Four Scottish publishing companies have been awarded almost GB£100,000 by the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Enterprise, through the Creative Industries Company Development Scheme, which was established to help enterprising and ambitious companies expand. Recipients include:

Barrington Stoke – specialists in publishing books for reluctant young readers – which will use its grant to establish and maintain two educational sales representatives to target schools in the central belt in Scotland. This contact will provide creative feedback, establish marketing opportunities and act as an agency for other compatible publishers;

Floris Books – a respected publisher of Celtic studies, science, education and children’s fiction – will use its award of £25,000 to actively commission new writing for children from Scottish authors, with the aim of assuring the future of classic children’s literature in Scotland;

Neil Wilson Publishing, trading since 1992, publishes a range of books covering outdoor pursuits, food and drink, humour, biography, history, reference. Its grant of £12,000 will be invested to ensure continued growth through an innovative and comprehensive Management Information Facility (MIF). The MIF, an IT-based project involving internal and external web-based database engines, will interface with all functions and operations of publishing activity, effectively turning the company into an e-business;

Whittles Publishing is both a technical and a general publisher. A grant of £25,000 will support the planned expansion of the company’s technical and trade list, and the development of an embryonic list of classic Scottish reprints and new titles of merit. Stuart MacDonald, head of arts development at SAC explained, ‘By helping these companies develop, we are growing Scotland’s publishing sector significantly, and simultaneously investing in the writers who will benefit from the commercial back-up they need within Scotland.’ Further information regarding Scottish Arts Council is available on online at www.sac.org.uk