MY BACK PAGES (MY BACK PAGES: An undeniably personal history of publishing 1972-2022)

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And then there’s the marketing. Scientific and academic publishing has always viewed its marketplace as global. The very idea of territorial separation is alien. Trade books do have separate markets with different tastes but those differences are diminishing. All this points to a sea change in trade book publishing, a change which has been signaled for decades but has been obstructed by squabbles such as EU exclusive rights and the short-term-ism of hunting the biggest possible advance as opposed to the best possible deal. The post-COVID-19 launch parties will be digital. Many more people can and will attend. The wine and refreshments will be top-notch. The author can be heard and seen. The event can be recorded and shared universally.

Richard Charkin: A 2022 Publishing Resolution Richard Charkin: A 2022 Publishing Resolution

Print in the new world is akin to the old French tradition of delivering the mail by postmen on stilts—charming but ridiculous. Richard Charkin's experience as a publisher is unique among his generation. Over the past half century he has been (at different times) a scientific and medical publisher, a journal publisher, a digital publisher and a general publisher. He has worked for family-owned, publicly-owned, university-owned companies and start-ups. In this memoir he uses his unrivalled experience to illustrate the profound changes that have affected the identity and practices but not the purpose of publishing.

I found it fascinating and full of interest....Your early years in the business are particularly riveting to somebody who joined much later on." Antony Topping, Managing Director, Greene & Heaton Literary Agency But I think probably everyone would have gulped today at just that title. It probably would have got through anyway, but maybe by the skin of its teeth. I’m sure there are other ones that we would think twice or three times or 20 times before doing.” Sir Tom Waterstone, founder of Waterstones, said: “Charkin’s opinionated anecdotes and reflections provide intriguing colour and pace, and are sometimes very funny, but it is his technical overview of the market over these five decades of constant technical revolution that is so absorbing, so clear-minded, so wide-flung, so instructive. Digital distribution of ebooks, audiobooks, and any other yet-to-be-invented formats has greatly facilitated worldwide distribution and logistics, further reinforcing the possibility of a single publisher license from the author.

MY BACK PAGES: An undeniably personal history of publis…

There’s also quite a lot of that undiscovered because it’s not high enough profile . . . I saw a rejection letter, of a really good writer, a novelist, just last week, which said, ‘We find that books by white men of a certain age are difficult to sell.’ That’s not true. But it is a default reaction.” As you can see, I’ve resisted the temptation to grow a beard, although I must own up to laxity in the matter of daily shaving. This book spans 50 years of British publishing, and makes them all interesting. Richard Charkin never minded stirring the pot, and clearly he is still at it. He offers a tour of the publishers where he worked, of the industry, and of the many colorful characters he came across. From Lord Archer to Harry Potter, all the stories are here, and they are told with flair in Richard's signature voice. I loved it!" John Sargent, former CEO of Macmillan USA Authors can meet resistance when they go off piste as Smith did with a personal tome about “the phenomenon of existence”. rather than yet another book of reliable recipes. So my resolutions this year relate to improving publishing by measuring things other than those I’ve mentioned above. The 2022 Audit Wish ListTraditionally, publishers were country-located and principally served their home markets, thus requiring a partnership or license deal with other publishers for other markets. I’m not a complete illiterate, but I do find handling pictures, PDFs, and spreadsheets harder than I should, and I have nobody to turn to apart from the occasional good Samaritan Who is it for? Publishing recruits, students and researchers, authors, librarians, colleagues, friends, enemies? We probably should have decided at the outset but eventually plumped on the core market being people new to the industry. From Reed Charkin went on to the Current Science Group, Macmillan, then Bloomsbury, where he built hugely successful businesses largely on the academic side. He doesn’t present himself as a publishing genius however. Rather he comes across as someone with infectious enthusiasm, bundles of energy and most of all a love of the people he worked with.

Richard Charkin: Ten Publishing Things That Will Never Be The Richard Charkin: Ten Publishing Things That Will Never Be The

What’s it like publishing a fellow professional? If all publisher/author relationships worked like this, our lives would be much easier than my experience tells me they are. It will still be blended learning but as in any blend everything depends on the proportions of the ingredients. In education, these proportions will never be the same again. Richardson was appointed by the University of Oxford to take charge of its sprawling, unprofitable, arrogant, and inward-looking publishing, printing, and papermaking operation at a time of hyperinflation, economic recession, and overbearing trade union power. He had no significant experience of management, publishing, or business. He made no grand statements nor speeches to “rally the troops.”

Some key contractual rules I insisted on with all titles and authors in spite of initial resistance were: Finally, the ability to promote a book via other media—newspapers, radio, TV, movies—is also becoming more global, either through media conglomeration (for example News Corp) or by Internet penetration (for example The Guardian or the Daily Mail digital footprint in North America). ‘A Sea Change in Trade Book Publishing’ Straight out of university, Charkin entered through the tradesman’s entrance expressly designated for employees as assistant science editor at Harraps. Smoking was de rigueur, women relegated to the typing pool, luncheon vouchers provided, letters carbon copied, and tea ladies omnipresent. Charkin would witness the emergence and obsolescence of microfilm, the fax, dictaphones, CD ROMS and the demise of the typing pool and the tea lady.