Friday Thoughts on The Friday Project
April 4th, 2008 by Vanessa
One of the reasons that I haven’t written anything all week (apart from being the usual mad rush at work, compounded by the fact that I’ll be away for 4 days in a week or so at the London Book Fair) is that a lot of my musing time – such as it is – has been taken up with the disintegration of The Friday Project; the blog to book publisher that was presented so frequently as the future model of publishing – fast-moving, hip, dynamic, finger-on-the-zetgeist and all that. As they disappear in a whirlwind of debt the Friday Project has been shown to be no more than spin and self-promotion, masking the fact that although they had some great books on their list they had no idea of how to run a business.
An argument has been raging all week on Clare Christian’s Girl Friday blog (TFP’s erstwhile MD) where her friends tried to defend her and some of her creditors pointed out, not unreasonably that people who are owed money are entitled to be angry. A lot of my own feelings are tied up with the fact that I introduced a friend to TFP and they signed her up to write a book – I couldn’t have known what an almghtly cock-up they were going to make of it but I still feel really guilty and have been quietly hoping that another publisher would come along in the last week or so and beg her to sign with them when her contract became void upon liquidation of TFP. I personally wish I’d never mentioned her book to them and that feeling has grown stronger the more I’ve talked to other people who are being affected by this. There’s particularly bad feeling about the way that the Friday Project name has been bought by Harper Collins and the directors offered jobs while being able to walk away from the debts they’ve run up and the people that they’ve let down.
Looking at the way that the Friday Project has gone wrong points up a number of key issues – people with little experience of actually running a business were given large quantities of cash which they appear to have been setting fire to in order to heat the office. They must have been: the accounts for 2006 show that TFP spent a million quid in a year – what on earth on? Heaven alone knows what the accounts for 2007 will reveal but they’ve gone down owing about £350k to trade creditors alone – presumably that doesn’t include authors or the bank. Also, the desire to grow, to be a player, meant that they signed up some books that were of dubious commercial merit – looking at blogs is a good way to find new writing but they didn’t have the cash to sign up a Petite Anglaise or Girl With a One Track Mind and some of the others were quite narrow in appeal and the odd Petite is needed to balance that out. There are also the ethical issues – were they commissioning freelancers and signing authors when they knew that nothing short of a minor miracle would enable them to pay the bills? If so, that’s disgraceful.
In a way, I feel quite positive in the wake of the TFP meltdown although obviously I’d be much less positive if I was owed money by them. However, we are a tiny publisher, growing slowly and organically – we expand as we can afford to not by raising vast quantities of venture capital – and we’re confident that in the long term we have a solid viable business. We might not be hip and cool but we pay our bills and make a living and I’m told that we’re well thought of which is nice. A good reputation means more to me than awards and being cool.
From the Chark blog, 30th July 2007:
Clare Christian: “I never wanted TFP to be another small independent, growing organically over years and years”
I’m with you, Vanessa. Here’s to us small organics!
http://charkinblog.macmillan.com/CommentView,guid,06069263-7ae3-47b9-a49f-93a284d87661.aspx
Oh, Vanessa, please don’t feel bad about introducing me to TFP! You were doing me a favour, and the fact things haven’t worked out as we all hoped is nothing – NOTHING – to do with you. You’ve been a good and stalwart friend to me and my family. You have to take lots of things in life on trust, otherwise we’d none of us dare get out of bed in the morning. You can’t live life suspecting everyone of not being what they seem. What were we supposed to do – insist on seeing monthly cash flow statements before committing to a contract TFP? I was just very grateful to have a contract at all.
Aw shucks, MaL. When I see your book selling as well as it deserves to and publishers and rushing to your door waving huge cheques to secure your subsequent efforts all vestiges of guilt will vanish!
Yes, and we will have a night out in the Cumberland Bar to celebrate. Our husbands will despair of us!
The Cumberland – is that to cement our images as Alexander McCall Smith characters? Do you think that we’ll see Cyril this time?
TFP well and truly exploded the urban myth that all it needs for a book to be a success is exposure on Jude and Ruth.
Want to know more about the original financial prospectus ?
http://boards.fool.co.uk/Message.asp?mid=9934928
A great pity that the directors didn’t show a little maturity and straight talking to all their creditors : TFP is going down for what would be like the petty cash in some insolvencies – in making this comment I do not wish to detract from the pain that many authors and trade creditors are experiencing. With strict controls and rigid pruning TFP could probably have been turned round : however the time for that was last July (2007) – the date featured on the link passed by Em.
A passing thought on two of the original board who vacated their seats. Paul Carr wished to pursue other media interests and probably has/had no interest in hard-print publishing ; however, why on earth didn’t Anthony Cheetham offer a rival (fire sale) rescue passage to that being mooted by HarperCollins ??? Perhaps then there might just be a few more pence for the creditors. Surely the conceiving parents have some responsibility for seeing their kids through to adulthood or they should not have jumped in bed with one another.
Absolutely, yes, I often see Cyril, Angus Lordie, Pat and Bruce sat there drinking on a summer evening. And no, I am not an AMcS hologram dreamt up by his publisher’s marketing department.
It is very difficult to understand how easy it is for the directors to walk away and into jobs elsewhere, leaving authors and small buisness creditors in the lurch. Rather like mega-pay-offs to failing managers in big business and the NHS it is bewildering to this small buisness owner who like Fidra always pays her debts. It may be unimaginative but before I order anything I make sure the money is there to pay for it. I am convinced your organic business methods are the right ones Vanessa, and I am sorry about what happened to Mother at Large, but Vanessa you couldn’t have anticipated this melt down.
Hmmm…people who walk away from their creditors and ask them to take the blame do not impress me. What a mess!
Big publishers rarely take on new talent and that is why the smaller publishers are so important – but it is the bigger publishers who could afford (at least sometimes) to take the risk. Not everyone is going to be a best seller but is that the only sort of book they want to publish? Some best sellers are more about the hype surrounding them than they are about literary quality!
Speculation is a wonderful thing, and nearly always inaccurate. I am sure they have done loads of things wrong but neither you nor I know the detail. I liked some of their books actually, saw them in lots of shops, but thought others were a bit bland.
Sad news about your friend’s book though. She hasn’t lost a penny and a book that no one else seemed to want to publish is now going to be issued by Harper Collins.
My heart bleeds.
Hi Sam – speculation is indeed a wonderful thing but I’m speculating from a reasonably informed position and know plenty of the detail from my conversations with their creditors.
And it is sad news about my friend’s book – she hasn’t lost a penny as you say but she has lost a lot of time, been caused a lot of stress while she’s pregnant and personally I’m unsure how great it is to be having her book published by the Friday Project imprint even if it is part of Harper Collins – it isn’t as though there’s a lot of goodwill or credibility out there for them.
But if I’m being inaccurate do feel free to correct me objectively without making snide remarks – I’m genuinely interested to hear your take on the situation.
Oh and by the way ‘Sam’ – it is inaccurate to say that Helen’s book is one that “no-one else seemed to want to publish”. The Friday Project were the first publishers she approached and presumably they snapped it up because they saw how saleable it was.
ps – I did try to email my previous response to you directly but Hotmail hadn’t heard of your email address. Funny that.
My take isn’t really from any insider knowledge, although I follow the book world with interest and enjoy many of the small publisher blogs.
Clearly The Friday Project made loads of mistakes and I have been intrigued by the level of vitriol out there following their (in hindsight, inevitable) collapse. A small amount of it seems to be from authors and creditors who have been dumped on as a result, and fair play to them, but most appears to be from ill informed bystanders. Erm, like me!
I think online discussion about the failure of that venture is a good thing as it will serve as a lesson to many who are just setting out on the publishing or writing path. I am just contributing to that by pointing out that the outcome for your friend doesn’t seem to be all that bad, and if she is fed up with the whole thing and has such a wonderful book then she would be mad to stay with FP and should take the project elsewhere where, one would assume, it will be snapped up in no time.
Not sure readers give a fig though, most of them won’t know The Friday Project from Adam. They’ll view each book on its own merits.
Winter of Enchantment looks wonderful, by the way. I first read about it on a certain failed publisher’s blog and noted it as one to seek out when my children are old enough.
Oh, and I, like many people, post with an email address that avoids spam and unwanted contact. I learned my lesson the hard way on that score and ain’t changing now!
Keep up the good work.
There is a new TFP discussion blog here:
http://the-friday-project.blogspot.com/
It’s aimed at discussing the TFP debate as constructively as possible.
Thanks
V
Ironically, there’s probably a good book in telling the whole TFP story. I wonder how long it will be before that happens.
There probably is a book in it Hank – I don’t fancy writing it though!
And VC – that blog you mention seems to have disappeared…
Hi SamH – thanks for clearing that up – good to see you here again!