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Luke Johnson, best known in the book trade for his spell owning Borders, and fellow Financial Times journalist Mrs Moneypenny are writing business titles for Penguin's business imprint Portfolio.
Johnson, whose investment house Risk Capital Partners bought Borders UK in 2007 before selling it two years later, is writing Start It Up: Why Running Your Own Business is Easier than You Think. It will be published on 1st September in trade paperback, priced £12.99. The book is described as "A How-to Book By Someone Who Has", and gives advice on beginning a business, such as choosing the right name, deciding on partners, and how to market your business.
Portfolio editorial director Joel Rickett said: "What is at the heart of the book is the challenge of going it alone. The one big thing he says is that you don't always have to be the next Richard Branson or Google, you need to manage your expectations—it is a myth-busting book too."
As well as leading the buyout of Borders UK, Johnson also took over Pizza Express in 1993, growing it from 12 restaurants to 250. He has a weekly column on Wednesdays in the Financial Times.
Portfolio will also publish Mrs Moneypenny's Careers Advice for Ambitious Women by the Financial Times' anonymous working mother columnist in January 2012. The book, written with city headhunter Heather McGregor, will offer "frank and useful tips" for career women under chapter headings including "How to Say No" and "You Can't Have It All, But You Have To Do It All". The book will be published in hardback and will be priced £14.99.
Rickett said: "Mrs Moneypenny's Careers Advice for Ambitious Women reads like a mentoring session with a woman who has been there, done that. The advice will be incisive and easy to digest, and backed by empowering stories of successful women. Unlike so many leaden careers books, this will be realistic and down to earth, threaded with Mrs Moneypenny's no-nonsense wit and wisdom."