Interview with Canongate supremo Jamie Byng in the Scotsman, still heading up one of the most successful independent UK publishers:

"Before Life of Pi, which has sold more than two million copies, Byng says he used to wake up paranoid that everything was going to crash and burn. "I used to look at the books and think, 'F***, this is all going horribly wrong.' I knew I had a great catalogue of books. I knew we had talented, original writers, but was anyone going to buy them?" That was when he realised that he himself had to promote the books and so the myth of Byng was born. "I don't care what people think of me," he says. "I don't care if they hate me. I'll do anything to publicise our books.""

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Posted by Chris to splinters: books, authors, literature, travel, politics at 6/04/2006 01:41:30 AM