The Salariya Book Company

General information

The Salariya Book Company is an independent publishing company based in Brighton, United Kingdom, which publishes children’s nonfiction, fiction and baby books both domestically and internationally. Salariya books are published in the UK through its three imprints: Book House, Scribblers and Scribo. In the UK, an efficient warehouse and sales team is in place to sell books into shops, libraries and schools. Sales are also achieved through book club and promotional markets. Rights are sold globally through co-edition and royalty deals. In the USA, co-editions are created with US publishers, but we also have distribution agreements in place for trade titles and for school library titles.

History

The Salariya Book Company was founded in 1989 by designer / illustrator / author David Salariya as a book-packaging company. In 2002, it started publishing under the imprint Book House and in 2007 launched Scribblers, an imprint designed to develop key learning skills for babies and preschool children. The children’s fiction imprint, Scribo, followed in 2009.

Our books are highly thought of for their design and authoritative texts, as well as the quality and care we take over their production. We publish books for children of all ages and all interests in the following areas: baby books, preschool, early learning skills, information, myths, fiction, graphic novels and art instruction books. Many of the information books published by the company use humour to engage with the reader so that content is anything but dull. We publish books which have a wide age range and some are suitable for adults.

Books

Over the last 10 years, we have published an average of 75 titles per year (UK publications only) and we currently have 415 titles in print (including titles about to be released). The backlist is very strong with titles being rested, revised, refreshed and reissued. Rights have been sold in 41 countries to date. The company owns an extensive art and photographic bank, owning the copyright for almost all of its intellectual property. Concepts for the majority of books are created in-house. The company also buys in titles from UK packagers and foreign publishers.

The most successful book series published under the imprint Book House is the bestselling You Wouldn’t Want To Be (published as The Danger Zone in the UK). There are nearly one hundred illustrated historical and scientific non-fiction titles in the series. Created in 2000, it most of the titles are still in print, with new titles being added every year. To date, nearly 5 million copies have been sold in UK/US editions, as well as rights in 24 other languages. Titles are reprinted on a monthly basis.

Jane Hissey

The Old Bear series of picture books by Jane Hissey have sold over 7 million copies worldwide since the first Old Bear title was published in 1986 by Random House. Most of the titles remained in print continuously until rights reverted to the author in 2009. Alongside the books, Jane has also written a 40 episode model-animation television series of Old Bear Stories which won several international awards, including a Bafta and a New York Film Festival Gold award. Salariya obtained the rights to all Jane’s books and our imprint Scribblers has published anniversary editions of ‘Old Bear’ and new books by Jane. Currently we are creating a new book for 2016 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the original Old Bear publication.

Book fairs

The company regularly attends the London, Frankfurt and Bologna Book fairs. Our custom-built stand was designed so that it can be used in a variety of sizes from 8m x 4m to 4m x 4m. To accommodate many of our long series, both library and display shelving are utilised. The upper panels can be changed and updated to reflect those titles currently being promoted.

Ebooks/Apps/Electronic/Social media

The Scribblers imprint published the first books using Augmented Reality technology in 2010. We have Apps (including sound effects) of our Graphic Novels Frankenstein and Dracula and we created an App of our Book House catalogue as a free download from the Apple Store. Thirty-five titles are currently available as ebooks. Facebook/Twitter/Flickr are updated with new content every week.

Awards

In 2009, The Salariya Book Company was one of three publishers shortlisted for the Independent Publisher’s Guild Children’s Publisher of the Year award. In 2010, the Company saw off Walker Books and Top That! to win the IPG Children's Publisher of the Year award. On three occasions our books were also awarded the Times Educational Supplement Senior Information Book Of the Year: in 1991, 1996 (jointly with Dorling Kindersley) and in 2000. We have had many titles shortlisted for British Book Design Awards and Educational Writers Awards.