Now we are one

22.02.11 | Kate Wilson

I'm dating the start of Nosy Crow from our announcement of our existence on 22nd February 2010.

In some ways, we didn't feel quite ready, but our hand was forced by two things. The first was that I had been asked to judge the British Book Awards and had given my job title as “m.d. of Nosy Crow”. The second was that I'd been on Facebook the evening of 21st February, working out how to set up a fan page, when I inadvertently sent out a message to my entire address book for a profile that referenced Nosy Crow. I suspect that, even now, Tim Hely Hutchinson gets automatically-generated messages asking him to be my friend.
 
We had, from memory, just three projects signed at the time we announced, and there were four of us in a single room in an office complex in a Victorian school building. One year on, there are 11 of us . . .
 
We have three print titles published. In mid-January, Small Blue Thing, a debut romantic fantasy. In mid-February, Mega Mash-up: Romans v Dinosaurs on Mars and Mega Mash-up: Robots v Gorillas in the Desert.
 
This year, we will publish 25 print titles for children from zero to 14. True to our original vision, these are books that children will really enjoy reading. Our books are by established names like Axel Scheffler and Penny Dale and from newer exciting talents. The list—and we'll be announcing the first six months of 2012 before Bologna—will grow in 2012.
 
We have one e-book published; this year, we will publish six. Small Blue Thing is our only black-and-white book so far and was the first e-book we created with the support of Faber Factory. I decided that we'd focus our digital aspirations on illustrated publishing and apps.

Last week, we published a cutting-edge story book app, The Three Little Pigs, to quite remarkable reviews (including one from FutureBook) that you can find on our website. This year, we will publish at least five highly interactive, cutting-edge, multimedia apps. From the beginning, we were interested in using websites and social media to communicate with potential consumers—mainly parents in our case—as well as with potential suppliers in the form of authors, illustrators and customers.

We launched with a lively website, www.nosycrow.com and for almost a year, it was our only product. In our first year, we've had over a quarter of a million page-views from over 20,000 visitors in 129 countries, and, since we've had products on the market, visitor numbers have risen sharply. Our blog has been an important way to keep the site fresh. We've also used Twitter (@nosycrow and @nosycrowapps) and Facebook, and we built two websites for our first two publications: www.smallbluething.com, and www.megamash-up.com.
 
We've sold in our first list via Bounce! and have promotions with Sainsbury's, Tesco, ELC/Mothercare, W H Smith, W H Smith Travel, Waterstone's and Foyles. Our books are in shops from museum giftshops to Toys 'R' Us. We've been active internationally too. In May, Allen and Unwin begins distributing our books in Australia and New Zealand. So far, we've sold rights in our books to Germany, France, Holland, Norway, Finland, Sweden, China, Korea and Israel with more good news lined up for announcement over the next few weeks.
 
There have been challenges and disappointments, and there will undoubtedly be more ahead. There has been constant, grinding, sometimes dull hard work. We worry—of course we do—about the book market and our place in the print and digital future that is unfolding. But it's been fun. It's been a good year.

• blog
• Home
• kate wilson
• Nosy Crow