Long and approving appraisal here

http://grumpyoldbookman.blogspot.com/

of the account by its founder of Macmillan New Writing, most particularly how it works economically, the contract, and so on.

One interesting thing which I hadn't realised is that MNW doesn't expect to make a profit, except where authors are successful enough to transfer to Pan Macmillan proper. This does mean MNW can't quite be a model for a stand-alone small publisher, but it's innovative enough to have the rest of the book trade looking nervously over its shoulder.

Emma

That's a really good read, heartening as well, especially after reading the notes made by Issy over in her thread on the state of publishing. It seems like a model that the other big houses might copy, which in the end could serve them as well as the authors in the sense that they may well end up with some hot new writers on their hands.

Pete

Can only be a good thing. Wish they did childrens.

Thanks Emma.

DK

Thanks for posting this, Emma. I've got Mike's book, and read most of it. I think Grumpy's assessment is pretty fair, and I'm glad he liked it. It is fascinating to have all the nuts and bolts exposed - especially the financial side of things. Mike told the story of Colin Dexter at the recent Innovation In Publishing conference I was at. He was asked a very tricky question by an editor from Penguin who was sitting next to him, which was: if Colin Dexter came along in the current climate would Macmillan stick with him in the same way? Mike was honest enough to say that he thought that was unlikely. Times are tough for us all.

And on the question of transferring over to the mainstream Macmillan imprints, obviously that's the hope, but there are no guarantees.

the recent Innovation In Publishing conference I was at.

Hark at you, oh professional author! Very impressive!

Emma

Oh, I was just there as a humble member of the audience.

I did start a thread about it (The Right To Publish) elsewhere, which was possibly why I referred to it in that way.

I'm going to another one on the 5th April, on the subject of 'There are more people want to write books than read them'. Again I'll just be in the audience. Apparently they are having trouble finding someone to come along and be nasty - ie to put forward the motion. They invited Robert McCrum but he just wrote a snotty article in the Observer about the absurdity of the debate.

'There are more people want to write books than read them'

Sort of relevant to this thread and to what Issy posted elsewhere, I heard an interview with Tim Waterstone recently in which he said that we overpublish in the UK - 130K titles a year against 70K in the US which has five times the UK population

Naomi

we overpublish in the UK - 130K titles a year against 70K in the US

That's a scary statistic (though whether the scariness is in British profligacy or American illiteracy I'm not sure) but it's worth remembering that only a teaspoonful of those numbers are novels or any other kind of 'leisure' or literary reading, though - the vast bulk of it is textbooks and the like.

Emma

Heard that interview too, Naomi - a real eye opener. When I heard those stats I gasped 'All those 1000's & I only want one published- MINE!'

That's a really interesting and well written blog. I will keep on reading it and might have to change my prejudice against blogs.

I heard Tim Waterstone in that interview talking about there was no money in british publishing and that what money there is just goes round and around.

Anyone know what he's worth?

Pete