SCBWI Professional Series: Kate Wilson, MD of Nosy Crow

On the evening of 12th September 2011 we all met again in the upstairs room of the Theodore Bullfrog in London for the latest SCBWI Professional Series event and this time we were treated to a talk from Kate Wilson, formerly of Hachette, Macmillan Childrens and Scholastic, and now founder and Managing Director of Nosy Crow.

Kate kicked off her talk by asking a question many are asking in this age of print on demand and e-books:

What is a publisher for?

She answered this question by looking at what publishers used to do:

• investing in creativity
• editorial shaping
• packaging (this is a big element in children's publishing)
• investing in stock (or paying the printers)
• investing in returns (or paying to pulp unwantd books!)
• storing things
• providing a distribution infrastructure
• negotiating access to limited shelf-space.

But What if...

• there are people creating for free or people creating to sell directly to readers
• publishers have outsourced  some or even most of their editorial shaping to agents
• for some products, there's nothing to package, or store, or transport
• there's unlimited shelf-space (online)?

 And then there's the fact that There are disadvantages to scale:

• you get caught up in feeding the machine (Kate gave a wonderful example of the sort of things that take up your time in a major publishing house: like remembering to ensure that the dead pidgeons are flushed off the roof of the warehouses on a regular basis and before they decompose into sludge and fall through the roof onto the books!) 
• different parts of the publishing machine not communicating because of the size of the office buildings
• slow decision-making because of the number of management layers involved.

All of which set the scene and explained why Kate, her other half, Adrian Soar, and Camilla Reid decided to set up Nosy Crow.

So What is Nosy Crow?

• an independent publisher, that is small but growing (24 books and 3 apps this year, and 46 books and 8 apps planned for next year)
• publishing children's books and apps only, and very specifically nothing including sex, drugs or alcohol
• new but experienced (Kate and her colleagues have decades of experience between them)
• informal (Kate pointed out that she rarely wears suits these days!) but professional
• producing printed and digital products

 And what matters to everyone at Nosy Crow are what they call The Five Cs:

• Children - Kate wants to know precisely who each book or app is for. So Dinosaur Dig for example if for little boys who like dinosaurs and construction equipment!
• Curating - this is not just a case of sorting out the good from the bad but being seen to do it.
• Connecting - Kate regards this as a major USP. She wants Nosy Crow to be mum-friendly and actively uses social media to reach out to parents and influencers. They have a facebook page and twitter account (@NosyCrow) and Kate blogs regularly on the website, which, incidentally, receives an average of about 600 hits per day.
• Creating - Kate believes publishers need to earn a seat at the creative table. So they don't just publish other people's ideas, they have their own and commission writing or illustrating or even write themselves when they can't find what they want. (Birdie Black is Kate's own nom de plume)
• Collaborating - they want international reach and have signed collaboration deals with Allen and Unwin (Australia and New Zealand), Candlewick Press (US), Carlsen (Germany), Gallimaud Jeunesse (France).

 Kate rounded up her talk by telling us specifically about her approach to apps. She explained that apps should be:

• very child friendly
• designed to be interactive - she is not interested in 'squashing a picture book onto a phone'
• reading experiences and not just games.

Kate summed up her aim for Nosy Crow as wanting to create a compelling reading experience for children regardless of the medium. She accepts that many children read mostly from screens rather than books. This doesn't bother her. For Kate, it is the reading experience itself which is all important. What you read and how you read it is of secondary value, because the life-enriching outcome of reading will be the same either way.

Many of the questions at the end of the talk were concerned with apps and to answer them Kate treated us to a quick run through of Nosy Crow's latest creation, Cinderella. (Here's a taster.) It might have been designed with young children in mind but judging by the oohs, aahs and laughter in the room, it works just as well for adults. So if you've got an iphone, itouch or ipad and the UK equivalent of $5 to spare, you might want to check it out.