Sometimes fighting for a book is worth it: Alexandra Pringle

Alexandra Pringle was the editor-in-chief of Bloomsbury Publishing for over 20 years. Her published authors included Abdulrazak Gurnah, Khaled Hosseini, Margaret Atwood, Jhumpa Lahiri, Esther Freud, Elizabeth Gilbert, George Saunders, and Kamila Shamsie among others.  

She is a patron of Index on Censorship, a nonprofit campaigning for free expression. She is also a trustee of Reprieve, a legal action non-governmental organisation and an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. The Business Standard recently interviewed her at the Dhaka Lit Fest.

As a woman working in the publishing sector, what has your experience been like? 

Well, I started at the age of 24 in 1976. I had a very exceptional beginning in the publishing world because I joined a press which was the most important feminist publication company in Britain, some people say, in the world. I personally did not have to work with men, but I did have a very frightening boss who was the company's founder. I was there until 2006. So, most of my years of learning about publishing were in an all-female environment. And by the time I stepped into the bigger publishing world, I had gained a lot of confidence.

What are your suggestions for young women interested in pursuing a career in publishing? 

I think that women, in the beginning, lack the self-confidence that men naturally have. That might hinder them. Also, you might not see quick progress, and it is easy to think you are hindered, but it is naturally slow if it's in the editorial side. If you want to succeed quickly in the publishing world, the best thing would be to explore different areas of publishing, like marketing and publicity. But if you are an editor, it takes a long time to learn and grow.  

What's your mantra as a successful publisher?

I think the most important thing is that I trust my own taste. And not to think about the market for a book or who is going to read it, but to think like, if I love this book, other people will. And that's the simplest and most difficult thing to learn. In publishing, you fail all the time because you have more books than books that succeed. And you have to hold on to the hope that enough will succeed, and you have to believe in your books.

How do you decide what gets published? 

As I said earlier, my criterion is 'if I love it enough?' Unfortunately, editors don't decide on their own. So, they have to go to their colleagues and explain why this book is good and valuable. 

And there are people from sales, marketing and publicity who have to think you are right. They might say it is not good for the market. You can sometimes fight hard, but at the end of the day, you can't take on a book that others don't want to publish. 

As an editor, you have to persuade people in your own company, then you can take it out into the world. Sometimes fighting for a book is worth it. One book I took on years ago was Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love, and everybody in my company hated it. 

Also, in Britain, people were not interested in it. They did not understand how good it was, so bookstores did not want to stock it. The interesting thing about the book is that it became a best-seller outside Britain, in other markets like Australia, South Africa, Ireland and India. It took the book four years to become a number-one bestseller in the UK, and we sold 1.5 million copies of it.

Usually when we talk about freedom of speech, we concentrate on journalists. How important is freedom of speech for writers?

In Britain, there is complete freedom of speech in terms of the government and what you are allowed to say.  People can say anything,  but there is a culture war at the moment. Because of social media, there is increasing pressure from groups of people not to write about things, or to write about things in a certain way. 

So, a sort of self-censorship is starting to happen. But I am passionately against that. I think freedom of speech is one of the essential things in human lives. There should be freedom of creativity, there should be no boundaries to what people can write about. Otherwise, we would never have the likes of Shakespeare. If freedom is curtailed, it will be the death of art.

Do you think readership is declining because of social media and all the digital devices?

I don't think people are reading less. In fact, during the pandemic, people read much more, and publishing companies made much more money. It was extraordinary. Perhaps people need more time in their lives; it's not so much about digital distractions. 

As times and generations change, so does the appetite of readers. How do you think the world of publishing has balanced the wants of readers and the needs of writers? 

Although publishers like to think they can predict what the readers want, they can't really. Maybe it is the publishers' massive duty to look after writers. But the way that publishing is going, sadly, many writers, if they are not successful in their mid career, are dropped. They are not backed the same way through thick and thin. It's like a long marriage: you have good and bad phases. 

For example, I am here with two writers with whom I had a very long relationship. One is Esther Freud, who I have published for 30 years, and Abdulrazak Gurnah, who I have published for more than 20 years.  For me, these long relationships are more important than publishing one or two books. 

They can have books that sell more and books that sell less, but they deserve support and loyalty from the publisher. And sometimes, especially in Britain and America, people go against some books. I think publishers should stand by the authors in those cases. But publishers are not doing that enough. 

Some editors judge the book by the name of the writer. Thus emerging writers, even with a good piece of work, have a hard time getting published. How is it in Britain?

In Britain, everybody has to have a literary agent. Writers send their manuscripts to their agents. Since the advent of digital mail, it is easy for people to send theory copies, but the volume has become enormous for an editor. So, it is physically impossible to read everything they are sent. This is why publishers have to rely on literary agents, and they tend to rely on good literary agents who they trust, and the agents know what they might like. 

I don't think it's to do with whether you have connections or names, but what can help writers, especially fiction writers, is if they are affiliated with a creative writing course. And agents go to institutions that offer degrees in creative writing to find their clients. 

Besides, other small publications, like publishing pieces in magazines and that sort, might help. 

As you have seen a lot of writers throughout your career, what would your suggestions be to young writers when their parents are worried about them taking up writing as a career?

I get the parents' point. If you passionately want it, you should go for it, but it is not an easy life choice. Also, there are many forms of writing. It's not only writing books. There are journalists, communicators and so on. 

Even my son is a journalist, and he has a very good job. There are many ways you can earn your living from writing. I know many parents would prefer an engineer or a lawyer, or a teacher. But writing or a creative writing degree always helps you in life. 

I think when you are young, you should not rigidly decide what you are going to do. You should explore through your 20s and find what you want to do, and do that your own way. Writing is a good way of communication. It's a real skill. People who know how to communicate are needed in the world. 

While reading physical books in Bangladesh, we have a moral dilemma. Frankly, most famous books we get are pirated copies, and we read them because it's hard for students like us to buy original books. How do you see that?

I know it's really difficult. And more difficult when you don't have enough libraries and if those libraries don't have modern books like Margaret Atwood's books and such. As a publisher, obviously, I am very against it; also for the authors, as they need the money. But I also think that reading is so important that if people literally cannot afford to buy original books, they should read whichever way they can. Please don't tell anyone I said this (chuckles).