Book of the Month August 08

 Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.  I can’t praise this book highly enough.  This is business publishing at its very best.  It is written by Mark McCormack, once dubbed ‘the most powerful man in sport’, who founded the sports management company IMG.  You don’t have to be even vaguely interested in business, or MBAs, or business school to get something from this book.  Its an instruction manual to life as much as it is a guide to good business.

Mark sadly died in 2003, but this book, originally written in the early 1980s, will stand the test of time.  Every page contains a gem of advice, and its written in a down-to-earth, conversational style that is a rare treat.  Mark was clearly a very smart, well-connected and highly regarded man, but the tone manages to be authoritative and clear-sighted without ever being condescending. IMG started out representing legendary golfers such as Arnold Palmer and Gary Player and there are lots of great stories from that era.  One of my favourite stories involves the flamboyant golfer, Doug Sanders.  Doug was represented by IMG and on one occassion played a golf tournament up in Canada, making all the arrangements himself.  IMG would have been none the wiser had he not said anything, but a week after the match, a plain envelope arrived at the IMG office containing their commission – no letter, no explanation; just the cash.  Mark McCormack contrasts this with what he calls the ‘insincerity’ and ‘degree of phoniness’ he remembers from a chance encounter with President Nixon.  His point is about really knowing people, and trusting and believing in them.

Powerful stuff indeed.

Are You A Publisher or a Brand Manager?

 One of the really interesting things that has happened in publishing in recent years is how publishers have moved from being purely the purveyors of content to becoming managers of brands – the ‘brand’ more being either a celebrity author, media programme, consumer label or service (think Big Brother housemates, Michael Palin’s travel series or Hip Hotels). In the good old days, an editor would get a reassuring wad of proposals hit their in-tray on a Monday morning, and spend the rest of the week sifting out the wheat from the chaff. Not any more. Proposals are fast becoming a thing of the past, because more often than not the brand has no content to speak of, but represents a ‘publishing opportunity’. I’ve lost count of the number of times this year I’ve been asked to write a proposal for a brand. Increasingly, the publisher is expected to buy into the brand profile, and do most of the initial donkey work themselves – determining the brand appeal, its depth, its longevity etc. That’s not a gripe by the way. It’s just reflective of the fact that the so-called ‘authors’ are increasingly not the originators of the content. Obviously there are limits to just how far you can go with that. Katie Price aka Jordan allegedly asked J.K. Rowling at an Awards ceremony recently why she didn’t have someone write her books for her.  Katie has three autobiographies to her name, her Perfect Ponies series, as well as her alter-ego Angel Summer novels.  All have done fantastically well, although Katie still has some way to go to top J.K’s reputed 400 million worldwide sales of Harry Potter books.  There’s clearly still a market for both approaches, and yet ‘brand creep’ is definitely on the rise.

So what does this mean for editors and publishing houses?  If you are publishing a brand, you clearly need to know as much about that brand as possible – who it appeals to, how long it will last, and will its followers convert into book buyers.  Of course, some of these brands are fragile, having gained overnight popularity and can lose all goodwill just as quickly.  Witness, what happened to Jade Goody.  One minute she is ‘Britain’s favourite girl-next-door’.  The next minute her autobiography follow-up has been dropped by her publisher like the proverbial hot potato.  So, as much as publishers would probably like to think their cash buys them an ownership of the brand, editors and publicists are eyeing the newspapers nervously each day, hoping that their particular brand hasn’t committed a monumental faux pas on live television and destroyed its fanbase.

So, what are publishers to do?  One of the most important things is to show some caution, and separate hyperbole from fact.  Celebrity brands in particular can generate a media storm like no other, and the public is whipped up into a state of fervour that creates a feeding frenzy when a book is touted.  But, consumer taste is fickle and notoriously hard to second guess.  So, as Rudyard Kipling would say, while all about you are losing their heads, you need to keep yours.  If the brand has genuine appeal rather than just passing curiosity, it is obviously a much more attractive proposition to a publisher.  Secondly, a celebrity brand garner colossal attention through notoriety rather than genuine affection, yet it is usually the latter than will stand the all important vissisitudes of consumer taste.  It doesn’t take a genius to work out that Russell Brand (no pun intended) for example, probably holds more appeal to bookbuyers than Chantelle Houghton.  Although its an over-simplification to say ‘talent will out’, its not a dictat that should be altogether forgotten.

Lionel Shriver agrees with me!

I must have been on to something.  Writing in the Daily Mail Femail section today, Lionel Shriver sees the same juxtaposition between the publishing fortunes of Katie Price and J.K. Rowling (albeit from a slightly more acerbic viewpoint)…See my post ‘Are You A Publisher or a Brand Manager?’

Read this for more:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1052243/How-did-glamour-model-Jordan-best-selling-author-doesnt-write.html

Literary Agents: Their place in your universe

This is a perennial publishing topic.  Exactly what is the role and merit of a literary agent?  Well, like most things in life it depends on your situation.  In my previous role as editor of a small publishing imprint, I did start to question the value of agents.  The reason being that for at least 75% of the time I was unearthing and taking into print first-time authors that I thought had something of commercial value.  If a first-time author told me they were thinking of finding themselves an agent, I would inwardly groan.  I’d like to think that I never paid a penny more for a book just because an agent was involved and wanted a cut of the action.  I paid what the book was worth, not what an agent might want for it.

Looking back now, I realise I was doing exactly what all small presses do.  Namely, to find great talent before the big boys do.  Now I’ve moved on things are different.  As part of Hachette, the largest publishing group in the UK, I am suddenly playing in a different league where the rules of engagement are also very different.  Suddenly I realise the true worth of a good agent.  A good agent will know and understand the type of list I am trying to build and will bring me the very best, most commercially attractive authors.  The fact is that without engaging with the top agents, I wouldn’t get to see the best projects and would be fatally missing out.

As with everything in life, there are good and bad agents.  The bad ones try and sell you and dead duck and don’t listen when you tell them there is no merit whatsoever in the proposition.  The good ones instinctvely know which editor at which publishing house will be interested in which book or idea.  The really good ones will even make a note of your hit list of books, and go and find you some authors to match up with them.  My good friend Simon Benham at MayerBenham Ltd is great at this, and we have done several deals in this way.

Obviously I’m speaking from an editor’s point of view.  If you are an author who wants to hook up with an agent, my advice again would be to consider carefully what your aims are and what you can realistically expect to achieve.  Fiction authors hoping to be the next Jodi Picoult or Ian Rankin are a). probably being unrealistic and b). not going to get anywhere without a really good agent on board.  A top agent will have conncections that you can never hope to and that’s what their cut of the pot is buying you.  If you just want to get your book in print and on the shelf of Waterstones to show your granny, plus a helping hand in all the publishing processes, a small independent press may well be the answer.  Non-fiction is slightly different because with non-fiction its not just the quality of writing but the author’s promotional platform that counts.  You may well have written a world-beating business or cookery book, but if no-one has heard of you, you are unlikely to make the grade as an author.  Non-fiction editors at even the bigger houses are therefore slightly more open to unsolicited proposals direct from the author.  It doesn’t take long to assess if an author has the promotional status or potential you are looking for.  Again, a literary agent can help bring focus and clarity to a non-fiction proposal and its worth bearing in mind that you are unlikely to get a second chance with the same proposal.  Publishing history is not littered with books that have been knocked back by an editor only for the editor to change their mind six months later on a second submission.  Taking heed of proposal guidelines on a publisher’s website or the advice of a literary agent can improve your chances of turning a ‘no’ into a ‘yes’.

If you are tempted to send me your business book proposals, you can email them to me at john.moseley@headline.co.uk  Just don’t be offended if it’s not for me.  I will always give constructive feedback, but editors will not be inclined to spend a huge amount of time guiding an author they are going to reject.  There are only so many hours in the day!

Here’s a link to some interesting discussion on the Guardian Book Blog about the role of literary agents.  All interesting stuff.

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/08/whats_the_point_of_literary_ag.html

Book of the Month July 08

I hesitate to say this is a great book.  More accurately its a great piece of commercial publishing.  The book is in fact a support resource to the real magic of the proposition – which is the online StrengthsFinder Profile tool.  The StrengthsFinder allows you to sift through 34 ‘themes’ and find which are those you are best at.  The key idea being that in order to be the best you can be, you should focus on your strengths and forget about your weaknesses.  Its a hugely liberating way of looking at things.  No longer do I need to worry that I can’t fix a car or build a wall.  The fact that I have other gifts outweigh any weaknesses I may have.  After all, no one is great at EVERYTHING are they?

The role of Editor (cont.)

Here’s a link to some interesting discussion about the role of the publishing editor, which ties in with my post ‘Are You A Publisher Or A Brand Manager?’.

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/07/what_has_become_of_the_editors.html

Book of the Month June 08

 

 This is a wonderful book.  Very sadly, Paul Arden died in April this year after suffering a heart attack.  In a 14 year stint as Creative Director at advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, Arden oversaw such iconic campaigns as the slashed purple silk for the Silk Cut campaign and such slogans as ‘The car in front is a Toyota’.  In the book, Arden says the best advice he ever heard was from Harper’s Bazaar art director, Alexey Brodovitch, to a young photographer, Richard Avedon: “Astonish me.” “Bear these words in mind,” Arden wrote, “and everything you do will be creative.” 

The book is a both glimpse into the mind of a creative tour de force, and an source of endless inspiration if you are searching for your next big idea.  Definitely a must read.