Michael O'Mara Books is a small, family-run, privately owned

publishing house Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Established in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 1985, by an American expatriate, Michael O'Mara, a native of

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, and his British wife, Lesley, the company focuses on non-fiction books from autobiographies and memoir to colouring. O'Mara Books won the

Independent Publishers Guild The Independent Publishers Guild (IPG), founded in 1962, is an association set up to support the needs of independent firms in the publishing industry in the United Kingdom, with a current membership of more than 600 companies. The IPG is a not-fo ...

International Achievement Award in 2007 and the Lambeth Made Charter Mark Award for Best Apprenticeship Employer in 2021.

History

Michael O’Mara Books was founded in July, 1985 and published its first book the same year. The company has since published thousands of titles, producing over one hundred and fifty new books a year across three imprints. O'Mara Books' first publication was

Alastair Burnet Sir James William Alexander Burnet (12 July 192820 July 2012), known as Alastair Burnet, was a British journalist and broadcaster, who had a career working in news and current affairs programmes, including a long career with Independent Televisi ...

's biography of the

Queen Mother A queen mother is a former queen, often a queen dowager, who is the mother of the monarch, reigning monarch. The term has been used in English since the early 1560s. It arises in hereditary monarchy, hereditary monarchies in Europe and is also ...

, entitled ''The ITN Book of the Queen Mother'', which topped the 1985 ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' bestseller list. One of the publishing house's most influential publications was Diana: Her True Story by Andrew Morton, the second highest-selling authored work in the UK in the 1990s. The publishing house has established a reputation for high-profile autobiographies and biographies (including ''In Strictest Confidence'' by

Craig Revel Horwood Craig Revel Horwood (born 4 January 1965) is an Australian-British author, dancer, choreographer, conductor, theatre director, and former drag queen in the United Kingdom. He is also a patron of the Royal Osteoporosis Society. Horwood is a jud ...

, and ''My Word is My Bond'' by

Roger Moore Sir Roger George Moore (14 October 192723 May 2017) was an English actor. He was the actor to portray Ian Fleming's fictional secret agent James Bond (literary character), James Bond in the Eon Productions/MGM Studios film series, playing the ...

), innovative humour and non-fiction (The ''Wicked Wit'' series, ''The Good Bee)'', as well as children's books, published under the Buster Books imprint. In 2015, they established LOM ART, an art focused imprint that publishes colouring books, journals and gift books.

Books

Michael O'Mara Books publishes non-fiction books for people of all ages. O'Mara Books has a reputation for publishing autobiographies and biographies, with a list that includes

, Michelle Heaton,

Meghan Markle Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (; born Rachel Meghan Markle, August 4, 1981) is an American member of the British royal family, media personality, entrepreneur, and former actress. She is married to Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, the younger son ...

José Mourinho José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix (; born 26 January 1963) is a Portuguese professional Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player, who is currently the head coach of Süper Lig club Fenerba ...

Billie Eilish Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell ( ; born December 18, 2001) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She first gained public attention in 2015 with her debut single "Ocean Eyes (song), Ocean Eyes", written and produced by her broth ...

and

Harry Styles Harry Edward Styles (born 1 February 1994) is an English singer, songwriter, and actor. His showmanship, artistry, and flamboyant fashion have had a Cultural impact of Harry Styles, significant impact on popular culture. Styles's musical ca ...

. Its other genres include memoirs, colouring books, humour, language, lifestyle and science and TV tie-in books such as ''By Order of the

Peaky Blinders The Peaky Blinders were a street gang based in Birmingham, England, which operated from the 1880s until the 1920s. The group consisted largely of young criminals from lower- to working-class backgrounds. They engaged in robbery, violence, racke ...

'' and ''The World of All Things Great and Small''. The publishing house's successes include Sunday Times number-one bestseller, ''Diana: Her True Story'' by Andrew Morton, published originally in 1998 and re-issued in 2017. It was the biggest non-fiction book of the 90's, going on to sell over 5 millions copies worldwide. Other successful titles and series include ''The Wild Remedy'' by Emma Mitchell, which was featured on BBC's Springwatch and ''Where's the Unicorn?'', an interactive humour title that has sold over 600,000 copies in the worldwide, Lulu Mayo's ''A Million...'' colouring books, established in 2015 and has since published 11 more books into the series, ''I Before E (Except after C)'' written by Judy Parkinson, which was a Sunday Times top-ten title in 2007, the ''How To Think Like'' series, with subjects such as

Stephen Hawking Stephen William Hawking (8January 194214March 2018) was an English theoretical physics, theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author who was director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge. Between ...

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

and

Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder o ...

, Sunday Times bestseller, ''I Used to Know'' ''That'' by Caroline Taggart which sparked a series of the same name looking at maths, geography, English language and grammar and ''Crown of Blood: The Deadly Inheritance of

Lady Jane Grey Lady Jane Grey (1536/1537 – 12 February 1554), also known as Lady Jane Dudley after her marriage, and nicknamed as the "Nine Days Queen", was an English noblewoman who was proclaimed Queen of England and Ireland on 10 July 1553 and reigned ...

'' by Nicola Tallis, which was published to wide praise.

Buster Books

Buster Books publishes picture books and commercial non-fiction for children aged 0 to11. Its successes include ''Dr. Maggie's Grand Tour of the Solar System'' written by Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, ''The Dinosaur Department Store'' written by Lily Murray and illustrated by Richard Merritt and the ''Clever Kids'' series. In 2020 they won the

Blue Peter Book Award The Blue Peter Book Awards were a set of literary awards for children's books conferred by the BBC television programme ''Blue Peter''. They were inaugurated in 2000 for books published in 1999 and 2000. The awards were managed by reading charity ...

with ''Rise Up: Ordinary Kids with Extraordinary Stories'' written by Amanda Li and continued this success in 2021 when they won the same award with ''A Day in the Life of a Poo, Gnu and You'' written by Mike Barfield and illustrated by Jess Bradley. In 2021 they launched the Buster Wellbeing Books with ''Feeling Good About Me'' written by Ellen Bailey and Lesley Pemberton, with the aim to bring mindfulness to children.

LOM ART

Established in 2015, LOM ART is an imprint of Michael O'Mara Books that is dedicated to showcasing the most talented and creative artists. They publish artist-led books for people of all ages, from colouring books to mindfulness journals. Its notable authors and illustrators include Kerby Rosanes, Lulu Mayo, Emma Mitchell, Meera Lee Patel and Andrea Zanatelli. In 2021, they published ''The Kindness Journal'' written by Jaime Thurston, founder of the charity 52 Lives, with a portion of royalties from the sale of the book being donated to 52 Lives.

Sustainability

In 2021, Michael O’Mara Books became a founding signatory of the Publishing Declares pledge in association with the Publishers Association. The purpose of Publishing Declares is to raise awareness of the sustainability issues most relevant to the UK book and journal publishing industry; to aid the discovery of existing tools and resources and to inspire action that results in sustained behaviour change. O'Mara Books also created a green logo to print on the back cover of all new books to highlight the support given to environmental charities. The charities supported include Young People’s Trust for the Environment, Surfers Against Sewage, People’s Trust for Endangered Species, The

London Wildlife Trust London Wildlife Trust is an English wildlife charity based in London. Founded in 1981, London Wildlife Trust is one of 46 members of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (known as The Wildlife Trusts), each of which is a local nature charity ...

, The David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation,

ClientEarth ClientEarth is an environmental law charity, with offices in London, Brussels, Warsaw, Berlin, Beijing, Madrid and Los Angeles. It was founded in 2008 by James Thornton and the organisation's CEO is Laura Clarke. As lawyers and environmental expe ...

, and The Bloom Association.

References

External links

Official siteOfficial Michael O'Mara Books Twitter accountBuster Books official siteOfficial Buster Books Twitter accountWe Support page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Michael Omara Books Book publishing companies based in London