Marion Boyars' Australian adventure

Not that any of us are actually going. There is, however, a web page. The people who are going are Clotilde Dusoulier and Maureen Freely who will be attending the Perth writers festival. Both are getting good reviews already which for a writer would I imagine be the best kind of welcome. And then there's Rhyll McMaster, who is of course, lives there and already got great reviews . Which reminds me, I should do an author page for her.

And for Pauline Kael who, fruit bat* eared listeners will have heard lauded on the Today programme this morning as one of the great critics in times past. The point of the interview being that there are no great critics in times present. The fellow speaking (I'm afraid that I didn't catch anyone's name, except for Pauline Kael's and Kenneth Tynan come to think of it, because I was brushing my teeth**) seemed to be suffering from that peculiarly contemporary fear that wot wiv that internet and all this dummingdown, our culture is getting diluted. 'Where are the heroes of criticism? Without them who will keep the barbarians gated?' He didn't but might have lamented. But then the other fellow he was talking to reckoned that these hero-critics had never had much sway outside of ivorniversity and that this species still flourishes in its natural habitat. For the little it's worth I think that there's still plenty of great critical writing out there and if there's one thing that the internet definitely has done it's been to make it easier to find...perhaps it's just that it has become more difficult to make a living as a critic. But then there are a lot more literary festivals, talks etc. than there ever have been Isaywithnoevidencetobackitup.
Anyway, the point is that Pauline Kael was a great critic; accessible, important and widely read so she should definitely get an author's page.

Kit

*is there an animal famous for its hearing? I chose fruit bat because they have big ears and the whole echo thing.
** very definition of too much information.

newbooknewbooknewbooknewbooknewbooknewbook

It's an absolute pleasure to welcome Rhyll McMaster to our list - her first novel Feather Man is absolutely fantastic. If you read some of the reviews from Australia you'll see why we're so pleased to have found it. But I am not the person to talk, hopefully Cathy will be able to say a little more when she's not so busy.

But at the moment she is so I guess you'll have to make do with me. Who is very pleased at the moment, having discovered that if one uses mozilla firefox as their browser they don't have to type in the html code for each link manually. This is going so quickly! And speaking of links look there, on the right hand side, we've finally got some. Not having them was a real oversight, the blogosphere equivalent of turning up to a dinner party without a bottle of wine.

Two exciting new blogosphere discoveries that you'll find there are booklit and Vulpes Libris, excellent the both of them.

It's probably fair to say that there's not much that The Mail on Sunday and The Morning Star agree on, but we've found something:

Yes, a press cuttings envelope arrived this morning containing a favourable review from each organ for This May Help You Understand The World. You can read them here . There couldn't be better confirmation that Lawrence achieved the middle ground he was going for.

There was also a nice mention of it on Tuesday from BoringBlackChick .

This is more or less where we were on Sunday night. Underneath these actors' feet is the same red carpet that we walked along on the way the the premiere of Sleuth , tickets for which had kindly been givn to us by Paramount as publishers of, well, Sleuth by Anthony Shaffer. I believe I'm right in saying that it was a first red carpet experience for all involved. Each of our faces was duly scrutinized and then disregarded as un- (but hopefully not in-) famous, and we were not, for similar reasons, allowed to linger, blow kisses to the crowd or sign autographs. Once one has left the red carpet behind, going to a premiere is much like going to a regular cinema except you're not allowed to buy popcorn (packets are provided on the seat but it's just not the same. Having said that, my date still busied herself stealing more from other seats once she had finished her own), there are no adverts or trailers and the lead actors, producers and director all get on stage to thank you personally for having attended. I think that this should happen more often, especially at the places where one is allowed to buy popcorn but must take out a mortgage to get their hands on it.

And the film? I think I speak for the office when I say that we thought it very good - different from the original but similar enough to make each of us grab a copy to read and compare afterwards...

Kit

Don't Forget!

Lawrence Potter will be appearing at the Peckham Literary Festival fro a Q&A session this evening at the Review Bookshop . Begins 7:30.

Excitement in the office this morning, tho' I can't yet say any more. This, coupled with my fiveish cups of coffee had made me rather jittery by midday and there's nohing better for calming the nerves than a spot of indexing .



Are there any rules for what you can and can't include in an index? The previous one that I did was pretty straightforward; words like 'George Bush' went in and words like 'and' were left out. The book this time is Horribly Awkward and is posing more difficult questions. For instance, I decided that I would only include 'real people' (I think that phrase should always be between inverted commas) and not characters. But then come challenges to the dogma: I'd ideally like to include Royston Vasey, How could one leave Homer, Marge et al. out from the index of a book on contemporary comedy? And is there really going to be an entry marked thus: 'Brown, Roy Chubby p.67'?

Whatever decision we make, it's going to be a long index. Comedians, you see, do not, sit happily in their own chapters like good little boys and girls but keep popping up in each others' spaces. Then there are people like Simon Pegg and Rob Brydon who don't have chapters of their own so just seem to muscle in on everyone else's...

In other news, I've begun my search for the best edition of 1001 Nights . Which is proving a lot of fun - that last advisedly, I'm aware that this might not be everyone's idea of amusement - I rarely get to walk into bookshops in civilian mode. Indeed, I didn't this time either, so quickly: Foyles is great because it has loads of our European writers in its fiction section, Blackwells Charing Cross is great for making The Bookaholics' Guide one of its Christmas picks and Waterstones Putney similarly, because it has lots of The Flea Palace and Chocolate and Zucchini .

But back to the 1001 nights - it seems that there's three major translators: Antoine Galland, the man who introduced the stories to the West, Richard Burton, who was not, as I thought for a tantalising moment the same Burton who wrote The Anatomy of Melancholy but is still pretty gosh darn interesting and Husain Haddawy, who is , I think, contemporary. Oxford World Classics do the former (The first English translation of the former, I mean), Penguin the latterish and Everyman the latterest. There is also a version of the Burton with an introduction by AS Byatt by Random House. Oxford World Classics is the only complete text the other two are 'Tales from' but are still pretty hefty. The problem is, I had imagined that there would be a deluxe edition with pictures so that if I were ever to play a favourite uncle role, I would be able to stop during the narrative and ask 'does anyone want to see the pictures?' ...

Another week another party, this time the Sebald lecture , which, along with the Independent Foreign Fiction prize is the most high profile literature in translation event of the year. More on that further down.

News first:

The Bookaholics' Guide to Book Blogs is due another round up:

Peter Stothard (Literary editor of the TLS) used it to read up on Sherlock Holmes sites among other things, Bookseller Crow on The Hill has been selling it , it has been mentioned by librarians here and here , and perhaps most excitingly of all, it has been reviewed on the Complete Review without a grade . I await confirmation that this is a first.

and also

A new author page for Ivan Illich .

Back to the party. It began with readings from six prize winners from all across the world, I especially the one that won the Rossica prize but they were all excellent and the thing about the Purcell room in Queen Elizabeth Hall is that the seats are actually quite comfortable so one could listen to six readings quite happily.

Then came the Sebald lecture itself, this year given by Marina Warner . It was splendiferous, bouncing around between the work of Sebald itself, 1001 nights, via inanimate objects, talismans, the Pitt Rivers museum and a talking umbrella. I'm pretty certain that at one point I saw sparks flying. It also inspired me to a new project: I don't own a copy of 1001 Nights and it's one of those books one should have, if only to leave to a favourite nephew in their will. So in the run up to Christmas I shall spend a portion of my weekends dedicated to finding the very best edition - booksellers beware - I fully intend to be one of THOSE customers...

Kit

I left the office on more of a cliff hanger than I meant to last night – when I came into the office this morning I was looked at expectantly: a prize won perhaps? Or a great deal with a major chain? No, the answer is more prosaic:
I had just begun to edit a really good book.

But first thing's first, yes I was allowed in to the Paramount offices but no, they did not mistake me for an actor. More of a delivery boy, which is what I was as I meekly left my package at reception. Although if Hollywood action movies have taught us anything it's that there is always a very good chance that the person manning the reception desk of an office building at night is not, in fact, a security guard but an international terrorist so I suppose that being meek and quick was exactly the thing to do...

But back to the really good book . It is, as those who just followed the link will already know, The Streets of Babylon by Carina Burman as very recently translated by Sarah Death and it is an absolute joy to work on.

The Streets of Babylon ( Which was contracted quite a while before I arrived at MB and about which I knew very little) introduces us to Euthanasia (She would have preferred Ariadne or Malvina) Bondeson, successful Swedish novelist, soon to be amateur detective and a wonderfully infuriating narrator, as she and her beautiful companion Agnes arrive in London for the 1851 Great Exhibition. She is a properly top drawn character, as engaging as anybody I've read in contemporary fiction recently. Whether she is admitting her own frailties:

'I can reveal to my dear readers my difficulties in finding my way in strange cities. Even in Stockholm, my hometown, it is not always easy. I am neither inattentive nor stupid, but my surroundings spin like a cogwheel in my head. I presume it is all to do with the rotation of the Earth.'

'Words are a necessity for my comprehension of the world. That is why I talk a lot'

or describing English foibles:

'Perhaps the explanation for this interminable tea drinking is the possession of so many colonies, whose economy one wishes to support. '

She's just marvelous.

Of course Euthanasia can't take all the credit, the author Carina Burman and the translator, Sarah Death should probably take some. They've produced a text that seems to me to have just the right measures of scholarship - the book apparently owes a lot to the work of the 19th century Swedish writer Frederika Bremer who both Burman and Death revere and on whom both have written academically – and entertainment – it's pacy and funny.

Anyway, I can rest happy this weekend because I know that I've got old (but still 'slender and agile') Euthanasia to get back to.

Kit

I've had a fantastic day today but more on that later, first more news:

The, yes you've guessed it, Bookaholics Guide to Books Blogs received ANOTHER review: this time in a rather well written review by Peter Carty ('elsewhere in the blogosphere, the pixels are more mixed') as The (daily) Independent's Tuesday Book . It's surprising that The Independent is the only paper that has a book review every day, I know even before I entered the biz that I always used to read it, being situated right next to the 'Days Like These' section.

(In a faux California accent) In entertainment news this week two adaptions of Marion Boyars books are to be playing in London. Sleuth by Anthony Shaffer has been adapted by Harold Pinter for the screen and will start Michael Caine (Who played the younger part on stage years ago) and Jude Law (who is apparently the next Michael Caine). There is a rumour of tickets to the premiere so it would seem that one of the things this company does is run in to Jude Law (see blogs passim). This is the film's page .

The other adaption (I refuse to believe that 'adaptation' is a word) is of The Investigation by Peter Weiss by a Rwandan Theatre Company at the Young Vic which looks absolutely brilliant.

I am actually running off to deliver some copies of Sleuth to Paramount as prizes. The other members of the office don't think I'll be let in the door and my protestation that I look like an actor were met with stifled laughter. We shall see.

Oh dear, I suppose that I'll have to delay the explanation of my joy for later. The nature of it is such that I should be similarly excitable tomorrow.

Kit

A thread I cannot resist quoting - it is from the Forum on www.chocolateandzucchini.com which is Clotilde Dusoulier's food blog. This discussion started in May 07 but I have only just found it - but it warms the heart of a publisher who spent a whole year at the London College of Printing (after my degree - it was a course you needed 3 'O' Levels to join - which betrays not only my age but my enthusiasm for learning about print and book production in detail) - and who was the main type designer for the English edition of Chocolate and Zucchini!

Hi,

Could anyone tell me what font is used in the text of Chocolate and Zucchini? The book is beautifully designed, and the font is particularly interesting. I just can't seem to find it anywhere.

My boyfriend spent some time on the internet trying to figure it out, to no avail. Theories involve Scalla, Perpetua, or Joanna, but those don't seem quite right.

Thank you.

-Perrie

Birgit replied from Germany:

... as a typographer I can't resist to answer this question

In the GB edition it's Bembo, a good old classic book typeface, dating back to the middle of the 15th century; combined with Myriad, a humanist sans serif typeface, released in 1992.

... and this means that I've got my copy of the book just today, yay!!

In the GB edition there are several fonts. The French name of the dish is printed in "Bembo" (serif typeface, see link below), the English name in "Myriad" (sans serif typeface, see link below). The pages to introduce sections use a script font for the french name of a section (printed in "Scriptina", which is the font Clotilde uses for "Zucchini"), followed by "Myriad" (set in Caps for the english section title). The French recipe name is set in "Bembo italic" (see link below), followed by the English recipe name set in "Bembo".

*** a little excursion on typefaces and typography ***

It's all about small details, that's why it's a bit tricky to find out, but these details are fun

Liberally you can say that there are two main groups of typefaces. Those with and those without serifs. Serifs are the little "feet" at the end of a letter as in Bembo. Myriad is a sans serif typeface, i.e. there are no serifs attached. And nowadays there generally is an additional italic version also. Sometimes this is a "real" italic (i.e. with some letterforms different from the upright version), sometimes it is just a slanted and then optically adjusted version of the upright letters. Here you can see examples of Bembo italic and Myriad italic.

msue wrote:
Any ideas why it is so important?


Type contains and transports a great deal of our cultural heritage. "Bembo" is a good example for this because it's more than 600 years old and we still use these special and slightly quirky figures to set books with it which are a pleasure to read! There have been technical changes concerning the methods of setting type, but the forms of the letters and their appearance on paper are still largely the same.

Another reason why typefaces are that fascinating lies, in case they're well chosen, in the harmony of form and content. An adequately chosen typeface should visually translate and, at its best, indiscernibly enhance the content of a given text. Even if you can't exactly say why you can somehow "feel" if a typeface is appropriate to the content or not. Just imagine "Bembo" used on a street sign or, on the contrary, a novel set in the typeface you see on motorway signage. It will lead you, at first sight, unconsciously to a totally different option for the interpretation of the coming content.

There are interesting ornamental things you can do with single letters, like those presented by the above link to Scott Kim. And in case you want to take a closer look, there is a historical element as well. As soon as you start to study this subject a little closer, you'll see more and more differences, which might be tiny but more clearly recognizable as soon as you see several lines of text. And be cautious, some people say typography is a virus (although not a bad one ...)

Catheryn, and with thanks to Birgit!

It seems to me that the first chapter of If On a Winter's Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino would be the perfect opening post for a literary book blog*.




Which is a rather oblique way of going on once again to talk about The Bookaholics' Guide to Book Blogs which got a review in this week's Independent on Sunday . And a nice one it is too, beginning 'Marion Boyars is, by all accounts, one of the UK's more free thinking publishers...' Thanks to all those who accounted us such. I like it: it makes us sound like the kind of people who might just decide to put all our commas before the phrase, full stops at the top of line and vertical hyphens everywhere. The review goes on to highlight the extracts from Dovegreyreader as particularly good and quite right too.



More good news comes from Gourmet magazine who have made Chocolate and Zucchini one of their books of the year, which is a pretty big deal. I also like the magazine's web address : epicurious.com. Our congratulations to Clotilde over in Paris, if she's not too busy we hope to be able to arrange some signings over there soon. Unfortunately there is no online link to the text of their books of the year section so this is as much info as we've got at the moment. We'll put the full text on the web page when we get it.

Having spent the last few weeks complaining about early christmas adverts I spent much of today designing, printing and mailing our own. How's about this for diverse?
This May Help You Understand The World
Last Exit to Brooklyn
The Devil in the Flesh
The Bookaholics' Guide to Books Blogs

Something for everyone madam? I'd say so.

Almost lastly: Apologies to anyone who tried to get to Riverbend's latest blog and couldn't through the link from this one. I don't know why it directs back onto itself - the link was to the right address. Anyway, one can copy and paste:
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/


*What a great book this is, I'm ashamed to say that I haven't read it before. It was gift from the same friend who, upon hearing that I'd started working in publishing gave me New Grub Street . This is much happier BUT I would say that if you like this then you MUST read some Julio Cortázar (MB author page coming soon), he has a similarly playful but brilliant conception of literature. Try All the Fires the Fire for starters.

Kit

There is a new post by Riverbend telling how the family joined the 1.5 million Iraqis now living in Syria. Go read!


Kit

It's always the same, you wait for a while for a publishers' night out and then three come along at once.*

First was drinks at my previous employ . They're currently very excited about a forthcoming Mervyn Peake book which sounds like it'll be great.

Second, was of course the launch of This May Help You Understand The World . It was also technically the launch for The Bookaholics' Guide to Book Blogs but if I say that the shrinking violets with whom I work saw to it that they brought five copies of the latter compared to seventy of the former plus ten of his previous book, Mathematics Minus Fear then you'll see that, the way they saw it, the night was really supposed to be about Lawrence. And, after a train and bus ride involving much lugging of books and one minor, accidental assault with an electric bass we discovered that we'd lucked out with our choice of venue. The Betsey Trotwood comes highly recommended; not only is it a lovely, atmospheric pub with a good selection of drinks and plenty going on all the time but bar staff went out of their way to help. Even to the extent of giving me a free drink. This last shouldn't detract from credibility of my previous eulogy, within a couple of minutes of going inside we were talking about having our christmas party there.
So we took our room upstairs, laid the books out and waited, which is always a nervous time for me because if not enough people turn up you always end up feeling a little ridiculous. I needn't have worried; Lawrence, who apparently learned his organizational skills arranging monthly games of rounders, had marshalled a large crowd of well wishers who immediately set about buying books and drinking the bar dry. Although this meant much work for the three of us, it's always worth it, and actually quite satisfying to see such things go down well. Lawrence's speech was delivered with the confidence that you'd expect from a talented teacher and then the whole crowd went off to a restaurant that probably still doesn't know what hit it. Many thanks to all who came.

If you missed out on the evening but still want to hear Lawrence's Tamil Tiger story, not mention learn of his fascination for Loose Women then you can catch him at the Review Bookshop on November 15th where he is doing a Q&A as part of the Peckham Literary Festival .

And thirdly there was a very successful evening at Waterstones Hampstead where they held their second Literature in Translation event. This time there were three translators: Lisa Appignanesi who chaired Len Rix (Who translates the work of Anton Szerb ) and Peter Camiller ( Dumitru Tsepeneag ) . Speaking about their authors and the art of translation in equal measure, the three had fascinating conversation, answered some good questions (Somebody always asks if there's such a thing as an unstranslatable text and someone always answers Finnegan's Wake. Always) and those that wanted to wandered off to the pub. Basically to talk about similar things, but, as is perhaps appropriate to discussions of eastern european literature, with more alcohol. I really recommend going to these nights, they give much needed attention to a whole (literally) world of literature (again, is that alliterative?) that just doesn't get enough of a look in in our insular little isle.

* With apologies for the cliché but getting back from Tuesday night's do, three buses did indeed arrive at the same time to take me home after a long wait. I was so astounded at London Transport's sterotypic ability that I lost my favourite scarf.


Kit

I happily spent a few hours on Saturday reading The Gathering by Anne Enright. So why did I rush out and buy the Booker Prize winner? I heard an interview with the author on Woman's Hour a day or so before the prize, and had a strong sense as I listened that she would be the winner. When the prize was announced (in a two minute item on News at Ten - what a ridiculous way to find out), she looked genuinely astounded, and press quotes later had her say "My boat has come in." I fully believe that neither she nor her publishers (her book was 'called in' which means Jonathan Cape entered two other titles they thought were more likely to be nominated) thought she would win.

It's a fairly grim read, a dysfunctional family with too many children who are mainly a list of names. The main plot events are seen through a key hole, so scarcely full of dramatic drum rolls and action. But the quality of the writing is fine, and her craft as a writer has been refined over several books. It's a triumph for both a writer, and a publishing house that brought out all her books, that she has won a major prize. After all, that is what prizes should be for - not to award the already famous, but to bring new writers to the attention of a host of readers.

I felt I had bought a book by a really worthy winner, someone who would enjoy the thought of every new reader as a genuine boon. So I also have a warm glow as I read - knowing if she had not won, there is hardly any chance that I would have been reading her book this weekend.

The news at the start of this week seems tailored to prick up MBP ears

The brewing diplomatic fracas between the US and Turkey. has of course special relevance for us. It seems that Democrats in the US congress have voted to declare the supression of Armenian peoples by the Turkish government during the First World War an act of genocide. If the gesture seems fairly meaningless to western eyes, it's seen rather differently in Turkey where, of course, Elif Shafak was arrested for having her characters in her latest novels discuss the issue. It's worth repeating: fictional characters having a discussion. Better news from Turkey is that the government is considering repealing the notorious Article 301 that prevents 'Insulting Turkishness' under which Elif was prosecuted. For an insight into the US's checkered relationship with Turkey Enlightenment by Maureen Freely is well worth a go.

There's a quote from Lao Tse:
'A leader is best when people barely know he exists'
which seems particularly apt when considering the 17th Chinese National Party Congress . Those confused by the apparent lack of a recognisable leader since the death of Deng Xiaoping could do a lot worse than pick up a copy of This May help You Understand The World and turning to the chapter 'How Do You Know Who is Charge in China? Which explains the situation rather well.

And just so don't think it's all frontlist, Radio Four is doing a particularly good series on the history of music. The most recent episode mentioning Stockhausen - who is of course one of our authors .

Kit

So review copies of the Bookaholics' Guide were sent out a couple of weeks ago and there's been plenty of blogosphere response. I thought I'd round up some of it - hopefully there'll be a few printed press reviews at the end of the month too.

Dovegreyreader was unsurprisingly one the first off the mark, joined by Baroque in Hackney , and the inimitable (I think that I've called him that before and I'm not at all sure that it's appropriate, I'll ask someone intelligent . . . [later] Well Mr Shorter says that it means 'incapable of being imitated' or 'surpassing or defying imitation', not to be confused with 'inimical' which means 'hostile' and was invented in 1513. So, yes inimitable stays) Mark Thwaite , and the good people at 3AM Magazine , all of whom seem pleased that they were mentioned.

Then there were industry figures Richard Charkin and Girl Friday who both took issue with the use of the apostrophe, thus raising the indignance levels in the office from 'low' to 'quite'.

Next there was an article by A Stevens on the Guardian website and a pretty mixed one by Fiction Bitch both of which had some great commentary (this last seems better written than 'comments').

And that's it so far I think. But the official pub date has not yet been reached.

Yesterday, I said that I'd put up some links to literary events going on. But then I remembered that it's the Frankfurt Book Fair and that this would be better done when it's over. Odd that I forgot really, given it's why I've had no-one to talk to all day . . .

Kit

The launch party for both This May Help You Understand The World and The Bookaholics Guide to Book Blogs will be held from 6-9PM on Tuesday 23rd October at

The Betsey Trotwood
56 Farringdon Road
London EC1R 3BL

all welcome.

AND congratulations to Doris Lessing! The nicest Nobel Prize winner that this humble publishing assistant has ever met. A truly brilliant woman (Doris Lessing, not the hpa.)

A round up of criticism of the book blog book and others to come tomorrow as well as what we hope will be an interesting new feature: a guide to literary events going on over the next week. It would happen now but I'm being unfairly mocked for the way I type, what's RSI anyway?

Kit

A new look for the website!

Which is why the blog has been quiet yet again. At the moment it's still fairly simple because I'm learning and it ain't a small task - your html is not an intuitive beast and our website is not small. There's much more info than many of the big publisher's websites, and a far more interesting backlist tho'onedeossayitthemself. AND a funny little man:



Who has become my friend through the process of {[double click/special/template/apply new template/save and upload] x1000 not to mention the little adjustments that each page seems to demand, the oftentimes when it doesn't work and the one time when everything disappeared} redoing the whole thing.

As for evidence of my gluttony for punishment my previous self elected job was changing all the ISBN numbers from ten to thirteen in our catalogue - when is someone going to blame 'the decline of publishing' about which we hear so much on this patently unlucky industry standard?

There are many more goings on: the travails of two books approaching their pub dates in a country without mail, online discussion of the Book Blogs book and more but that's it for this evening.

Kit

A first mention in GQ Magazine for This May Help You Understand The World by Lawrence Potter. A book that contains my first ever index. It's not really legible in the picture but GQ calls This May . . . 'fun' and also mentions the chapter about George W. Bush's intellect (Is Bush Actually Stupid?) discovering Lawrence's perhaps surpising finding that Mr Bush scored just as well or better at school/university than predecessors and political rivals. Although anyone persuaded by this info to begin looking at the 43rd president of the United States in a new light might be put off by the article immediately above it rating politician's most famous jokes. Orators such as William Hague and Michael Howard score highly whilst the president's featured piece was an impression of a woman whose execution he authorised whilst Governor of Texas: '"Please" he cried in mock desperation, "don't kill me"'. He received 0/5. There's no doubt about his importance though; he's one of the top three listed in my firsteverindex.

We've also sent out review copies of The Bookaholics Guide to Book Blogs . We hope that people enjoy it and send apologies to those who weren't included but feel they should have been. I've already fielded one or two queries so replicate here what I said to them:

Thanks for your email, it seems that you're one
> > of what will inevitably be a list of people
> > disappointed not to have been mentioned. And this
> > before we've even sent out a single review copy.
> > The Bookaholics Guide never set out to be a comprehensive who's
> who
> > of literary bloggers but is a
> survey
> > of a fascinating phenomenon. Many very good
> writers
> > have been left out and I'm sorry that you were one
> of
> > them – the bloggers that are there were included
> > either because they seemed representative of
> > particular kind of blog or movement or because a
> > certain piece served to illustrate a point made in
> the
> > book. Certainly many of the blogs that are
> mentioned
> > have links to other blogs and the book generally
> can
> > only encourage more people to seek out the best
> blogs
> > around.

Hope that clears things up!

Kit

I thought I would ruminate today about what makes a publishing house survive.

I wasn’t involved in this publishing house until Marion Boyars, my mother, grew ill in 1999, and needed someone to continue the house beyond her death. I had enjoyed a lifetime (well, forty odd years of it) watching her create her house, from the sidelines. The result was a very individual, and often amazingly literary and prestigious, collection of books by the time she passed away. It was worth working hard to keep it going, and I’ll be honest, to remember her by.

But there was also the small question of the debt she left, and which she had worried over, lived with and managed for many years. Making money was not something she paid much attention to. She hoped to sell mass market rights to the large houses, and put right the debt incurred from publishing in hardback. She never did any mass market publishing herself – she thought it was too difficult for a small house to do. And then less than two years after her death, our UK distributor went belly up, and we lost a further £33,000. This was the first of many bankruptcies I have seen in publishing, although it is the one we have suffered from the most.

This is where I thought differently to her. Coming from design consultancies, where very small groups of designers managed the new identity of huge companies (Debenhams, Eurotunnel, Terminal Four, The Co-operative Retail Group, to name just a few) I thought we could do the same in publishing. After all, the large houses are made up of imprints which often have just a few people working in them.

But what about the knowledge that all publishing houses and book related businesses seem to exist on a shoe string (some of them are large shoe-strings, but even huge chains of bookshops seem to dice with debt annually) and a constantly altering cash flow? How do you plan for the future?

Most houses are led by their front list. We have a back list to cushion the blows, but our major successes in the past five, thankfully profitable years (it took over four to get rid of that huge debt), are front list choices. So how do you make those choices?

Well, the healthiest way to go about it, when you find a book you like, it to play devil’s advocate. Rather than thinking, I love this book, the author is funny and nice, the writing superb, how could we possibly go wrong, I think, what could go wrong? Is there a possibility the critics could be snide? Are there books like it on the market? Does the author have too high expectations/livein Darkest Peru/do I know he/she is a recluse who will not turn up at book readings or talk to the press (this is the case more often than you may think)? Will people think we are clever clogs for deciding to publish a very funny book about a suicide shop or an imaginary city which resembles New York but is in fact a reconstruction in a desert (yes, two actual books I considered today which I would have liked to do but which I thought would fall foul of critics comments, sadly).

And why is the publishing business full of so many lovely people who you meet but wonder how they manage to stay afloat? It’s like the dream life, but because of it, there are a lot of books, and lots of people publishing and trying to make a noise about their projects and thus it is really, really hard to have a company which keeps on a financial level footing. I should know, since I watched my mother struggle from the age of three and I am always, always trying to work out a way to be still sailing six months from now.

Posted by Catheryn