Lucy McCarraher

Lucy McCarraher is an English publisher, writer, mentor and consultant. She is a co-founder of Rethink Press, and founder of the Business Book Awards.
==Early life and education==
Lucy Elizabeth Millicent McCarraher was born Lucy Wagner on 22 October 1954 in London. She was educated at Francis Holland Girls School, Sloane Square, Cranborne Chase School, and Godolphin & Latymer School; and the universities of Liverpool, Leeds and the University of Newcastle, in New South Wales, from which she graduated with a degree in English and Drama. She performed in student drama productions at all three universities and co-ordinated the National Student Drama Festival newspaper in 1974.
She also has a postgraduate Diploma in Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector, specialising in creative writing and literacy.
==Career==
While studying for her degree at Newcastle University, McCarraher founded the magazine Theatre Australia with her then husband, which they produced monthly for eight years. She joined the News team at NBN3 TV as their theatre reporter, and fronted the weekly arts and entertainment programme Review, alongside Lowen Partridge. 
She worked as a freelance journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Vogue and Belle magazines, an editor for Currency Press, for the Australian Film Institute, and was a director and secretary of the Australian National Playwrights’ Conference.
After returning to the UK, she worked as an editor for Methuen, as Harriet Cruickshank’s assistant at Cruickshank Cazenove Ltd Agents, and then joined the independent video and television production company, Lifetime Productions Ltd as director of development, she helped create, script, and was script executive for the children’s television drama series Runaway Bay, which starred Naomie Harris, and children’s environmental series Go Wild!, which starred Chris Packham. In 1994 she wrote several episodes of Rainbow for Thames Television.
 
She subsequently moved into the area of research and consulting on work–life balance for a range of organisations, including Virgin, Microsoft, BP, HSBC, Leeds City Council and the Department for Transport. In 2002 she published her first book, The Book of Balanced Living, co-authored with Lucy Daniels.
In 2004 she entered the novel writing competition run by Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan to establish their book club as part of ITV’s This Morning programme. Although she did not win, her novel, Blood and Water, was short-listed and published by Macmillan as part of its New Writers series in 2006. A sequel, Kindred Spirits, followed in 2008, as did another novel, Mr Mikey’s Ladies. To date she has published thirteen books.
In 2011, with her business partner Joe Gregory, she launched Rethink Press, a hybrid publishing company specialising in business and self-help books, though some fiction and autobiographical books also appear on its list. It supports business owners to plan and create books that establish their authority in their chosen field. Rethink Press publishes around 80 books a year, and is the publishing partner of Dent Global, a company that helps entrepreneurs enhance their strategy and scale up their companies. 
Noting that the awards schemes then available for business books were limited in scope, McCarraher launched the Business Book Awards in 2017. These awards are open to books published by any means, including self-publishing.
On analysing the entries for the inaugural awards, McCarraher realised that only a third of the books entered were by women, and all the winners in the first year were white male authors. In response to this she founded the A Book of One’s Own (ABOO) network in 2019, to encourage women to write business books and to support them through the process. She also published A Book of One’s Own: A manifesto for women to share their experience and make a difference, making explicit reference to Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, and its call for women’s voices to be heard.
==Personal life==
Lucy McCarraher is the daughter of Dame Gillian Wagner, former Chair of Barnardos, and Sir Anthony Wagner, the former Garter King of Arms. She lives in Norfolk with second husband and their two adoptive daughters, and has two sons from her first marriage.
==Bibliography==
* Daniels, L, McCarraher L, The Book of Balanced Living, Spiro Press, 2002
* Daniels L, McCarraher L, The Work Life Manual, Spiro Press, 2003
* McCarraher L, Blood and Water, Macmillan New Writing, 2006, republished Rethink Press, 2018
* McCarraher L, Kindred Spirits, Youwriteon.com, 2008, republished Rethink Press, 2018
* McCarraher L, Mr Mikey’s Ladies, Youwriteon.com, 2008, republished Rethink Press, 2018
* McCarraher L, Shaw A, A Simpler Life, Creative Content Ltd, 2009
* McCarraher L, Shaw A, The Real Secret, Lean Marketing Press, 2010
* McCarraher L, How To Write Fiction Without The Fuss, Rethink Press, 2013
* Gregory J, McCarraher L, How To Write Your Book Without The Fuss, Rethink Press, 2015
* McCarraher L, The WRITER Process, Rethink Press, 2017
* Gregory J, McCarraher L, The Publish Pathway, Rethink Press, 2017
* McCarraher L, A Book of One’s Own, Rethink Press, 2019
* Gregory J, McCarraher L, Bookbuilder, Rethink Press, 2020
Category:English publishers (people)
Category:English writers
Category:British consultants