MY BACK PAGES

Richard Charkin’s experience as a publisher is unique among his generation. Over the past half century he has been (at different times) a scientific and medical publisher, a journal publisher, a digital publisher and a general publisher. He has worked for family-owned, publicly-owned, university-owned companies and start-ups. In this memoir he uses his unrivalled experience to illustrate the profound changes that have affected the identity and practices but not the purpose of publishing.

Of course there are stories about well-known personalities he has encountered in his career – 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.

This is an insider’s account of the last fifty years of the publishing industry: the essential guide for writers, readers, students of publishing, and book industry professionals including librarians, booksellers, literary agents, printers, copyright lawyers, digital experts. 

Author Biography

Richard Charkin

Since becoming a publisher in 1972, Richard Charkin has held many senior posts at major publishing houses, including Oxford University Press, Reed Elsevier, Current Science Group, Macmillan, and Bloomsbury Publishing. He is former President of The Book Society, the International Publishers Association and the UK Publishers Association. He is a non-executive director of the International Advisory Board of the Frankfurt Book Fair, Liverpool University Press, and Cricket Properties Ltd as well as advising nkoda.com and running Mensch Publishing. He lectures on the publishing courses at London College of Communications, City University, and University College London.

Tom Campbell

Tom Campbell is an independent consultant and writer. He has worked with the Greater London Authority to produce the Mayor’s Cultural Strategy and was Head of Creative Industries at the London Development Agency. He co-chaired the Creative Industries Council’s Working Group on Regions and Clusters and is on the editorial board of the academic journal Cultural Trends. His most recent novel, The Planner, is published by Bloomsbury.