Chark Blog - Moaning about publishers

Sunday, August 13, 2006

There's a guy called Gerard Jones who sends emails around the publishing industry about his website. I think he's probably a talented writer. I think he's also extremely assiduous judging by the amount of time and effort he has dedicated to creating a huge database of people in the publishing and related industries. Here's an example of his email style:

EWA, Fifth Edition, September 2006

The Fifth Edition of "EVERYONE WHO'S ANYONE IN ADULT TRADE PUBLISHING, NEWSPAPERS, MAGAZINES, BROADCASTING AND TINSELTOWN, TOO: A Writer's Guide to The All-Pervasive Nazi Propaganda Network" is finally finished. Phew.

EWA (everyonewhosanyone.com) is a free, searchable, 1.2 GB online e-mail and web address directory of around fifteen thousand (15,000) of the most influential ignoramuses in the media, entertainment and academic industries whose perverse job it is to keep themselves and others brainwashed beyond belief. Here's the page you're listed on:

http://everyonewhosanyone.com/eduk.html

During the four years EWA has been online I found a good agent, sold one of my books (Ginny Good), got it published the way I wanted it published and made it into a fifteen-hour, multimedia audio book all on my own. The Audio Book of Ginny Good is easily and by far the single greatest literary achievement of the 21st Century. Listen to it and see. It's free. Like me.

http://everyonewhosanyone.com/ggsyn.html

Or not. Stay safe in your creepy cave with money-grubbing Nazi thought thugs keeping you from reading, writing, seeing, hearing or saying anything worth reading, writing, seeing, hearing or saying. Land of the free, home of the brave, yes...as long as you don't do anything brave or free. Ignorance is bliss, but calling slavery "freedom" is absurd. There's plenty of other worthwhile stuff on the rest of the site, as well. Click some links. Let 'em take you where they take you. Or not.

Finally, if you don't want me to send you any more e-mails, let me know and I will gladly put a little mark (666) by your name to remind me not to send you any more e-mails. Thanks. G.

Gerard Jones
http://everyonewhosanyone.com/audio/GGch00introm.mp3

Why does he do it? Making enemies can't be the best way to help his efforts to be published. He can't make money from it (or can he?). Perhaps it's a way of creating a community of like-minded people. He seems to think there is a conspiracy among publishers to avoid new talent, to promote rubbish and in general to do a very bad job. All this might be true but I'd like to reassure Gerard and anyone else who thinks similarly that there is no conspiracy - it is merely incompetence. Perhaps the publishing industry should adopt a mission statement - WE'RE DOING OUR BEST.

Having posted this I went to get my weekly fix of book browsing - in an independent bookshop - all right, not that independent, the Pan Bookshop. I picked up a copy of Bad Faith by Carmen Callil. It is history of the guy in the Vichy Government responsible for 'controlling the Jewish population' in Southern France. I haven't read it yet but it is clearly a work of scholarship about a fascinating period of French history. It must have taken the author years of research, tears and trouble to produce this 600-page treatise. It is beautifully designed and produced by the team at Jonathan Cape, part of Random House UK, part of Random House Worldwide, part of Bertelsmann Media Worldwide. The book's audience is clearly not mass market and yet, in spite of the consolidation, gloabalisation and commercialisation of the industry it has seen the light of day and found a market ( I bought a copy and so, according to the bookshop manager, have another forty people, helped by a signing session).

Alongside this book were hundreds (possibly thousands) of similarly excellent titles - a great range, beautifully produced, idiosyncratic but tailored to the local market - at great prices. Bad Faith was £20 in hardback which elsewhere in the Fulham Road in London buys a bunch of asparagus, 100g of Brie and two glasses of wine. The point of this is to suggest that maybe (just maybe) the industry is doing a great job and is getting better by becoming more professional and more market-aware. If so, then perhaps a little credit should go to the dedicatee of Bad Faith - 'To PBH' - Paul Hamlyn who, extraordinarily does not have a Wikipedia entry and so you'll have to make do with a link to one of his legacies - another reason to be cheerful.

8/13/2006 1:57:30 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Mention of Pan Bookshop reminds me that one of its old boys - Jonathan Main - has had some decent media publicity for his South London bookshop - The BookSeller Crow.

A list for today's Sunday Independent, Radio 2 interview, coverage on BBC News website this week etc : all prompted by the fact that vibrant bookshops are an important part of the community and able to use their powers of persausion to work wonders in the corporate world - in this case petitioning for the productive filling of a void Safeway supermarket building (by Sainsbury's)

further details - including words of congratulations - can be addressed via the following link

http://booksellercrow.typepad.com/the_bedside_crow/

Clive Keeble

8/13/2006 6:58:24 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

if you can get beyond his hyberole and resentment toward agents and editors because of the hundreds of rejections he suffered and what he perceives to be inadequate interest in his work, his website has actually been very helpful to hundreds of writers looking for names and addresses that would otherwise be tough to obtain in one place.

Some in publishing may view Gerard as an easy guy to hate but his Robin Hood-esque way of stealing (addresses) from the annointed and giving freely to the poor has won him a fair amount of support from those who utilize his site.

existential man

8/13/2006 8:05:50 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

I have lots of good stories about Paul Hamlyn, who was the nicest guy.

This comes from the days when he was agitating for the end of the net book agreement and I was at Waterstone's and owned by WH Smith. Paul knew better than anyone how stuffy Smith's were and that there was a board meeting this day at which I would be one of the most junior attendees.

Few people (maybe Robert Maxwell was another) could have got a phone call past the secretaries through to the Board room during the meeting. Paul was one and he also knew that the only person who would take a call was the Chairman of Smiths.

"Hi, Simon" he said "It's Paul"

"Hello Paul"

"Put me on to Tim Coates" he said. The chairman was so surprised he nearly fell off his chair. But he was basically a gentleman and with the look of a member of Lords members' room when a lady has walked in, he said "Paul Hamlyn wants to speak to you." I was way down the end of the table among the rats, and had to walk up to pick up the phone.

"Where are you?" said Paul and he knew that Sir Simon and Sir Malcolm could hear every word.

"In a board meeting" I can only have been mumbling.

"I'm on the balcony with a large glass looking over the bay" he said. "Tell them we're going to go non-net" (which meant that Octopus publishing were abandoning the net book agreement- it was the major move that in the end brought the NBA to its knees)

"Do you want to tell them?" I asked him (he knew that I agreed with him as and this was the right thing to do- but it that Smith's had put up a huge fight to prevent it happening and protect their own profits)

"No," he said "You tell them." And he put the phone down.

The look around the table was a picture. I think that moment cost me my job- but it was worth it to see those faces.

And that was the end of price fixing!

Tim Coates

8/13/2006 8:28:41 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

I don't think anyone hates Gerard and certainly no-one that I know of minds his publishing names etc. Actually nonbody gives a damn about him.The question is why does he bother?!

Richard Charkin

8/14/2006 10:02:43 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

I give a damn about Gerard. His site is great and enabled him to have his book, Ginny Good published (after a long and painful pitching process). He's utilising his right to free speech on the web and at the same time creating an invaluable resource for many people. I regularly direct hopeful authors to his site so that they can pitch their proposal more effectively to a real person rather than a department within a huge company.

clare

8/23/2006 4:46:27 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

A fair point, one that I agree with wholeheartedly:

"All this might be true but I'd like to reassure Gerard and anyone else who thinks similarly that there is no conspiracy - it is merely incompetence."

That I agree might not be surprising given that I am an author. But it is a truly staggering admission from a publisher.

Sebastian Shenanigans

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