The Penguin Blog

Clay Shirky gives talk on Cognitive Surplus

We were thrilled and privileged to have Clay Shirky come into the Penguin offices at 80 Strand yesterday lunchtime to give a fascinating insight into his new book: Cognitive Surplus.

Explaining how for decades, technology encouraged us to squander our time as passive consumers, Clay Shirky argues technology has finally caught up with human potential and examines the changes we will all enjoy as our untapped resources of talent and good will are put to use at last.

Chris Croissant
Marketing Assistant, Penguin Digital

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Judging the "best of the best"...

On the 9th June, 2010, in the Royal Festival Hall, there was the 15th anniversary of the Orange Book Prize. To celebrate this event, six teenagers between 17-19 were chosen to be judges through Spinebreakers to judge and shortlist the previous 14 winners and choose their “best of the best”. These judges came from all over the UK; London itself, Wales, York, Bradford and Norwich-

The last one was me, Hazel Compton. I arrived on this date after a month of balancing reading with my first year of University at the UEA, reading English Lit and Art History.I had met my other judges twice between the end of April and end of May and then in Clarence House, we chose our winner, after having tea and shortcake with HRH the Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla Parker-Bowles.

  

And now, after all this discussion, we were at the Royal Festival Hall, we were very definitely on the list, and we were all dressed for the occasion. I was wearing my favourite item of the moment; a vintage 70’s dress brought from New York by a friend of mine, who had sold it to me so she could earn money to fund her Creative Writing MA (the irony that I would be wearing the garment to a literary awards ceremony!)

I was in love. I was in love with the scene, the feeling, the excitement over books! Something none of my friends shared a passion for, yet these adults did and my fellow judges did. I heard people talking of book deals, of ideas, of news, and I wanted so desperately to be able to join in. 

Danielle from Spinebreakers came and introduced herself to us then. She was lovely, talking to us as if we actually were one of the main people who should be at this party. We thanked her for our opportunity that we were so lucky to have been blessed with, gave our theories on the book that would win and then we were ushered to one side of the stage as the awards were ready to be presented.

Our own prize was then announced, and, as a shorter member of our judging group, I stood on tip toes to see the speaker and the author accept the bouquet of flowers and specially bound book. Camilla came to the stand, talking of our commitment and perseverance to the job of judging the books. It was so surreal; HRH talking of us as if we were to be revered. She then announced our winner; Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels.  I listened, I smiled, I felt my eyes tear up; this is what we had worked toward, and the reward emotionally was as beautiful as I hoped the physicality of holding a bouquet and special bound book would be.

The winner of the main Orange Prize, Barbara Kingsolver, was a wonderful woman with an obvious flair of life, a modest gene and a few laughs that she freely gave to the audience. I remember my fellow judge, Kate Edwards, whisper in my ear “that must be a pinnacle in someone’s life, to receive such a prize.” And thinking how right she was.

We were then heralded to talk to HRH once more. She quickly said hello to each of us and mentioned the immortal words: “I hope I meet you again.” I was very surprised, not by her wanting to meet us again, but the idea that we ever could! After that, I wandered around, wanting to meet publishers to talk to of how the literary world worked. Eventually, Kirsty, Kate and I all decided to talk to the publisher of Anne Michaels and tell her how wonderful she was for spotting such talent from Anne. Kate Mosse managed to help me track her down, and I quickly lead her over to the rest of the judges, whom, as well as me, issues severe compliments. 

Ian Hislop. He was there. Danielle, in her wonderful charming way, managed to introduce us to him. He asked us of the books we had read and we gave him honest opinions on them, and I was overjoyed to see him a happily smiling chap.

The night was an educational experience into the realm of publishing. It has given me the determination to become a publisher, sited me a realistic view of their work and its doings and let me in on personal experience and pointers from publishers.

I hope this is not my last endeavour into the publishing world, but it will definitely be the one literary party I never want to forget a moment of! Thank you Spinebreakers, Orange, Kate Moss, and everyone else on the team, who made me turn from a normal teenage girl into literally living the dream that I’ve always had.

Hazel Compton

Youth Panel Judge

Read the full article on Spinebreakers

Penguin is 75 - Editor Videos - Part 7

It's our 75th Birthday this year, and we've been filming our Editors talking about life at Penguin Books. In Part 7 of this series Editor Will Hammond explains what he's enjoyed about publishing Matthew Crawford's The Case for Working with Your Hands and how the very unique and handsome cover was designed.

Find out more about our 75th Birthday celebrations: www.penguinis75.co.uk

Chris Croissant
Marketing Assistant, Penguin Digital

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Penguin gets World Cup Fever

Out of Office reply:

Thank you for your message. I will be out of the office now from June 11th - July 11th. I will be checking my e-mails on my return, but if England don’t win the World Cup, I might not come back at all.

Oh it's that time once again. For thirty glorious days England expects, and as football fever sweeps the nation, Penguin Books have decided to show their full support for Fabio's men.
In a controversial move, Penguin Books have renamed a number of their summer titles in time for the World Cup finals.

New titles include:

The Case For Working with your Hands: A radical new goalscoring strategy by Matthew Crawford
Fabio, Naked by Nick Hornby
The Help: We need all we can get by Kathryn  Stockett.

Penguin employee Roy Cannavaro, a branding executive, has high hopes for the titles.
"I think they will inspire England to win. The manager Fabio Capello is well known to read Peppa Pig to Wayne Rooney at bedtimes before he tucks him in.”

Penguin, an unofficial sponsor of the 2010 World Cup will not be following in the footsteps of Toshiba, who have promised full refunds to customers of HD televisions if England win the World Cup, and Sports Direct who will give fans their money back who purchased shirts if England lift the trophy.

However, famous for the invention of the paperback by Allen Lane in 1935, Penguin is once again at the cutting edge of book technology. An even slimmer paperback has been designed to fit in the players’ shorts and shirt pockets during games at the finals.

Joe Di Canio, a literary clothes stylist/publicist at Penguin says that the new paperback will add to overall player movement and comfort.

"Ashley Cole could do with bulking up a bit and it will also give him something to do if he gets lonely out on the left side of defence."

However, while Penguin's patriotic marketing technique has been hailed by some as "brave and pioneering”, some literary purists believe that something must be done to put an end to this “soccer madness.”

A. Ferguson, the scottish founder of the 'Penguin for Justice' movement believes that it is bringing the company's name and history into disrepute, and ruining the image of books around the world. “I would rather eat a book than watch it be defaced in such a way.”

With the recent launch of the iPad and the traditional reading drought that occurs during the World Cup month, publishers are increasingly looking for ways to compete in a competitive marketplace. Whether Penguin's bold marketing strategy pays off, and whether it will help England to win the World Cup, only time will tell. But regardless of the outcome, and in those famous words of 1966: "They think it's all over, it is now. So read a book."

Ben Brusey
Editorial Assistant, Viking

Pick a Puffin

Puffin, as part of their 70th birthday celebrations (I know: they look so young!) are asking people to vote for the Puffin of Puffins. There's a shortlist of seven books – one each from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s – and you can help decide which is crowned champion!

The full text of the winning book is going to be engraved on money, and every extant copy of each of the six losers is going to be hurled into the sun.

None of that last paragraph is true. Instead the winner will receive glorious acclaim and the satisfaction of seeing its opponents bested, and you will get to stand tall in the knowledge that when your favourite children's book needed you (whether that's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, or Goodnight Mr Tom or Charlotte's Web or . . .), you were not found wanting.

 

 

If you're still undecided you might find it useful to go and read seven champions for the books (including the likes of Jasper Fforde and Marcus Brigstocke) campaign for their favourites over at the Guardian.

And for all the birthday celebrations, be sure to visit http://www.happybirthdaypuffin.co.uk. Even their URLs are cute! (I'm still trying to get the Nuffin Like a Puffin song out of my head.)

Alan
Copywriter

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The Making of A Bestseller

In April 2008 I was sent a manuscript: it was to be the launch book of a new hardcover imprint, Amy Einhorn Books, at Penguin USA called The Help. It seemed an unlikely book for the British market, a women’s novel told in the voices of- three women in Mississippi in 1962. Those Southern voices would really grate with a British audience, wouldn’t they? 

Or would they?  Because I couldn’t stop reading. The story was completely compelling – full of suspense, full of pent up anger and empathy for what it was like to be the black ‘help’; it was also very funny, with scenes of real slapstick. The characters were so well drawn – not just the major characters of Aibileen and Minnie, the two maids, or the misfit white girl, Skeeter, (who comes home from college and, while searching for the family maid who has disappeared, takes up their cause), but also the minor characters: the villainous queen of the Junior League bridge party; the beautiful young, white trash wife struggling to fit in, Skeeter’s bewildered conventional parents. I read on and on and on…

And so, totally gripped, I tentatively asked my colleagues to read it too, and to my delight, everyone agreed with me. Actually: more than agreed. They completely took this book to their bosoms.  I bought it, and the campaign began.  It was quite simple: if you could get people to read this book, they didn’t just like it, they LOVED it.

So we bought the book to publish in the UK and very early on when BBC Radio 4 bought it to make a two week drama serial  I began to have that feeling I last had with Marina Lewycka’s A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, a kind of frisson that a book is really, really going to take off.   By the time we published last summer, the book was beginning (after six months) to take serious root in the USA where it has gone on to sell two million copies.

Our own publication has been great too: it’s just a book that everyone who reads wants to recommend to someone else. And it felt wonderful when I was able to call Kitty Stockett last week with news of her bestseller list status.  Her answer all the way from Atlanta: ‘Holy Cow !’

Juliet Annan,
Publishing Director, Fig Tree

Penguin is 75 - Editor Videos - Part 6

It's our 75th Birthday this year, and we've been filming our Editors talking about life at Penguin Books. In Part 6 of this series, Publishing Director of Viking, Venetia Butterfield, talks about her experience as an editor and the two books she's excited about publishing this summer, The Postmistress and The News Where You Are.

Part Two in the Penguin Press Decades Read-a-thon

Keith Waterhouse's Billy Liar is a classic of British comedy, the type of book that will have you silently shaking with suppressed guffaws if you dare to read it in public. Like Kingsley Amis' Lucky Jim, a book which features alongside this one in the Penguin 50s series, Billy Liar is the story of a young man making his way in the world against the backdrop of an evocatively delineated postwar Britain. As Blake Morrison suggests in his brilliant introduction, the novel can be seen as ground-breaking in its candid portrayal of the sexual life of teenagers – a subject not routinely broached in literature with this level of honesty before the Lady Chatterley's Lover trial in 1961. The tension between the young and old generations, the modern and traditional, is the focus of this novel set in a time when the teenager was emerging as a distinct entity. Tellingly, the boorish Stamp accuses Billy of reading Lawrence's explicit and banned book as a means to sexual gratification whereas Billy Fisher himself, we are led to assume, would appreciate it only on the level of artistic merit.

The truth, however, is that Billy is led astray both by his apparently superior intellect, which makes him a social outcast, and by his amorous desires; the problem is Billy can't stop lying, he lies to win the girls, make his friends envious, and cover up his idleness and stupidity at work. As Billy's lies become ever more elaborate and frequent, his fantasised existence, which is just as false as his daydreamed world of Ambrosia, threatens to unravel. This short novel is a sheer pleasure from start to finish; stuck in Stradhoughton, a small Yorkshire town, Billy is surrounded by his family and employers who he derides for their bovine simplicity and their habit of speaking in dialect. Billy is an aspiring comic script writer and stand-up comedian and some of the funniest moments in the novel appear as he rehearses his material with his astute friend Arthur, ribbing the ignorance of those closest to him:

'Course, all this were fields when I were a lad.'
'- and course, ah'd nobbut one clog to mah feet when ah come to Stradhoughton,'
'Tha could get a meat pie and change out o' fourpence -'
'Aye, an' a box at t' Empire and a cab home at t' end on it,'
 'Ah had to tak' a cab home because ah only had one clog.'

This is hilarious stuff and could well have been the inspiration for Monty Python's famous Four Yorkshiremen sketch. Funny though it is, Billy Liar is also deeply moving; Billy's riotous bravura conceals a boy who is at a loss in the world and, although he has something of John Kennedy Toole's Ignatius J. Reilly about him, what with his narcissistic exaggerated sense of himself and comic ineptitude, his buffoonery finally alienates the one girl he truly loves. Billy learns that he has to find a way to live the life chosen for him, that there is no escape and, despite the great comic impetus which drives him, it is a hard lesson to learn.

Natalie Barker, Contracts Assistant