One of the most difficult parts of being part of a very international business is trying to be aware of the problems affecting each of our businesses, both commercial and environmental. Clearly on September 11, 2001 everyone rushed to establish whether their colleagues, friends and family were safe. It becomes harder when the disaster is less globally newsworthy or in a more distant culture or geography. The earthquake in Peru is an example. We have a small but hugely committed Macmillan Education business in Lima. Thank goodness all our team are safe but of course they all know people caught up in the tragedy and the after effects could be as bad as the disaster itself.

Obituaries of Bill Deedes are still flying off the presses. I particularly liked this tribute by Alan Watkins in today's Independent on Sunday where he quotes the wonderful Deedesian mixed metaphor: 'You can't make an omelette without frying eggs.' I couldn't agree more.

One of Macmillan's most loyal and most entertaining authors, Bill Deedes, died yesterday. For more about him just follow this link to today's vast number of news stories. Even better, sample one of his books the most recent of which has just come out in paperback with the author aged 94.

While being distracted by old issues of Macmillan News the other day this came up as the banner illustration.

Macmillan's former Chairman is pretty recognisable but I wonder how many people now recognise the other guy. I'm pretty sure that it's Clive Sinclair the British inventor. I think he's demonstrating one of his ZX Spectrum computers for use in schools back in the early 1980s. Clearly the digital revolution began early at Macmillan.

Two links for those interested in the future of educational publishing. University Publishing in a Digital Age is a report written by an old friend and former head of Oxford University Press USA, Laura Brown, principally about the university press sector in the America. It's a strange thing but, whilst British university presses are among the most successful and vibrant publishers in the world, their American equivalents by and large are tiny and very traditional. I think this is because the Britsh ones (OUP in particular) have been forced to stand on their own feet by virtue of the relative poverty of their owners. The American ones have traditionally received some form of support from their very wealthy owners. Subsidies don't work. Anyway, Laura's report is an excellent overview and it's well worth reading the conclusions and summaries if not the whole very long thing.

The second link is to a very basic and almost empty landing page for CourseSmart. The reason for mentioning it is that it is a very rare beast - an alliance of publishers working together to find solutions to the delivery of digital information to students. I wonder whether there should be similar initiatives elsewhere in the world...

From time to time, somebody asks me how on earth or why on earth we published a particular book. The easy thing to say is that I wasn't involved in the decision (which is true in 99% of cases) but that feels like a cop out. Ultimately, if the book carries the Macmillan or Picador (or whatever imprint) name I am responsible to some degree. I try to explain that it seems to me that there are three main criteria for deciding whether to publish a particular book, in no particular order;

It is a good book - well-written, accurate, timely etc;

It is by an author whose career we want to be associated with in the long term;

It might make money.

I don't think all three criteria have to be fulfilled on every occasion but it's usually a good idea if two of them are. I believe the bulk of what we publish passes this test. If none is fulfilled by a particular book, then the only response to a complainant is 'we got it wrong.'

What I hope we never do is make editorial decisions based on internal prejudices. There is a row brewing in the USA as described in this New York Times article. The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy is published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux next month. The article from which it was derived which describes how the Jewish lobby effectively controls US policy was attacked for implied anti-semitism but the team at FSG clearly think the book is important and defensible irrespective of criticism. And all power to their elbow.

Meanwhile, just a few blocks away from FSG (Union Square, New York City), the team at Palgrave Macmillan USA (Flatiron Building) are preparing for the publication of The Deadliest Lies: the Israel lobby and the myth of Jewish control which argues just the opposite as described in the NYT article.

I have no doubt that there are many people who think that one or other of these books should not have been published. Personally, I think they both fulfil all three criteria and I am proud that they are both published by companies within the Holtzbrinck Group of which Macmillan is a part. Freedom to express opinions, however controversial, is part of our role as publishers.

I am indebted to the Pan Macmillan internal blog, The Digitalist, for this link to a site about the future of education. I'd recommend that you switch off the sound unless you're into meaningless electronic musical drivel but the graphics are terrific and the messages clear.

I'm off to a meeting right now but will later today add a spot of nostalgia.

And the nostalgia comes courtesy of Alysoun Sanders who runs the Macmillan Archive in Basingstoke. If you take the trouble to checck out the links you'll also be introduced to the riches of the old newsletters which are a treasure house for historians of publishing.

Macmillan’s involvement in India from pre-Independence days to the 1990s can be found in articles that appeared in Macmillan News, the company newsletter that ran for 30 years from 1961.

At the time of independence Macmillan had 3 branches in India based in Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. K R Clemens Manager of the Calcutta branch, worked in India during the three and a half decades that bridged the last years of British India “with its endeavours and its last vestiges of pomp and circumstance, and the first twenty years of the independent Republic of India” and succeeded C A Parkhouse who had been in India with Macmillan since 1913. Clemens saw changes, which were “great and far-reaching” calling for “constant adjustments”. On his retirement in 1968 he commended “the co-operative effort that has always existed” within the company. 

David Green who succeeded  Mr Stagg as Manager of the Madras (Chennai) branch also tells his story of post-independence publishing and the growth of local publishing and nationalisation of school textbooks and the opening of showrooms in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Trichinopoly and Rivandrum. The “Stories to Remember” series that began in 1954 are still on the Macmillan Education list.

In January 1970 the newly formed public company, Macmillan Company of India Ltd with its headquarters in Chennai took over the role of the 3 branches and in 1972 the main offices were moved to Delhi.

By 1979 the process of indianisation was fully implemented and the company has continued to grow and to expand into areas that were never envisaged by Alexander Macmillan when he first embarked on plans to publish a series of books especially for India more than 140 years ago in the 1860s. 

Yesterday Pakistan celebrated sixty years of statehood. Today India revels in sixty years of independence. Much will be written about the sub-continent and most of it will be much better informed than my thoughts.

I've been visiting India for twenty-five years, always (apart from the occasional day or two by the beach) on publishing business. My first visit was to the Delhi offices of Oxford University Press India in Ansari Road where they (and just down the road the editorial offices of the educational and higher education divisions of Macmillan India) are still situated.

My principal memory of that first visit was the large number of typists in the office. It was apparently cheaper to create file copies by retyping letters than by using carbon paper. Remember carbon paper? I was a medical editor at the time and India was responsible for the sale of largest number of preclinical textbooks through the British-government much missed ELBS scheme (notice that the debate was about what better scheme the Government would devise to replace ELBS - ha ha ha). We used to sell 60,000 copies of each volume of Cunningham's Manual of Practical Anatomy in India - those were the days.

Macmillan India has been operating since 1892, way before Independence but always in the Macmillan tradition of publishing independence. We now employ well over 3000 people in I don't know how many locations (probably more than a hundred if one includes showrooms etc). Pan Macmillan, Palgrave Macmillan and Nature Publishing Group all have operations in India in addition to the activities of the main Macmillan India operations. We have a printing works outside Chennai and this is what came up on a Google image search for it. We have replaced that general manager.

We have high-tech offices in Gurgaon, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and elsewhere where we typeset, process text, copyedit, fulfil subscriptions, build websites, develop software, innovate. The growth is astounding, the challenges enormous and the results excellent.

In the days of the Raj, India was always referred to as the jewel in the crown. For Macmillan it still is. I wish everyone in Macmillan India (and everyone in India) a great celebration and I hope I'll be there (just) to celebrate your century forty years hence.

It must be August. Yesterday's piece about author signing sessions in bookshops elicited this comment:

'It's early in the day but booksignings are best compared to sex ; sometimes more enjoyable than others, but seldom a total failure!'

Hmmm.

In the excitement of August I failed to record the millionth visit to this blog. It appears to have happened on Saturday 4 August with a VAT on print entry and some excellent comments. I can't tell exactly who the visitor was - there were 2804 visits that day, slightly below par but not bad for a weekend. So, whoever paid the millionth visit, welcome and I hope you return.

More good news on the public library front following on last week's. CILIP, which is a horrible acronym for the equally horrible-sounding but actually brilliant Chartered Institute of Librarians and Information Professionals, has come out all guns blazing in an attack on local and national politicians for the decline in support for the library services and an apparent disregard for the views of the poeple who know best, the librarians. Hooray, sense may be beginning to prevail. Here's a quote from CILIP's letter to the government minister responsible:

"A number of Public Library Authorities are planning drastic reductions in the number of professional staff they employ, and some are even planning to hand over control of library services to local community groups without any professional expertise at all," explained Bob McKee, CILIP Chief Executive. "We hear talk about improved customer service and greater community management, but this is just spin-doctoring to cover up the reality of budget cuts and job losses. The truth is that without adequate professional expertise the quality of service will be reduced and the future of the service put at risk."

Finally, hooray for the cricketers of India who won the test match series against England convincingly and properly. England's pusillanimity on the Sunday of the first test match was the trigger but then the Indian team made the most of everything that followed. The old colonial power has been put in its place by the new stars - and quite right too.

Just over a month ago I wrote about a book I had been sent out of the blue by the author, David Silverman.

I raved about it and so have a few others. As a result I've been in e-mail correspondence with the author and he has kindly agreed to write a guest blog about the contemporary American author tour. Here it is and very grateful I am.

“Are you going on a book tour?” friends asked me, and I’m sure, being nice.

“Why yes, I am going to the Midwest.”

“Don’t you live in New York City?” they asked, eyeing my newly purchased corduroy jacket querulously.

Kansas City, Kansas

My first bookstore. Since my book takes place in the bordering state of Iowa, I expect a band, or maybe a microphone, or at least a couple chairs.

The store manager says she will “set up the table” and offers me “something from the café.” I’ve already eaten, and by her reaction when I say “no thanks,” I sense that more experienced authors know to make the most of the café.

I sit in the middle of the store. I have a small pile of books and a pen. You can’t miss me.

But the store’s few patrons and the local knitting group avoid me. They dodge to the left through the dollar books. They shoot to the right, wedging between mysteries and large-eyed puppy calendars.

No one makes eye contact—as if I were a wolverine. Are they afraid I will lacerate their jugulars with a book? After four hours of reshuffling my pile of books, I wonder if I that might improve sales. Perhaps the transformation of writer to wolverine occurs regularly at book signings. 

Ultimately, three high school students befriend me. They smile, but don’t buy. It hits me, they can’t afford it. I slide a $10 bill under the cover and make my first sale. Since I earn a $1 per book, I’ve just lost $9.

Omaha, Nebraska

I take photos of the behinds of people who exit without looking at me. The store manager tells me the last author only had a couple of dozen people come. His name was Newt Gingrich.

Later, I sell three books to three drunk men in the Holiday Inn bar. This triples my sales.

Des Moines, Iowa

I worry that my ex-employees will show up with sharp sticks and poke me for writing “snarkily” about them. No one shows up. I get an organic turkey melt and caramel mocha latte from the cafe.

At the Holiday Inn, the angry clerk assures me, “All the rooms are booked. You have no room. This desk is closed.” I sleep in the parking lot, hiding under my corduroy jacket to avoid the security guard.

In Sum

I drove over a thousand miles in three days, spent several hundred dollars, and slept in a Chevy.

Let’s face it, the world has gone online, and, unlike the book tour, my online publicity has led to sales everywhere from California to Scotland. It’s also been free.

So does any hope remain for old school feet on the ground? The answer came a few weeks later, at the B&N in my hometown of Kingston, NY.

I shook out my corduroy and worried the store manager would resent having put out so many chairs. But then people started to show up: high school classmates, parents of a college friend, other friends, and some guy—at random!

I am given a microphone. They laugh. I sell some books. And I remember that any publicity is good publicity.

A sample of my book Typo: The Last American Typesetter or How I Made and Lost $4 Million is here.

Or just buy it here.

And lastly, my website.

David Silverman

August 12, 2007

Until today I was unaware of Tower Books, an independent distributor in Australia. Neither do I know its director Michael Rakusin. He has just written a letter to the major bookshop chain, Angus & Robertson, which you can read about in the Sydney Morning Herald blog complete with 176 comments, so far. A&R are demanding lump sum payments from small and medium-sized publishers if they want to continue to be stocked.

This letter is to be treasured and I reproduce it here in full for your enjoyment and appreciation. I can think of other potential recipients of such a letter. It's also worthwhile going to Sydney Morning Herald link to view the original letter from Charlie Rimmer, particularly the last line: 'If you would like to discuss this with me in more detail, I am delighted to confirm an appointment with you at 1.00 p.m. on 17th August for 10 minutes at my offices at 379 Collins Street, Melbourne.'

6 August 2007

Mr Charlie Rimmer
ARW Group Commercial Manager
14th Floor, 379 Collins Street,
Melbourne, VIC 3000

Dear Mr Rimmer

We are in receipt of your letter of 30 July 2007 terminating our further supply to Angus & Robertson. As you have requested, we will cancel all Angus & Robertson Company orders on 17 August and will desist from any further supply to your stores.

I have to say that my initial response on reading your letter as to how you propose to "manage" your business in the future was one of voluble hilarity, I literally burst out laughing aloud. My second response was to note the unmitigated arrogance of your communication, I could not actually believe I was reading an official letter from Angus & Robertson on an Angus & Robertson letterhead.

My reply to you will perforce be a lengthy one. I hope you will take the trouble to read it, you may learn something. Then again, when I look at the level of real response we have had from Angus & Robertson over the past six or so years, I somehow doubt it.

The first thing I would say to you is that arrogance of the kind penned by you in your letter of 30 July is an unenviable trait in any officer of any company, no matter how important that individual thinks himself or his company, no matter how dominant that company may be in its market sector. Business has a strange habit of moving in cycles: today's villain may be tomorrow's hero. It is quite possible to part from a business relationship in a pleasant way leaving the door open for future engagement. Sadly, in this case, you have slammed and bolted it.

More to the point, however, we have watched our business with Angus & Robertson dwindle year upon year since 2000. We had to wear the cost of sub-economic ordering from you through ownership changes, SAP installation, new management, and stock overhang. In summary our business with you has dropped from over $1.2 million at the end of 2000 to less than $600,000 in 2007.

You would be quite correct to question whether our offering to the market had changed in any way. The answer can be derived from the fact that during the same period our business with Dymocks, Book City, QBD and Borders continued to grow in double digits, our business with your own franchise stores has grown healthily, and our overall business during the same period has grown by more than 50%.

Six years ago we were allowed to send reps to your company stores and do stock checks. Then these were "uninvited" and we had to rely on monthly rep calls to your Buying Office. Subsequently even that was too much trouble; your Buying Office was too busy to see us, so we were asked to make new title submissions electronically. Every few months the new submission template became more and more complex. This year, we have been allowed quarterly visits to your Buying Office at which we were to be given the opportunity to sell to all your Category Managers. At the first, we did indeed see all of the Category Managers - but they didn't buy any of the titles offered. At the second, one Category manager was available, and again no purchases resulted. At the last (only last week), two Category managers attended. Through all of this, your overworked and under resourced Buying Department never got to see, let alone read, an actual book. While one may be forgiven for believing that Angus & Robertson is actually a company purveying "Sale" signs, I do believe you are still in the book business?

That Angus & Robertson is struggling for margin does not surprise me. It amazes me that the message has not become clear to your "management": there are only so many costs you can cut, there is only so much destiny you can put in the hands of a computer system, there are only so many sweetheart deals you can do with large suppliers. After that, in order to prosper one actually has to know one's product and have an appropriately staffed buying department. Most importantly, one has to train sales people of competence. You will never beat the DDSs at their cost cutting game, you will only prosper by putting "books" back into Angus & Robertson. And it would seem to me paramount to stop blaming suppliers for your misfortunes, trying ever harder to squeeze them to death, and actually focus on your core incompetencies in order to redress them.

How a business that calls itself a book business is going to do without titles such as the Miles Franklin Prize winning book or titles like Rich Dad Poor Dad (according to this week's Sydney Morning Herald it is still the fifth best selling business title in Australia nine years after publication) is beyond me. And how in good conscience Australia's self-purported largest chain of book shops proposes to exclude emerging Australian writers who are represented by the smaller distributors, is an equal mystery.

We too have expectations Mr Rimmer. We have had the same expectations for many years, none of which Angus & Robertson have been willing to deliver:

•That we are treated with equal respect to the larger publishers within the obvious parameters of commercial reality;
•That your Buying Department is able and willing to assess our books with equal seriousness to those of the big publishers and buy them appropriately;
•That you recognise the fundamental differences between the smaller distributors and the larger publishers and stop demanding of us terms that we are unable to deliver;
•That you would support and help develop Australian literature.

Had you made any effort to meet these expectations you would have found the niche we should have occupied in your business, as have all other book shops, and you would have found our contribution to the profitability of your business would have been dramatically different.

In summary, we reject out of hand this notion that somehow, even giving you 45% discount on a Sale or Return basis, with free freight to each of your individual stores, where we make less than half of that on the same book, puts us in the "category of unacceptable profitability". We have seen Angus & Robertson try this tactic before - about 12 years ago Angus & Robertson decided that unless we gave them a 50% discount, they would not buy from us any longer. We refused. Angus & Robertson desisted from buying from us for seven months. We survived, Angus & Robertson came back cap in hand.

We have seen Myer effectively eliminate smaller suppliers. We survived and prospered but look at the Myer Book Departments today.

We have seen David Jones decide that it had too many publishers to deal with and to exclude the smaller suppliers. We survived and prospered but look at the David Jones Book Departments today.

David Jones and Myer sell other goods; Angus & Robertson does not.

That the contents of your letter of 30 July are both immoral and unethical, I have no doubt. That they probably contravene the Trade Practices Act, I shall leave to the ACCC to determine. (Five percent interest PER DAY !!!)

If you wish to discuss any of the contents hereof you may call my secretary for an appointment at my office in Frenchs Forest. I shall be marginally more generous than you and at least allow you to pick a convenient time.

Michael Rakusin
Director
Tower Books Pty Ltd
Carpentaria, Alexis Wright : Winner of 50th Anniversary Miles Franklin Literary Prize, 2007

Copy: Graeme Samuel, Chairman, ACCC
Rod Walker, Chairman, ARW Group
Ian Draper, ARW Group Managing Director
Rickard Gardell, Managing Director, Pacific Equity Partners
Simon Pillar, Managing Director, Pacific Equity Partners
Barbara Cullen, CEO, ABA
Maree McCaskill, CEO, APA