Thanks Richard. It's true that The Friday Project has struggled in some areas over the last two and a half years and that elements of our business model is anathema to many more mainstream publishers. Industry-wise we have had two main hurdles to overcome; one is the utter confusion that seemed (seems?) to reign when one mentions the words 'Internet' and 'publisher' in the same breath. I was sitting next to someone at an industry lunch in February and she was astounded to discover that we publish 'real' books. 'I thought you just did e-books,' she said. We’d been going nearly two years by then.
That may be poor positioning on our part but I'm not so sure. Things are improving, but there is still much scepticism of the value of the web when it comes to the publishing industry (witness the furore over web/blog book reviews compared to traditional media reviews) and it is a mindset that we find ourselves dealing with a lot.
The second hurdle is the apparent patchiness of our list. When the web is your genre it is hard to categorise, but one way I have tried to introduce some structure to the list is to create imprints. We have Friday Books (for most of our non-fiction) Friday Fiction and Friday Food so far. Friday Crime is launching next year. Some of the imprints will only publish two or three titles in the next twelve months but it is a way of addressing the issue that Richard has correctly flagged as a problem for the sales team.
Business-wise I could go on all day. It has been a very steep learning curve and there have indeed been ups and downs but many of the downs have been addressed over the last nine months or so and although it's been difficult at times, the company has stabilised. I never wanted TFP to be another small independent, growing organically over years and years, and the area in which we are publishing made it even more critical to grow rapidly. We could never have achieved this growth without the support of Pan Macmillan and MDL and I'm looking forward to continuing to work together as our list continues to grow.

Richard,

Great overview of a company I think most people with an interest in how the web is impacting publishing, follow pretty keenly (at least nerds like me anyway).


Eoin

Clare, Interesting thoughts. I've never quite understood why publishers are so obsessed with 'lists'. I do see that there is a relationship between interfacing with booksellers and publishers, in that the trade likes to "know who it's dealing with". However, the public is not quite so tidy-minded and doesn't particularly follow a 'publishers list'. This surely is the great power of the internet to market books out with the genre/list limitations and bookshops that currently exist.

I’m certain that as we become less wide-eyed about the web and more focused on it’s potential to market books then they will be greater sales volume. Book selling needs to be more about marketing than it is about selling.

Jeezh, folks...the web sales are only glorified mail order : plenty of booktrade do millions more through hard-print catalogues than they ever do through on line.

Just because a few demented souls like myself look at the internet, I can assure you that 95% of my customers have not the slightest interest in being marketed to via a screen.

The finest place to sell and market books is in a real bookshop. Richard Havers recently wrote of a visit to Hatchard's and subsequent purchase of "E McKnight Kauffer, Design". In my very rural shop he would also have been offered for sale, from stock, "Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious, Design" as well as "Paul Nash & John Nash, Design". From this week Richard Havers would also have been offered "Festival of Britain 1951, Design".

It's all about "face-to-face" selling product knowledge, not about knowing how to push a few frigging keys, cascading webpages etc.

Clive,

While I would up until a few years ago have agreed with you completely, teh web makes the process of marketing a different game.

For instance, one commentator who I read everyday is a regular recommender of books. I tend to like what he likes. I check his notions on LibraryThing and see if people with a similar taste to my own agree using the social features and reader reviews, then I ask Librarything to search for the book on Book Depository which it does, I click on the book, order it, pay for it an wait for it to arrive.

Recommendations, reviews, ordering and more all online and instream as it were! They are reachable by anyone anywhere, not fixed to single location.

As for face to face, the experience has its downsides but remains a social one nonetheless, just not what I would have expected five years ago.

Maybe I'm one of five in 100 but I doubt the balance will stay that way for more than a decade.

I'm not dissing quality bookshops, I love them, but shopping online is easier and cheaper.

Eoin