Book marks
In discussing the dramatic changes in the hardback-paperback relationship last month, it seems that I underestimated the ingenuity of Andre Deutsch, one of the few remaining independent publishers without a formal paperback tie-up. One of the disadvantages of independence, the argument ran, was that the paperback men had the money, so that those hardback publishers who were not in formal cahoots with them were missing out on paperback profits whilst at the same time needing to retain 40 per cent of the author's earnings to keep themselves in business. Hardback publishers did not like the first bit and many authors did not like the second. Hence, in very simple terms, the general move towards hardback-paperback integration. And some hardback publishers inevitably got left in the cold, or at least in the not-so-hot.
Discreet affair
Not so the cunning Mr Deutsch. While everyone else was rushing around looking for a paperback marriage, he went quietly along to Coronet Paperbacks and started a discreet affair. This, let it quickly be added, does not mean that an amorous Andre D. will now be seen lurking in seedy hotel foyers with Coronet's attractive editor Chris Hollyfield — less yet with beefy chief executive Ron Read. What it means is that if the Deutsch firm has a book which might subsequently fit nicely into the Coronet paperback list, the two firms will come to a profit-sharing arrangement on a book-bybook basis. That seems a smart way of doing things since it leaves Deutsch free to sell paperback rights elsewhere without feeling in the least beholden to any paperback master — as some of the married hardback publishers do. Why didn't anyone think of that before?
Special relationship
Meanwhile the Thomson Group has done what every other group in its position did several years ago. The Thomson Publications Board has at last made it possible for the group's two general hardback companies to have a formal rather than casual relationship with the group's mass-market paperback component Sphere Books. As a result, Sphere will be hoping to pick some of the plums from the Hamish Hamilton and Michael Joseph lists, and also to join with them in bidding for any major literary properties that happen to be on offer. That will not stop the two hardback companies from accepting a good outside offer, of course, but it will give Sphere's editors a little extra — and much-needed — help in acquiring the big book. It will also lessen the chances of a recurrence of the 1973 situation. In that year two of the top twenty paperback bestsellers had originated from Hamish Hamilton — The Moon's a Balloon and Susan Howatch's novel Penmairic; and three started life with Michael Joseph — Spike Milligan's Adolf Hitler, John Kobler's Al Capone, and the latest Dick Francis thriller. None of them was paperbacked by Sphere. What remains to be announced is who will be running what in the new scheme of things. That will almost certainly provide the surprise of the year.
Bookbuyer
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