Adimora launches new publishing consultancy and studio

Nancy Adimora, formerly talent and audience development manager at HarperCollins Publishers, is launching a publishing consultancy and studio called OtherStories, with the aim to help publishers find and publish more stories from underrepresented writers.

Through OtherStories, Adimora will support publishers across various stages of the publishing process, from acquisition to marketing and publicity. Working with a network of community experts and subject specialists, the consultancy will produce monthly insights and trend reports to help editorial teams identify and explore new publishing opportunities.

It will develop commercial ideas through its IP development studio and work with agents to amplify books that are out on submission. It already has a major publisher and key agents on board, with plans to onboard more partners ahead of its full launch in January 2024.

During her time at HarperCollins, Adimora was responsible for leading and developing new acquisition and marketing strategies aimed at deepening engagement with writers and readers from underserved communities. She co-edited Of This Our Country, a collection of personal essays from Nigerian authors including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Yomi Adegoke. 

With Mills & Boon, she developed a new editorial and marketing partnership with Love Island’s Amber Rose Gill. She also brought in books with teams across the business and was instrumental in the creation and allocation of the Marketing Fund, an audience development project that provided additional funding and resources for the promotion of books by Black, Asian and ethnic minority authors across divisions.

Since leaving her role at HarperCollins last year, Adimora has taken on a range of consulting projects with publishers and literary organisations. She serves on the editorial advisory board of Head of Zeus’ Apollo Africa list, and most recently co-curated Africa Writes, a celebration of contemporary African and diaspora literature at the British Library.

She is also the founder of AFREADA, an African literary magazine and in 2020, she was named a Bookseller Rising Star. The following year she was listed as one of the 150 most influential people in publishing.

Adimora said: “I’m delighted to be launching OtherStories. We all want to see sustainable change in this industry, and while writing competitions and mentoring schemes are incredible initiatives, they can only go so far. As an extension of existing publishing teams, we not only help with identifying new writers and stories, but we’re also focused on audience development strategies that guarantee that these books have the best possible chance of commercial success.”

“In many ways the consultancy is modelled after my role at HarperCollins where I was given the freedom to experiment and approach the work from different angles. I left with a renewed appreciation for the constant need to innovate, and I particularly want to thank Charlie Redmayne for his unwavering support and guidance as I transitioned away from my former role and began working on this new idea. Our sole mission is to democratise storytelling.

"The stories are out there, the readers are out there, and I’m looking forward to developing more relationships with publishers and agents over the coming months.”

Adimora can now be contacted at nancy@other-stories.com.