Last Wednesday, Media Society was thrilled to welcome
Alexandra Pringle, Editor in Chief at Bloomsbury Publishing. As this was our
first Publishing-related event for years, we were so pleased that such a large
and enthusiastic audience came to Queen’s to hear about Alexandra’s career.
Alexandra began by explaining that academia was never really
her thing; she preferred novels to schoolwork and read many of the classics in
her early teens. Aged 18, Alexandra went to teach English in Italy, and took a
secretary course which enabled her to get temp jobs in many offices. Eventually,
Alexandra starting working at Virago Press, a company whose aim was to publish
more books by women writers. After a few years at Virago, Alexandra was offered
the job of Editorial Director at Hamish Hamilton, where she worked for four
years on the corporate side of Publishing. Although she enjoyed the many
glamorous parties, she needed a change of scene and switched over to the
agenting side of the business, which she did for just over four years and
thoroughly enjoyed. However, in 1999, Liz Calder took Alexandra out for lunch
and managed to persuade her to take over as Publishing Director at Bloosmbury.
She has now worked there for fourteen years, publishing many brilliant writers
and significantly improving the company’s turnover.
Alexandra then gave us an overview of the publication
process, which can take up to four or five years for each book. Although we may
like the sound of a fast-paced, energetic industry like journalism or
publicity, Alexandra highlighted the advantages of a slightly slower industry.
She stressed her fondness of the relationships that are established between the
writers and their publishers, naming many firm friendships which she has gained
from this process.
We also learnt a bit about Bloomsbury itself, and how it
differs from other Publishing companies. At Bloomsbury, the goal is to deliver high
quality, literary books to the mass market, rather than churning out fast
sellers to make money. With the success of Harry Potter, Bloomsbury was able to
expand, a necessary movement since the company became a PLC, and they began buying
small backlist companies in order to expand the business.
Alexandra’s role is now Global Editor in Chief; Bloomsbury
has offices in London, New York, Sydney and New Delhi, and she spends a lot of
her time flying around the world. She talked passionately about the Indian
market, which is constantly changing and is really flourishing at the moment.
With the upsurge of a middle class, there is a sudden thirst for culture which
is similar to the situation in nineteenth century England.
Alexandra concluded the talk by speaking about Bloomsbury’s
newest star, Samantha Shannon, who published her first novel just after finishing
her finals in Oxford. The Bone Season,
which is the first novel in a seven-book series, is destined for success, and
the film rights have been sold to Imaginarium and to 20th Century
Fox. How Samantha managed to write two novels and still leave Oxford with a 2:1
is beyond us!
Our enthusiastic audience had many interesting questions for
Alexandra, on subjects ranging from ebooks, piracy and the demise of the high
street, to Alexandra’s own reading habits. Her optimistic attitude convinced us
that physical books still have their place and that the Publishing Industry
will continue to thrive in the future: “as far as the Publisher is concerned, a
book is a book”.
Overall, the talk was captivating and inspiring. In spite of
all her success, Alexandra talked to us honestly, revealing some of the more
touching moments of her career and offering a real insight into the life of a
successful publisher. We thoroughly enjoyed Alexandra’s talk, and are looking
forward to reading the many books she recommended to us when we finally have
some free time!
