Puffin Reshaping

The new look that has been expected since Francesca Dow took over at Puffin this past January is now taking shape. Dow's first move was to hand over the development of the backlist and the repositioning of the Puffin brand to marketing director Elaine McQuade. In May more changes were announced following the departure of Penny Morris as publishing director, fiction and picture books. Dow has made two appointments to replace her. The new job of fiction publisher will be filled by Rebecca McNally, currently senior children's editor at Macmillan Children's Books. Dow has also appointed a deputy art director, recruiting Anna Billson from her previous company, Orchard Books. Billson, who with Dow worked with illustrators such as Lauren Child and Jane Simmons, will develop the picture book list. From within the company, Sarah Hughes, who has worked with new Puffin authors such as Eoin Colfer, has been promoted to editorial director for fiction.

While Puffin's reputation as the brand leader in children's books in the U.K. has remained intact, it has recently lost out to others as a publisher of new talent—with the obvious exception of Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl, which has sold in excess of 100,000 in hardback in the U.K. Over the last decade, the backlist has suffered as more companies now run their own paperback imprint. Rather than nurturing new talent, Puffin has recently been taking up authors from other lists, such as Lesley Howarth and most recently Brian Jacques.

Dow is keen to change the emphasis of the list, stressing the importance of new talent in the heated fiction market. "We have a large market share but most of that is through the backlist," she said. "We want to grow that share by being the most creative and successful frontlist publisher, too. The more focused structure of separate fiction and picture book editors will make it possible for us to achieve that."