How to find books and authors

Obviously the first question I addressed was how to find books and authors that were potentially available but weren’t being published because either the organisation didn’t possess the expertise or the know-how to find an appropriate publisher. Furthermore I suspected that some organisations would have tipped their toe in the water of self-publication (not so difficult) but come unstuck because they could not distribute or sell the volume (extremely difficult). I also surmised (correctly as it turned out) that some organisations don’t want to be seen to be publishing their own research.

It must also be said at the outset that it was also very important to me and the company that we only published the highest quality research work ie we were not going to publish any books simply because we were paid to do so.

I started with the British media organisations such as the research unit for which I had worked, the Independent Television Authority (the ITA, later the Independent Broadcasting Authority – the IBA), the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the Broadcasting Standards Council (BSC), the Arts Council. The British Film Institute (BFI), for whom I was soon to work as a Head of Department and was partly involved in their publishing activities, was not a possibility as they had their own Publications Department. I also approached the European Institute for the Media (EIM) which was then based in Manchester and who had their own backlist of publications they found it difficult to market. We therefore published their new books and marketed the backlist.

The BBC was interesting because they were precisely looking for a publisher so that their name and logo did not appear on the book. They wanted their research to look independent as they sometimes wanted a book published in large numbers very quickly in order to give every member of the House of Commons and the House of Lords a free copy in order to influence debates. For this service they paid very handsomely but it did mean that I was given some impossible deadlines eg to publish a book from manuscript to bound copies for a press launch within six days sometimes over a bank holiday! The printers always loved the overtime on such productions but I myself was not so keen! In fact we published books for three completely separate departments of the BBC over the years.

The Arts Council deal was completely the opposite. They were the one organisation that refused to give any money at all. However the publisher agreed to publish their books for the following reasons. It was a very prestigious organisation that constructed a great series of media books for which we were the official publisher. The books were highly and very expensively designed and the authors and editors were well paid. They paid for extremely lavish and high profile launch parties and their books also sold very well in a wide range of venues.

At the same time I began to draw up direct mail lists. Obviously, I asked all the organisations for whom we began to be the official publisher, for any lists they might have. I also obtained the lists that organisation like the BFI – and in particular their Education Department (the one I was about to head) might have. Thirdly I compiled a list of all the university departments and their related libraries which taught aspects of the mass media. These were collected and given to the staff who created and maintained the databases.

By 1992 the success of the books published (over 40 titles) and the marketing undertaken, the publisher agreed to the establishment of our own research monograph imprint which the company financed and which I entitled the ‘Acamedia Research Monograph Series’ (that is not a mis-print – I reversed the word Academia) and the tenth title of the series was published in September of that year.

Given that I had originally joined the company with an internationally supported volume I was also looking overseas for publishing deals.