Do it yourself publishing
Anthony Blond
In the Sixties a group of well-meaning people, disturbed at the effect of 'economic censorship', resolved to form a non-profit making society to publish those works of literature denied circulation because of their lack of popular appeal. Out there, it was felt, were a number of un- sung Miltons who, deserved to be heard if only by a discriminating minority. Impres- sed by the sincerity of their argument and the quality of their advocates, including Ed- ward Blacksell, a Devon headmaster who with Ronald Duncan, had inspired my father to create what subsequently became the Royal Court Theatre, I agreed that Ant- hony Blond 'Ltd would act as publishers to this enterprising and worthy venture. And so the Minority Book Society was formed to the sound of a muted but approving fan- fare from the backs of the posh papers. It was a dead baby.
Not for nothing is the rate of acceptance of unsolicited manuscripts, equally in Lon- don and New York, about one in 2,000. The manuscripts which came into our of- fices in Doughty Street in those days were no different from those which had always come in except that there were more of them. They were battered and dull. As the months rolled by one began to see the point of Doubleday's decision to return un- solicited manuscripts from the public, unopened, to their senders. However, I did get something out of it — a brilliant' first novel by one Alexis Lykiard, rejected by many publishers on grounds of obscenity. We gave it a nice cover, pretty endpapers and it sold very well.
There is no difficulty in becoming a publisher. There are no qualifications necessary, unlike the trades or professions of priest, plumber or .. . estate agent.
Touring the London Book Fair some mon- ths ago I paused at corner stand No. 211, brightly lit and well-furnished. I spotted with my famous talent-oriented eye a bottle of gin and some tonic, sat down and in- troduced myself. The publishers were called Lashbrook & Knight and they had publish- ed only one book, The Quest of Aah by Alexan Farelane, 616pp, £7.95, ISBN 0 9507559 0 7, set and printed in 11 on 12 pt, Plantin by Redwood Burn. It looked, for all the world, like any other book on display at the Fair. But when Mr Knight, a pleasant-faced young man in a blue suit, in- formed me that the publishing firm of Lashbrook & Knight had been formed for the sole purpose of publishing The Quest of Aah and did not intend to add another title to their list I felt the matter needed to be further explored.
The story goes like this. A group of 25 people knew the late Miss Farelane and were impressed by her talent. They were distressed that her typescript had, after much circulation, failed to attract an offer for publication and decided to pool their savings, from £50 to £500, to form a publishing company to publish the book. Mr Lashbrook, an estate agent in Croydon, where most of the contributors live, design- ed the jacket, and quite striking it is too, in bright geranium with a pair of antlers stuff- ed into a Nordic knight's helmet decorated with trefoils. The actual object dominated stand 211. They consulted several books for guidance on how to publish and, I am gratified to report, found The Publishing Game by Anthony Blond (Jonathan Cape, 1971) the most helpful. They printed 700 jackets — the number I suggested — and sent them out to the trade. The subscription was not overwhelming — about 90 out of a print order of 2,500 copies, but it did in- clude 25 copies from W. H. Smith, which shows that somewhere in that formidable and computered institution there beats a human heart. The Quest of Aah was published in November last year and so far there have been no reviews though there was a mention of the book's existence on LBC. The cost of the enterprise so far is about £9,000. But the Croydon en- trepreneurs remain optimistic,and justified in spending f500 on taking a stand for the promotion of their one book.
The Quest of Aah is about an ordinary family, (gosh they can say that again) who, after lunch on Christmas day in 1970 'left the dinner table and retired to the drawing room to sink into soft armchairs. Everyone felt strangely heavy and unusually idle, and fit only for sitting and going to sleep. Seeing what befell them all later in the day, we shall never be sure whether this acute lassitude was due to the warmth, the wine, both or neither.'
There is no need to paraphrase the blurb; it speaks, if that is the word, for itself, so let us continue. 'Thus begins Alexan Farelane's remarkable odyssey: a familY very much of this world, transported into a minutely-observed Otherworld, where they find themselves treated as significantlY more than guests. Indeed, their visit has been long-planned and each of them must realise that they once had, and must plaY again, a crucial role in their elusively familiar surroundings.
Their hosts are an Ancient Irish Order -- Companions of the Grand Fiana, Knights, of Aah — and it soon becomes clear .. • This is where the fun begins.
The Starrs at home — I put that in Thornton Heath — are a fairly ordinary lot, or folk'as the late Miss Farelane is so prone to say, right-minded but a shade long- winded as the following snatch of dialogue shows. The parents are discussing the events of the previous year and the young folk have gone up to the attic to star-gaze, only they won't see much because it is snowing. "Here ends another fateful year," she said simply.
"Yes" answered John with difficultY> "but each year seems worse than the one before. I must say this last decade has shown a fixed tendency to disaster: a' cidents almost unbelievable in nature have succeeded one another so swiftly, one ean hardly call them to memory when one wants to" '.
But when the Starr family are transported into this Otherworld the nomenclature, if not the adventure, reallY takes off. The Starrs are often taken on eg- cursions by their knightly friends and they go riding in the countryside 'with manY a stop to chat and contemplate.' Here follows a description of a typical outing (on page 561): At other times, Fin tAahn, Arg Niss Rahm, Bened Issi El, Fi-On and Tu All Ta would go out riding; or Fi-On, Tu Ta, Bened Issi El, Cum Na Norn, Mi Ess El and El Da Ray. Or Fi-On, Tu All Ta and Cailte would take Elizabeth, Sheila and Henrietta for long and happy rides t° lakes and hills, or to one of Fi-On's manY lodges. But most times Fi-On, Tu Ah Bened Issi El and Fin tAahn rode about together.
This was a well-earned rest .. .
Yes.
The above extract is copied exactly as printed, em for en on hard, expensive' white paper. Heaven is supposed to be a place where,. there are no rejection slips. But the storY 01 the publication of The Quest of Aah which must as a typescript have gamete!" many — surely justifies the life-long habn of publishers on earth of saYing' mostly,`no'.
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