Chark Blog

Putting on the agony

2007-10-22T16:34:30.341+01:00

Richard: you may have left, but the blog lives on - for one more post at least. Due to popular demand we are releasing here the lyrics of the song penned in your honour and performed (OK, that's possibly over stating it) at your leaving party:

Putting on the agony

CHORUS:

Putting on the agony, putting on the style,

That’s what all the publishers are doing all the while,

And as I look around me I’m sometimes apt to smile

Seeing all the publishers, putting on the style.

Charkin in the boardroom, roars with all his might:

‘Cut the discount, cut the cost, then we’ll get it right.’

He sounds pretty serious, as he waves the forecast file,

But it’s only our mate Richard putting on the style

CHORUS

Team of 50 managers trying to choose a jacket

A dozen visuals later, the designer’s bloody knackered.

Change the type, change the pic, spot varnish it as well

Will the punters notice? BAND: Will they bloody hell!

CHORUS

Editor and author at the Savoy Grill

Another glass of champers? Never mind the bill.

The book is not too clever; in fact, it’s pretty vile,

But we’ve paid a bloody great advance, so let’s put on the style.

CHORUS

Post-modern literary masterpiece we must really publish

Zero plot and character, some might say it’s rubbish.

It’ll lose a load of money, can it really be worthwhile?

It’s all saved by the sparkling, elegant prose style.

CHORUS

Publisher and agent, dining at the Ritz:

‘My client’s really famous, he’ll need some special treats:

‘First class flights, five star rooms, will make the darling smile,

He’ll never write another book, but we must keep up the style’.

CHORUS

Academic authorship is totally bizarre

A thousand copy journal is really quite a star.

There’s half a dozen readers and the Editor’s senile

You don’t get paid for writing, but it gives your cv style.

CHORUS

Publisher and agent meet to work out terms

It takes dinner at the Ivy to plan what the author earns.

It’s really very simple, ten per cent is quite worthwhile . . .

Masturbating royalties really makes you smile.

So he’s had a stylish journey through the publishing terrain

And now his time is over, it is really quite a shame.

But Harry’s waved his wand and Bloomsbury ’s balance sheet beguiles,

He’ll spend a lot of money, but he’ll do it all in style.

CHORUS

Pip Pip

2007-09-26T17:52:13.234+01:00

This went out an hour or so ago.Richard Charkin moves on after ten years at Macmillan

26 September 2007 : Macmillan announced today that Richard Charkin will leave his post as CEO after exactly ten years with the company. He will take up a new position as Executive Director of Bloomsbury plc on Monday 1 October 2007 .

Richard commented, “It is exactly ten years since I accepted the job as Chief Executive of Macmillan and it has been the best ten years of my career. I have been able to work in a company with strong values and traditions owned by a family committed to quality, innovation and autonomy.

The decade has seen significant growth in all our diverse areas of publishing and we have been able to do this mainly organically but also with some excellent acquisitions. We are in the middle of a digital revolution and Macmillan has embraced the changes without losing sight of the importance of our authors, our staff, our customers and our history.

This success is down to everyone at Macmillan everywhere in the world. I hope I have been able to contribute to it a bit.”

Stefan von Holtzbrinck, CEO of Holtzbrinck Group, the owners of Macmillan, paid tribute to Richard’s contribution to the company.

He said, “Richard and I joined Macmillan at more or less the same time and from the beginning it was an inspiring, creative and successful relationship. It is a great joy for me, my sister Monika and all of us at the Holtzbrinck Group to see Macmillan thriving in every way which is the result of strong leadership and a loyal and successful team.”

Mike Barnard, who retired from the main board of Macmillan in May after 35 years, will return as Deputy Chairman to maintain momentum until a new CEO is appointed.

What it means is that I won't have to think of something to write about every morning on this blog. Just for the record we've had 1,137,267 visitors and generated $338.37 in advertising income. More importantly I've made new friends, learned tons and had fun. Thanks to all of you and pip pip from charkinblog.

Study Skills

2007-09-26T08:12:40.171+01:00

In the academic and publishing calendar in Britain this time of year is known as BTU (back to university). According to recent research, British students work less than their continental European counterparts. You can read the full report here. I'm sure it is true but I have some counter-evidence.

The highest Macmillan entry in today's Amazon bestseller list is none of the titles from the Autumn bestseller competition. It is The Study Skills Handbook by Stella Cottrell. Maybe British students are learning how to work smarter rather than longer and this book is the key. I certainly hope so because student life without the pub would be a real drag.

I am indebted to David Silverman for this link to one of the most bizarre website ideas ever - everything should taste like bacon. I know what they mean but...

Open access experiment

2007-09-25T07:20:24.875+01:00

Here's an interesting promotional experiment. My friends at Exact Editions have worked with the US reference book company, Berkshire Publishing to make available their huge Encyclopedia of World History free online for a limited period of time. This has happened before with journals - and Nature uses the technique quite frequently but I'm not sure I've heard of its being used for books in any significant way. It will be interesting to see whether this helps or hinders sales. It's even got a mention in Open Access News although the first comment about monographs selling better when made available free permanently seems a bit off the wall to me.

Last week I mentioned the death of Trevor Glover. There have been some excellent obituaries in Publishing News and in The Times.

Got back late from Germany (again) last night. The plane was meant to leave Stuttgart at 7.00pm and arrive in London at 7.50pm. It left at 9.00pm and arrived at 10.00pm. Home by 11.00pm. The crew couldn't understand that the passengers were more interested in getting home for the evening than in the fact that we were terribly lucky to be flying a brand new Airbus. 'It still had the plastic wrapping on the seats' they told us excitedly. That was British Airways. This morning I'll be testing the other great British transport success, South-West Trains to Basingstoke. Will it be on time? Will it be a brand new train? Can't wait to find out.

Second Nature

2007-09-24T08:32:13.218+01:00

There are some (many?) things I simply can't get my head round. One of these is Second Life in spite of having been involved in the publication of Graham Pond and Paul Carr's excellent Unofficial Tourists' Guide to Second Life (where I reckon the apostrophe is in the wrong, or at least less correct, place). So, rather than mislead you I asked our resident expert, Jo Scott aka Joanna wombat, to update us on developments in this weird world.

'Since last November, one large green wasteland floating somewhere on the outskirts of Second Life has been transformed into the multi-island archipelago of Second Nature . Second Nature is our flagship island, and over the last few months, has become home to a wide variety of scientists. We have decided that Second Life is so experimental that we can't possibly know what scientists will actually find useful, so the best thing is to let them find out for themselves. The upshot is, any scientist with an idea for a project in Second Life is welcome to come to us and experiment on our island. The result is an island full of interactive and developing exhibits, from full scale city modelling, to a ride through a giant cell to a scientific art exhibition. To see all of these, do come and visit Second Nature.

In the meantime, we have been experimenting with meetings. Following the SciFoo unconference , several attendees led by Jean-Claude Bradley have been holding regular SciFoo Lives On sessions in Second Life: a topic is chosen by wiki and anyway, attendee or not, may come and present on, or simply discuss the topic, just like a SciFoo session. Not to be left behind, we have organised a weekly series of events. The format is simple: a scientist comes to our island, gives a short talk about his work, and then takes questions from the audience. The first was given by Dr Phil Holliger on how to evolve polymerases to repair ancient DNA, and that was followed last week by Professor Graham Martin on cormorant vision. Both were really well attended and the feedback has been really postive, so we're definitely going to keep doing them, and one day, we may even learn how to work the slide projector properly! The next talk is this Thursday, featuring Professor Philip Gibbard from Cambridge University, talking about how massive floods cut Britain off from the mainland with the creation of the English Channel. All talks are free and no specialist knowledge is required, so please do come along. Any questions, IM Joanna Wombat...'

On the subject of social networks and cyberworlds, I have just been sent a copy of The Bookaholics' Guide to Book Blogs (apostrophe also in wrong place in my opinion) compiled by Rebecca Gillieron and Catheryn Kilgarriff, published by Marion Boyars, which is owned and run by the Catheryn. This blog has a very small mention but it is much more to do with genuinely bookish rather than corporate-ish blogs.

The link with social networks is that I used to work with Catheryn's dad, Arthus Boyars. He is, according to Wikipedia a poet, but I always viewed him as the advertisement sales manager of Early Music magazine for whose profitability I was responsible at one point - and thank God for Arthur and his ad revenue in those difficult days.

And in parallel, Marion Boyars old business partner was John Calder and together they ran Calder and Boyars for a decade. Calder became a stalwart defender of retail price maintenance and on one occasion personally challenged in court the decision by various publishers in the Uk to abandon it. He summonsed me to the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand as a witness. I was first on after the lawyers had spent an hour talking their very special language. I was pretty nervous. There was this grand old man of the book trade with lawyers and judges all around waiting to demolish me by clever argumentation and cross-examination. The opening exchange ran something like:

'Mr Charkin, in your affidavit you describe yourself as a publisher.Where did you go to uiversity? Trinity, Cambridge. What did you study? Natural Sciences. There you are, m'lud, the man claims to be a publisher but he studied science.'

Unspoken but clear meaning...I rest my case! Fortunately the judge didn't quite see it that simply.

I suppose the Catheryn, Arthur, Marion, John Calder, net book agreement is my idea of a social network.

Literary silliness

2007-09-23T11:10:22+01:00

About once a year (or actually much more frequently) the London literary world shoots itself in the foot and confirms what the 'real world' believes, that it is composed of a bunch of snobby interbred reactionaries. This piece describing current events at a leading literary agency is a classic of its type. For those of you who can't be bothered to follow the link (and who can blame you?) here is a taster:

“On the surface we all get on brilliantly, but on a personal level we all f***ing loathe each other,” as the editorial director of one of the country’s largest publishing houses cheerfully confided yesterday. “I’ll tell you everything but it’s career death if I go on record. In my view what’s happening in publishing in the past few days is a catastrophe. Everyone is horribly excited.”

And here is a glorious graphic.

And while all that backstabbing and gossip is going on there is a real literary issue. The British Government, not content with appearing to stand by while public libraries are allowed to wither (although perhaps that is about to change), is now threatening to undermine the forward-thinking digital programme at the British Library. Lynne Brindley, the Library's Chief Executive, has written courageously and forthrightly about the issue in today's Observer. The irony is that, while the Google Library Project absorbs a huge amount of attention and legal bills in order to be allowed to digitise books which the publishing industry is separately arranging to digitise without subsidy, one of the world's great libraries is being forced to beg to be able to digitise and thus protect and make available the very books which need to be digitised and need to be funded. It drives me to distraction.

Some Experience Necessary

2007-09-22T08:52:31.656+01:00

From time to time I've written about a forthcoming book with an ironic title Print is Dead by Jeff Gomez (this links to his excellent blog), who is about join Penguin USA in a senior electronic publishing role.

I asked him to describe what it felt like to be on the receiving end of being published rather than the doing end of publishing and, being the professional he is, he has delivered on schedule and to commission. Thanks, Jeff. If only all authors...

In the 1991 film The Doctor, William Hurt plays an arrogant young physician who becomes ill with throat cancer. As he begins to go through the health care system --- as an ordinary patient and not a hot-shot doctor --- Hurt is shocked by how clinically he’s treated; he feels like an object instead of a human being. The experience forces him to reflect on how a profession whose stated goal is to help people can end up treating them as little more than a commodity. By the end of the movie, of course, he has acquired a new and added perspective on his profession.

As someone who works in publishing who has recently been through the process of writing and editing a book, I’ve been thinking of this film a lot over the past couple of months. That’s not to say that my treatment during the past year (it was last September that I signed the contract to write the book, and it’s now been printed and will be in stores in November) has been anywhere near as traumatic as what William Hurt faces in The Doctor. In fact, it hasn’t been a bad experience at all. But it has indeed been important and instructive, and it’s an experience I wish more people in our industry could have.

One of publishing’s dirty little secrets is that, increasingly, it’s not about the books. Or maybe, it’s too much about the books (meaning books as objects, or even books as a number on a balance sheet). In the publishing process we find ourselves sometimes getting removed from the ideas and stories found in our books; the words that provide the power to deliver amazing and transformative experiences to readers (and are therefore the kinds of books we read growing up that made us want to get into this business in the first place).

One of the reasons this happens is because people who work in publishing, for the most part, have not had the experience of writing and publishing a book. They know the physical process, and they know the business inside and out, but they don’t know what it means to slave over an idea, or live with a single character or theme, for a number of years. They don’t know what it’s like to see their name on a dust jacket, not to mention --- after all that hard work --- getting a hideous review on Amazon. (Having been through both experiences, I can safely say that one is better than the other).

They also don’t know the feeling of having a signing and showing up to an empty bookstore, reading to just employees and in the end not signing anything but some stock. True, some editors and publicists have witnessed these kinds of things from the wings, while escorting their authors around town, but it’s a much different experience when you’re the one standing in front of all those unoccupied folding chairs.

In Oliver Stone’s 1987 film Wall Street, Michael Douglas's infamous character Gordon Gekko at one point says, “Today, management has no stake in the company.” What Gekko meant was a financial stake; people who were Vice Presidents didn’t own company stock, and thus were sometimes not terribly motivated to make the company perform well since it wasn’t their own fortunes on the line. Well, in today’s literary world I would make the comparison that, in publishing, we are like those Vice Presidents Gekko described.

Not because we don’t care whether or not our companies do well (we of course have a vested interest in the well-being of our companies; without them, we wouldn’t have a job). But rather, it’s not our names on the dust jacket, spine or title page. Our hopes and dreams don’t (usually) ride on the success or failure of any particular book. In fact, the same way that hundreds of sentences create a novel, the dozens or hundreds of books we’re associated with throughout our tenure at any one company form our career. Our reputations don’t rest on one book or another. And yet, for many authors --- especially first-time ones --- this is it. This is what they’ve been dreaming of for much of their lives, and we shouldn’t take that for granted or treat it cavalierly in any way.

That’s not to say that we don’t root for our titles, or that editors don’t evangelize their writers internally and externally. They do, and I’ve seen many editors do everything that they could to get the word out about a book that they loved. But still, at the end of the day, it’s a business. It’s a business we love, and one we wouldn’t trade for anything else, but it’s still business. And the fact is, the books we sell aren’t our own words.

Because, while we can imagine what it’s like and try to empathize, it’s just not the same until it happens to you. It reminds me of when I was having dinner years ago with a friend who’s a famous writer, and we got to talking about Spy magazine. (This was during the interregnum when Spy was off the shelves for a few years before coming back to life.) My first novel was about to come out, and I was lamenting the fact that Spy wasn’t around to make fun of me. My friend looked up from his meal and warily said, “It’s not as fun as you think.” At the time, I just waved his comment aside with a grin. Well, when my second novel came out, in 1997, Spy had returned and, lo and behold, they made fun of me. And guess what? My friend was right.

Beyond this general feeling, I think we as publishers tend to use our experience and knowledge in a way that automatically puts the author at a disadvantage. We’re the ones who know the trends, the sales curves, and --- more importantly --- the fiction buyer at Barnes & Noble. We think we know best, and we make decisions based on this fact. But we’re not the ones who wrote the book. And sometimes, during various parts of the publishing process, authors are made to feel more or less powerless.

For instance, I’ve had five books published, and I’ve never had major input on a cover. In fact, for my first novel, I had a terrific fight with my publisher and --- even though I loathed the cover beyond belief --- they went ahead and printed it. (True, I was a first time author, but I have since commiserated with other authors, ones who have sold many more books than I ever did, and they have confirmed similar experiences.) And so, back then, I was that crabby author on the other end of the phone; the one who caused an editor’s eyes to roll towards the ceiling. Later in the day I was the subject of a snarky story told in the elevator on the way down to lunch (“Guess who still doesn’t like his cover?”).

I was a problem, a nuisance, a bore; a know-it-all and someone who didn’t know anything (both at the same time!). And yet I was also a writer, an author whose book they had paid for and put on the cover of their catalog. I remember at the time being immensely confused, thinking, “How could they want my novel, but not my advice?” And now the shoe is on the other foot. For instance, I’ve been on the phone with authors who were complaining about their websites, and this time it’s my eyes that roll. I tell stories about them the way that my previous publishers used to talk about me.

It reminds me of a scene in Annie Hall (yes, for someone in publishing, I know I watch too many movies), where Woody Allen and Diane Keaton are both on screen in separate therapy sessions. The off-screen doctors ask them each a question (“Do you sleep together much?” “Do you have sex often?”), and even though the questions are essentially the same, their answers are different. Keaton replies, “Constantly, three times a week,” while Allen answers, “Hardly ever, three times a week.” While this exchange is a wry commentary on how, within a romantic relationship, two people can have the same experience but reflect on it differently, I can see a correlation to our industry. Because, during the typical publishing experience, we always think we’re doing everything we can to help our writers. Meanwhile, they think we’re not doing enough.

All of which goes to say that, while I doubt every person who works in publishing will find the time to write and publish a book, I think that if everyone tried more often to envision what it’s like to be an author, we would be better off. After all, we spend so much time these days crunching data and trying to look at our products from the point of view of consumers, reviewers, and booksellers; we should try to also imagine what it feels like to be a writer.

Bits and bobs

2007-09-21T07:15:22.031+01:00

One of Picador's best writers, Charlotte Mendelson, also works as an editor for one of Picador's principal competitors, Headline Review, part of Hachette Livre. Two of Sphere's - also part of Hachette Livre - potential best selling writers, Jon Butler and Bruno Vincent, work for Pan Macmillan in editorial. Their new book has the very serious and tasteful title, Do ants have arseholes?, and will doubtless sell tens of thousands of copies. Never let it be said that I only mention Macmillan titles but I do expect a pourboire from the Sphere marketing department.

Last Friday's blog has amassed 38 comments so far (which is a pretty good bag by my standards) but my favourite comes from Vladimir in Kazakhstan:

'Dear Prime Minister (we remember Christine Keeler was your friendly girl - even news in our country). Is not a race with Borat in November December. So kindly what about it?'

I'd be happy to respond but I'm not quite sure what the question is. Can anyone help?

For crossword fiends here is a link to a clever marketing idea to promote the sixth edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. I'm delighted to see that they've taken absolutely no notice of my strictures on the use of the word 'unabridged' when applied to a 'shorter' dictionary: 'Each entry offers everything you would expect from a leading unabridged dictionary...' except that it is abridged!

And finally, I've found myself wondering whether Alan Greenspan's warnings about the impact of the credit squeeze might equally be applied to author advances which have risen faster even than London house price inflation...

The Special One

2007-09-20T09:04:30.171+01:00

I woke up today to find my neighbourhood in mourning at the departure of Jose Mourinho as manager of our local soccer club, Chelsea FC. He's been the most admired (and fancied, I suspect) member of the Chelsea set-up. It'll be interesting to watch the team's fortunes without his leadership. I fear the worst but meanwhile enjoy this clip.

And now to the other championship race, the competition to predict the order by sales value of the Pan Macmillan top ten new titles this Autumn. Entries are still coming in on the original posting. The cut-off date for entrants is the end of this month, so get to work and encourage your friends to join in. So far, analysis shows that people are more confident about picking the least likely to succeed than the most likely. Rhett Butler's People just pipped Musicophilia at the bottom of the table. The only other title picked for tenth position was Cristiano Ronaldo's Moments but it was also put in first position by the same number of people. Number one spot is occupied by Borat but seven of the ten titles have also been nominated. The only title which has not been nominated at either number one or number ten is Ronnie Wood which, arguably, is the one most likely to be a runaway success...or not.

What will be Pan Macmillan's Special One?

Stuttgart

2007-09-19T07:08:41.265+01:00

Here's a traveller's tip. If you're ever in Stuttgart try to get a room at the not-very-posh but very stylish Der Zauberlehrling. Click on hotel, then XXL, and then on the room of your choice. The restaurant is also very good.

I'm here for a board meeting and to catch up with several of my German colleagues. The pace of change in the infrastructure and politics of Germany may not be particularly rapid but the speed with which digital technology is being adopted is awesome.

Our owners, the Holtzbrinck Group, have been investing strongly in fast-growing, innovative, technology-driven media businesses and the success is palpable. Social websites such as StudiVZ (which I'm only very gradually learning how to pronounce) are attracting millions of registrants and tens of millions of visits. The trick book publishers must learn is how to persuade these visitors to read (and pay for) books and other high-quality information rather than simply communicating with each other. It won't be easy but the prize will be great.

Sites such as Lovely Books in the UK and in Germany are just the beginning of a new approach to making people aware of books and sharing opinions. While this is happening we must also work closely with our traditional partners, the bookshops (see yesterday's posting), to ensure that this new generation of readers can also enjoy physical as well as digital browsing. I've yet to be convinced by any of the current crop of e-book readers (why woud anyone want yet another lump of metal to carry around?) but there is little doubt that the Internet as a marketing tool is vital and that we'd better learn how to use it fast.

Bookshops matter

2007-09-18T11:11:27.781+01:00

One of the most innovative publishers in the world is the computer book publisher O'Reilly. They have been at the cutting edge of collaborations with Google and Amazon, with copyright-lite experimentation etc. It is therefore with great delight that I spotted this paragraph from O'Reilly Radar about the sales of computer books:

If you wonder whether it matters to publishers whether books appear in stores given that they can be ordered online, try breathing through a straw. You can get all the air you want if you lie low, but you'd better not try any strenuous activity. Retail distribution is like the alveoli in our lungs -- it increases the surface area for respiration, except in this case, rather than oxygen binding to hemoglobin, it's customers binding to possible products to purchase. People go to Amazon and other online retailers with specific purchases in mind. Despite all Amazon's brilliant work on collaborative filtering and recommendations, a computer screen just doesn't match up to a physical bookstore when it comes to browsing and the chance discoveries that spark an unplanned purchase.

What more can I say? I think the Booksellers Association should invite Tim O'Reilly to give the keynote address at their next conference.

In the staff canteen in our Kings Cross offices yesterday I got into a conversation about the death of the musical. I argued, for no particular reason, that a more obvious case was the dearth of listenable operas since Puccini packed it in. I was, of course, reprimanded and corrected by my younger and betters and thoroughly shamed by the fact that we have just published a book as a result of a contemporary opera.

David Frost's brilliant book about his confrontation with Richard Nixon follows the extraordinarily successful opera Nixon in China and the play Frost/Nixon. So drama and opera (and I'd argue musicals too) still flourish.