On Thursday 3^rd November, our visiting speaker was Jane Camillin, who gave us a fascinating insight into her company, Pitch Publishing.  In 2009 Jane, together with her brother, decided to set up the company following her redundancy from dictionary publisher Chambers.

Pitch Publishing is a sports publisher but with a distinctly local feel.  The publisher is characterised by its Miscellany and On This Day series; products of the company’s close working relationship with football and cricket clubs across the UK. Jane explained, that while the company’s main source of income comes from the sale of local titles, this has allowed them to take bigger risks with titles such as: Sporting Chancer: One Man’s Journey to Take on the World– the amusing story of one man’s attempts to gamble on various sporting events around the world. Their bestselling book to date, The Worst of Cricket, has been reprinted ten times since its original publication in 2008.

During her talk, Jane described the various aspects of running a successful publishing business and stressed the importance of: good cover design; market research; author contracts and, of course, P&Ls!  Although Jane’s background is in marketing, she admitted that she no longer has the time or resources to conduct huge campaigns for her titles choosing instead to only do the marketing “she needs to”.  Despite this, Jane is keen to exploit social media and encourage her authors to blog, tweet and generally keep in touch with their readers.

Jane’s insights were certainly refreshing, proving that even the most experienced publisher is constantly learning in this ever-changing industry.

Katherine Marshall