Janetta Otter-Barry Books
Janetta Otter-Barry, long-standing editorial director of Frances Lincoln Children's Books, is to set up her own list under the Frances Lincoln umbrella, starting in April 2009 and working from her home in Herefordshire.
In 1988 Otter-Barry, who had been editorial director at Methuen Children’s Books, was invited by the late Frances Lincoln to develop a children’s list. In 20 years, Otter-Barry has helped establish Frances Lincoln Children’s Books as a multi-award winning publisher, well known for diversity and inclusion. Bestselling titles include Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman illustrated by Caroline Binch, We Are Britain by Benjamin Zephaniah with photographs by Prodeepta Das and We are All Born Free: The Declaration of Human Rights in Pictures, published in association with Amnesty International.
Frances Lincoln Ltd publishes approximately 200 books a year, and has well over 1000 in print, of which the children’s list accounts for about half. The total turnover is around £7 million per annum and it employs about 40 people.
Janetta Otter-Barry Books will produce approximately 20 titles a year, a mix of picture books, information books and young fiction, and will include authors with whom Otter-Barry has been closely associated. The winner of the inaugural Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children’s Book Award, to be announced on 30th April, will also be published on the new list.
Otter-Barry says: "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me. I am so grateful to John Nicoll for giving me the chance to set up my own list and work even more closely with my authors and illustrators, while having the benefit of all the sales, marketing and production expertise at Frances Lincoln. I also particularly look forward to continuing my close collaboration with Judith Escreet, the inspirational Art Director at Frances Lincoln Children’s Books.
The new editorial director at Frances Lincoln Children’s Books will be the highly respected children's publisher Maurice Lyon. Lyon, who is currently working as a senior editor in the company, brings with him wide-ranging publishing experience at Penguin, Lion and Hodder Wayland as well as more recent freelance work at Scholastic and Simon and Schuster. Lyon says: “I am delighted to have been invited to lead development of Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, a list I’ve long admired. I greatly look forward to working with our authors to build on its outstanding reputation for high quality publishing and its commitment to multicultural books.”
John Nicoll, Managing Director of Frances Lincoln Ltd, adds: “I am delighted to be able to give such opportunities to two extremely gifted publishers of children’s books.”
