Nosy Crow tag

Achuka's Michael Thorn on how being a publisher is different from being a reviewer or an author

Posted by Kate on Jan 22, 2012

Michael Thorn is the founder of Achuka, a children’s book, and now more general book website begun in 1997. Achuka has been a review and news website, but Michael wants to be a digital publisher and so created ACHUKAbooks. Just last week, he published his first book: a digital edition of The Field Bill Nagelkerke. A writer and reviewer, Michael tweeted about how different the experience of being a publisher was from his other book-connected roles, and I asked him to do a guest blog about the experience of being a first-time publisher.

I should probably make it clear that Nosy Crow doesn’t have any connection at all with Achuka or ACHUKAbooks, but one of the good things about being a small independent publisher is that it is somehow easier to talk about the work of your “competitors” in the field than it is in a larger, more corporate organisation, and anyway, I rate Michael and thought his perspective could be interesting.

You can download The Field for free if you are quick!

Well, it’s only three weeks into being (albeit in a limited sense at present) a publisher, but already I’m feeling the difference in my relationship to the books I’m dealing with, compared with the way I relate to them as a mere reviewer and website commenter.

When I’m reading submissions for ACHUKAbooks, I continue to read with a reviewer’s eye and heart (I’m not after all going to publish something that I would review highly negatively), but I’m aware that there is another, and sometimes conflicting, dynamic going on.

I’ll be thinking, “Yes, not my kind of book, but definitely well put together and on a theme that I can see would be popular. Can I like this book sufficiently, as well as admire the way it’s been created, to shout out loudly and convincingly enough on its behalf?”

It all comes down to the question, “Do I want a list confined to just my own personal taste in reading?”.

Definitely not, and besides which it would be commercial folly, since the books I tend to love are not often bestsellers. On the other hand, I do have to be passionate about wanting to get the book out to readers, so in a sense I’m finding, with one or two titles under consideration, that the book itself is having to persuade me in the direction of acceptance based on the potential audience to which I can perceive it being pitched.

As a digital publisher with low production and overhead costs, it will be easier to have a multi-faceted list than in the print world, but there still needs to be coherence and an evident consistency of quality and standard, just as you would hope to develop with any brand.

Most interesting to me has been my relationship to our first published title, The Field by New Zealand author Bill Nagelkerke.

I predicted that publishing would be exciting and nerve-racking. I was not so prepared for how emotional it is. I’m anxiously watching The Field make its way in the world, almost as a parent looks out for their own child. I’m hoping people pay my first publishing child due attention, that they speak well of it, that it reaches an audience and achieves the success it deserves.

The first review on Amazon was lukewarm, but my internal response to it was anything but tepid. How could the reviewer not be more passionate about the book? It is not a book to be dismissed as a quick interesting read.

Once further ACHUKAbooks titles have been released, and The Field is no longer an only child, and I have to share my affections and attention with others in the brood, I imagine my publisher watchfulness and nurturing will feel just as parental, but more evenly-spread and less intense.

I hope so. Excuse me, it’s been a while since I checked how Bill was doing. It’s still early days, and I mustn’t leave him unattended for too long…

Tagged with achuka, achukabooks, children's book publishing, children's books, michael thorn, publishing

All we want for Christmas is... books

Posted by Kate on Dec 26, 2011

Last year, loyal readers of this blog may remember a personal blog-post about re-reading books at Christmas.

This year, perhaps because there were more of us in one place and so more preparation to be done, there was little time for re-reading in the run-up to Christmas (though this morning I did squish in a speed-read of The Woman in Black, with a view to recommending it to one of my children).

And given the number of books we received between us – you can see them all in the picture above – we’ll be pretty occupied with first-time reading for a while. There were eight of us spending Christmas day together, ranging in age from 11 to 71, and we brought with us presents from friends and family elsewhere. We received 31 print books. In fact, several of us received hardly anything else.

We are, I know, not a typical family (as a glance at this summer’s blog post covering our holiday reading might suggest). We are, as was said of Christie in Work: A Story of Experience by Louisa May Alcott, perhaps “too fond of books”.

But we’re not alone in keeping alive the tradition of the printed book as a Christmas gift, however much we love digital reading too. As any trade publisher or bookseller will tell you, books bought for Christmas are currently fundamental to the UK book industry. According to BML’s Books and The Consumers study, 13% of all adult books and 26% of all children’s books bought in 2010 were bought as Christmas presents (though you have to hope that they get a better reception than that of this 3-year old who seemed to have modified his view by the following year. Sadly, we don’t know how he responded this year).

Undoubtedly this year, as in our house, a lot of book-lovers will have got ereaders. As @LaceyPR, a UK publishing professional, commented on Twitter, “Last year [at Christmas] my Twitter (industry) was filled with ereader recipients. This year it’s my Facebook (ordinary folk)”.

You can spot a new Kindle fifth from the left on the bottom row in the photo above. It was a 12 year-old’s main – and requested – present, and was preloaded with a number of free titles.

In fact, it was only the committed ebook reader in the family who didn’t receive or give any print books this year… and she didn’t give ebooks either, which potentially poses a real issue for the book industry as digital reading increases. Right now, the fact that many people are receiving new hardware means that publishers and certain retailers can enjoy a sort of “double Christmas”, as described by Scott Pack.

But still… printed books are affordable (the cheapest book here cost 20 pence from a second-hand shop), personal, durable and very easy to transport and to wrap or put in a stocking. They don’t give you a hangover. They don’t make you fat (well, the cookery books sort of do, but only indirectly). They take longer to consume than chocolates. A well-chosen book – one that taps into an enthusiasm or interest of a reader, one that communicates meaning or emotion from the giver to the receiver, one that introduces a reader to a new subject or author that they go on to love – is a great present.

Under our tree, there was a lot of lavishly-illustrated non-fiction, from The Magic of Reality (two copies, but not given twice to the same person) to 40 Years of Queen, and including a lot of cookery books. There were a lot of children’s books, at least one of which was given to an adult: the pop-up edition of L’Homme Qui Plantait des Arbres. There wasn’t a lot of adult fiction – only one adult fiction title was given to an adult. 18 of the 31 books we opened were hardbacks, from the £30 RRP 40 Years of Queen to the £1.50 second-hand edition of Persuasion.

Many of the gifts of books we opened were on our family Christmas wish lists… though Justice for Hedgehogs kind of came out of the blue.

A while ago, I was asked to compile a Nosy Crow Christmas wish list as a guest blog post. I didn’t have the opportunity to consult widely, but I thought that you might like to know what some of the other crows later said was on our professional wish lists for Christmas and beyond.

Kirsty said that she, too, wanted to find a brilliant fantasy series for 8-12 year olds (it’s always cheering when we find out we would like the same thing…).

Dom said he wanted great review coverage for Just Right… and he pretty much got that, actually, as you’ll see if you look at the reviews section on the page.

Giselle is hoping for a great, innovative novelty idea to cross her path soon. I think Camilla would like one of those too.

Ed, Will and I wish for great, well-thought-through apps proposals that really use the features of touchscreen devices to tell stories to children in a new way.

Kate B always wants picture book texts that are original, emotionally compelling (which means they could be funny or sad or anywhere in between) and full of child-appeal.

And, of course, we’d all like bags of support for our books and apps from reviewers, librarians and from retailers whether they’re independent bookshops, chainstores, supermarkets or online retailers like Apple’s iTunes store and Amazon.

I know I missed Christmas Day for this blog, but I hope everyone else is enjoying Boxing Day as much as I am.

What books – print or ebook – did you get? What books did you want, but didn;t get? What books did you give? What was the best (or the worst!) reaction to your choice?

Tagged with books at christmas, bookselling, books for christmas, christmas, christmas book wishlist, publishing

Our publicist meets Helen Peters, to talk PR for debut fiction

Posted by Kate on Jul 08, 2011

Dom Kingston recently joined us as our “attached freelance” one-stop PR man, and he’s getting to know our authors. This week, he met Helen Peters, pictured above at a cafe in Muswell Hill, author of debut novel for 8 – 12 year olds (particularly 8 – 12 year old girls) The Secret Hen House Theatre, which Nosy Crow is publishing in April 2012.

This is what he said:

“Meeting new authors is always an exciting part of a publicist’s job.

Often, especially if the book in question is their first book, meeting their publicist is an author’s first insight into life after the editorial process. And publicity is often a relative mystery to many new authors. Most aspiring writers know that they will have their book edited, but not so many think, when they’re writing, about what they’ll say about themselves, their book, and the process of writing it to a class of school children, a librarian, a bookseller, a journalist or a conference audience.

For some, the word and the idea of a ‘publicist’ has scary connotations – think Entourage. Or Ab Fab. Or the bit in Phonebooth before Colin Farrell actually gets into the phonebooth…

Luckily, publicists in the children’s publishing industry are always a four-day-drive-and-a-boat-trip away from this stereotype. Authors often seem to be relieved when you don’t arrive Gucci-ed up to the eyeballs, in a cloud of Kouros, and barking into the four mobile ‘phones permanently clamped to your ears.

As publicists, we just want to get to know and understand… The Author. It’s important that an author is totally comfortable with any promotional activity they’ll be doing.

So… how was Helen?

Well, she’s an English and drama teacher, so she’s totally at home when she’s talking to a room full of children and engaging them creatively with a subject.

Music to my ears!

She also kicks off our meeting with some excellent event ideas that will work beautifully for the age-group that she writes for.

A natural!

The icing on the cake is that Helen’s obviously going to be a dream interviewee. She’s eloquent, focused, funny and charming. And she has a story to tell. Couple these qualities with the autobiographical, made-with-love aspects of her novel (the farm setting, the characters drawn from her own family), and we’re soon bandying around possible feature ideas for both adult and children’s media.

Fabulous!

She’s also connected to, or connecting with, with lots of our world’s brilliant – and deliciously vocal – bloggers and tweeters. (Kate says, “speaking of this, you can read about Helen’s experiences as a first time author in this terrific blog post.”)

By this time I’m practically pinching myself.

So… Helen Peters – a lovely person, author of a lovely book and a publicist’s lovely dream . I CANNOT WAIT for curtain-up at The Secret Hen House Theatre…

ENCORE!!”

Tagged with book pr, book publicity, bookseller, books for girls, children's authors, children's fiction, debut novel, dom kingston, helen peters, librarian, pr, publicity, publishing, teacher, writing for children

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

Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators event at the Lincoln Book Festival

Posted by Kate on May 16, 2011

I went up to Lincoln on Saturday to talk to a group of children’s authors and illustrators (and agent Elizabeth Roy, many of them aspiring to be published. The event was organised by writer and blogger Addy Farmer (pictured here with me) for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

It was hard to know what to cover (and Kate had a scary 90 minutes to fill), other than pointing people in the direction of our “submissions guidelines” and to telling them we prefer to receive submissions digitally, which is the work of a minute. But I talked about how Nosy Crow got started, and what’s important to us: identifying the core audience for each book or app that we do and trying to ensure that every aspect of that book or app is right for that audience; bringing our own creative energies and skill to projects as we work with authors and illustrators to shape and make books and apps; embracing digital technology both as a means of creating new reading experiences and communicating with people about them; and thinking internationally, and accessing international markets through our partners in key countries.

Of course, most of the people there really wanted to know what Nosy Crow was “looking for” and that’s a hugely difficult thing to define.

But here’s a shot at it:

Print books:

Fiction for 0 – 12, bearing in mind that a lot of the texts for board and novelty books are are produced in-house.
“Mum-friendly” books – no drugs, sex or gritty or gratuitous violence.
Strong commercial concept-driven or character-led series novels and picture books.
Brilliantly-written stand-alone novels and picture books, but nothing too intensely high-brow.
Great illustration with child and parental appeal – nothing too dark and arty.

Apps:

While some of our future apps may be based on our books, Nosy Crow is currently focused on commissioning apps that start as apps, not as books. We are interested in working with authors and illustrators who are excited by, and really understand how, touch-screen devices can enhance and extend the story experience. As we have engineers on staff, we don’t need people who can code apps, and we don’t need to see a ready-made app. Instead, we want to see really great ideas and really great art (and need art that is created digitally in layers for this medium).

I got to visit glorious Lincoln Cathedral:

And I even saw a little of the top part of the city (here are Addy and Elizabeth Roy in front of something lovely and half timbered) before leaving.

I got a couple of nice comments on Twitter, and Addy blogged about it.

Tagged with authors, children's apps, children's authors, children's books, children's fiction, children's illustrators, children's publishers, children and reading, facebook, illustrations, illustrators, parenting blogs, picture books, publishing, twitter, web, website

An author's view of the printing process: Perfectly Reflected gets real

Posted by Kate on May 14, 2011

S C Ransom, who, as the author of Nosy Crow’s first book, and therefore our inaugural book with Clays gets rather special treatment from them, blogs about visting the printer for a second time:

I recently went to Clays in Suffolk to watch the first printing of my new novel, Perfectly Reflected. It was a specific request on my part as I had so enjoyed watching the first book in the series, Small Blue Thing, being printed last Autumn. I had never seen books being printed before, and the guys at Clays had given us a comprehensive tour and explained all the processes that the book goes through. But for that book there had been bound proofs before there were finished copies, so I had held it in my hand before, albeit without the beautiful, shiny cover.

This time it was different. Before I went to Clays, Perfectly Reflected existed only in my laptop and on great wodges of A4 paper bristling with sticky notes and covered in pencil marks. It had never looked anything like a ‘real’ printed book. I was also particularly interested in seeing the first books coming off the line, as that was something I had missed on the previous occasion. When Andrew and Rebekah gave me the tour, they explained that the operators prefer to show the process when it’s up and running – once all the start-up wrinkles have been ironed out. But they smiled at my excitement, and, as the first bound double book came shooting around the line, someone deftly lifted it off and handed it to me. The next ones went through the process of being sliced into two separate books and then trimmed. At the far end of the line they were sorted into piles, shrink-wrapped and loaded onto pallets. The machines were very loud and very efficient, and wastage was almost nil. At the end of the process I saw just two of my books in the recycling bin; one had a ripped cover and the other had a slightly dented cover. (I couldn’t resist rescuing the dented one, and it has now gone to a good home!)

With incredible speed, the line was running at its usual speed of 12,000 double books per hour, and from where I was standing in the middle, there were copies of my book on every conveyor belt I could see. From never having seen or held one, there were suddenly thousands and thousands of them. My vision and all those months of hard work hunched over the laptop were suddenly transformed into a real live book, bound in a glistening, foiled blue cover.

Everyone from Clays was lovely, answering all of my dumb questions and cheerfully explaining all the various processes. Perhaps having an author there was a novelty, though they must have had to make time to treat me so well.

As we walked around I looked at the monitor listing all the print runs for that particular production line (one of many they have at Clays). The next book up was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. How’s that for being in exalted company?

Tagged with authors, books, clays, fiction, perfectly reflected, printers, printing, publishing, s c ransom, small blue thing

Get ready for The Grunts: new fiction series by Philip Ardagh, illustrated by Axel Scheffler

Posted by Kate on Mar 23, 2011

Woo-hoo!

We’ve acquired The Grunts.

This is a series of four books by award-winning author Philip Ardagh. The books, which feature the eponymous and disgusting Grunt family, will be illustrated in black and white by Axel Scheffler and the first book, The Grunts in Trouble, will be published in May 2012.

Philip makes me laugh – as a person and as an author. Always has done, always will. His combination of professionalism and irreverence make him the perfect Nosy Crow author, and we are pleased and flattered that he’s chosen to publish with us. Pairing him with Axel Scheffler is going to make this an utterly irresistible series for children of 7 and up.

Philip says:

“I’m delighted that The Grunts, my latest series of (very silly) novels, is to be published by Nosy Crow with the crow so fresh from the egg, and still slightly yolky. For Axel Scheffler to have agreed to illustrate it — without my having to resort to threats of any kind — is the real icing on the metaphorical cake. I very much look forward to working with him, Kate Wilson, and the rest of the Nosy Crow team on what I hope will be some of my most outrageous books to date. These are exciting times! FUN just doesn’t express it.

And Axel says:

“It’s been several years since I’ve illustrated fiction, but there was an anarchy and humour in the outrageous Grunt characters that really appealed to me, and I look forward to working with Philip on his series with Nosy Crow.”

This is the most high-profile of several recent great fiction acquisitions, including a series of four titles by best-seller Holly Webb, that make it clear how serious Nosy Crow is about fiction publishing as well as full-colour publishing. We’ve got world rights in all languages for all of them, so there’ll be lots to talk about at the Bologna Book Fair next week.

Today, as well as announcing this acquisition, we have added our 2012 titles to the Books section of our website. We will publish 25 new titles this year, and at least 35 next year. This year we’ll launch 5 apps for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch and we’re planning to make at least 8 new apps in 2012.

It’s “all systems go” here at the Crow’s Nest…

Tagged with apps, axel scheffler, books for boys, books for girls, children's fiction, philip ardagh, publishing, the grunts

Nosy Crow announces a partnership with Candlewick Press in the US for illustrated books

Posted by Imogen on Mar 10, 2011

Kate writes:

For those of you who’ve been following the Nosy Crow story – and thank you if you have – you’ll know that we first entered into an agreement with Bounce! to sell our books in the UK and Ireland and in most export markets. Then we announced that our partners for Australian and New Zealand distribution were Allen and Unwin. Now we are really pleased to be able to say that we’ve entered into a partnership with Candlewick Press, who are the US’s best-known independent US children’s publisher. Boston-based Candlewick Press will co-publish the majority of Nosy Crow’s full-colour and illustrated titles in the US and Canada and Nosy Crow will become a new imprint of Candlewick Press.

Candlewick Press will publish ten Nosy Crow titles in 2011.
Candlewick Press is an independent, employee-owned publisher based in Somerville, Massachusetts. Candlewick publishes outstanding children’s books for readers of all ages, including books by award-winning authors and illustrators such as M. T. Anderson, Kate DiCamillo, Laura Amy Schlitz, and David Ezra Stein; the widely acclaimed Judy Moody, Mercy Watson, and the -‘Ology_ series; and favorites such as Guess How Much I Love You, Where’s Waldo?, and the Maisy books. Candlewick’s parent company is London-based Walker Books Ltd.

Choosing a US partner is a huge step for our fledgling company, but the match between Nosy Crow and Candlewick on illustrated publishing felt right from the start of our discussions. Though our lists are complementary, we share the culture and liberties of independent publishers, and we share our exclusive focus on – and passion for – creating great things for children to read. As someone who began their career selling rights in UK books to US publishers, I’ve known and respected Karen Lotz, who’s the president and publisher of Candlewick Press, for many years, so I have watched Candlewick grow and prosper with huge admiration. We’re very proud to be associated with Candlewick.

Karen, said very nice things about – ahem – me and about Nosy Crow: “Kate Wilson’s exceptional depth of experience in global children’s publishing and her innovative vision for our industry’s future both shine through the launch of Nosy Crow. At Candlewick, we are thrilled to be able to offer these fantastic books for young children to the US and Canadian audiences through our joint imprint.”

The photo above shows the Candlewick team with Karen on the left and with me standing when they visited the Nosy Crow offices very recently.

If you want to know more about this from Nosy Crow’s perspective, email me on kate@nosycrow.com

If you want to know more about this from Candlewick’s perspective, you could email laura.rivas@candlewick.com

Tagged with allen & unwin, bounce!, candlewick, children's books, children's publishers, publishing

Roughing it: working on Axel Scheffler's rough artwork

Posted by Kate on Feb 15, 2011

OK, so this is how it really happens.

This is how a picture book, in this case, one of Axel Scheffler’s Pip and Posy books is put together.

In this case, we had planned the book, but when the roughs were done and the text in place, we felt that the pacing wasn’t spot-on. The pacing of a picture book, particularly what is revealed when you turn a page (as opposed to what you can see already see on the right-hand side of a page when you are reading the left-hand side of a page), is tremendously important, and one of those things that makes creating a really good picture book such a challenge and a skill.

Anyway, we got to work with photocopies of Axel’s rough sketches, bits of paper with the text on it, a pencil and some really big scissors to redesign how the book worked. I know it’s not hi-tech, but for us, it’s the best way.

Here’s Camilla, hand sketching so fast that the camera couldn’t catch it, at work.

The reworked roughs went back to Axel, who redrew some of the images, and we’ll have a full book of art to take to the Bologna Book Fair at the end of March.

Tagged with axel scheffler, children's books, picture books, pip and posy, publishing

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

Pre-launch lunch for Nosy Crow

Posted by Kate on Nov 17, 2010

On Monday, we had a pre-launch lunch for Nosy Crow. Adrian cooked up a storm (Indian food – a speciality of his), and we invited journalists and other influencial people in the world of children’s books to talk to them about our 2011 programme of books and apps. For some of them, the lunch was the first time they’d seen a children’s app.

Here’s Damian Kelleher talking to Nicholas Tucker of The Independent and Nicki Marsh of Book Trust talking to Abigail Moss of The National Literacy Trust.

It was a sort of celebration for the Nosy Crows too, as we have finished copies of our first two books and proofs of many others, so we are in the final run-up to publication.

Graeme Neill from The Bookseller came, and wrote a short article in yesterday’s electronic edition of The Bookseller.

Tagged with book trust, national literacy trust, publishing, the bookseller