The Bookseller.com

1st December 2008

Scott Pack is publisher at The Friday Project, an imprint of HarperCollins.

Mistletoe and whine

13.12.07

It is Christmas and we should all be jolly, so I thought I would wax lyrical on the high points of my first full year as a publisher, from both The Friday Project (TFP) and some of the other independent presses. They were:

• Publishing my first book, a reissue of Gents by Warwick Collins. The Times reviewed it in the week of publication and called it a classic. Not a bad start, but the only way is down from there.

• Seeing Myrmidon make the Man Booker longlist with The Gift Of Rain by Tan Twan Eng. With the eventual winner failing to ignite any real excitement, it is a shame this one didn’t go further.

• Signing book deals with Oliver Postage, Peter Firmin and Tama Janowitz. Heroes one and all. I even got to see where the Clangers lived.

• Stef Penney winning the Costa Award for Quercus. Anthony Cheetham seems to be employing everyone in the industry, but he is certainly shifting some books.

• Watching Howard Read on the Royal Variety Performance the week we published his first book for children. Perfect timing, and a complete fluke.

• The Independent Publisher promotion at Borders. Reasonably priced and it sells books. Just what the indie sector has been looking for.

• Seeing Snowbooks rival the majors with its commercial cover designs and making a viable business from selling the service to others.

• Getting four books on “Richard & Judy” in three weeks. Probably never to be repeated by us, but we can live in hope. Now, would a Best Read selection be too much to ask? Apparently so.

• Clare Christian of TFP winning Young Publisher of the Year at the Nibbies, as well as Tom Chalmers at Legend Press being nominated. I am intrigued by their definition of “young”, though (Clare’s going to kill me for that).

• Pauline Rowson getting onto the Spread the Word list for World Book Day 2008 with In Cold Daylight.

• Thirteen by Sebastian Beaumont (Myrmidon). My discovery of the year by some considerable distance.

• Oh, and almost getting sued by J K Rowling. Kept us at TFP on our toes, that’s for sure.

Given the festive mood, I won’t mention the big retailers pricing small publishers out of their promotions, the scourge of returns, or broadsheets ignoring the best books because they have "filled their quota from small publishers". No, that would be churlish of me.

So merry Christmas then—or bah humbug, depending on your state of mind.

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