Skelton swaps bookselling for children's publishing

Little Tiger has hired Leilah Skelton, currently a bookseller at Waterstones Doncaster, as a publicity and marketing executive.

Lauren Ace, PR director at the children's publisher, based in Fulham, London, said Skelton was a "creative and dedicated bookseller" with a "huge amount of passion for getting books into readers' hands".

"She brings with her unrivalled market knowledge and a unique perspective from outside the London bubble. At Little Tiger we are striving to make books as accessible and inclusive as possible and as part of this we are thinking about how to reach the broadest audience," Ace said. "I feel really excited about what Leilah will bring to the team and how she might challenge us to think differently about how we approach finding readers for our books.”

Skelton, who is well known in the trade through her Twitter posts about books, will leave Waterstones in June and replace Little Tiger’s Beth Ferguson, who is resigning from the company.

On the social media platform,

: “As of 2nd June I will no longer be a bookseller. I’m giving up a job that I’ve given everything to for twelve years. I’m leaving behind a town full of the most wonderful customers. It’s just getting too hard to sell books the way I like to sell books. I’m exhausted too often… And there’s never getting the opportunity to escape the nest on my own because of the High Street’s retail wage.

“It’s either the bravest or the most stupid thing that I’ve ever done. I’ve never been comfortable with taking risks and yet here I am, leaping into something unknown.”

Speaking to The Bookseller, she added: "It pains me to leave it (bookselling), but it feels like a good opportunity to try a new angle."