The book brings to life various phases of the publishing industry, with early chapters describing a time when people knew much less what they were doing – Charkin recalls being hired “purely on the basis that I had a science degree, and was young and thus inexpensive” – drank a lot more, and had ruthless editors. Can anyone imagine any learning environment without a significant digital dimension? From the library to the lecture theater or classroom, the buzzword in educational publishing for schools and colleges has been “blended learning”–essentially a teacher, a book, and some digital supplements. In spite of these rules, more than half the authors of the books are represented by literary agents and I’ve had no complaints about these terms (so far).

My Back Pages by Richard Charkin Title Detail: My Back Pages by Richard Charkin

The only editorial rule I set was not to publish any fiction (which usually requires either a large and experienced publisher or an author self-publishing) but I broke that rule when I could not resist The Accidental Collector by Guy Kennaway, who has won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction 2021. Contracts and Some Distinctions Charkin, R. (2023, January 27). Richard Charkin: "Remnants of Organs" in Medicine and Publishing . Publishing Perspectives. Retrieved January 29, 2023, from https://publishingperspectives.com/2022/07/richard-charkin-vestigial-organs-in-medicine-and-publishing/

I’ve consistently argued for editorial specialization. Just because an editor is a good judge of literary fiction doesn’t make that editor a good judge of history or cooking or politics. I’m sure that still holds true for larger publishers, but small ones have to be opportunistic and Mensch’s range of titles shows absolutely no evidence of focus whatsoever.

MY BACK PAGES: An undeniably personal history of publishing

With more people working from home, how can our industry justify typical midtown offices? How can senior executives justify large offices for themselves and battery-hen cubicles for lower-level staffers? Of course there are stories about well-known personalities he has encountered - Madonna, Jeffrey Archer, Robert Maxwell, Paul Hamlyn, Mohammed Al-Fayed and many more. But his primary purpose is to provide an insider’s account of the social, technological, commercial and geographical developments as seen through the eyes of a gifted all-round publisher who has made a very significant contribution to the profession. Charkin could have used his own name, of course, but considered that “too self-serving” in the context of a publishing company. “Also, when eventually you sell it on, what does your name mean? It means nothing.” This is a really important book that I am certain will be read for years to come by anyone who has any interest in books and publishing. He serves on the International Advisory Board of the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Editorial Board of Logos [3] as well as teaching on the publishing courses at University College London, City University of London, and University of the Arts London.A postman in the early-20th-century Pays de Buch area of France’s Landes de Gascogne delivers mail on stilts. Both mail carriers and shepherds used stilts in the region to navigate boggy tidal-plain terrain. Richard Charkin likens this tradition to ‘print in the new world—charming but ridiculous.’ Image: Public domain Surely working from home will continue, with benefits to family life, avoidance of commuting stress, the economics of publishing, and the trust and empowerment of publishing employees. Another of Charkin’s editorial accomplishments had an even bigger cultural effect. He is proud of the colossal task of digitalising the Oxford English Dictionary in 1988, which involved blending 10 editions from the early 1900s and later supplementary additions. Of course he includes stories about authors and books he has published and people he has worked with. But this prime purpose is to tell us through the lens of his own extraordinary experience the story of the dramatic changes of the past fifty years that have transformed the publishing industry.

Richard Charkin: In Praise Of a Quiet Publishing Leader Richard Charkin: In Praise Of a Quiet Publishing Leader

What will the book look like? The book was printed and distributed by the brilliant team at IngramSpark, but until you hold a book in your hands, you simply don’t know. Phew, I said to myself, as the first copy arrived. It was beautifully designed and manufactured, better even than I’d anticipated. And the United Kingdom’s Publishers Association kindly lent me their offices for a place to thank friends and family for all their support.

I’m not a complete illiterate, but I do find handling pictures, PDFs, and spreadsheets harder than I should, and I have nobody to turn to apart from the occasional good Samaritan So they don’t want the rest. But, nonetheless, a huge number of extremely good books are being written by extremely good people, desperate to see the light of day.” Adieu, 9-to-5 work schedules. I’m very glad I haven’t invested heavily in big-city commercial property, and I’m pretty certain that most publishers will be looking to reduce their rent bills by taking less space and renegotiating leases.