Tea and Cake with Scott Pack

If you read Scott Pack’s own blog, which covers everything from alien cauliflowers to betting tips, he seems to be a well-read muso, who is rather fond of talking about his children, obscure music (at least obscure to me) and the VAT on teacakes (or not). If you read his columns in The Bookseller, he looks like a rather smug know-it-all who knows better than you do.Yet if you see him wandering around the office in his cardigan, all smiles and accommodation, well, all he needs is the pipe and slippers. So who is this man whose fearsome reputation as the once Head Buyer at Waterstone’s precedes him, whose name is designed for embossing and an airport novel and yet is, in person, well, quite normal? The Friday Project is now in the building so I asked Scott to debunk some of the myths about himself, and explain what the newest HarperCollins list is and will be.

Your reputation is a bit like the Wizard of Oz’s: it precedes you but seems rather over the top. Why do you think it is so overblown when you are, in fact, cardigan man with a penchant for cake and the Isle of Wight?

I think you will find that they are zip-up jerseys. Surely a cardigan has buttons? As for my reputation, I think that is a combination of me mouthing off on some sensitive subjects, lazy journalists who were looking for an easy story and some publishers being wary of me when I was a retailer. I have read most of what was written about me and if it were all true then I would probably deserve the reputation I seem to have.

The web is littered with commentary about you. I have to ask: did you really, as Tim Adams pointed out in The Observer, write on Friends Reunited: ‘My life is better than yours’ and why? Were you trying to get back at anyone in particular at school for example?

It was a joke that my friends would understand. The clue was in the name of the site. It is Friends Reunited, not People You Never Knew Reunited or Disingenuous Journos With An Axe To Grind Reunited. Up until the point that Tim Adams mentioned it I had only heard from old friends on the site. Afterwards, all sorts of tossers waded in with abuse. Although, to be fair, I wasn’t overly polite with my responses either.

You left home at 16 and went straight out to work in retail: what made you choose that route?

That’s not quite what happened but is close enough. I left home while doing my A levels and worked nights and weekends to pay the rent. Having submerged myself into the real world it seemed a bit pointless going to university. The lure of a weekly wage was too great.

And what made you decide to move from retail into publishing?

Ahh. Well I was reasonably happy as buying manager at Waterstone’s but the company was introducing a new buying structure and I wasn’t convinced it would work. That and some smaller things sort of combined to make me think about trying something else.

What was your proudest moment in retail and what, so far, is your proudest in publishing?

Almost impossible to answer without sounding like a twat but that doesn’t usually stop me. At Waterstone’s I was immensely proud of the team I had put together. There were some amazing individuals amongst them. A number are still there and doing very well indeed. Others are enjoying success elsewhere; a number of them are buying managers themselves now, some are editors. It was a talented bunch and a pleasure working with them — most of the time.

And you feel proud of every book you publish but there is a particular pleasure when a book or an author you believe in breaks through to a wider audience.

The Friday Project has been in existence for three years and has already gone through several permutations. What is it now, and what is its future?

It is still the only imprint to specialise in taking great web content and making books from it. That gives us a much wider brief than most people think. It isn’t just blogs-to-books, we have cookery books, children’s books, memoir, literary fiction, humour…

Our future plans are very exciting. Our author deals will now all be profit-share arrangements with us splitting the profits of the books 50/50 with the authors. We are soon to announce some bold eBook initiatives and there is more to come.

Many Friday Project books are based on blogs; apart from the obvious technical developments that have enabled this genre to develop, why do you think this form of writing is so popular?

Not so many, but some are and it has to be said that they are among our most successful. Books from blogs, by their very nature, tend to have short, punchy chapters and that can mean a speedier read. I think that is part of the appeal. And also, if you are a fan of a blog then owning the book is a logical next step for many.

And what made you decide to start writing a blog?

Everyone at TFP thought it would be a good idea. Originally it was to drum up some publicity and a number of early posts generated some press and media interest so it did the job there. Over time it has softened a bit and become more of a personal blog with some book recommendations. It gets anywhere up to 1,000 visitors a day and seems to have found its level.

Over and over, both on your blog and in other articles, you emphasise the importance of good writing. Do you think that that is enough in this marketplace?

Not even remotely. A point proved by the fact that most of the writers I think are truly wonderful have never had a huge bestseller — Charles Baxter, Elinor Lipman, Ron Hansen, Sebastian Beaumont, Sjon, I could go on.

Book publishing has survived almost twenty years’ co-existence with the internet, despite doom-mongers saying that books are dead; do you think it will survive the next twenty? And if so, how?

Absolutely. Books are much loved and shall remain so. They may not make up as much of the reading spectrum as they have for the past 50 years or so but they aren’t going anywhere in a hurry.