Alanna rebrands for Max impact as co-publisher joins

UK-based independent publisher Alanna Books has rebranded as Alanna Max as a result of Ken Wilson-Max joining the company in the role of co-publisher.

He joins Anna McQuinn (pictured with readers) at the head of the company she launched in 2005 after failing to secure a book deal for her Lulu series of inclusivity-themed picture books.

The company will continue to publish the Lulu series and its sibling, the Zeki series (about Lulu’s brother), which are written by McQuinn and illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw and Ruth Hearson. It also has titles by Jakob Martin Strid, Suzanne Bloom and Margaret Bateson- Smith in its spring catalogue.

Wilson-Max said his priority is to look at how the publisher reaches out to readers. “Lots of our customers don’t go to bookshops. We know that,” he told The Bookseller Daily.

“We want to make it easier for them to find our books and we are going to think laterally. Everyone has to buy groceries, so is there any way to promote or do events where people buy food, for example? We also want to reach out digitally. We know our readers and speak to them on Facebook,” he added. “We want to encourage them to click forward and visit [our] website.”

The Lulu series of books is published by Forlaget Arvids in Denmark, Pallas Editora in Brazil and Massachusetts-based Charlesbridge in the US.