It's easy to assume all the unfairness in the world of books, falls on the writer. The endless rejections, hours of slogging, dead-end opportunities (and lucky breaks) belong to us. Well just spare a thought for the publishers. Publishing is another competitive industry that's hard to break in to. I spoke to Alasdair Firth about what it takes to sit on that side of the desk.
Alasdair Firth is the Publisher and Managing Director of
Bamboccioni Books,
a small and independent publishing company. He runs the company alongside a
regular job at a Children's Centre in Birmingham. He lives
with his partner in the West Midlands and when he is not avidly
consuming a book, he can usually be found experimenting in the kitchen.
Here he tells us why publishing is his passion and why small publishers are a vital cog in the publishing wheel.
Why did you decide that publishing was the career for you?
I grew up around books. Both my parents are
librarians and always encouraged me to read. I’m passionate
about books, so publishing seemed like an obvious choice.
How did you get into publishing?
I studied English at the University of
St Andrews, which gave me a rounded appreciation of literature. I was exposed to
numerous authors and genres I would never have chosen to read independently. As silly as it may sound, I developed a critical opinion that has given
me the confidence to assess fiction and poetry based on my own ideas rather
than thinking I must value something because it is
written by a “literary great”. For example, I have no shame in saying that I
can't stand the poetry of Wordsworth.
My experience in publishing prior to
Bamboccioni consists of a three-month internship at Duckworths and a month at
Arcadia Books. Both publishers were
relatively small-scale operations and gave me a lot more responsibility
than I expected. I gained a good grounding in the industry. I
have also had some experience in magazine publishing – working for a business magazine
in Shanghai as well as on a student publication.
What made you decide to set up your own publishing company?
After graduating I applied for various jobs in
publishing and had some interviews, but no success. Entry-level jobs in
the industry are difficult to get, and every graduate who was applying for these roles had completed
internships just like me, had similar extra-curricular achievements and the
same ambition and desire to pursue a career in publishing. I was
forced to accept that whilst my internships had taught me a lot, what I needed
was experience in making the bigger decisions.
My partner got a job in the West Midlands and I
decided to move up with him. I got a job unrelated to publishing but I didn't
give up on my ambitions. One dreary December evening I
decided that if I wanted that first-hand experience I had to set up my own company.
Tell us a bit about Bamboccioni Books.
We are a small and independent publisher that specialises in high quality
fiction. We aim to promote new and diverse writers. Right now, I am interested in
putting together a list of titles that we can be proud of, but that also marks us out
as unique and more adventurous than most publishers. We are interested in both novels and short stories.
Our
Commissioning Editor is Claire Bagnall. She goes through our submissions and
identifies those that have potential. Richard Thompson is the Associate Publisher. His role is primarily to
assist in making the major business decisions for the company and develop the marketing strategies for each release. I'm the
Publisher and Managing Director and do a bit of everything. I write the
contracts, have the final say on what we publish, hire the cover artists, lead
on the production process and manage the finances.
What are the biggest challenges facing the publishing industry today?
That’s a difficult question. I think many in publishing would view the move towards
e-books as a challenge. Authors are able publish their own work and cut out the
middlemen. Obviously not all authors would be able to do
as good a job as an experienced publishing house, but they would retain control
of their work and take most if not all of the profits from sales.
So is digital publishing good or bad?
The industry is moving more and more towards e-books.
The digital revolution has got
to be embraced, and I appreciate the convenience of being able to carry your
library around with you. I don’t believe that we should turn our
back on “real books”, however. You can't replace the satisfaction of having
bookshelves brimming with books. The
e-book market is also rather unregulated; for example people are uploading “books”
that consist solely of information copied from Wikipedia. Most online retailers
allow for the consumer to read samples, but there is no guarantee that the
sample is representative of the rest of the book.
What role would you say small, independent publishers fill in the publishing scene?
With the growing popularity of e-books and the rise of print-on-demand
services (such as Lightning Source), small publishers can
produce titles without the fear of being stuck with stacks of unsold
copies. Without this worry we're able to be more daring than the
bigger publishers and publish niche fiction and books by “unknown”
authors. We are, of course, all secretly keeping our fingers crossed that we
stumble upon the next big mainstream success.
What's your advice for authors planning to approach publishers directly, without the help of an agent?
Don’t go overboard. Make a case for your book and
identify the selling points for it, but no one wants to read an essay on how
much of your life was spent writing the book. Your sample needs to polished and
engaging.
Publishers are looking for something that
they can sell. It doesn’t
have to be generic or “safe”, we just need to know that people are going to
want to buy your book, or that we will be able to convince people to do so.
Other than that, my advice is that if you believe your work is good enough then stick at it.
If
you’re aiming for your book to be picked up by a major publisher then you
should approach them through an agent. Unsolicited submissions end up in slush
piles that may not be looked at for months and when they are it’s usually by
interns. When approaching
smaller outfits, such as Bamboccioni Books, an agent is not usually
necessary.
If someone reading this has a book that they think might interest you, how do they get in touch?
We are actively seeking new titles at the moment. Authors should email us at enquiry@bamboccionibooks.com with a sample chapter/ short story and paragraph or two saying a
bit about their work and themselves. We try to respond to all
submissions as soon as we can. Authors can also
contact us by post, but sample chapters will not be returned and it may be a
longer wait before we respond to you. Take a look at our website for details.
Thanks to Alasdair for answering these questions. If you have a novel or short story that is "niche" (or even a mainstream one), would you consider approaching a small publisher? What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages?
