Writing_Magazine_-_November_2019_UserUpload.Net

NOVEMBER 2019 11

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n American editor friend of mine, in the process of
describing some particularly labyrinthine processes of
corporate publishing life sighed and said: ‘It’s a publishing
meeting: no one gets to leave until everyone’s unhappy.
It’s hard not to feel, whichever outcome you’d prefer, that Brexit is
decidedly similar.
But while publishing as a whole is about as remain as you could
possibly imagine – I only know of one ‘out’ Brexiteer in the business

• there is remarkably little anxiety industry wide.
  However that may be because no one has really looked at the small
  print. Sam Jordison, MD of Norwich-based indie Galley Beggar Press
  raised some serious concerns about the potential bureaucratic burden
  placed on publishers by a new regulatory regime but it’s hard to say
  how well founded those fears are, or of course how far they will relate
  to what eventually actually transpires.
  Certainly, no publisher I know of is battening down the hatches
  because of Brexit. There seems as good a chance as any that people
  will read more in these uncertain times than otherwise.
  Indeed, serious non-fiction is having a good period at the moment
  because people are looking for a counterbalance to the fake news and
  conspiracies they find so much of on the internet, part of which is of
  course fuelled by Brexit.
  And as far as our own foreign rights team at Sheil Land, while
  they are somewhat mortified by the politics of Brexit and also

worried about the new regulatory climate they will have to operate

in, the nuts and bolts of European publishers buying rights in books

published in the UK remains broadly unaffected.

One of the things it will be fascinating to see is whether there will

be any market for post-Brexit books. Whatever the actual outcome,

there will be a significant number of politicians and commentators

eager to tell the story of what actually happened.

Undoubtedly one of these will do quite well, but I really do

wonder how interested anyone will be to pick over the bones of the

most exhausting and divisive political process in living memory.

But then I tend to think that about political memoirs in general.

Unless they are genuinely entertaining – which is almost unheard

of – or genuinely important figures: almost as rare, does anyone

really think that politicians are going to say anything of any real

worth in a book?

The David Cameron memoir is a case in point – he’s an important

figure, for pretty negative reasons largely – but the chances of him

saying anything really insightful or even all that truthful, let alone,

god help us, anything entertaining or funny in his book are very slim

and, outside of Conservative party activists and political journalists,

is there anyone who actually cares what his version of events was

beyond a few of the choicest soundbites?

Mind you, for the £800,000 he is rumoured to have been paid, I

doubt he cares all that much either.

With B-day looming, Piers Blofeld considers its effect on the publishing landscape

From the AGENT OPINIONT I T L E

OTHE RSIDE

OF THE DESK

Balancing

the Brexit books