Bloomsbury founding publisher on discovering Potter

Fortune magazine recently asked eight people - successful for making smart choices - what guides their decision-making. The founding publisher of Bloomsbury Children's Books, Barry Cunningham, spoke about the night he first read the Philosopher's Stone manuscript and discovered Harry Potter. He says that before Potter became a hit, children's books were all about serious and important issues and not for book huggers.

"I read it that night, and you'd expect the sky to part and thunderclaps to sound - but it didn't. I just knew it was a great book. I didn't know that a dozen publishers had turned it down or that the author, J.K. Rowling, had become utterly discouraged. I think everybody else passed on it for all the wrong reasons: It was long, the title was unusual, and the story is pretty dark. Rowling needed someone to see what it was, a story of bravery and danger and adventure but with great humor - as opposed to what it wasn't, a traditional children's book."

"I choose books purely based on what I believe children will react to. If you carry the child within you, that's what works. You need a real ability to feel the hope, wonder, burning sense of injustice, fear, or rage of childhood - an unfettered mind that still dreams, that goes with the truth of story. I absolutely bet on my confidence in what children will like."

Thanks to Rhys for the heads-up!

Posted by Ciaran on May 31st | 84 Comments