LUNCHING TO THE TOP
Charles Nicely-Connected, m.d. of Markett-Fodder, reveals to Terence Blacker the secrets of his climb to the summit of publishing
O
ne of the best pieces of advice I have ever been given was by the managing director of a publishing house where I happened to be working at my first job in the post-room.
On Fridays, knowing that my salary only stretched to meagre “sarnies”,he would take me down the road for a little treat. “The most important thing to remember about British publishing is that there are no free lunches,” he told me over lunch at the Caprice. “It’s a glorious meritocracy and you have to make your own way in it.” As with so much that my father said, they were profoundly wise words. Since then, I’m proud to say that I’ve worked my way up from the bottom in this great industry of ours.Having come down from Exeter with a degree in Business Studies, people expected me to follow my friends into the City but I have always had a love of books and, even when I was still at public school,I would accom- pany my father to Hatchards’ famous Author of the Year parties where I would meet famous writers, publishers and agents. When Dad mentioned that there might be an opening at his
firm, I jumped at the chance in spite of a salary so low that I had to walk to work from my flat in Knightsbridge! It was a useful three months but, after a small fire broke out in the post-room during my ciggie break,my father suggested that I might move to a job where, as he jokingly put it, “I couldn’t do any harm”. Within the month, I was an editor! The now-defunct house of
Godwit & Stone had launched a new imprint and my godfather Sir Humphrey Godwit put in a good word for me. After a surpris- ingly brief interview,my career was launched. What is it that makes a good editor? The answer lies in a single
word:
contacts.At my new job, I hit the ground running and mas- tered the fine art of creative lunching, discovering, to my great surprise, that many of my contemporaries from school and uni- versity had also ended up in the media. It has been said that I would never have landed the thriller writer Tim Garson (now Lord Garson) if he had not been mar- ried to my sister. To which I say: precisely. The good publisher is one who keeps his wits about him and uses a sort of literary sixth sense to get those big books. Soon after I joined them, Godwit & Stone were taken over by an American conglomerate but there I learnt another important lesson: in publishing,you have to make your own luck. My luck came in the shape of my new wife Annabel, who hap-
breaking the mouldDANUTA KEAN ON HOW THE INDUSTRY CAN EXPAND ITS POOL OF POTENTIAL LABOUR
Charles Nicely-Connected is a gross parody of how contacts help publishers reach the top. But there is a strong sense among many in the industry that self-perpetuating networks have more influence on career success than talent. The white middle classes dominate these networks, a point made by Alison Morrison, head of marketing and associate director at Walker Books. Morrison, who is of mixed race, went to a Portsmouth comprehensive and Kent at Canterbury University before she entered publishing through an Arts Council traineeship aimed at minority ethnic communities. Along with many other minority ethnic publishers, she believes that one way for the industry to become more diverse is by targeting career services in state schools and non-Oxbridge universities. One South Asian publisher says: “At my university there were a huge number of minority ethnic
students, over 50%. Publishing was not on the radar as a career, though all the retailers and corporations such as Microsoft were actively trying to recruit.” She believes the industry needs to brand itself in the state education sector if it is to become more culturally diverse.
12 IN FULL COLOUR That’ll do nicely
pened to belong to the famous Markett-Fodder
family.Soon I was on the board of the family firm and since then I have been lucky enough to add a few more directorships and consultancies to my name. What have I learnt on my way to the top? First of all, British publishing is no longer a profession for gentlemen. There are some pretty feisty ladies up there too! Yes, it may be run by people who happen to have similar interests and backgrounds but then it is precisely because we talk the same language and are quite often personal friends that the whole thing works so well. Class snobbery has no place in our business. At Markett-
Fodder, we go out of our way to employ people from all back- grounds. Go into sales, production and even contracts and you will hear a mix of
accents.One day I hope that editorial, publicity and senior management will also be part of the melting-pot but these things take time. At the moment, one simply can’t have an editor at a smart launch party,wandering about saying “Wotcha, Salman, gotta a new novel on the bubble, then, eh, squire?” That’s not prejudice; it’s sound business sense. Maybe I’m too liberal for my own good but frankly it gives me tremendous pleasure that a whole corner of our list is devoted to authors of different backgrounds to my own. At Markett-Fodder, inclusiveness is the name of the game in 2004. On the personal front, I look forward to a bright future in the business and even harbour the secret hope that my boys, Hamish and Jamie,might one day carry on the good work. In fact, already I’m taking them to the Hatchards Author of the Year party to show them exactly how the ever-changing world of modern publishing works.
12 MARCH 2004
ILLUSTRATION: HUNT EMERSON
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