Kate Wilson sets up children's publisher, Nosy Crow

22.02.10 | Caroline Horn in The Bookseller

Kate Wilson is to set up her own publishing company, Nosy Crow. The company will follow the traditional children’s publishing model with titles for ages naught to 14 years and will also publish apps for iPhones and other devices through its Appiness division.

Wilson is launching the company with former Macmillan colleague Camilla Reid who headed up Campbell Books. They previously developed popular formats such as jigsaw books and Buggy Buddies.
The first books will be published in January 2011 and Nosy Crow will work with both established names and new talent. Wilson left her job as chief executive of Headline in October after just five months; before that she was group managing director of Scholastic UK and managing director of Macmillan Children’s Books.

Nosy Crow will feature a picture book and novelty list as well as children’s fiction and non-fiction. Writers and illustrators Wilson has worked with previously include Rod Campbell, Meg Cabot and Philip Pullman as well as Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. Many of the company’s projects will be designed from the start to appear as apps, with some but not all projects being developed into book formats.

Wilson said: "Nosy Crow is small, nimble and responsive and we plan to make a lot of noise in the industry. As we are starting up in 2010, we enter a new age of publishing with the freedom of having no machine to feed or corporate structure to manage: we can concentrate on creativity, innovation and readers’ needs as new markets and opportunities emerge."

Reid added: "I am enormously excited to be starting Nosy Crow, and developing our new list of books and apps. Whether we are publishing brilliant board books for babies, stunning novels or new ways of bringing reading to the screen, we will be creating high-quality commercial titles that delight and enrich, charm and challenge."
The business has recruited Adrian Soar to act as its finance director.