The Bookseller.com

7th January 2009

Clare Alexander is a literary agent with Aitken Alexander Associates, and ex-president of the Association of Authors’ Agents. She was formerly a publisher at Viking and Macmillan.

Back to basics?

21.11.08

This has become a dispiriting time of year. There is hardly anything I want to read on the UK bestseller lists, and all the talk revolves around which celebrity books are the winners and losers in the publishing gamble that has become the Christmas book season.

So what a delight to be invited to Toronto to the Harbourfront International Festival of Authors. Mingling with an astonishing line-up of writers, I was reminded of what it felt like to be somewhere that truly celebrates international literary culture and is justly proud of their own.

Alongside the many author events, for the first time there was a well thought-out international visitors' programme, intended to extend opportunities for Canadian literature abroad, which enabled a group of us to visit various Canadian publishers and agents. But for me the most exciting part of my visit was being taken to see some Toronto bookshops, including Ben McNally's beautiful independent store. The absolute highlight was when Ed Victor and I were taken to meet Heather Reisman at Indigo Books.

At Indigo, the thought that goes into the way books are displayed and stock cleverly juxtaposed might be exciting enough, but what impressed me most was "Heather's Pick". With the power within her market of "Richard & Judy" or "Oprah", Heather is a passionate advocate whose choices are trusted by readers, and every book she chooses becomes a bestseller. But the exciting thing is that she is also the owner of the biggest book chain, and so those picks are not only promoted at the time of publication, but they go on being promoted and re-promoted because the stores' enthusiasm is for the life of the book and for other books by the same author.

It reminded me of a time when Waterstone's Book of the Month could propel titles such as Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow to the top of the bestseller list. Or W H Smith's Fresh Talent meant that half a dozen young writers got off to a flying start.

Now that "Richard & Judy" is no longer on prime-time television, isn't there an opportunity for our industry to take some part in recommending books to readers again? How far can we go along the road to becoming offshoots of the entertainment business before something valuable is lost? Agents love to advocate their authors to editors. Editors love to advocate books to colleagues. The last link in that chain is the bookseller, and Heather reminded me that ours used to make unequivocal recommendations to their customers. They should do so again.
 

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