Many years ago (July 1987 to be precise) Heinemann were all set to publish another ho-hum spy memoir by a not-very-famous spy, Peter Wright. The history of what happened next is best described in The Spycatcher Trial by the distinguished Australian lawyer (and now politician) Malcolm Turnbull. At some point (and I'm really not sure when or why) the British Prime Minister of the time, Margaret Thatcher, decided she'd like a bit of publishing limelight and appointed herself marketing director for Heinemann by trying to have the book banned.

She was a spectacular success and within weeks Spycatcher was an international bestseller. Overall I think about 4 million copies were sold. I imagine the initial estimate was for 5000 copies. It showed the power of prime ministers in marketing roles.

I was therefore particularly pleased to see that Tony Blair has decided to follow Thatcher's lead not just in economic and social policies but in supporting the book trade. He has been appointed marketing director for our latest title from Boxtree and here is a link to his first effort in the new role - about 12 minutes into the speech.

Today is the publication day of Giant Leaps, a collaboration between The Sun newspaper (this morning's typically glorious headline - 'PC gone mad - racist jelly baby farce - £1/4m black sweets trial'), the Science Museum and Boxtree. The idea is to attract more people to understand science through the use of catchy headlines supported by impeccable educational and scientific text. The book is being backed by the great and the good of science (see below) and politics as part of Britain's desire (and need?) to become the global hub for research and development and the prior requirement for a scientifically literate population.

Go for it, Tony.

What the
experts say

BARONESS GREENFIELD

HEAD of the Royal Institution of top scientists says: “It teaches people about science without being pious. It is highly readable – and highly look-at-able.”

SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH

THE broadcaster, author and naturalist says: “I read Giant Leaps from cover to cover. I found it a very innovative and exciting book.”

SIR PATRICK MOORE

THE astronomer says: “I enjoyed it immensely. It is beautifully put together and imparts a lot of knowledge in an attractive way. Above all, it is FUN.”

JON SNOW

THE newscaster says: “If only I’d had a book like this – compelling. It’s a genuine come-on to kids to log-in to science. Well done The Sun. Go to the top of the class!”

ROBERT WINSTON

THE science presenter says: “An inventive, appealing, really riveting way to depict science and technology. It will excite young people . . . and oldies like myself.”

PROF COLIN BLAKEMORE

THE Chief Exec of the Medical Research Council says: “It captures the magic of science. I hope it also captures the imagination of young people.”

The last time I wrote about the Wisden Group there were lots of negative comments from independent booksellers about the fact that Amazon was promoting and selling the Almanack at a huge discount thus making it impossible for them to compete. Of course, in the UK every retailer is able to decide what level to price at and what customer benefits it wishes to offer. The job of the publisher is to maximise sales and this year has been an absolutely outstanding year for Wisden through Amazon and through just about every retail outlet and chain we supply. Obviously winning The Ashes in 2005 helped but so did the launch of the large format edition and the brilliance of the editorial content. All parts of the book trade benefited if they wished to participate.

The company was founded by John Wisden in 1864 and I'm certain he wouldn't recognise it today. Apart from the Almanack there is a magazine (in fact several in different countries including South Africa), the most popular sports website in the world, the leading sports technology organisation, Hawk-eye, and any number of books.

Three recent books have caught my eye for different reasons. The first is the Wisden Dictionary of Cricket by Michael Rundell who is also (thank goodness) the brains and lexicographic brawn behind the best-selling Macmillan English Dictionary range.

And then a grave turner for the blessed JW, The Cricinfo Guide to International Cricket 2007 which is the only book to contain biographies and statistics about every international cricketer likely to be playing in the forthcoming World Cup in the West Indies - book your flights and hotels now and coloured pyjamas too, just in case...

Finally, the blockbuster - not in unit sales but in size, price, scholarship and insight - Wisden Anthology 1978-2006, a truly boring title but with a glimpse of what's within in the sub-title, Cricket's Age of Revolution. It is 1300 plus pages of meticulously edited nostalgia, fascination, social history and global economics. I think it's underpriced at £40 let alone whatever some booksellers choose to discount it to. Here's the press release for anyone interested:

My talk to the MA students of Oxford Brookes which I mentioned recently passed without anyone throwing bad eggs or rotten tomatoes at me - which is always a relief. Apart from the students there was a generous sprinkling of old friends which is reassuring in one sense but worrying in another - their memories of my anecdotes from the olden days might differ from mine. Various journalists from the trade press asked me to send them my notes of the talk or to write it up. The combination of a very full schedule and natural indolence meant that my notes were very sketchy but they were the only facts in the talk! Here they are. The numbers relate to headcount. The companies are all mainly English language except one.

Albatros 4; Profile 16; Faber 82; Bloomsbury 271; Informa 7000; McGraw-Hill 18,000; News Corporation 30,000; Pearson 32,000; Reed Elsevier 37,000; Thomson  40,000, Bertelsmann 93,000.

The conclusion was that size is not in itself an inhibitor nor a catalyst for innovation in publishing although the larger (and more publicly owned) the company the harder it is (obviously) to remain nimble and innovative. At Macmillan we try to encourage innovation by devolving responsibility to small creative units. For instance Palgrave Macmillan has set up a three-person team to help us identify new opportunities in academic and textbook publishing and then take them to market. Here is their latest success described by Alison Jones.

The Study Stick leads, the rest follow

Nice to see publishing leading the music industry for a change. The recent ‘ground-breaking’ announcement that Keane are to release a limited run of 1,500 USB memory sticks pre-loaded with their latest single has generated lots of chat in the blogosphere, sadly none of it commenting on the fact that Keane were simply following the trail blazed by Palgrave Macmillan last month. 

The Study Stick is a 512MB memory stick preloaded with an ebook of the best-selling The Study Skills Handbook, with a link to a protected online site with more resources, community areas, competitions and special offers. We spent a lot of time gently introducing dazed booksellers to the idea and meeting their concerns – for example by supplying dummy packs for display, and by reclassifying part of the stock to make it amenable to Amazon’s overloaded systems. The site currently has over 50 registered users and the number is growing quickly – the challenge now is to capitalize on this innovative move by creating a community in which the students benefit from our authors’ expertise and we learn more about our market and the possibilities for reaching it.

Finally, an update on this blog's visitor statistics. After no growth in September we had 54793 visitors in October, a 31% increase. Total visitors since January are now 276172.

A short quiz. The  Bookseller headline announces 'Outstanding Penguin pushes Pearson to record'. Sales at Penguin are up 2%, 10% or 20%? The answer can be found here.

There is so much corporate activity going on right now that I thought the best thing I could do for those interested would be to reprint here the latest issue of EPS Headlines from Electronic Publishing Services which is my weekly Bible. Like the law-abiding citizen I try to be I called them for permission to reproduce They graciously granted it on the grounds, I suppose, that they may pick up some new subscribers from this promotion. They deserve to. It is the best news service around. I strongly recommend you go the final item if nowhere else.

http://www.knowledgespeak.com/newsArchieveviewdtl.asp?pickUpID=2967&pickUpBatch=490#2967

SPARC e-News :: http://www.arl.org/sparc/pubs/enews/aug06.html#partner

http://www.knowledgespeak.com/newsArchieveviewdtl.asp?pickUpID=2975&pickUpBatch=491#2975

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/149f02ac-63c6-11db-bc82-0000779e2340.html

http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/ArticleReader.aspx?ArticleID=18511

http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?view=CN&storyID=2006-10-26T121847Z_01_WEN8096_RTRIDST_0_MEDIA-RHDONNELLEY-EARNS-URGENT.XML&rpc=66&type=qcna

SearchEngineWatch :: http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/061027-085703

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/d5390b04-67f2-11db-90ac-0000779e2340,_i_rssPage=cbad994c-3017-11da-ba9f-00000e2511c8.html

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=93447&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=919430&highlight

http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=163852

http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/10/24/digg-does-the-acquisition-dance-with-news-corp/

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13130-2418228,00.html

http://www.eadp.org/index.php?q=node/14984

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/a53ea278-62e9-11db-8faa-0000779e2340.html

http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authored_newsitem.cws_home/companynews05_00551

Adobe :: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/digitaleditions/

http://online.wsj.com/google_login.html?url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB116161475467500836.html%3Fmod%3Dgooglenews_wsj

http://www.btobonline.com/toc.cms?productId=6&issueDate=2006-10-26

http://www.scidev.net/content/news/eng/china-unveils-plans-to-boost-scientific-data-sharing.cfm

Physorg.com :: http://www.physorg.com/news80933892.html

This morning's headlines in the UK are all about the publication of a Treasury-commissioned report on the economic aspects of climate change. It's pretty hairy stuff and particularly so as it comes from Nick Stern who has held a number of very influential posts including Chief Economist at The World Bank. The conclusions are stark and require politicians to sacrifice votes in some instances - an almost impossible act for most of them.

I fear we'll have to wait a long time (perhaps too long) for governments to get their acts together. Meanwhile, we can do things as individuals. Get your hands on a copy of Climate change begins at home by Dave Reay. This quote from Popular Science says it all:

"This is one of the most easily readable popular science books I've seen in several years, it's practical rather than ridiculous, it puts the case without being preachy - it really is a wonderfully effective description of the realities of climate change, how it will affect us and our families, and what we as individuals can do about it. So go out and buy one. In fact, buy two and send one to the world leader or large company CEO of your choice."

While on matters environmental, you might care to look at Landmine Action campaign to prohibit the manufacture, sale and use of cluster munitions whose effects impact decades after a war has been resolved. The main sufferers are children. I delivered a signed petition by hand yesterday to the House of Commons - it was very difficult as they don't have a letterbox.

On Tuesday I am giving a talk at Oxford Brookes University in their International Centre for Publishing Studies. The subject is Innovation in Publishing and the title is an allusion to the R and K strategies for the survival of species which is an excuse for a nice picture of a typical K strategy.

The typical R isn't as cuddly but might very well be more successful in the long run. For more on reproductive strategies try this site.

Apart from being happy to discuss innovation with some of the brightest publishing students the other reason for going is nostalgia. This grand building is now part of Oxford Brookes University but it was where I worked in 1974.

It was the home of Robert Maxwell and the headquarters of Pergamon Press.

I was called senior publishing executive, life sciences and my job was to commission and publish about 200 books a year, look after 100 journals and launch as many new journals as possible. Maxwell's (correct) theory was that the fastest areas of research paper growth would be in the biological (rather than physical) sciences because each experiment was cheaper to fund and therefore there would be more literature per funding dollar.

They were exciting times. Every morning we editors and marketing people were summonsed to open the post under Maxwell's tutelage. 'Every piece of paper is a publishing opportunity.' 'Every letter contains a lesson.' 'Don't assume anything except that you will die.' Every morning new edicts would be issued. 'No green covers'. 'Henceforward all textbooks will be designated paperback even if they are hardback.'No more billing in pounds. Tell Blackwell's they have to pay in dollars.' 'All books are journals. Reduce the discounts from 30% to 10%.' 'You're sacked.'

The amazing thing is that Maxwell transformed the company from a rather staid and sleepy business (he'd been away fromt the company for a few years) into an innovative and successful scientific information provider. It was only his disastrous forays into newspaper publishing and his absurd war with Rupert Murdoch which forced him to sell what was the real jewel in his corporate crown. His demise was Reed Elsevier's gain. And somehow his death was inevitable.

Of course Bob Maxwell was a terrible guy in many ways but he did build a great publishing company and working in Headington was a great (albeit not always fun) experience.

Clocks go back (or is it forward?) in the UK tonight (or tomorrow morning). I think what it means is that I'll wake up even earlier than ususal and fall asleep even earlier (hardly possible). There is some discussion about whether we should move to European time. Apparently this would save lives (not quite sure why) and would make communication within the EU easier. I'm not sure about the latter. Lisbon and Dublin are on the same time as London. Would they change too? And it would be odd to change your watch when driving from Belfast to Dublin. Still, the forces of European homogenisation are strong.

Whilst I disagree with the need for uniformity of time across countries I do think India could do us and itself a great favour if it would abandon Indian Standard Time. Given the huge latitudinal spread I can understand the need for compromise over which time zone to adopt but to compromise with a 30-minute shiift seems unnecessary,unhelpful and perverse. But not as odd as Kathmandu which has a 45-minute difference.

My entry about the amount of email spam we are intercepting generated a comment from the head of Macmillan IT with these statistics:

January 2002, 400,000 emails received
January 2003, 960,000 emails received
January 2004, 1.6 million emails received
January 2005, 2.2 million emails received
January 2006, 6.5 million emails received

If only our sales had increased in proportion.

One of my favourite writers is John Banville. He has written any number of high-quality 'literary' novels, the last of which, The Sea, won the Man Booker prize. My recommendation is The Untouchable for the entirely inappropriate reason that one of the characters is called Charkin and I suspect that is the only literary character in world literature with that name. But I digress. John has decided to pursue a writing career in parallel to his literary novels with the launch of Christine Falls by 'Benjamin Black'. I think this review from Guardian says it all.

I seem to be in Australian mode right now. We're publishing Richard Flanagan's new book in Picador Australia next Tuesday. Paul Kenny, who is possibly Australia's greatest book marketeer has had to pay out of his marketing budget for a pole dancer in a Hobart night club. He claims this is the first time but I'm not absolutely sure.

However, what he has created for the book is one of the most innovative online campaigns for a literary work that I've ever seen. The book is The Unknown Terrorist and don't forget to turn off your mute button.

And while innovation occurs in the real world of publishing there is tremendous activity in the slightly unreal world of mergers and acquisitions, IPOs, private equity, leveraged buy-outs, Uncle Tom Cobleigh and all. Springer is trying to buy Informa; Riverdeep and Houghton Mifflin are 'merging'; Wolters Kluwer has hired Lehman to sell its Education Division; and now Thomson is threatening to sell its Learning Division. I'm certain that all these assets will fetch very high prices but can't help feeling that the real winners will be, as always, the bankers and the lawyers. I wonder whether authors,students, academics and educational organisations will benefit as much.