Karen Ball launches IP consultancy

Karen Ball, former publisher at Little, Brown Young Readers (LBYR), is launching a new consultancy to help content generators develop intellectual property (IP).

Speckled Pen, based in London, is aimed at publishers, licence and brand owners, app and game developers, and agents and authors who want to develop their book brands. Ball said: “I have helped launch some of the most commercially successful children’s series, fiction and non-fiction, of the past 15 years. My experience with IP and working in-house at a trade publisher gives me a unique set of skills. Publishing is changing rapidly and a service such as Speckled Pen can help join up the dots for any business or creative looking to engage with books.” The consultancy will offer traditional publishing services along with concept development, she added.

Ball left LBYR, which was folded into Hachette Children’s Group in 2015, earlier this year. She developed several brands for the company, including Frankie’s Magic Football, a series fronted by footballer Frank Lampard. Before that she was head of editorial at Working Partners, where she commissioned the bestselling Beast Quest series.