Aimée Felone and David Stevens, former Scholastic colleagues, have co-founded a new children’s publisher, KNIGHTS OF, which will publish commercial fiction for 5 – 15 year olds.
from the press release:
KNIGHTS OF intends to focus on commissioning writers and illustrators from a diverse range of backgrounds. The company also pledges its commitment to a similarly inclusive approach to recruitment. A key imperative for KNIGHTS OF is to actively connect with UK BAME and working class networks and communities.
KNIGHTS OF will operate as transparently as possible in its relationship with contributors, partners and readers. Ensuring its books reach the widest audience possible will be central to the KNIGHTS OF strategy, and it will guarantee a significant minimum marketing spend per title.
KNIGHTS OF will offer unique and immediate access to all sides of the business using online live chat via its homepage (www.knightsof.media). Using this application, anyone will be able to contact the company and get an instant response to queries 9am – 6pm.
The launch campaign includes an online community #BooksMadeBetter (booksmadebetter.com), using social publishing platform Medium. #BooksMadeBetter allows established authors and underrepresented voices to champion each other, offering a safe space for articles, opinions and reviews from across children’s books, ensuring that all contributors are paid.
KNIGHTS OF is open to submissions via its live chat mechanism from today. There are no barriers tosubmitting, both unrepresented and agented writers and illustrators are encouraged but should refer to the submission guidelines on the website.
Felone and Stevens have reached an agreement with independent publisher Little Tiger Group who will support KNIGHTS OF with a broad range of industry
expertise, including design and production.KNIGHTS OF Co-founder Aimée Felone said: “KNIGHTS OF was born out of a frustration with the lack of representative voices and narratives in children’s fiction. With KNIGHTS OF we can publish uniquely -putting our differences first and celebrating them, making it central to our business. The industry fails to publish and hire inclusively enough, we want to give new writers the start they deserve while building a more representative workforce. We are fortunate to have found incredible support in Little Tiger Group, who we have long admired, to help us bring our books to market in 2018/19. Our hope is that industry-wide support will follow, enabling us to go much, much further.”
ACHUKA wishes the venture every success and we look forward to playing our part in helping to promote the books on the new list.
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