MY BACK PAGES (MY BACK PAGES: An undeniably personal history of publishing 1972-2022)

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I once published a book called The Genetics of the Jews, which was a very powerful scientific thing saying, ‘Actually, Jews aren’t that genetically different.’ So my resolutions this year relate to improving publishing by measuring things other than those I’ve mentioned above. The 2022 Audit Wish List Print in the new world is akin to the old French tradition of delivering the mail by postmen on stilts—charming but ridiculous.

Richard Charkin: Ten Publishing Things That Will Never Be The Richard Charkin: Ten Publishing Things That Will Never Be The

What’s it like publishing a fellow professional? If all publisher/author relationships worked like this, our lives would be much easier than my experience tells me they are. My challenge began some years ago when a handful of people asked me if I was ever going to write my memoirs. I said no for many reasons. Surely working from home will continue, with benefits to family life, avoidance of commuting stress, the economics of publishing, and the trust and empowerment of publishing employees.Richard Charkin's experience as a publisher is unique among his generation. Over the past half century he has been (at different times) a scientific and medical publisher, a journal publisher, a digital publisher and a general publisher. He has worked for family-owned, publicly-owned, university-owned companies and start-ups. In this memoir he uses his unrivalled experience to illustrate the profound changes that have affected the identity and practices but not the purpose of publishing. Richardson died this month at the good age of 94. I attended his funeral at St John’s College, Oxford. Naturally there were many from his days at OUP who were there, and I was able to persuade Nigel Portwood, the current CEO, to take the photo above of nine survivors of those days. “We all worked in different roles in different divisions of Oxford University Press, but it doesn’t take much imagination to see some commonalities. All white. All male.” Richard Charkin He once told me that he was a lousy manager because, as an academic, he had never had anyone reporting to him and he never reported to anyone. The facts were true but his conclusion was wrong. He was a great manager with humanity, judgment, humility, intellect, and courage that I fear the Harvard Business School simply cannot teach. I only wish that political leaders around the world were as quiet and effective.

MY BACK PAGES: An undeniably personal history of publis…

I found it fascinating and full of interest....Your early years in the business are particularly riveting to somebody who joined much later on." Antony Topping, Managing Director, Greene & Heaton Literary Agency The lawyer in the United States from whom he tried to buy the URL mensch.com does not appear to have even tried to live up to the word. “I wrote to him saying, ‘Would you sell it to me?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, for a million dollars.’ I said, ‘Well, that’s not very menschlich. You don’t deserve it.’” He laughs. “Which is why we’re menschpublishing.com.” Just take a look at this range of covers to see how we have failed to establish a genre for Mensch.

I mean we really were a bunch of amateurs,” he said. “Today people are more professional at their expertise. For example, the publicity people are now publicity professionals, not like before. But very few people are all-rounders in publishing.”

My Back Pages by Richard Charkin | Goodreads

Richard Charkin is a professional’s professional, and no-one knows the book trade better." Jeffrey Archer However, perhaps there’s another question we should ask: What is the point of establishing separate territorial rights for English-language titles? Let’s ask why the system exists in the first place. ‘The World Has Changed and Will Change Even Faster’I was certain I wanted to publish his book. Richard, who is an instinctive dealmaker, immediately went into negotiation mode. How much I paid for his manuscript will remain a tightly guarded secret. When it comes to negotiation, I am no rival to my author! On these walks, I tend to think a little less practically than usual and right now I’ve been thinking about a great 20th-century CEO who may be unknown to 99.9 percent of today’s publishing industry. My resolution for 2022 is to get out my tape measure and use it on an as many variables as I can. The idea will be to measure everything possible and to interpret and implement the results. It would be good if others in the book business—particularly the larger firms where the size of data makes results more reliable—did the same. Scientific journal publishers have been doing much of this for decades and I wouldn’t mind enjoying their margins. Of course he includes stories about authors and books he has published and people he has worked with. But this prime purpose is to tell us through the lens of his own extraordinary experience the story of the dramatic changes of the past fifty years that have transformed the publishing industry.

Richard Charkin with Tom Campbell. 2023. My Back Pages—An

My earlier mention of Netflix has triggered a thought. I’ve been loving their series called in English Call My Agent. So much of it reminds me of the trade book publishing industry, not least the jealousies and egos. Charkin told the Citizen: “We suddenly had 60,000 words. People say Tom has really captured my voice which is great. We ended up being very selective and tried to get into the social changes as well as the business changes.

My Back Pages: an undeniably personal history of publishing 1972-2022

And what have I learned that I can share with fellow authors? Writing is hard. Editing is essential. Publishers add enormously but it is more important to find the right publisher than to chase the money. Try to write to one audience not several, as if talking to a single person. Take criticism in the spirit it’s made. Work hard at every aspect up to and beyond publication date. Enjoy the ride. By Richard Charkin | @RCharkin ‘The Importance of Collecting and Analyzing Data’ I‘m writing this on January 1. It’s exactly 50 years since I turned up at the side entrance of George G.Harrap & Co., at 182-184 High Holborn, London, WC2, on January 1, 1972, having been interviewed and accepted for the job of a “Young Scientific Assistant Editor.” January 1 wouldn’t become a bank holiday in England until 1974. Absolutely,” he says emphatically. “I think it is really dangerous.” There could have been “a little bit of that” in the Smith book saga, he says. Would anyone buy it? I could envisage all this work ending up with a half-dozen copies moldering in some mid-Western university library vault and my publisher wishing he’d never heard of the book. Authors frequently think it’s exclusively the job of the publisher to make a book sell. Not so. The author is frequently best placed to think up plans for sales, for promotional ideas, and indeed for implementation in cahoots and with the support of the publisher. Richardson was appointed by the University of Oxford to take charge of its sprawling, unprofitable, arrogant, and inward-looking publishing, printing, and papermaking operation at a time of hyperinflation, economic recession, and overbearing trade union power. He had no significant experience of management, publishing, or business. He made no grand statements nor speeches to “rally the troops.”