Michael O'Mara Books is a small, family-run, privately owned publishing house in the United Kingdom. Established in London in 1985, it has established a strong history of publishing biographies. Buster Books is an imprint of Michael O'Mara Books, which publishes children's books.
Their first publication was the Alastair Burnet biography of the Queen Mother Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, The ITN Book of the Queen Mother, which went on to top The Sunday Times bestseller list in 1985. Among their most influential publications is the biography of Princess Diana, Diana: Her True Story by Andrew Morton, which was the second highest selling authored work in the United Kingdom in the 1990s and was published when Diana was alive, creating a furore.
Michael O'Mara Books has established a reputation for high-profile autobiographies and biographies (including, Frances The Remarkable Story of Princess Diana's Mother by Max Riddington and Gavan Naden and in recent years, the bestsellers Anything Goes by John Barrowman and My Word is My Bond by Roger Moore), innovative humour and non-fiction (such as the bestselling I Before E (Except After C), The Timewaster Letters and The Book of Senior Moments), as well as highly commercial children's books published under the Buster Books imprint (The Boys' Book, The Girls' Book and Children's Miscellany 1, 2 and 3 among them).
The Mums' Book and The Dads' Book were both number one bestsellers and spawned a highly successful 'Best at Everything' series which includes books for sisters, aunts, grannies, grandads and others. Foreign editions of books in the series have been published in over 35 territories to date. I Before E was the sleeper hit of Christmas 2007, and has sold over 400,000 copies reaching number three in the Sunday Times hardback non-fiction chart. The follow-up I Used To Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School hit the bestseller lists on publication in June 2008, and the series includes titles on History (Remember, Remember; Divorced, Beheaded Died), Classics (A Classical Education), Poetry (I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud) and numbers (As Easy As Pi).
The Buster Books imprint publishes commercial non-fiction for children. Buster's successes include The Boys' Book: How To Be The Best At Everything. It has sold almost 400,000 copies to date and rights deals have been struck in territories around the world. This book was followed by the number one children's bestseller The Girls' Book, with 320,000 copies sold. The bestselling Girls' Book of Glamour and Boys' Book of Survival, published in January 2008, both made the bestsellers chart, with Glamour remaining there for 16 weeks. The series contributed to Michael O'Mara winning the Independent Publishers' Guild International Achievement Award 2007. The Boys' and Girls' Book range has been expanded to include annuals and doodle books, volumes 2 and 3 of each and a box set.
Buster's range of Doodle books have now sold over 650,000 copies. More information on the titles can be seen at www.doyoudoodle.co.uk where doodles are available to download for free. The series now includes Beautiful Doodles, Designer Doodles, Monster Machine Doodles, Spooky Doodles, Doodle Zoo and many more.