New Edition. Contemporary Publishing Magazine. August 2013.

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his ________ in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl f from entering along with him. of

C O N T E M P O R A R Y

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P U B L I S H I N G

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AUGUST

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M A G A Z I N E

The hallway smelt of ________ and old rag mats. At one end of it a coloured poster, too large for indoor display, had been tacked to the wall. It depicted simply an enormous face, more than a metre wide: the face of a man of about forty_five, with a heavy black moustache and ruggedly handsome features.

_vanities Bonfire of the e Winston made for the stairs. It was no use

trying the lift. Even at the best of times it was seldom working, and at present the electric current was cut off during daylight hours. It was part of the economy drive in preparation for Hate Week. The flat was seven flights up, and Winston, who was thirty_nine and had a ankle, varicose ulcer went slowly, resting several times on the way. On each landing, opposite the lift_ shaft, the poster with the enormous face gazed from the wall. It was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran.

NEW EDITION, AUGUST 2013

This Month 4

b th tim was in p Win st rig h each t fac la e con gaz t IS rived WAT C Ins ide HI whi ch the h voi ce c ad s for ame m a s ed par f w t sti itch a o ll n d t d cal led isting ) u com ple could i tel the b y. whi meagre He m c n fac h were ess of e n the a raz or turall uni b y s Out ang sid lades e a Dow n i , even nd the n tor n p the s throug a t h a h ars per in reet l h b t i pos o lu sp t gaz ers th e, the iral e a r fro d down t were e see nt pla imm from ste edi e v e ate ly ry com opp osi te

PEEK -ABOOK

6 SHHHHHH!

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BONFIRE OF THE E_VANITIES

12 DANGEROUS TO KNOW

CA$H 16

SUMMER READS

CONTEMPORARY PUBLISHING MAGAZINE

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As authors battle to pierce through the white noise of the other trillion (OK, not quite) books coming out each week, Louis Dresner explores emerging discoverability models.

PEEK Print-on-demand technologies and the advancement and proliferation of eBooks have contributed to the ease with which authors can self publish. This has led to a huge rise in the number of books that are released each year. There are around 20,000 books being published in the UK and US markets combined, each week! It has been estimated by Bowker, the publishing industry supply chain services provider, that by 2015 as many as 600,000 self published books will be released each year in the US alone. With this many titles out there, the issue of uncovering great new reads is more challenging than ever before.

Indeed, ‘discoverability’ has been the buzzword on the lips of industry professionals and writers for the few years. And it’s not just the sheer number of titles that’s proving problematic; the way we buy books has affected the way we discover them too. With over 50% of the book market now accounted for by online sales, it’s much less common for readers to stumble across a book by chance whilst browsing in a shop.

Another Bowker study recently suggested that peer recommendation is now the number one method of book discovery.

Countless book-related websites have been popping up over the last few years, as the book market becomes more crowded and harder to navigate. Many of these ideas have failed miserably whilst others have boomed into hugely

successful multi-national businesses, Goodreads being the best example.

The rise and rise of Goodreads, which boasts over 20m members – and is now owned by Amazon, of course – suggests that the online book world is beginning to replace those traditional book discovery streams that are now sadly in decline, thus bringing about the death of the high-street bookstore, chain or independent. Similarly there are new sites like Crowd the Book – which is dedicated to promoting one new author each month – and promotional activities from retailers, such as Amazon’s ‘Around the world in 80 books’ initiative, which all point to a continuation of the growth in the area of book discovery online. Of the countless new book discovery websites and initiatives out there, one that stands out as being especially unique is No Names, No Jackets (3NJ).

No Names, No Jackets was set up by British crime writer John Rickard after a friend opined she would like a ‘blind date’ with a book; John’s inspired idea for a book discovery site was born. No Names No Jackets (or 3NJ) is a website

which offers readers the chance to read a sample chapter of a book without being influenced by the bells and whistles of marketing tools such as bold book covers, enticing titles, or compelling blurbs. The idea is that a potential reader can judge a book on its literary merit alone, and, yes, that’s right, not by its cover! If a user likes what they see, they can follow a link to find out what it was they’ve just read, and can buy that book through the website. Sample chapters are presented to users entirely at random, although you can select a genre if you know roughly what you are looking for. It’s a clever idea and one which promises each author a totally democratic, fair chance of being discovered by an eager reader.

As an author himself, John Rickard has explored many different marketing devices, using traditional methods as well as the creative online routes favoured by self published writers. Each of these methods – direct advertising, social media, promo websites – has worked in varying degrees but not one, he says, was easy “especially now, where the known fields are very, very crowded and noisy”. He accepts that 3NJ adds yet another space to this already congested field, but with his uniquely egalitarian approach – there are no ratings and no reviews – he hopes to give all submissions an equal chance of being found.

Rickard points not only to the explosion of self publishing but also to the decline of the traditional book sphere as having had an impact on the difficulty readers face when searching for new books:

“It has become a lot, lot harder in recent years as traditional lines for discoverability have dried

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CONTEMPORARY PUBLISHING MAGAZINE

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up. Book reviews in newspapers are harder to come by, some bookstores have gone out of business and most in the UK at least went through a centralisation phase where staff couldn’t hand-pick content they liked, and at the same time the rise of the Kindle, more as an open mass publishing platform than a device, means that newer sources like book blogs online are swamped with material.”

Self publishers, predictably, have been the earliest adopters of his new site. But John explained that one of the Big Six has also been in contact to express interest in uploading material to the site, which is certainly encouraging.

“There are plenty of places to rate, discuss and share books you’ve found online. There are very few places that help you find new things in the first place. I aim to do the latter with 3NJ; I don’t need to reinvent the former as well.”

Rickard has actively avoided installing a rating and reviews system, instead presenting sample chapters at random in order to prevent old content from getting lost. It also means that the material which hasn’t been rated won’t sink to the bottom, which can simply be the result of too few people having come across it; a problem with other discovery sites that use a ratings system. He also points out that “it’s very easy to skip things you don’t like”, so this lack of voting is not an issue for users. Likewise, John is

working under the assumption that the best work will be shared in the usual ways – through social media or adding reviews to Goodreads or Amazon. This way users can discover books using the 3NJ method, but word will still be spread through the usual channels. This is important because one issue of having too many discovery sites is the fragmentation of readers; it’s better for writers if readers can communicate in one of a few different places, rather than having them scattered across multiple platforms.

“I’d rather 3NJ does what it’s supposed to do as well as it can, then to morph it into something it doesn’t need to be.”

One of the site’s greatest strengths is its clean interface and user friendliness. There are only three options to choose from: ‘pick a genre’, ‘randomise’ or ‘upload a sample chapter’. There is nothing to distract the user from finding that great new novel. But Rickard is certainly open to adapting the site as he goes along; he had added a new genre the morning I spoke to him, in response to a user query.

This kind of flexibility is important for any new site. However, he is equally keen to avoid what he sees as “the simultaneously overlyspecific and poorly-defined array [of genres] that blight book sites.” In short, simplicity is key. By keeping things slightly more broad it also encourages people to think outside of their favourite sub-genres. The rise in very specific genre-fiction (I’m looking at you, erotic vampires) is possibly a sign that readers get stuck in a certain box, and remain there until someone forces them out. With 3NJ a reader won’t know anything about the book until they start reading it, which is a great way to get people reading a greater variety of books.

If you’d like to submit your work to 3NJ, or if you want to find your next great read, you can check it out at nonamesnojackets.com

DISCOVERABILITY 5

NEW EDITION, AUGUST 2013

shhhh! it’s all so Quiet quiet

As UK libraries continue to close at a rate of knots, Authoright’s Katy Garland questions their future.

I have something terrible to admit. My only real engagement with libraries has been when I was a small child and, more recently, when I was at university. There was a period in between – probably of around a decade – when I didn’t even set foot in one! My experience, whilst perhaps an embarrassing admission for someone who works with books for a living, is not an uncommon one. And given our mutual bad habits where libraries are concerned – using them to occupy our children, to access free internet connection, to print things out (come on, let’s be honest here) – it’s relatively easy to understand why so many of us aren’t too bothered that our libraries are being shut down by local councils across the UK at an alarming rate. If we’re not inclined to use them, how can we really mourn their demise?

Many commentators and writers too have spoken out about the death of British libraries, and certainly not all of them are wracked with guilt or sympathy over their decline. Terry Deary, author of the children’s bestselling series Horrible Histories, caused outrage when he said he thought libraries have long “had their day”, going on to claim that they “have been around too long [and are] no longer relevant”.

It was my reasons for stepping back into a library in my early twenties that made me finally realise their importance. Granted, I first started checking out books because I had to; my English literature module

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required me to read one new book every week, and due to the ever decreasing student loan versus the high cost of living, I couldn’t afford to keep dipping into my own meagre pocket to pay for all the books I needed. Whilst Amazon could have accommodated me with prices more appealing to a student, they couldn’t offer me a quick enough turn-around time. My other reason for hitting the public library? To work on my coursework away from the madness of the shared house – full of ever-growing tensions – in which I lived at the time.

What I found in the public library was a calm, peaceful and, dare I say it, a nostalgic atmosphere. I’m certain I’m not the only person ever to have sought refuge within the sanctuary of a library, a place to go as a means of escape. That said, for those who are older or who live alone, a library can represent a wonderful point of social connection.

Cuts across the country are reaching a state of crisis. Out of the 4,265 libraries in the country, 336 are currently under threat or have been closed or left to council control. So what will this mean for those across the country who need access to free lending desperately?

The free lending of a huge range of genres, writers and titles that span the generations and allow people a critical, often formative kind of access to culture? Just last month nine Sunderland libraries came under threat; 32 seem to already be swinging from the hangman’s noose in Lincolnshire. And if they aren’t being shut down completely then limitations to resources are being made in order to save cash. Libraries across Staffordshire recently announced plans for no longer stocking CDs and DVDs in a bid to save thousands. Stockport’s library opening hours are due to be slashed, with 91 hours set to go.

Children’s author, and winner of this year’s CILIP Carnegie Medal, Sally Gardner branded the Government and the library closures across the UK “hypocritical”, arguing “[The Government] says it wants more children reading, yet it forces libraries to close”.

Gardner had nothing but praise for the libraries and librarians of her youth. “Without books I would not be a writer and without the zeal of librarians I would not have won this award. I believe teachers and librarians should be free to instil a life-long love of learning, without being policed by an outdated curriculum.”

In a recent survey of 2,000 library staff by UNISON, one of the UK’s largest trade unions, it found that 57% of respondents said it was impossible to maintain the same level of service as before the cuts; a

Out of the 4,265 libraries in the country, 336 are currently under threat or have been closed or left to council control.

third of respondents said their libraries had introduced charges for services previously provided for free; and one-third also reported reductions in opening hours.

On top of all of this, 60% have seen full-time job losses and 54% part-time losses, meaning volunteers are being relied upon to replace trained and skilled library staff.

Adapting in order to survive seems to be the only possible answer for libraries. In Texas a digital public library without any printed books will open this summer; it’s an important sign of adapting in order to meet the growing demands and advances in consumerism and technology. And there are myriad examples of libraries, and in particular the librarians who run them, setting brilliant new standards in librarianship, actively looking for new and better ways of working and connecting with communities all over the world. A fantastic new book I’ve been fortunate enough to work with lately is The Global Librarian, a group publication by the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) and the New York Metropolitan Area Chapter of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL/ NY), which highlights exactly the kind of radical thinking librarians are using to protect and preserve the institutions they love, and to better serve their readers and communities.

In America, libraries are largely thriving. They have never really lost their respected position as bastions of free culture; librarianship is professionalised on an entirely different level, for one thing, and libraries have mostly retained their place at the core of communities.

So what is being done here in the UK to help libraries adapt? The Arts Council England has conducted a major research project, Envisioning the library of the future, which aims to distinguish ways in which libraries can respond to change in order to remain at the heart of their communities, providing a focus for their work in the future. As a result of the project, the Arts Council is already working with key partners in the sector, including the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, to place libraries at the hub of the community as they are in the US, making the most of digital technology and creative media, to ensure that libraries are resilient and sustainable and deliver the right skills for those who work in them. The Arts Council has already initiated a £6 million Grants for the arts Libraries fund and the Enterprising Libraries project, which is due to launch this summer.

Running and supporting regional campaigns to save libraries where it’s apparent that the local council has not properly considered the impact of cuts to its library services is at the core of what Voices for the Library, an advocacy group determined to preserve public lending, is all about. They aim to share positive stories from public libraries and librarians across the country, providing factual information about library usage in the UK, offering spokespeople to the media, and, above all, acting as a voice for communities and individuals to speak out about why they value their public libraries. But what can we do to help?

CONTEMPORARY PUBLISHING MAGAZINE

Get Involved Take part in your council’s consultation. Write to your local councillor or MP and support these campaigns run by organisations such as Voices for the Library and The Arts Council England. It’s evident to see that in this day and age, the growth in digital technology in particular means people reach for their eBook more often than they reach to open the door to their local library. Times do change, but do we really want to see our towns and cities and villages losing their love of lending literature?

If you want to join the New Edition debate, you can tweet us @Authoright #futureofuklibraries

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NEW EDITION, AUGUST 2013

____ BoNFirE Of ThE e-VaNItiES ___ _____ BONFIRE OF THE E_VANITIES Are Oceania and Eurasia at war with Eastasia or is it Eurasia and Eastasia against Oceania?

Gareth Howard looks at how easy it is to re_write history in the digital age.

In 1984, Orwell presented us with a vision of the future in which history and the present could be rewritten at will to create new and alternative versions of reality or the accepted truth. But even Orwell hadn’t counted on the invention of the Cloud – an omnipresent invisible entity, not unlike Big Brother itself – which continually sends and receives data updates.

[REDACTED]

The Cloud is fantastic if you need your Apps refreshed without having to think about it, programs update themselves to combat viruses or back up your important documents to invaluable tools like Dropbox. But what if the words we read are also being auto-updated, our mobile devices and e-readers drawing down the latest improved version of themself without our even knowing? We experience this already with online newspapers.

Journalistic hunches – or to put it bluntly, errors – are corrected bit by bit as the story and, indeed, the facts unfold; “Didn’t it just say that the Syrian Government forces attacked that village killing twenty children? Now it reads that the Syrian rebel forces are responsible!?” Versions of the truth are altered and amended in a heartbeat, erasing all previous evidence of the former version of news truth, each as emphatic and certain as the last. As physical print versions of the media start to disappear altogether – how long will it be before the Guardian is digital only? – editorial teams can go to press with approximated facts that can be triple-checked in time, eventually leading to a distilled and agreed-upon version of events.

This online truth revision also presents a critical danger to books and their authors. We all know that eBook-only publishing is becoming more common; so what if the only version of a book was to be the digital version that is stored in the Cloud? The publisher could tweak and change, edit and even delete a work altogether, at will. And society as a whole would have no record of the previous version or versions of the writer’s original work. Governments could coerce publishers into removing elements of a publication without needing to seek out and destroy all physical copies in existence, as anyone looking to have an offence publication totally pulped would have to do today. High-net-worth individuals could have gagging orders applied to offending details of their personal life and online leaks rendered impossible. The type of car James Bond drives could be changed because a lucrative sponsorship deal is pitched to a publisher. Whilst legal recourse is already available for affronts like defamation or for breaching

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CONTEMPORARY PUBLISHING MAGAZINE

official, state secrets, the courts have to think long and hard before actually eradicating any book from the market and, on a practical level, it’s some feat removing all traces of a title in circulation. However, if counsel could argue that 99.9% of the book should remain and just a line be removed, the threshold might become much lower. Take, for example, the important Spycatcher case concerning the memoir of former MI5 agent Peter Wright.

The government tried to prevent its publication because it disclosed certain secrets, knowledge of which the author and publisher maintained were in the public interest (unlike in the current Wikileaks saga, they were historic secrets that didn’t impact on current operations).

Banning the book would have meant destroying all printed copies, including those already in circulation. The main reason cited by the court for not awarding in the Government’s favour was that physical copies – and therefore the sensitive information itself – had already entered the public domain in Australia. But what if the offending paragraphs could have been redacted at the press of a button and all copies already in the public domain altered instantaneously and in absolute secret? The offending item, or that material previously considered to be in the public interest, would have vanished, literally without a trace.

Given the cost involved in defending cases like this and the ease with which publications can be now be changed, a future publisher might capitulate more easily under governmental or legal pressure. But if that had happened in the Spycatcher case, democracy would have been the victim and a crucial freedom of information precedent wouldn’t have been set.

Think of it in another way; Jesus might have turned water into Coca-Cola.

So what could authors do to protect their work in this new dystopian world of books? Would they be able to invoke copyright? This is possible, particularly if the author is self publishing. But a traditionally published author grants their rights to the publisher and so the latter can do whatever they want to the book without the author’s consent. There is another defence available to the writer, which has been developed to give the individual’s creative force behind a work an ultimate level of protection to prevent the mutilation of that work, and this is called the assertion of moral rights. But it’s increasingly common for traditional publishers to require a waiver of these moral rights in their publishing contracts. In short, such an author would have no recourse should the publisher decide to change their book in any way. It seems that there could be yet another reason to look to self publishing, particularly when it comes to safeguarding the digital version of any book.

What is clear is that we need a guardian to store and record first editions of eBooks. What is clear is that we need a guardian to store and record first editions of eBooks. Perhaps libraries could become such custodians of culture, storing inviolable editions of eBooks behind a firewall that is protected from the Cloud. That way archivists and members of the public would be able to compare editions of an eBook in their own library with the true copy on record. This seems to be the best way to prevent those that would censor and meddle with the written word changing our culture and our history at will. Otherwise history really could become a fable agreed upon. And even the fables too.

Think of it another way:

Jesus might have turned water into Coca Cola

Jesus might have turned water into Coca Cola

Gareth Howard is the founder and CEO of Authoright. He holds a degree in law and qualified as a lawyer before becoming a writer and founding Authoright.

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NEW EDITION, AUGUST 2013

CA$H 22?

New Edition is passionate about supporting independent booksellers. But as online book sales continue to rise and bricks and mortar stores are struggling to make ends meet, many indies are faced with having to re-evaluate their business models, potentially moving away from their core values in order to survive. We’ll be profiling some of the finest bookstores around, revealing the challenges of selling in the digital age and looking for that special bookstore magic that online retailers just cannot capture. To start us off, Authoright’s Oren Berman spent a Sunday at one of New York City’s shining examples of the bookstore renaissance, Unnameable Books in Brooklyn.

The corners of Unnameable are cosy but crowded, oozing with pile upon pile of chaotic looking but wellorganised, recently purchased used stock, just waiting for a shelf to call home. Unnameable is a purveyor of new and used books and there’s not much you won’t find in this eclectic mix, although its founder and owner, Adam Tobin, does have a penchant for poetry, philosophy, and literary criticism, all of which you’ll find in abundance at this small store in Prospect Heights.

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Unnameable’s opening in 2006 coincided with a number of high-profile NYC independent bookstores closing down, and a 2008 New Yorker cover actually included Adam’s storefront, albeit satirically; in the cartoon, a bookstore owner is unlocking his front door while his neighbour receives a package from Amazon. But since it opened, Unnameable has largely bucked the bricks and mortar trend, steadily keeping pace with online retailers, cultivating and nurturing a loyalty

among its customers that certainly goes some way to fighting off its internet rivals.

On an easy Sunday afternoon, Adam took me into the store’s basement for a chat about the store’s genesis, its role in the local literary culture, and the nature of a literary ‘scene’.

New Edition: So how did you go from Brown University poetry scholar to bookseller?

Adam Tobin: I guess I had worked in bookstores and figured out at some point, after I was doing temp work as an accountant, that I knew how to run a business and I knew how to run a bookstore, and that I should just do it. It just made sense and once I figured out that I knew how to do it, it was hard to stop myself from doing it.

NE: And you opened right around the time that a bunch of other independent bookstores were closing.

AT: Well, New York used to have a lot more bookstores than it does today. A lot of them were chased out by Barnes and Noble, and then a lot more were chased out by Amazon, and I sort of came after those things had already happened.

NE: But you weren’t worried about launching at a time when people in publishing and retail were really starting to predict the death of the bookstore?

AT: No, I mean I think I went into it knowing that Barnes and Noble and Amazon were already there and I wasn’t exactly trying to compete with them. So it actually in a way freed me up to make the bookstore the way that I wanted the bookstore to be, knowing that, well, if somebody doesn’t find what they want here, there’s always Barnes and Noble!

One of Unnameable’s undeniable strengths is its unwavering belief in knowing its audience, catering to them and only them but doing that job perfectly. Where other retailers have struggled by battling to compete on the same terms as a monolithic multi-national, those booksellers who are thriving have actually resisted diversification, finessing what they do best and focusing on that. Customers

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of books, but it’s also the people, and to get to talk to people about books, and just…there’s a constant stream of books, and people, and books in the hands of people, and people swarming through piles of books! And that to me is what life is all about, you know, or that’s what forms my consciousness.

People, the things they’re thinking about. It’s just (about) seeing the intellectual life of the neighbourhood.

NE: Another way in which you’ve worked hard to support the community and to serve your clientele is by hosting regular events, right?

AT: Yeah, we have events all the time. We have the backyard when the weather’s nice, and when the weather’s not nice we do them in the basement. Mostly it’s a lot of readings, readings and more readings; a lot of poetry readings! I’m very hooked into the poetry scene. I think it’s a real thriving subculture in a way, there are so many people writing poetry, and writing really good poetry too, now, and there are so many publishers of poetry publishing small books of poetry. And I say “I’m connected to the poetry scene” as if that’s one thing, but obviously there are, there, like 25 different poetry scenes in New York City at least.

I tend to shy away from the official book publicist type of events, especially from the major publishers.

They’ve got lots of options already and I don’t feel like they need to use my space. Sometimes it’s nice, there are some of the local, smaller presses that I love to have here. And, of course, major authors, it would be nice to have them here, but they don’t need Anthony Fine (hunter.gatherer), Flickr

know what they’re getting, and because Unnameable delivers exactly what it promises to, customers remain loyal.

NE: So it’s not like you have to provide everything for everybody?

AT: Yeah, there’s already people making sure that it’s easy enough for everybody to get everything on the New York Times bestseller list.

I made a bookstore the way I thought a bookstore should be, and in a way that I felt like there was an absence of such places in New York. And less so now than at the time when I opened, because I was at the sort of forefront of the new bookstore renaissance. At this point there are a lot of other stores in town now and I’m kind of one of the older stores in Brooklyn at this point.

NE: So what’s your take on what changed? All these stores were closing right before you opened, and now all of a sudden there’s this blossoming in bookselling.

AT: Well, I think it’s a different model of being a bookstore. I think a lot of the old guard of independent bookstores were very committed to the mainstream, just trying to be the official distributors of official book culture, as decided by the publishers in New York, and there was sort of a homogeneity, like, you walk into any bookstore in the country and you find the same collection of books.

And I think because that field got so monopolised, there were all these other niches to fill.

NE: So what’s your favourite part about this work?

AT: Well, obviously there’s the books, the constant circulation

adam tobin in the basement

me, I’m here to champion the culture that’s not already on TV. It has the effect that every single event that happens here is amazing to me and they’re the things that I’m interested in, because the only people who really want to do events here are people who love the bookstore, and that means that they share some interests with me. There have been really, really great things that have happened here. I don’t plan most of the events myself,

I’m here to champion the culture that’s not already on TV. but I’ve developed relationships with people who organise events, and so they organise and use the space, and it’s a mix of me curating the events, and it being a little self-selective for people who want to do an event here, as opposed to anywhere else.

I like to imagine that a place like a bookstore serves as a gathering spot, for people both to impersonally exchange their poems without even necessarily knowing each other, but also they might be buying each other’s books and standing right next to each other and not quite know it. I’ve seen it happen where I’ve introduced two poets to each other because they happened to be in my store at the same time, and they say, “Oh, you’re this person who I’ve been reading, and writing about!”

My favourite thing about Unnameable is its resolute independence. Adam Tobin and his customers (and his poets) are all happy doing their own thing. They are not trying to compete, nor are they threatened by the multitude of retail options available to readers today. This gives them their own voice and the confidence to grow on their own terms, in the business they love: books.

Unnameable Books is located at 600 Vanderbilt Ave. at St Marks, in the heart of Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, NYC. Open daily 11am–11pm. For more information go to unnameablebooks. blogspot.co.uk

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NEW EDITION, AUGUST 2013

Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know John Matusiak’s new biography, Henry VIII: The Life and Rule of England’s Nero, reveals how a difficult childhood may have planted the seeds of corruption and egomania that would later define the reign and the private life of England’s most notorious monarch. John spoke to Authoright’s Hayley Radford about getting into the mind of a Tudor tyrant.

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CONTEMPORARY PUBLISHING MAGAZINE

Above all, the satisfying after-taste of a damned good read; thereafter, a heightened appreciation of what good government properly entails and a residing awareness that the victims of bygone repression still speak loudly to us across the centuries.

John Matusiak.

H

enry VIII was a bad man and a bad ruler who failed to achieve his aims and blighted the reigns of his two immediate successors.

In his intimate portrait of a man wholly unfit for power, John Matusiak reveals how Henry VIII became an ‘old monster’, one beset by the anxieties and insecurities of his childhood, who surrounded himself with those who equated loyalty with fear, self-interest and blind obedience. Matusiak demonstrates that Henry VIII’s priorities were resolutely martial rather than marital, and accepts neither the necessity of his all-consuming quest for a male heir nor his need to ultimately sever ties with Rome. Henry’s predicaments prove largely of his own making, his personality, his beliefs, his relationships, his follies, his hollow triumphs, and his bitter disappointments all dooming him to failure.

Through his exhaustive research, John Matusiak has collated a more extensive exploration of Henry’s turbulent childhood and youth than any other biography, weaving the strands of eclectic, little-known source materials throughout his engaging narrative.

“My interest in Henry is certainly long-established, dating back at least forty years to my time at London University when I was fortunate enough to be tutored by the late, great and more than slightly intimidating ST Bindoff – a pipe-smoking old school stickler for smartly clipped hair, elbow-protected tweed jackets and rigorous scholarship, who, in spite of his considerable underlying compassion and tolerance, nevertheless scared the life out of many a would-be student revolutionary of the mid1970s. Notwithstanding a distinctly raffish streak on my part – which has long since waned with the passing of many autumns – he seemed to take a most improbable shine to me and wrote a letter of introduction to Geoffrey Elton, another great doyen of Tudor studies, at Cambridge. The rest, as they say, is history – although, strictly speaking, I was always as interested in Henry VIII’s victims as I was in the man himself: Thomas More, John Fisher, the socalled ‘Holy Maid of Kent’ and especially those saintly Carthusian monks whose brave resistance and hideous deaths fascinated me from my very first visit to the Tower of London, which took place in the formidable company of a matronly Catholic nun who ruled my East End primary school with her own equivalent brand of intolerance. Thereafter, I became a teacher in my own

right and Henry continued to feature prominently until, by one of those twists that life has a habit of generating, I found myself heading a History Department at a school he had founded in 1539 with funds plundered from two local monasteries. My book was already underway by that time, but the portrait of the old ogre, peering down at me through arrow-slit eyes from its lofty perch during dreary school assemblies, certainly may have helped to hone my distaste for him.

“The starting point for writing a biography is the five or six key ideas or themes upon which the book is going to hinge. They need to be novel, interesting and, ideally, as provocative as possible, not least of all because ideas with ‘edge’ are much more likely to result in sharper writing. If the book can be summed up compellingly in 150 words of the kind that might form the basis for the backcover blurb, the preparation is largely complete. Beyond this, a biography should be allowed to unfold organically.

This certainly makes the writing process altogether more pleasurable than if one is working to a tightly preconceived template, and also encourages a greater emphasis on creativity throughout. If a day’s work ends with a pleasant glow of surprise at the turn the plot has taken, it’s likely to be a day’s work well done. Nor, at the writing stage, should there be any overriding concern about writing too much on any apparently obscure topic. The writing process, as I found with my earlier biography of Henry V particularly, is part of the learning process. If the projected word limit is 120,000 words, be prepared to edit down from a third as much again, if need be. My only other advice is to write for yourself rather than your prospective audience. The odds against publication are considerable in any case, so writing needs to be an end in itself or, put more simply, ‘fun’.

“Henry VIII began life, I must confess, as a hobby – an excuse to take myself to the top of the house and gain some uninterrupted ‘chill down’ time. (If I’d been any good

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NEW EDITION, AUGUST 2013

at railway modelling, the book would never have seen the light of day.) What started as a slightly whimsical pastime, however, gradually hardened into something of an obsession over the space of seven or eight months until I carried out another largely ‘spur of the moment’ action. Having ‘Googled’ a couple of literary agents with no expectation of success whatsoever – and having received one curt, and frustratingly tardy, turn down – I then received a response from Andrew Lownie that was equally succinct, but much more satisfying. ‘I think I can sell this’ was his reply.

“Sadly, however, he proved wrong – though not for want of trying. The book was circulated to all the leading publishers, as Andrew tried everything possible to battle for a buyer in time for the five hundredth anniversary of Henry’s accession to the throne in 2009. No agent could have worked more diligently. No agent could have been more unstinting in his support and encouragement. All the publishers liked the book. There were numerous lights at the ends of long dark tunnels. But the shadow of David Starkey quenched them all. With a much-vaunted TV series pending and in spite of Andrew’s conviction that we could go ‘head-to-head’ with him, no publisher, it seems, was prepared to take a punt on an unknown middle-aged schoolteacher. Thus ended the quest for celebrity – or so, at least, it seemed.

“Nor was the blow an especially crushing one. In spite of the sympathy of my friends, who condoled with my ‘wretchedness’ at ‘having come so close’, I had much else in life to occupy me and I had, in the meantime, already published some articles in the journal History Review, which had given me a lot of satisfaction in their own right. I had even started a biography of Wolsey, which I would now return to at leisure as a more than satisfactory substitute for amateur dramatics, the local gardening society or Hornby coaches … whereupon, of course, fate craftily intervened.

“One of my articles for History Review made passing reference to Henry V, which led the editor, the splendid Bob Pearce – another fellow for whom all praise is deficient – to proffer the most unexpected of suggestions. For Bob was also editor of the Routledge Historical Biographies series and looking for someone to write the volume on Agincourt’s ‘princely hero’. Might I be interested? The answer, of course, was immediate. Wolsey was left two-thirds finished and Henry V saw the light of day just under two years later – which is where things started to get really curious.

“As Henry V headed for the can, Bob suggested a joint project, which I duly proposed to The History Press’s Mark Beyon – the third splendid bloke and key figure in my circuitous literary odyssey. The result was a considerate rejection of the book in question, but a further kindly invitation to contact him direct with any future

proposals that I might come up with. In a trice, Henry VIII was mooted and delivered, and just over a fortnight or so later, the contract was in the post. Even before the ink was dry, however, I had mentioned, en passant as it were, my two-thirds completed biography of Wolsey. And another fortnight later, another contract was in the post. Such, it seems, is the role of fate in the world of publishing. (Bob Pearce, incidentally, being the man he is, offered only warmest congratulations at my success.)”

Matusiak sets Henry’s volatile rule in a much more European context, comparing and contrasting him with other contemporary rulers and placing particular emphasis upon his inability to appreciate the material limitations of the kingdom he ruled. He is very clear that research doesn’t necessarily mean having to resort to living under a table at the British Library for ten months.

“There are, I suspect, many misconceptions about the extent and type of research required for a historical biography. In the first place, one’s key ideas are mainly derived from secondary reading and tested against the ‘evidence’ afterwards. What might be considered merely the ‘core’ material for Henry VIII’s reign consists, after all, of at least 50,000 documents, and the notion that an author should master every cranny of every available archive before formulating a string of ground-breaking ideas has never struck me as being particularly tenable – or, for that matter, remotely desirable. (In truth, the seating arrangements, not

Matusiak is very clear that research doesn’t necessarily mean living under a table at the British Library for ten months

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to mention the tea, at the British Library leave much to be desired.) Somewhat paradoxically, it’s a case of first the thesis, then the ‘evidence’. The alternative, I fear, is a turgid trip to ‘anorakland’, from which many a long-lost writer of many a learned monograph has never, sadly, returned.

Besides which, much of the necessary material is in any case available in printed volumes, assiduously formulated and bequeathed by our diligent Victorian forebears. In my case, a lot of this material was acquired in dribs and drabs over many years and now gathers dust upon the shelves of my study. A good deal is also available online these days and, with the additional infinitely good offices of my local central library, I was able to access pretty much everything I required, without having to subject my ageing rump to the rigours of a British Library chair.”

Henry VIII: The Life and Rule of England’s Nero fills a critical gap between the academic and the populist as the first, comprehensive, single-volume biography of Henry VIII for the serious general reader. This compelling and ground-breaking study of a deeply flawed

CONTEMPORARY PUBLISHING MAGAZINE

individual vigorously challenges old assumptions and new interpretations alike. Henry was, above all, predictable in his unpredictability!

“As the story unfolded, I was increasingly struck by the full extent of his anxieties and insecurities. Not only was he obsessed with the so-called ‘Levitical curse’ overshadowing his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, there were numerous other concerns that dogged him, particularly with regard to his health. This, after all, was the man who, when hiding from the plague at Windsor in 1540, had ordered that any sufferers should be removed in advance of his arrival and left to die in fields around about.

The extent of his accompanying interest in medicines and cures of all kinds – many of his own devising – was also something of a surprise. Ruptures, testicular tumours, ringworm, eczema, corns, ‘raw eyes’ and haemorrhoids were only some of the ailments that attracted his attention.

“Henry was, after all, utterly consumed by his own ego and something of a split personality to boot. But, if we look beyond Henry, Thomas Cromwell must be a prime candidate. Beforehand, Wolsey had at least tried to manage the king – albeit by means of what would prove to be a sorely deficient species of ‘deferential manipulation’. But Cromwell gave him a free rein and the means, moreover, to indulge his more destructive impulses. In the process, both men helped make monsters of each other: Henry as the appetent bull in a china shop, Cromwell as the calculating arch-pragmatist and political logician. Certainly, the brewer’s son from Putney has been let off lightly by the likes of Hilary Mantel. Lacking the vindictiveness for outright cruelty, he was nevertheless coolly responsible for many reprehensible events during the 1530s – all exquisitely engineered, of course, in the interests of progress and delivered with a genuine dash of idealism. Four hundred years later, I’m quite sure that ‘Crum’ would have felt fully at home in the oak-panelled study of any high-ranking Moscow apparatchik.”

Matusiak’s passion for history extends to his general love of reading and writing. Being able to capture that boundless enthusiasm for learning – something which

must have made him such a superb teacher – on the page give his books a definite edge, something which he believes other writers can also achieve.

“Most of my tips apply to any type of writing, in fact. Firstly, be bold. Look to ruffle feathers and rattle cages, wherever appropriate. Secondly, write primarily for your own entertainment and hope that what appeals to you may, coincidentally, appeal to your eventual readership. Thirdly, learn as you write, avoiding the temptation to ‘master’ your subject before putting pen to paper – a sure recipe for boredom, lethargy and ultimate disillusionment. Fourthly, treat your subject as object and let the story of their lives largely tell itself. They are actually neither your friends nor your enemies. Nor, for that matter, are they your patients.

Deeds rather the than thoughts are key. And though a good biography will have a very definite ‘line’, spurred on by a variety of slick and timely observations, that line should always be carried primarily by the narrative, since any life worth writing about is, by definition, interesting enough in its own right. Much more prosaically, write every day – even if you’re producing what you consider inferior material. (The only way to beat ‘writer’s block’, as I have frequently found, is by pre-empting it and remembering at all times that the cream often proceeds from the crap.)

Finally, cultivate a distinctive rhythm in your writing and develop broad shoulders in preparation for the wave of frustrations that are likely to come your way. What looks like a dead end one day may well emerge as a much-needed invitation to a tantalising new route the next!”

Henry VIII: The Life and Rule of England’s Nero by John Matusiak (published by The History Press £20, hardback, ISBN: 978-07524-9707-5) is out now.

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NEW EDITION, AUGUST 2013

summertime

...and the reading is easy

It’s that time of the year when everyone rushes to buy a book at the airport. Eurgh!

Resist making a desperate selection and plan ahead with Authoright’s summer reads.

Disappointingly, no one at Authoright is called Sophie, so we haven’t been able to exploit this literary pun to the fullest. Apologies.

Hayley's Choice The Other Typist

by Suzanne Rindell Fig Tree, 2013

A jazz-age setting. Check. Sinister female characters. Check.

Bathtub gin. Check. A delicious blend of decadence, danger and deception. Check, check and check again. Having found myself engrossed in Amor Towles’s debut Rules of Civility, I’ve been on the look out for another period piece set on the cusp of modernity and exploring the darker side of female friendship. As Rose starts working as a police department typist on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, she becomes infatuated with a new girl at the office (also a typist, hence the title), the mysterious Odalie. Obviously, things will end horribly, which is just how I like them!

Ben's choice

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

by Milan Kundera Faber and Faber, 1996

I am going to read one of Milan Kundera’s lesser known but highly acclaimed novels, having thoroughly enjoyed The Unbearable Lightness of Being. The story is a set of seven intertwining narratives that examine themes of existence, memory and forgetting against the backdrop of Soviet Central Europe. Perhaps not the most appropriate seasonal choice, but a Kunderaphile friend of mine has been corralling me to read this for years, and so taking my borrowed paperback down to the beach will also provide me with hours of pub conversation once the sun has set on summer 2013.

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CONTEMPORARY PUBLISHING MAGAZINE

Louis' Choice Wool

by Hugh Howey Random House, 2013 What I look for in a summer read is a fast-paced book with a captivating plot that will keep me entertained whilst sitting on a plane, a sunny lawn, or - as is too often the case - whilst inside waiting for the rain to stop. The rest of the year typically calls for the distraction of an emotionally engaging and thoughtprovoking read, so summer for me means plot, humour and excitement. Ben Elton usually ticks these boxes for me, but given my passion for self publishing I’ve decided to read Hugh Howey’s Wool, a series of originally self published sci-fi novellas set in a dystopian future in which humanity has been forced into underground bunkers to avoid exposure to the poisonous toxins polluting the outside world. It is set to be adapted into a movie directed by Ridley Scott and was one of last year’s bestsellers, so I’m keen to see what all the fuss is about. Also I’m secretly a bit of a sci-fi geek.

Katy's Choice

Gypsy Boy on the Run

by Mikey Walsh Hodder Paperbacks, 2011

I’m always a little apprehensive reading autobiographies that categorise a person’s entire life story, from birth to the present day (I constantly question how it’s possible for anyone to remember life events with such precision!) Micky Walsh’s Gypsy Boy however was somewhat different. His harrowing story of growing up within a traditional gypsy culture, despite exposing it, wasn’t critical at all. His acceptance of this idiosyncratic culture and the way his family treated him were humbling. If felt completely genuine and ever since I finished reading Gypsy Boy, I’ve been dying to pick up where it left off with the follow up, Gypsy Boy on the Run. Now summer’s here, I have my chance!

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NEW EDITION, AUGUST 2013

Next time

The business of books:

can you manufacture a bestseller?

New Edition is written and designed by Authoright.

Contributors: Mattea Barnes, Oren Berman, Louis Dresner, Katy Garland, Gareth Howard, Hayley Radford, Ben Wood.

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Image: Robert (Bert Werk), Flickr

NEW EDITION CONTEMPORARY ISSUE

5,

PUBLISHING AUGUST

2013

MAGAZINE