'The Future of the Book'

Michael Sissons: Past Chairman and MD of PFD literary and talent agency.

Lisa Gee: Writer and associate at the institute for the future of the book.

John Mitchinson: Co-founder of Unbound, man for all seasons.

The theme 'the future of the book' was suggested by our speaker Michael Sissons when I met him in the far reaches of Caithness. Before that - and before ToMax - I had gone for an interview with PFD Literary Agency for an internship. I knew that the lady interviewing me was head of the Television Department, but I was more interested in books. So I walked in and blurted out that I didn't watch TV.

'Oh, but our philosophy is that we are experts in all the media.'

'I understand that,' I said, desperate for any job paid or unpaid, whether it suited me or not, 'I think I could do that – see how ideas can be used in different ways. After all, we live in a society which is cross..umm...I mean, trans...ummm...'

'Multi-media?'

So that was that. Another reason they didn't want anything to do with me is that I displayed a complete ignorance of the book trade, conflating publishers and literary agents and book sellers.

I got to grips with it better ahead of our talk, so here is my brief and limited understanding for the benefit of the uninitiated. The ranks of self-publishing authors are growing now that they don't have to emulate Virginia Woolf and find a publishing house for the purpose. Now there is the internet. However, the (threatened) status quo is thus. Literary agents find writers and represent them. They fish for talent. Then, they offer ongoing advice to their clients (writers) about what to write and how to tailor their work for different media channels and markets. So, for example, they might advise a writer to transform his short stories into screenplays, soaps etc. for his own commercial good.

The next level is that literary agents approach publishers, who trust good agents more than bad ones to spot marketable talent. The authors expect their agents to negotiate them good contracts with the publishers. (Publishers used to deal with authors directly, but this part was wrestled away from them in the seventies). If the publisher thinks a book is a runner, they buy the rights. At this point, the offered book is probably incomplete: there is, perhaps, a synopsis, a few chapters and the writer's reputation. Publishers then help edit, manufacture and market the book. For the marketing process, they go about persuading booksellers like Waterstone's to buy the book in a rough form. These negotiations with the end sellers influence the editing of the book as the author completes it, and also the manufacturing – the cover, the paper, the lay-out. Boring part over.

John Mitchinson, the head of research for the QI Show, did not disappoint with his gleeful trivia, the accumulation of which he accredits to 'an ecclectic life [...] I have the habit of getting bored very quickly'. Yet the facts he deployed were not Quite Interesting red-herrings; instead, he skilfully harnessed everything into a single thread about the book industry - a persuasive endorsement of his latest venture Unbound, a company formed to dispell the stagnancy which our three speakers agreed afflicts traditional publishing houses.

The consensus among our speakers was not doom and gloom. Mitchinson stressed that the UK is entering a golden age for literature. He gave us the facts: more books (of all formats) are sold than ever, more people read and there are one hundred and fifty literary festivals every year in Britain. We have a burgeoning literary culture. However, the book is held prisoner by the tyranny of out-moded publishing. Although everything should be rosy for the book, the trade is awash with negativity. Publishers are perpetually saying 'no' – they are risk-averse and, for complex reasons to do with the advent of e-books, are not making any money.

People are ready to pay more for books, said Mitchinson. There are intelligent discerning markets. The problem is that publishers can't cater to the wants of those markets. As in the 1970s, when sportsmen's biographies seemed to preponderate on the high street, the book trade pushes publishers towards backing safe, populist bets - books 'with Jamie Oliver on the cover', as Michael Sissons put it. 'Take, for example, Philip Pulman' - back to Mitchinson - 'an author with a real following. The people buying his books are prepared to pay more for them. But – paradoxically - the book trade doesn't allow them to'.

Michael Sissons with the crowd

The idea of Unbound is to reach those markets. 'Authors, fundamentally, want to be read. So we are putting authors face to face with their readers.' Authors publish a pitch on the website. Readers visiting the site can then pledge to buy the book if it is made, which only happens when there are enough buyers to make the book viable. The book is a traditional physical object. The contributors's names are printed in the back. Simple and ingenious. Some traditional publishers at the evening defended their role to me after the talks. Authors do strive to be read, they said, but don't want a great deal to do with their audience. They also questioned whether readers really wanted to be involved at such early stage in a book's development. Often they want to buy a book produced by a trusted publishing house which has overseen the object's creation. Time will tell how much people's behaviour will change. Unbound is going well and they have forty titles to be released this year.

Lisa Gee, our speaker from the future of the book institute and our chosen ambassador for digital technologies called the shifts in the trade 'the biggest change since Guttenberg'. She said she was excited about digital media because of

1. What you can make

2. How you can reach people

3. Because of the new forms of business that are coming through

Lisa's talk was largely about point one. She challenged the audience's notion of a book, preferring to define it as something 'bounded'. Yet a book needn't have a single path running through it - it needn't be linear. Lisa herself is writing a biography of a failed poet at the end of the 19^thC, and she wants the reading experience to reflect what it would be like to know him in real life. A real person's impression would be haphazard, quite unlike the birth-death progression of many biographies. New media allows the reader to follow skeins which interest them. Part of the excitement is, of course, the integration of different media. You can hear the voices of haunted women in Christine Wilkes' Underbelly or animations of the planets in The Solar System e-book published by Fabers. In Penguin's e-version of Jane Eyre, you can e-chat with other readers on the same page.

Lisa argued that poetry could be made viable again, now that the end reader could buy poems one at a time which is proving more popular. Poetry is heavy with allusion and so quick reference functions work well too. 

Michael Sissons was the grandee among our speakers and lived up to it, holding the audience with a whisper at times, drawing on an illustrious career spent with the book. Afterwards, I overheard someone at the bar: 'Well, he nailed it, didn't he?'

Sissons spoke of the impossibility of making predictions. 'I visited the head of one of the largest publishers recently. “Paperbacks.” he said “That's the future we reckon, we're giving up hardbacks completely.” Then, that same week, I went to see the head of another, also very big, very prominent publisher – I can't tell you which – “We think” he said “that the paperback has had its day. People want books as luxury items.”. And there you have it. Two very erudite men, heads of vast organisations, in total disagreement.'

Sissons spent his entire career as an agent at one company, and it was his belief that things were going multi-media which led to the creation of PFD, a merger of a literary agency with an agency for talent.

His most revealing vignette, however, was from his experience as a customer. He recounted his attempt to buy a book about the Rugby World Cup for his godson at WHSmith. They didn't have it and he ordered it in for £20. A week later it still hadn't arrived. Ten days...no luck; two weeks...still no book.

'Well, sir, we haven't got that book in yet. You can have your money back.'

'No, I don't want my money back' Sissons growled, clearly infuriated  to even think about the episode 'I want...a book...for my Godson!'

Eventually he gave up and went to Amazon.

“And in 36 hours that bloody book was with me. And it cost me fourteen quid! I hate telling that story, but in a funny way that says it all!”

John Mitchinson with the crowd

Sissons was clear on one thing. A book is content. And he agreed with Mitchinson that the publishing world has become stale and hostile to many good books. Yet he was sceptical that an outfit like Amazon, who are effectively a bookseller, would be any good at publishing books, as they may look to do. 'Why should I trust them to produce a good book – to pick and produce it?' Perhaps this is the reason why James Daunt thinks the Kindle can be outdone (he has talked of the Waterstone's version – 'The Windle'). Amazon are a retailer and their product is made with a view to being a sales avenue; it could be more user-led.

Sissons ended as theatrically as he began, dwelling on the uncertainties:

“And that's where we are at the moment. And who knows where it's all going [and, with a wave, in a kindly whisper] but I won't be around to see it!”

Inspiring Young Minds

Emily Kerr, co-founder of Unlocked Guide Books for Kids

Charlie Astor and George Whitefield, Founders of Sharky & George, children's party organisers.

Joe Craig, Author of Jimmy Coates spy series for children 

Speakers field questions.

Our four young speakers came to a merry Burns Night consensus. Ask children what they think and start with the child in mind – value their imaginations; Don't make assumptions: don't try to be Mr. Giggles when kids prefer to talk to an older brother figure; don't assume that children aren't eating school dinners because of the food, or because school dinners aren't cool. No, they just don't like queuing and want to be first to the basket ball hoop outside. As for books, don't write for children based on the old priorities of character and setting: rather cater to children's short attention spans in another way...

Emily Kerr left her full time job at Bain and founded a publisher of guide books for children. Starting a very different sort of company, she did not abandon the principles learnt as a consultant: she and her childhood friend turned business partner took ingenious measures to understand their market. They asked the children what would make a good guide book. Bright colours and things to do (rather than to see) came the answers. And - most importantly - the books should be funny. Unlocked has gone one step further. They have a kids official board of directors, all younger than 12, all highly opinionated and insightful. When Unlocked considered commissioning 'Dinosaurs Unlocked', the board batted away the idea with iron logic: 'You can't visit dinosaurs'.

Charles Astor gets crowd involvedSharky and George's talk could hardly have been a better advert for their services. It is hard to imagine two more fun and grounded guys to lead a children's party. They were brilliant showmen and echoed Emily's point: start with the children. 'We are well aware

that this isn't a children's party' said Charlie Astor, before blowing a cloud of bubbles into the audience and challenging them to catch one on each finger. Later, an obliging lady was summoned up to fire a foot-propelled rocket into a helmeted Sharky's groin. Both activities were relished by a roomful of adults...'which illustrates a point...the youth of the mind is not defined by age'. So the pair don't try to be childish; they simply do what they enjoy and children join in; they're 'aiming for the older brother vibe'.

Their games are specifically 'about making a framework for [children] to use their imaginations', in contrast to computer games or television screens which supply a lot. So the idea is to 'feed' children the minimum. 'The more children invest in the game, the more they get out of it' says George. It's over to the children to make it work.

The speakers all dwelt on their business and working philosophies. They want to keep integrity despite the pressures of scaling. This is not unexpected given that all bar Joe are featured as heroes on the popular Escape the City website. The future for UnlockedGeorge Whitefield demonstrating an early prank Guides is to keep on asking the children, and keep on creating high-quality publications with top contributors. They are created with an eye to detail. For example, all the fun facts have been carefully written with the exciting, attention-grabbing part at the start. Emily's working arrangement has helped her remained focused on the product. She and her business partner spend 50% of their time on the business, and 50% doing other jobs. So they are able to keep cool heads when the long lead times in publishing mean there is little money coming in. Sharky and George are aiming to expand their brand in line with their philosophy. By their estimates, the company has entertained over 125,000 children over the last five years, so they are putting all of their tales into a book documenting the games. Many of those games they got from children, while a front-runner for the title of the book was given to them by a child: 'Books are Boring (apart from this one by Sharky & George)'.

Meanwhile, Joe Craig could have churned out many more books, but hasn't. In each of his books he has strived to correct the faults of the last one, which explains their huge following.

Joe was a confident and focused speaker, and his delivery had touches of accomplished stand-up comedy. He told his story. 'I am a very impatient reader. I have a short attention span [...] In my teens', he recollected 'I really stopped reading novels. I read a lot of non-fiction...sports books – by which I mean lists of cricket statistics [...] But I stopped reading fiction. And I thought that made me a non-reader.'

Joe began his professional life as a musician and it was only when he began writing 'as an academic exercise […] to see if I could write a story that would grab me, to see if I could come up with the formula for a perfect story', that Jimmy Coates was born. The rip-roaring formula he came up with had two parts.

Firstly, Joe emphasises structure and conflict over character and setting. Many writers prioritise the latter two and lose the attention of an impatient reader like Joe ('and all readers under 14 are like me'). Emphasising structure and conflict is more immediately engaging. Joe also teaches this when taking writing workshops for children.

Joe Craig spinning yarns

'Children are taught to write with character first. They are told to write down a bunch of habits and facts about a person. But that is hard work and ninety five percent of it won't make it into the story. Or you'll feel obliged to put it in because you've done all of the hard work.' Better to begin with the conflict - with the problem - and see how the character reacts to it. That way you get to know the character better too, by contemplating their response.

An intricate shaggy dog story illustrated Joe's second maxim. At the tale's incredible denouement, Joe was given seminal advice by one of the only authors he had read as a child. The old man was on death's row and could only write the words: 'Tell a story'.

Joe says his stories and their formula are written for himself and wonders what makes them for children (Anthony Horowitz, for example, writes with his teenage son in mind). Philosophical thoughts underpin much of what he writes and says. The twelve year old Jimmy Coates is pre-programmed to become a government assassin. But he doesn't. He fights his pre-determination. Readers of Jimmy Coates get an exciting introduction to the dilemna of free will.

Children should learn to tell stories, says Craig, because of their explanatory power (that Cambridge philosophy degree rears its head again). A single event, such as the economic crisis, does not have one single sufficient cause but many interwoven ones. To give a thorough explanation of the crash you need to bring in property bubbles, ratings agencies, banks, legislation and market speculation. Yet at secondary school children are disencouraged from telling complex stories and goaded towards singular, convergent answers – away from using their imagination. An event is the cause of another event depending on how it is described. So (quite literally), if children want to make head or tail of things, they should learn to tell a story.

Glowing ToMax fans grab interval haggis