You might have seen this article over the Christmas holidays – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8433024.stm that the CIPD predict more redundancies, with unemployment reaching a peak in the summer. I feel like the ‘purveyor of doom’ when I state I have been saying this for ages. I believe that between now and May we will…
Top 6 into Top 3?
I saw this article and prediction – that the top six publishers would become the top three. I don’t think so. I agree with their prediction about self publishing but in addition to this there will be a continual number of new start ups. The reduction in the cost of technology,…
Andre Deutsch Stories…
You’ve probably gathered from my John Updike comment that I have more ‘Andre stories’ about the late Andre Deutsch CBE up my sleeve, and you are right. I could tell you how he got one of Robert Maxwell’s secretaries (unintentionally) fired, how he once told me about a book that “it…
Damn Costa
Sometimes you wish something good will happen. Now something good is finally happening to the wonderful Diana Athill, now Diana Athill OBE (Congratulations Diana) and winner in the biography category for Somewhere Towards The End. Now as much as Sebastian Barry is a worthy overall winner, somehow I feel the…
RIP John Updike
I was sad to see the demise of John Updike yesterday. Not only was he a great author, but to me he will always be a great Andre Deutsch author. I recall a tale being told about the author photograph on the back of his books in the 1980s. Andre…
What ever happened to my book?
It is a question I am asked quite often and it is a question I hope to answer very shortly. I was due to write a careers guide to publishing but I cancelled the contract. At the time I had a full time job in publishing, was running bookcareers, all…
Booker Prize
As this year’s booker prize was announced I cast my mind back 20 years to the day that Penelope Lively won the Booker. Working for a publisher who wins the booker prize was (and I hope still is) a really exciting event, it is as though everyone wants to know you,…
An Anniversary
Today is a significant day in my history. 8th August 1983 was the day I started working at Andre Deutsch. Publishing seems like a different age compared to then – Andre still ran Andre Deutsch, Gollancz still ran Gollancz, Macmillan ran Macmillan (who had recently installed the ‘revolutionary’ Vista system…