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Scott Pack

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

Mea culpa

22.05.08

A great deal has been written about The Friday Project in recent months, both in the press and online. Much of it is inaccurate, plenty of it is conjecture and speculation, and some, as is often the way with the internet, has been anonymous and personal. So what really happened to cause the demise of TFP?

The answer cannot be pinned down to one thing. A key investor did pull the plug on a six-figure sum. The business strategy to grow quickly was not sustained with sales. The fundraising in 2007 was so prolonged as to be almost counter-productive.

I could fill this column with a list of contributing factors, but the truth is that if we had sold more books and produced them more cost-effectively,­ then the business wouldn’t have gone under.

Mistakes were made. These have proved extremely costly to both people within the business and, more importantly, to those outside it with a vested financial interest. When a company goes bust, creditors are often left out of pocket. That is certainly the case with TFP, but there is also the added weight of shareholders losing their investments and a number of authors now having no home for their books.

In light of all that, I cannot grumble about the criticism, even if some of it has been unpleasant and difficult to read at times. We failed to keep the business afloat, we were arrogant and cocky when things were going well, we deserve all the stick we get.

But our authors don’t. Which is why this new start with the backing of HarperCollins is so important. We have a point to prove. Whatever the shortcomings in our previous incarnation, we passionately believe that there are some wonderful ideas and writers out there on the web, and that many of them can be published successfully and commercially.

We realise that this won’t directly help those stung by the liquidation, but we will beaver away behind the scenes to do whatever we can, even if it isn’t much, to address the remaining issues.

One way we are trying to do that is in finding homes for the authors that aren’t moving with us. Harper­Collins, quite understandably, wants to revert to the core TFP business of web-to-print publishing, which has left some strong general fiction and non-fiction titles without a home.

I hope, and believe, that we will place these books elsewhere and ultimately see many of them in the bestseller charts in the months and years to come—alongside our own titles, of course.

Read The Bookseller's feature on The Friday Project here.

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Comments on this article

By Tony

Just a load of talk and waffle. It means nothing and most readers will see through your and Clare's chatter. You say of people's criticisms that "Much of it is inaccurate, plenty of it is conjecture and speculation" yet ironically all this speculation and conjecture was on the whole deadly accurate. The TFP 'top brass' proved that their business skills are **** poor, that they preferred to spend money like water and blow their own trumpet. The picture emerging is clearly one where TFP were playing the big publishing business game with gusto pretty much in the knowlege that if/when it failed TFP would be rescued by their big friends; as is the case. it's a story of back-scratching and cash squandering on a grand scale with nil risk to the chaps round the polish oak table. A typical business practice where the suits look after their own. it won't change but you need to understand that those with morals and principles are appalled at these actions. Still you've got a cushy job at HC now so why should you care?

22 May 08 21:58

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By dribble

"The answer cannot be pinned down to one thing..." Yes it can - people being business wo/men when they are clearly not up to the job. The CAPTCHA code I have to type in for this post is 'alleged con' (I kid you not). I need say no more.

22 May 08 22:04

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By Alan Giles

Very few start-up businesses grow smoothly without mistakes and set-backs. OK, yours has had a massive, and costly, set-back. But you should not allow the blow to your self-esteem and personal abuse to throw you off course. Your future now depends on the extent to which: 1) You have learned from the mistakes 2) Your determination and self-belief remains intact 3) The HC organisation provides support and advice, but doesn't undermine your creativity Knowing the parties involved, I would be confident on all three counts.

23 May 08 08:56

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By Morrison

Oh, but Scott, how come you omit to mention that you are yourself a Friday Project author! What is the fate of your own book, that you wrote under the pseudonym Steve Stack and published last year with The Friday Project? Is it moving over to HC? 'It Is Just You, Everything's Not S**t', isn't that the title? Sorry, but really not a premise that many people involved in the demise of The Friday Project would willingly accept, I suspect.

23 May 08 14:25

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By Suzan Abrams

Good luck, Scott. I sincerely admire your verve. The web is taking on the large world of books and writers in new dramatic forms; many of which are still by way of alternative experiments. Yours is the road less travelled but is exactly too, the kind of thing that makes the world a little more exciting. I thought the HarperCollins deal was a highly interesting door to have opened up and you can't tell the future until you reach the end. Keep on!

23 May 08 14:50

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By Mark Thwaite

TFP failed for many reasons that can be raked over elsewhere (but good luck Scott for the future.) But if HC's idea "to revert to the core TFP business of web-to-print publishing" is to succeed then it will have to understand something that TFP never seemed to grasp i.e. that online to offline conversion is an extremely complex bit of counting. E.g. a blog may get 10,000 visitors everyday, but no-one would read it as a book, or a blog may get 1,000 visitors a week and the vast majority would be happy to buy the contents wrapped as a book. As most publishers seem to have such a very limited understanding of web statistics then I fear that successful "web-to-print publishing" will remain for HC/TFP an expensive conundrum and not a gravy train.

27 May 08 07:13

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