Independents’ Day?

Apologies for the length of time it has taken to contribute to this blog, but, obviously being part of an enormous global conglomerate means even the task of switching on my PC has been lumbering, bureaucratic and dictated by endless meetings with our shareholders.

Now, if only I worked for an Independent publisher … then it would have all been so much quicker. This blog, like the books we produce, would feel innately more intimate and creative. The whole process would have been … well, somehow purer.

Read the publishing trade press or attend trade conferences in the last few years and you could be forgiven for thinking that independent publishing companies represent the last hope for any distinctive publishing in the UK. Independents don’t spend large amounts on advances. They don’t jump on bandwagons. They are full of BIG personalities who ooze integrity. People love working there because all politics and egos are checked in at the door (or just to the left of the door in the small kitchen with that old furred-up kettle where you lean your bicycle). They represent the cutting edge of innovative marketing by, er, advertising in the trade press. And if you happen to work as part of a larger publishing company, despite, in fact because of your size, you could be left feeling a culturally inferior beast.

Isn’t it the case that, as Tim Waterstone said many years ago at a Booksellers Association Conference (when being attacked then as the manifestation of the evil bookselling chain), just as there are good, bad and indifferent bookshops, there are good, bad and indifferent publishers? What a huge disservice any rose-tinted view offers the individuals and teams who are trying to break new ground whatever the size of their organisation, to the publishers of, say, Mark Haddon or David Mitchell, Nigel Slater or Freakonomics.

Better stop now. Have only allocated 11 minutes for creative, unquantifiable blog postings today. And then I must get approval from corporate communications. And we’ll need a meeting to do that …