Walker). Sebastian Walker seems to have been a mass of contradictions: gregarious but isolated; indiscreet but secretive; a gay man who struggled to sustain relationships but someone obsessed with the idea of family (who perhaps built his own “family” when he build his company); someone who, on the one hand, was devoted to his business but, on the other, someone who would nip out of the office for hours to hone his skills as a pianist; a charmer and a terrible snob; someone who demanded and provided enormous loyalty, but who sacked people in a way that was harsh and acrimonious; a publisher who spoke about the importance of literacy but someone who professed little interest in reading himself.

Julie Myerson gives her perspective in this article in The Guardian, My Hero Sebastian Walker. Altogether, he sounds fascinating and amazing… if capricious and difficult!

The Mirabel Cecil biography is also – and this was one of the reasons I wanted to read it – the only book I have found that is in large part about doing what I am spending my time doing: building a children’s book publishing company, beginning at a time of recession, with a clear sense of its own purpose and identity. Mirabel Cecil gives information about turnover, staff numbers, office moves and title count over the years in a way that is useful – and inspiring – to the founder of a business that has been publishing for exactly five months!

The other reason that I read the book is that Nosy Crow has its own connection with Walker Books: Candlewick Press, who will begin publishing books under a Nosy Crow imprint in two months, is the US division of Walker Books. Sebastian Walker made the decision to start up in America, and the company was set up in the year he died. Candlewick Press is a substantial – and the fastest-growing independent – US children’s pulbishing company. It publishes some great books originated by Walker UK (like Lucy Cousin’s Maisy Mouse Books, and Guess How Much I Love You) and is the original publisher of books by best-selling and award-winning authors like Kate DiCamillo (Because of Winn-Dixie, The Tale of Desperaux),Megan McDonald (the Judy Moody and Stink books) and M T Anderson (the Octavian Nothing books).

In his twelve years at the helm of Walker Books, Sebastian Walker built a business and a brand; impacted on the standards of picture book production and design internationally; made the UK children’s publishing business more international as publishers sought to emulate his success with co-edition publishing (I wrote about this in my post about this year’s Bologna Book Fair); and challenged bookselling conventions (he struck a deal with Sainsbury’s to publish children’s books under the Sainsbury’s brand, for example). He changed children’s publishing in the UK. Who knows what else he’d have achieved and what new directions he’d have taken had he lived another 20 years?

Tagged with best books for children, candlewick, children's books, children's publishers, independent publishers, julie myerson, maurice senak, publishing, sainsbury, sainsbury's, sebastian walker, the guardian, walker books

Is there a place on UK publishers' lists for new British illustration talent?

Posted by Kate on Jun 13, 2011

Young British illustrator Frann Preston-Gannon has said that new British illustration talent is being forced to go abroad in search of work as the UK picture book market becomes increasingly conservative.

Comments on The Bookseller article reporting Frann Preston-Gannon’s remarks point out that library cutbacks and the shrinking of the independent bookshop sector are a factor in this increased conservatism in the UK market, and I do think that both libraries and independent bookshops have, historically, been particularly strong and important supporters of more experimental illustration styles in the UK.

However, from the point of view of an independent children’s book pulbisher, I’d say a couple of things:

The first is that the UK has always looked outside the UK to launch new artists. Selling co-editions (i.e. co-ordinating a single printing of full-colour books in several different languages for different countries so that some of the costs of the printing are spread across many copies, and each country benefits from a sort of “bulk discount” with the printer) has been at the heart of the picture book’s financial viability for over two decades. If opportunities for artists exist outside the UK, even if the UK market itself might not be a big market for a particular artist, UK publishers are often keen to find them, and to support new talent with international sales. So a book originating in the UK may sell better abroad. At Nosy Crow, and at other UK publishers, the UK print-run can be just a tenth of the total print-run – the rest is made up of co-editions.

Second, there are many illustrators who, initially, frightened the UK retail horses at the early stages of their career, but who are now well and truly part of the illustration establishment. Axel Scheffler is a good example. When I first published Axel, I was told his work was looked “too continental European”; that the eyes were too goggly and the noses too big. The first UK print run of The Gruffalo was very small – perhaps 1,500 or 2,000 copies, I seem to remember, and, whatever it was, UK sales were smaller! We persisted (as did Axel, of course) and great, distinctive, witty illustration won through won through.

Third, at Nosy Crow, we’re always looking for new illustrators. We’ve a small picture book list, but over the next 18 months it will include, among other new illustrators:

Nadia Shireen who graduated in 2010, and whose art complements a dark and funny text (involving characters being eaten) called The Baby That Roared by Simon Puttock publishing in January 2012 (her first book, Good Little Wolf, published by Random House, is out now);

Nicola O’Byrne who graduates this summer and whose book, Open Very Carefully is a witty celebration of the printed book that publishes in autumn 2012.

Of course there are some publishers who play very safe, and there are others who are a bit more edgy. Not being part of their decision-making process, I can’t speak for them. But I can speak for Nosy Crow. We’re somewhere in the middle, I’d say. We need to feel that an artists work will appeal to a child (rather than appeal just to an adult), and that’s really our starting point. we have to feel that there’s a market for an illustrator’s work somewhere in the world, especially if we think that the UK market won’t rush to embrace a particular style. We don’t always agree: as in so many areas of publishing, we’re making subjective judgements based on a complicated mix of taste, experience and knowledge.

The book market – UK and international – doesn’t owe us (or any particular artist for that matter), a living: we have to publish books that are commercially viable, but, at Nosy Crow, we’re always looking for new talent, and we’re willing to take risks on it.

And we congratulate Frann Preston-Gannon and wish her the best of luck, wherever she publishes.

Tagged with axel scheffler, co-editions, illustrations, illustrators, independent publishers, nadia shireen, nicola o'byrne, open very carefully, picture books, simon puttock frann preston-gannon, the baby that roared, the bookseller

It's not all cake and candles

Posted by Kate on Dec 13, 2010

Just to point out to any of you who think that it’s all party, party, party at Nosy Crow, that ordinary – indeed, dull – stuff goes on all the time.

And, sometimes, we even have more than one man in the office.

Here are Adrian and Ian (who provides accounting and finance support to us, having worked with Adrian, Kate and Camilla at Macmillan) working on a review of next year’s budget. The budget for 2011 is our first year’s sales budget: we’ve only spent money since we started up at the end of February this year.

Book publishing decisions are always a balance of information and hunch. If you’re an established publishing house, you may have a lot of historical data on the performance of your established authors. But many of the authors and illustrators that Nosy Crow will publish are new or are doing something different from what they’ve done before. While we have, between us, many decades of experience of sales patterns to draw on, we don’t have a lot of concrete information, so we are, at the moment, more reliant than we’d like to be on our instincts. We are very careful to pull together whatever information we have, and, of course, we can draw on data that Bounce and Allen and Unwin can provided based on their sales of several lists.

App publishing decisions are even harder: there’s so little concrete information about a market that is changing very rapidly.

For Nosy Crow, all the signs for next year are good. We think we have really good, child-orientated books and highly original, rich apps. We have a good line-up of promotions in the UK trade; good sales representation from Bounce and Allen and Unwin; some rights sales under our belts; and lots of other interest in rights in our titles.

Our hunches are informed by all the information we can pull together.

But publishing’s still a risk business.

It’s one of the things that makes it excitiing.

Tagged with allen & unwin, bounce!, independent publishers, publishing

All things Bright and beautiful

Posted by Camilla on Dec 09, 2010

‘Tis the season to be jolly and the crows got off to a good start at The Bright Agency Christmas party, a cheery affair attended by the great and the good, including Klaus Flugge of Andersen Press (who, pictured above with Kate B, Camilla and a cunningly placed Christmas wreath has something of the Angel Gabriel about him!)

Emily Bolam, Nicola O’ Byrne, Benji Davies and Ben Mantle were among the many illustrators who raised a glass to Vicki Wilden-Lebrecht and her team. Vicki, in turn, gave an eloquent and heart-felt speech in which she paid tribute to the agency’s artists and staff.

Tagged with bizzy bear, children's publishers, illustrators, independent publishers

Round the world in 11 days

Posted by Kate on Nov 29, 2010

Since the beginning of October, Kate has been to Germany three times (OK, once it was for the Frankfurt Book Fair, but still…), has been to France and Holland once each and has been round the world in 11 days, flying from London to the East Coast of America and then on to Sydney (a trip that involved two 21 hour flights in 3 days).

The purpose of all this travel? She’s trying to find homes for Nosy Crow’s titles in different countries and languages. There’s lots of interest from lots of people in lots of things. Kate (with Adrian) saw 120 people in Frankfurt and 30+ publishers or imprints of publishers in the USA over 5 days (it was like speed-dating, really: her most remarkable day involved 11 appointments in 14 hours).

We’re following all the expressions of interest up diligently,and will have more to announce soon, but one important big deal has come out of all the travelling so far: we’ve appointed our Australian distributor, Allen and Unwin. As well as being Australia’s biggest and best Australian publisher (they’ve won the Publisher of the Year award nine times), they’re independent and… very nice, being enthusiastic and easy to deal with. And they’re based in Crows Nest, which is a bit of Sydney. How good an omen is that?

As well as distributing Nosy Crow, they distribute a handful of important UK publishers like Faber, Profile and Bloomsbury. It is, really, a privilege to have been added to their portfolio, because they don’t say “yes” to just anyone.

As Robert Corman, who is the CEO of Allen and Unwin, said in a press release:

“At Allen and Unwin we love partnering with clever independent publishers. That is why we are delighted to be representing Nosy Crow in Australia and New Zealand. We greatly look forward to helping them grow their business in the ANZ market.”

And Liz Bray, Children’s Book Director of Allen and Unwin, says:

“We’ve been following Nosy Crow’s activities with great interest since they announced their establishment in the UK earlier this year and admired the energy, savvy and passion of their team as well as the books they’re producing. We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to work with them in Australia and New Zealand on books from much-loved creators like Axel Scheffler as well as new stars including S.C. Ransom. Nosy Crow’s innovative, child-focused books have great potential in our markets and will be a fantastic complement to our own publishing and the wonderful children’s lists we distribute.”

So that’s another important part of Nosy Crow’s jigsaw in place, and we are very chuffed.

Tagged with allen & unwin, america, australia, axel scheffler, bookselling, independent publishers, s c ransom, sue ransom

Meeting

Posted by Kate on Mar 03, 2010

Today, we had our first internal meeting. Kate’s spent most of her last few years in meetings, so to have held out until our fifth week in these offices before having an internal meeting is a cheering reminder of the advantages of not being corporate. Camilla’s on the left and Imogen’s on the right and the one in the middle is that nice and capable Michelle Draycott from Imago .

Another reminder of the advantages of our scale and independence came from an agent today, who said in an email about something we are working on with him, “Also can I say how invigorating it is to deal with a quick, small, responsive, enthusiastic publisher. Life elsewhere can be wading through treacle.”

There’s no treacle with the Crow, we say.

Tagged with independent publishers

Party, party!

Posted by Kate on Feb 25, 2010

Yesterday evening Kate went to the Quayle Munro party, a champagney affair at the Reform Club. This necessitated a stop-off at home to change into a serious dress and real heels – very unlike what she wears to work these days. She talked briefly to her hosts including the spectacularly chic and charming Kit van Tulleken and to various familiar and cheerful people who wave the flag of independence like Andrea Carr of Rising Stars and Klaus Flugge of Andersen Press.

They all welcomed Nosy Crow to the independent fold. Though she didn’t have a clue who most of the suited men in the room were, she found out that Nigel Newton, head honcho at Bloomsbury, is very impressively learning Arabic – not at the party, obviously, but in what passes for spare time in Publishing Land. Brilliant ex-colleague and chum Denise Cripps from Scholastic was there and so was Peter Mayer (on whom Kate has always had a bit of a crush since he helped her carry her own weight in children’s book dummies at a Bologna book fair about 25 years ago), but he was so surrounded by devotees that she didn’t have a chance to get at him.

Then on, on a bit late and through the rain and wind in silly shoes to the lovely Osokool Gallery in Blackheath, above the Handmade Food Cafe and Deli which is run by Ferg and Vicki (that’s Vicki with Axel in the picture), for the opening of an exhibition of Axel’s Hand Made Food Drawings which runs from February 25 to March 27. Lots of art featuring food by Axel, most of it for sale and all proceeds to one of several charities (you get to chose which one). What are you waiting for?

Tagged with axel scheffler, illustrations, independent publishers

Up and Away

Posted by Kate on Feb 23, 2010

Here are the flowers that we got yesterday. Sorry we can only share them photographically! 27 cheering messages on the comments page (do please leave one!) and more encouraging emails than Kate could count. People love the logo/name/website, and, more importantly, really welcome a new independent children’s publisher with an interest in apps as well as print.

Speaking of apps, here’s an interesting piece about the impact of the iPod on music, which could give those of us interested in book/book-ish/book-based apps pause for thought:

http://www.techradar.com/news/portable-devices/mp3-players/is-the-ipod-killing-music—672494?src=rss&attr=newsapple

Tagged with apps, independent publishers