Annabel Karmel signs two-book deal with Bluebird

Pan Macmillan imprint Bluebird has struck a two-book deal with food expert Annabel Karmel.

Carole Tonkinson acquired world rights (all languages) in two new books from Karmel following a deal with Jonathan Lloyd of Curtis Brown.  

Karmel, a supermarket brand for wholesome home cooking, has sold more than four million books worldwide across 43 titles covering every age and every stage of a child's development. She left her publisher Ebury earlier this year to digitally self-publish the Baby-Led Weaning Recipe Book in May through Amazon’s KDP platform, a venture for which the author set up her own imprint, Pindock Publishing. At the time she said publishers could pay authors more generous royalties, particularly for digital sales.

With Bluebird, Karmel will be publishing the first of Karmel’s brand new series Real Food Kids Will Love in June 2018. The book will bring together "healthy fast food" recipes for kids aged one to five with "all the things mums want" - including "15-minute favourites", one-pot cooking for batches, creative ways with leftovers, vegetarian and vegan recipes - and meal planners.

The second, as yet unnamed, title will be published in June 2019. Both books will be published in the US with sister company, St Martin’s Press, who will also publish Karmel's Baby-Led Weaning in the States. 

Lloyd praised Bluebird a "brilliant" publisher and "perfect house" for growing sales of Karmel's books, both in the UK and US, while Karmel said Bluebird shared her vision for ensuring child nutrition for long term health.

“Since publishing my first cookbook in 1991, my mission has never faltered; to give babies and children the very best start and encourage good, healthy eating habits for life," said Karmel. "Eating habits and tastes are formed from an early age, so it’s incredibly important to introduce a good variety of foods at the earliest possible opportunity. Bluebird shares my vision to ensure every child gets the nutrients they need for their development and long-term health, and my fresh, wholesome new cookbooks will certainly put the ‘mmm’ into mealtimes.”

Lloyd said: “I have long admired Carole Tonkinson and more recently the brilliant Bluebird. Annabel and I were so impressed when we met the Bluebird team. We knew that we had found a perfect house in which we could grow the sales of Annabel’s books – here and in the US – to even greater heights.”

Tonkinson said she and the team at Bluebird were "over the moon" to sign Karmel.

“Being a mum to a very fussy eater (we went through a stage where my child would only eat red vegetables!), Annabel’s recipes were an absolute lifesaver," she said. "It is no exaggeration to say that it is a dream come true to work with Annabel creating books for the next generation of mums and kids. I’m so excited to get started on working with the undisputed category queen in this area. It’s not for nothing that Annabel is known as the Princess of the Purees. Her recipes are fabulous and her creativity seems to know no bounds. All of us at Bluebird are over the moon.”