Libraries are part of global culture, as British as fish and chips, as American as apple pie and as Jewish as chopped liver. I've known Tim Coates from the time he was Managing Director of the then up-market, fiercely independent and anarchic up-and-coming Waterstone's bookshop chain. He is currently involved in a highly personal campaign to encourage the British Government and local authorities to spend library budgets on books - a simple, obvious but difficult objective. Not everyone agrees with Tim's in-your-face approach to campaigning but at the very least he has made the topic unignorable. I asked him to write a guest blog for me and here it is:

"Half the management in this country is public sector. The rules are different: income does not depend on judgment, efficiency or perfomance; cash is available; there is no such thing as bankruptcy and nor are there the disciplines, anxieties, skills and systems which are used to avoid it. Employment is secure and very well paid. Projects thrive on persuasive plans but rarely on actual outcomes. To a private sector manager, the regime is unfamiliar.

We have become used to the idea that only a small portion of charitable donations reach their intended recipients; we should get used to the idea that the great part of the money we thought was for public service  will never reach any public beneficiary. We live in an economy which is the travelling equivalent of a crowded roundabout. Huge amounts of public funds travel on a journey which goes nowhere in an unpleasant and wasteful manner.

For seven years I have studied the public library service in both central and local government where most of the operation is managed. This is a £1.2bn pa operation which has no accounts, no boards of directors, no planning or budgeting, no measurement of performance and no management of the kind a garage mechanic would recognise. It is a disaster from the tip of its branches to the lengths of it ancient roots. Use of the service has fallen to half its rather successful level of twenty years ago and no one can even agree whether that is a good thing or a bad one. No junior manager learns the basic skills of "yes" or "no" from his senior- because he, or she  never learned those skills either. The operation is a national disgrace and nobody even knows.

We have an extremely and potentially devastating problem of the economy in this country and it is the management of public sector activities. We worry about political incompetence, global warming and the management of our soccer team. We should be sensible and start worrying about the management of public services. That really is frightening."

As March comes to an end we've seen the Nibbies, an annual publishing event of acquired taste and little import (although I'm told it is at the heart of our industry which worries me rather), come and go; India squeeze a one-day victory over England at cricket, and the UK Competition Commission give provisional clearance for the takeover of the Ottakar's bookshop chain by HMV.

April kicks off with a literary question. Are there more people who want to write a book than who want to read one? There is a a three-hour debate at the London College of Communications which looks like it will be quite lively. If you have a moment I'd recommend you look in. You can find more details here.

PS Back to the Nibbies, it is clearly excellent getting TV coverage for books and authors and this must sell books. My back of an envelope calculation suggests the industry has to sell an additional two million books to cover the costs of the televised dinner. Hmmmm?

‘Blogs are the new phone in modern society’, according to online coffee retailer Boca Java. In a report issued by the company it states that there are now around 50 million blogs on the Web – with the blogging community expanding by around 65,000 a day. So significant a group is this new breed that the company has decided to target bloggers as a consumer market with a new line of coffee called Blogger’s Blends. They're holding a contest where bloggers get to design and name a new blend of coffee. The climax of the contest is a prize - a  free year of coffee. Certainly some form of energy-giving drug is required to keep up a blog, but my efforts pale into insignificance when compared to those of the anonymous Iraqi woman whose blog, Baghdad Burning, has been nominated for a literary prize. The blog, started in 2003, recounts how the Iraq war has affected the daily lives of ordinary citizens and has been nominated for the most valuable award for non-fiction – the Samuel Johnson Prize. Baghdad Burning is being published by the independent publishers Marion Boyars and is among 19 candidates for the award. Other contenders include Untold Stories by Alan Bennett, After The Victorians by AN Wilson, and a biography of Mrs Beeton by Kathryn Hughes.

Some things serve to cheer me up. A few blogs ago I wrote that Mike Barnard had written a book, Transparent Imprint, about the fun and games he had setting up Macmillan New Writing to the derision of many in the literary world. Well, the first review has come out on the Grumpy Old Bookman blog and its a humdinger. So congratulations Mike and two fingers to the detractors. And to see the novels themselves go to the MNW website.

Dinner last night with the managing directors of our businesses in Greece, Brazil and Argentina.

What do the businesses have in common apart from all being run by exceptionally talented women? There is a deep desire to learn English. In spite of Chirac's histrionics last week when he walked out of a EU Council meeting because a fellow Frenchman addressed him in English, most people recognise that English is the language of business and essential in the modern world. The books used in schools differ significantly because of local curricula and culture but they are all demanding higher and higher standards of pedagogical and production quality and better value for money. They are all challenged by local piracy and illegal photocopying. The businesses are all growing their market share by working closely with teachers to make better teaching materials.

I was going to follow this with a description of the differences - the apostilas in Brazil, the Israeli competitors in Greece, Britsh English in Argentina - but realised that knowing the differences is what sets Macmillan apart from its competitors and I want us to remain apart.

So I'll end with a publishing quandary. We all know that elephants never forget. We also know that if publishers remembered all the times a book failed to live up to expectations nobody would ever publish anything new again. Additionally, we often try to remember a slight or a piece of betrayal. Perhaps Arthur Balfour got it right: 'I never forgive. I always forget.'

And from the source of quotations a truth from Auberon Waugh: ' Generally speaking, the best people nowadays go into journalism, the second best into business, the rubbish goes into politics and the shits into law.' I suppose publishing lies somewhere between journalism and business. I hope so.

If you follow this link you will be able to read an exchange of broadsides between Encyclopaedia Britannica (EB)and our very own Nature. Nature published some material suggesting that in some areas of science Wikipedia entries can compete with those in the magisterial Encyclopaedia. I trust the guys in Nature totally and I am sure their assessment was both objective and correct but even if they were being unfair the last thing I'd do at EB would be to publicise the affair. This can only damage EB's reputation and that would be really unjust. Nowt so queer as folks.

As Timo says in his blog, judge for yourselves.

Yesterday saw me chairing my last Publishers Association Council meeting. The next one will be chaired by my successor, Stephen Page. Phew!!!

The thing about trade associations is that they were established as a means of protecting businesses. Frequently their aim was to ensure 'fair' ie 'high' prices. They were effectively legal cartels rather like OPEC. But times have changed. And the PA has changed with the times.

The key role of our trade association today is to help our members navigate through the complexities of the new digital world. This means revisiting business models, relationships with authors and distributors, established technologies and ways of working.

The strength of British publishing is in its diversity - large, small, general, specialist, domestic, global. The PA can help all its members to find their position in the digital world and ensure that authors are both protected and rewarded. I'll continue to do my best to help but am relieved I can now concentrate even more on steering Macmillan. At some moments in the last year it has been running automagically. Now we are back on full manual steering.

Here's a guest blog from Ronnie Williams, Chief Executive of the Publishers' Association. It's about the new 'Love Libraries' campaign being launched by the government, and I believe it needs no further introduction....

I went to the launch of the "Love Libraries" campaign by David Lammy, Minister of Culture on 22 March. It is a first initiative by The Future Libraries Partnership in which nine major UK publishers are involved, together with the government department (DCMS), the Society of Chief Librarians, the Museums Libraries and Archives Council, and the Reading Agency. There is also support from authors.

The atmosphere was very positive and reflected  clearly how strongly people feel about the future of libraries and the clear priority that books are the very core of the library service. Although Lammy stuck to his constitutional position that the actual management of libraries, and specifically the balance of book stocks and new acquisitions, depends on decisions at the local level, there was a very strong message from the floor that these issues are central to the public's perception and therefore use of the library service.

The initiative is rather modest insofar as it focusses on the "transformation" of  three libraries only, but the stated intention is that these should provide a replicable template for libraries all over the country. Representatives of these "showcase" libraries emphasised that in addition to refurbishment, they would review book stocks and acquisitions to ensure a good range of new best-selling titles as well as an extensive backlist. They would be looking to publishing "marketing mentors" to advise them on this balance. The publishers are also closely engaged with the Reading Agency in developing "live events" and authors' tours to liven up the library experience and involve consumers in book related activities.

It remains to be seen whether this small beginning can be developed into a more ambitious programme and whether these related initiatives can be harnessed into a practical and forward looking plan. While librarians were admitting to an image problem, a lot of practical marketing expertise is going to be needed. The  three "showcases" are promoted as a start, but if the decline which many people perceive is to be reversed, then reforms must reach a very much wider library constituency and a more ambitious programme will need to follow. The words at the launch offered comfort, but it is what is actually done across the larger scale which will determine whether this is the first real step on what may be a long journey !

RW

Mike Barnard, publisher of Macmillan’s almost equally derided and applauded ‘first novels’ imprint, Macmillan New Writing has written and published a book about the genesis of the imprint. ‘Transparent Imprint’ tells the story of ‘how a publisher’s decision to tell the truth to authors stirred up a storm’. The choice of cover quote given by Jonny Geller of literary agent Curtis Brown says it all: “I don’t think there’s a hope in hell of this succeeding.” When the imprint was launched there were stories that authors would have to pay for their own editing, the books would only be printed on demand, and bookshops would not touch them. A year on, bookshops are taking stock, libraries are buying them and the initiative is gathering momentum and press coverage. The book’s publication coincides with the launch of MNW’s first titles. You can purchase a copy for £10 direct from the MNW website or, if you work at Macmillan, you can download a PDF version from the company intranet .

And perhaps some of MNW's detractors would like to follow this piece by Michael Fuchs to read what one of the authors thinks of us.

And talking of innovative new imprints, BBC4’s drama ‘The Chatterley Affair’ broadcast on Monday evening was an interesting interpretation of the 1960 obscenity trial over the publication of Lady Chatterley’s Lover and a great reminder of the origins of the Penguin imprint. It used a fictional love affair between two jurors on the trial to illuminate the subtle moral arguments and the social impact of this great English novel. The two jurors in question, a beautiful upper class young woman and a working class clerk, play out the book as they embark on their own love affair, which, crudely interpreted, could just prove the prosecution’s case … but a colourful array of witnesses for the defence including bishops, professors and new graduates, argue the case for the novel’s literary merits and ethical standpoint. Particularly enjoyable was the moment when Penguin’s founder stands up in the witness box to state that he is willing to go to prison if the book is banned, as he ‘believes it was right to publish this book,’ proving that publishers have always been a contrary and ideological bunch.. And the subtle layers of hypocrisy are played out beautifully as two conservative male jurors deride the book as ‘dirty’ whilst simultaneously leering jealously over the affair of the two young lovers.   

On Sunday I attended the memorial service for a long-time Macmillan (and various other publishing company) employee, John Watson. Ian Taylor's obituary in the Guardian says it all. Apart from the budget-saving orders he managed to extract I'll always remember him as being the gentlest off-spin bowler I have ever faced - and he still got me out. In work too the combination of his huge size and his rather Nigerian pace of life still resulted in enough energy to succeed thus proving that E really does equal mc squared.

The turn-out at the service in Oxford and the warmth of the addresses were indicators of his friends' and colleagues' respect and affection for him. It also reminded me how lucky we are to be in an industry which cherishes people like John who break most of the corporate rules. Thank God.

It is of course trite to say the French are different. If there is another way of doing things they'll discover it and probably make it work. it wasn't until I started typing this that I realized that a French keyboard layout is almost entirely different to an Anglo-Saxon one and entirely non-intuitive to an Anglo-Saxon person (qwerty becomes azerty, full stop is on shift and the rest of the punctuation marks are scattered randomly). One more blow for globalization and American hegemony. Ah well, please forgive the typos.

I am here in Paris on behalf of British publishers to defend our authors' copyrights from the threat of digital kleptomania (Quelles modalités d'accès aux textes numériques sous droits?). Digital technologies offer the greatest opportunities for centuries for publishers but only if we can ensure our authors a proper income from the distribution of their works and develop business models which genuinely work for the reader and user of information.

Scientific and legal publishers have invested heavily in digital infrastructure which has enabled them to offer their authors faster and more enhanced publication; their readers lower cost, better designed and more universal access; and their owners enough cash to continue to invest. These publishers work closely with the new digital giants (Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Amazon etc) and their aims seem to be aligned.

On the contrary typical book publishers have yet to create the necessary platforms and the new 'players' see that as an opportunity to move into the book business and a moral justification for turning a blind eye to the niceties of copyright.

Book publishers need to fight vigorously to maintain strong copyright protection for their authors. Copyright not only rewards authors for their creativity and labour, it also is a protector of freedom of speech.

But book publishers must do more than simply fight on principle and by turning to lawyers. They must show that they are willing to invest money as well. They must build digital warehouses which can protect the copyrights. They must build digital delivery systems which can work with search engines to present and sell their authors' work to new markets in new forms. They must be willing to take investment risk. They must work with authors and distributors to help build new and better business models.

All this and continue to sell books too. Bonne journée.