Nosy Crow boosts team with raft of hires

Children’s publisher Nosy Crow is expanding its team as it prepares to turn over £10m for the first time.

Rachel Kellehar will join Nosy Crow team as senior commissioning editor for Non-Fiction and Activity books on 11th September. She will report to the publisher’s m.d Kate Wilson.

Kellehar is currently an editor at Macmillan Children’s Books where she’s been working on fiction as well as non-fiction, and previously worked on the Bloomsbury’s children’s non-fiction list. She has also worked in book production and in music journalism.

Nosy Crow has also promoted Victoria England, who has been with the children's publisher since November 2014, from editor to senior editor, working on non-fiction, activity and novelty books.

The indie publisher has also made a raft of appointments to newly created roles.

It recently hired a design assistant, Magenta Fox, and a sales assistant Maddie Price, who starts today (21st August). Rebecca Mason recently started as a marketing and publicity assistant and Erin Murgatroyd will join as a rights and contracts assistant on 1st September. Nosy Crow is looking to recruit a production executive, a designer for black and white books, both new roles, and a designer or senior designer for full-colour books.

Wilson said that Kellehar had been on Nosy Crow’s “radar for some time”. She said: “We think her fiction experience combined with a robust training in children’s non-fiction make her exceptionally well-suited to today’s changing market for children’s non-fiction, and we look forward to seeing what she does with our activity list.”

Wilson told The Bookseller that the publisher is expanding and diversifying through a bigger office and recent partnerships: “The expansion is due to three things. We moved into our new office [in London's Borough] three months ago and before that, we couldn’t have squashed anyone else in there.

We have started to recruit more in-house roles whereas before we would outsource lots of non-editorial or non-design roles. We are getting a critical mass and think we will turn over £10m this year.”

She added: “We have also slightly increased our list and diversified it into non-fiction and activity books, triggered partly by our partnership with the National Trust which we’re in the second year of and the British Museum partnership which began properly earlier this year.”

Kellehar said: “The children's non-fiction and activity market is rapidly evolving and Nosy Crow are at the forefront of this wave of creative change. I am absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to join such an innovative, inspiring and forward-thinking publisher, and can't wait to get involved in continuing to expand their range of brilliant books in dynamic and exciting new ways.