MY BACK PAGES

Richard CharkinSince becoming a publisher in 1972, Richard Charkin has held many senior posts at major publishing houses, including Oxford University Press, Reed Elsevier, Current Science Group, Macmillan, and Bloomsbury Publishing. He is former President of The Book Society, the International Publishers Association and the UK Publishers Association. He is a non-executive director of the International Advisory Board of the Frankfurt Book Fair, Liverpool University Press, and Cricket Properties Ltd as well as advising nkoda.com and running Mensch Publishing. He lectures on the publishing courses at London College of Communications, City University, and University College London.Tom CampbellTom Campbell is an independent consultant and writer. He has worked with the Greater London Authority to produce the Mayor’s Cultural Strategy and was Head of Creative Industries at the London Development Agency. He co-chaired the Creative Industries Council’s Working Group on Regions and Clusters and is on the editorial board of the academic journal Cultural Trends. His most recent novel, The Planner, is published by Bloomsbury.

• Preamble; 1. Starting Out; Working Life of a Young Editor; Family Ownership and Management; Fast Forward Fifty Years: Last Day at the Bloomsbury Office. 2. The Brave New World of Scientific Publishing; Publishing and the Life Sciences; Leaving Pergamon in Abrupt Circumstances; The Not so Brave New World of Oxford University Press; Decision-Making at Oxford University Press: A Beginner’s Guide. 3. A Time of Crisis; Cost-cutting, Upheavals and Outsourcing; First Encounters with Computers; The Transformation of Printing ; The Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition; Trying to Leave Oxford University Press. 4. Things Speed Up; The World of Trade Publishing; Bad Behaviour in the Roaring 80s; Academic vs Trade Publishing; The Perils of Literary Publishing; Distinctly Non-Literary Bestsellers. 5. Consolidation, Change and Controversies; The ‘Big Bang’ of Trade Publishing; The Changing Retail Landscape; The Demise of Book Clubs; The Decline of Theological Publishing; The End of the Net Book Agreement; Reed Elsevier: The Anti-Book Publisher. 6. The Start-up Years; The Art of the Publishing Deal; Multimedia CD-ROMs; Innovation and Adding Value;The Rise and Rise of Journal Publishing. 7. A Global Family Business; Nurturing Nature; Open Access takes on Journal Publishing; Do No Evil: Going to Battle against a Tech Giant; Macmillan India: an Imperial Legacy; Children’s Publishing Grows Up; Accidental Successes; Managerial Diversions. 8. Making Bloomsbury Less Magical; Wisden – a Long-running Love Affair; Becoming a Digital Publisher in a Digital World; Public Library Online: Trying to Modernise Library Services; The Culture of Bloomsbury and Industry Progress; Design, Marketing and Sales. 9. British Publishing: An International Bestseller; The Growth of ELT Publishing; The Dominance of the English Language; Adventures in the Gulf; International Diplomacy. 10. Being a Mensch; Publicity and Sales in a Digital World; Publishing by Numbers; Coming to Terms with Agents; Print on Demand and the Curse of Book Returns; How Do you Value a Publishing Company?; The Ever-Changing Geography of London Publishing; An International Publisher in a Post-Brexit World. Afterword; Reasons to be Cheerful, or Why 2022 might be Better than 1972; Publishing People; Companies; Technology; Marketplace; Authors. And Finally…Post-amble