Nearly two years and 50 books later, a husband-and-wife duo is launching their publishing start-up, Noodle Fuel, at this year’s Bologna Children’s Book Fair. And it’s looking for writers.
Writers looking for a new outlet for their inner child could be in luck. A content consultancy with an enviable start-up team is looking for fiction and non-fiction writers.
“We’ve been growing anxious about the number of children, boys especially, who seem to be more and more turned off reading for pleasure, and distracted by social media and other screen-based leisure activities,” said Mark Walden, author of The Hive novel series, and a co-director at Noodle Fuel, a multi-service publisher that was launched at the height of the pandemic.
Sarah Walden, Noodle Fuel managing director and former COO of The Book People, understands this gap in the publishing market all too well and is set on doing something about it: “We don’t want to say too much about the nuts and bolts of the project at the moment, but we are looking for writers to partner with us. We need writers who understand the importance of mutated sea monsters, high-speed chases and giant robots.”
The start-up publisher is also entering the research and development phase of a “new and exciting project that brings words front and centre for 10 to 13-year-olds”. This has been made possible since receiving a grant from business development service OxLEP’s Go Create scheme for business innovation, which is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund.
What’s Noodle Fuel’s track record?
Sarah Walden told The Bookseller: “We’ve created and sold over 50 books, both children’s and adult, and worked with clients which include Little Tiger, Quarto, Welbeck, Arcturus and Ladybird. We’ve also stayed on top of the commercial side of the business with consultancy for Gardners and The Works, but it is now time for us to publish some of our ideas ourselves.”
The managing director said, “We believe that what Noodle Fuel brings to the party is creativity and a fresh commercial approach. We’re firm believers in the importance of silliness in children’s publishing and that a fun book to read is a fun book to make. We aim to be disruptive and challenge conventions with titles that help little people answer the big questions in an increasingly confusing world.”
What’s Noodle Fuel’s creative and commercial network like?
According to the news report, The Noodle Fuel list will focus on children’s non-fiction and activity books and will collaborate with illustrators including Mr Griff, Luke Newell, Hannah Li, Katie Rewse and Flavio Remontti.
Noodle Fuel has appointed The Rights Solution to handle foreign rights and co-edition sales and its books will be on the Rights Solution stand during the Bologna fair. Compass Sales Agency will be responsible for UK trade and export sales.
The company’s first books will publish in the UK in January 2023 with 23 titles across eight series planned in the first seven months.
Check out the different areas of the publishing process that Noodle Fuel handles here.
Anyone interested in finding out more should contact info@noodle-fuel.com.