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

publishing house Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

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 Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Established in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

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

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, 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-for ...

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, best known for his work in news and current affairs programmes, including a long career with ITN as chief presente ...

'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 u ...

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

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British 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 News UK, w ...

'' 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 best ...

, and ''My Word is My Bond'' by Roger Moore), 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 Roger Moore,

Michelle Heaton Michelle Christine Heaton (born 19 July 1979) is an English pop singer, actress and television personality. She was a member of the pop group Liberty X from 2001 until they announced their split in 2007; they reformed one year later for a smal ...

, Meghan Markle, José Mourinho,

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

and Harry Styles. 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 1910s. The group consisted largely of young criminals from lower- to middle-class backgrounds. They engaged in robbery, violence, rack ...

'' 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 #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

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,

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

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

and Steve Jobs, 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'' 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. The Awards have been 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 (LWT), founded in 1981, is a local nature conservation charity for Greater London. It is one of 46 members of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (known as The Wildlife Trusts), each of which is a local nature conservatio ...

, The David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation, ClientEarth, 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