How do you take a publishing house on its last legs and transform it

0 Comments | Sunday Herald, The, Oct 27, 2002 | by Iain S Bruce

Such commercial savvy has earned the house its fair share of criticism from literary watchers crying "sell-out". Numerous detractors have queued up to opine that Canongate's focus is more on marketing than books, a point resoundingly made when Rebel Inc imprint publisher Kevin Williamson acrimoniously split from the company in 2000, citing differences over marketing and remuneration. It is an argument to which Byng gives short shrift however.

"I know how strongly Kevin feels, but am still proud of what we did together and have no regrets," he says. "I would love it if there were no such words as product and marketing, but it's incredibly nave to imagine that you can get books the attention they deserve without playing the game. A bankrupt publisher would be no use to anyone."

Immaterial of whether they like it or not, Canongate is competing on level terms with the world of corporate publishing. The successes this year could push turnover above (pounds) 4m, and with deals like the recently signed film package that will see author Ross Leckie's Hannibal become a major Hollywood production starring Vin Diesel becoming frequent occurrences, the big boys are already watching closely.

Canongate have already been involved in one abortive merger attempt with US giants Grove Atlantic, which many commentators regarded as a pure takeover, and fears abound that the independent could be snapped up by an acquisitive major player, robbing Scotland of its single publishing success story.

Byng confidently insists that this will not happen however, and asserts that the company's future is as an international house operating from Caledonian headquarters.

Only time will tell, but the future certainly looks bright. Next year will see a tighter publishing list with several titles Canongate are clearly excited about and one of them - Steven Sherrill's The Minotaur Takes A Cigarette Break - has been sold into several languages already and is currently the subject of a five-way bidding frenzy in Holland. Faber's The Crimson Petal And The White, meanwhile, has been optioned by Columbia for around (pounds) 750,000. There will be more to come.

"Winning the Booker is not just about boosting sales on one book, because it puts the entire company in a whole new light," says Byng. "New authors will want to come to us and critics have to start taking us seriously, while the attention and credibility generated by the prize will add impetus to every single title that we put out there.

"Scottish publishing is on the map again, and the knock-on benefits of that are obvious. Perhaps it will mean we can afford to take on some more established authors, but that's not really what Canongate is about. What really excites us is the prospect of being able to give emerging talent a big platform to stand on, because at the end of the day, it's all about the books."

Canongate is the first Scottish publisher to have a novel from their stable win the Booker Prize - Yann Martel's Life of Pi. Established in 1973, the enigmatic publisher Jamie Byng led the buyout of the company in 1994.