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Bloomsbury's Nigel Newton on making millions out of printing old fashioned books

By Fiona Carruthers

Dashing into the Dining Room at the waterfront Park Hyatt Hotel in Sydney's Rocks at 9:07am to meet Bloomsbury Publishing's founder and chief executive Nigel Newton for what was a punctual 9am-er, I'm mortified and cursing the city's traffic. At least he's put those seven minutes to good use. Two waiters are ensnared in his web, flapping around a rock star table (the best in the room), adjusting cutlery, pouring cold water into polished glassware, and offering Newton a shot of healthy green juice, while his publicity manager finalises his diary for the day.

"Ah good, look, here she is," he proclaims as I rush in, gushing apologies, tugging at my scarf and coat. "Oh no, that's quite all right – see, we have secured a corner table with views of the Opera House, and they're all ready to take your order," he says, clearly pleased with how proceedings have started.

"Now: coffee?"

Nigel Newton founded Bloomsbury Publishing in 1986. Since then the company has had a roster of highly successful authors, from John Irving to J.K. Rowling. Print can pay off, and Newton explains how.  Louise Kennerley

Maybe it's the fact Newton, 61, is an imposing 193cm. Maybe it's the tailored suit; the wise owl sensibility; his warm curious smile, and aura of "whatever it is, I've read it". Regardless of the exact blend of his magic, people seem to respond to Newton and anticipate he'll take command.

There's even a hint of wizardry in his manner – fitting given Newton has gone down in history as the man who delivered Harry Potter to the world with a decision in 1996 to enrich Potter's creator by £2500, after JK Rowling's literary agent took a punt, played hard ball with Bloomsbury and pushed them up from their initial sign-on offer of £1500.

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Raised in San Francisco, turned a die-hard Londoner in his adult life, Newton might spend his life head down, nose stuck in a book, but don't be fooled. This guy doesn't miss a beat.

He founded Bloomsbury in 1986 and floated it on the London Stock Exchange in 1994. It has since grown through acquisitions and partnerships, clocking revenue of £142.6 m ($249 million) in the 12 months to February 28 last year, up 15 per cent on the previous year. Just a handful of his star-studded author stable includes such luminaries as Khaled Hosseini, John Irving, Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Joanna Trollope, Elizabeth Gilbert – and the 31-year-old prolific American fantasy sensation, Sarah J Maas.

A love letter to Oliver Sacks

The morning theatrics continue as Newton, just off the plane from his home in London a few days prior, scans the menu, tossing up salmon before settling on eggs benedict. When I request porridge with a side of berries, he proclaims that he too wants berries. After some Fawlty Towers style confusion on the part of the waiter around what should be served when, Newton ends up with a 9 3/4 Hogwarts platform-style breakfast order of berries to be served first – not with the eggs benedict – then a long black decaf to follow the eggs. That sorted, the waiter is off and running.

Earlier this year, Bloomsbury published Insomniac City by Bill Hayes, the partner of distinguished neurologist and author Oliver Sacks, who died of cancer in 2015. Widely described as a love letter to Sacks as much as to New York, the book has received rave reviews. Newton's other current love is Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. Saunders is an accomplished academic and short story writer, and this is his first novel. It deals with President Abraham Lincoln's grief on losing his 11-year-old son, Willie, who died from typhoid fever in 1862. "I don't want to jinx its chances," says Newton, "but of all the novels we've published, Lincoln in the Bardo is right up there as a classic with The English Patient and The Kite Runner."

Alice Newton's letter to her father about the book. It will go on display later this year as part of a British Library exhibition celebrating 20 years of Harry Potter.  

He's also promoting Sebastian Mallaby, whose biography The Man who Knew: The Life & Times of Alan Greenspan, was published by Bloomsbury last year.

Newton knows and hangs out with them all – "one of the great joys of my job" he acknowledges. Alas, when I attempt to extract some delicious detail by asking for a vignette or unknown quirk about some of his very favourite writers, he at least lets me down gently. "Why what a lovely thought," he smiles. "Unfortunately, I couldn't possibly reveal such charming anecdotes. My job is to protect our writers."

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He does however go on to profess extreme admiration for Mallaby given his schedule: among the 53-year-old English-born author's many day jobs is working for the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations; he travels between Washington and London, is married to the editor-in-chief of The Economist [Susan "Zanny" Minton Beddoes] – the first woman to hold that role – and they have four children. ("Can you believe it?" Newton says, wide-eyed. "Sebastian is a genius." I heartily agree: I can barely get myself out the door each day, let alone send four kids to school, a wife to The Economist – then pen a 700-plus page tome in my lunch break.) The Spectator anointed The Man Who Knew as "the best biography of 2016".

Nothing static

For such a stellar line-up, JK Rowling remains the highest grossing author on Bloomsbury's books. When the UK's 2016 financial year ended on February 28, Harry Potter remained the No.1 book/series published by Bloomsbury. Not bad given the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was published 20 years ago on June 26, 1997. "It's not a static entity," Newton qualifies. "We've got a series of new editions, including with illustrations by Jim Kay. Those illustrated editions retail for £30 [$52]. The first one of those only came out 18 months ago and it's already sold millions of copies."

Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe in a scene from <i>Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets</i>. Rowling is still Bloomsbury's highest grossing author, even though the first Potter book came out almost 20 years ago.  Peter Mountain/AP

Newton will always understandably have a soft spot for Rowling. He still enjoys explaining the now famous story of how his then eight-year-old daughter, Alice, coaxed him into publishing the manuscript, telling her father it was "by far the best thing" she'd read of any books that had previously come out of Bloomsbury's then-struggling children's publishing division.

Later this year, the British Library will feature Alice's original hand scrawled "reader's report" as part of its exhibition, Harry Potter: A History of Magic, to run from October 20 to February 28 next year.

Original voices

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"We've done very well, can't complain – we have millions of pounds in the bank," Newton teases. No wonder he can afford room 312 at the Park Hyatt for a few nights during his Sydney stay. "Well, yes," he qualifies with a cautionary forefinger waggle. "I have to negotiate with them on the room rate though." He's actually just back from the exclusive Lizard Island, where he snorkeled and swam. "I can't work all the time – I needed Saturday and Sunday off," he justifies, "so I headed up to Queensland for two nights.

"Lizard Island is the most beautiful place in the world. I didn't read a single book – there was too much to look at." He tells a fun tale about seeing his first potato cod and how these "friendly, benign fish" are so big, the diver couldn't even close his arms around one of them that had swum into his waiting embrace.

A younger Nigel Newton with some of Bloomsbury's best selling titles. "The origin of our company was literary fiction, and that's still our reputation," he says now. Jon Santa Cruz

Even in the digital age, Bloomsbury still publishes about 2300 print titles a year, of which 1500 or so are academic or niche. About 150 are general appeal titles. "The origin of our company was literary fiction, and that's still our reputation," he says firmly, qualifying that statement with: "We're definitely interested in publishing books that sell. But we're not about to leap on the bandwagon of adult colouring books. We have none of them. We're at the creative end of publishing. We are interested in original voices and first-time novelists."

Why books still make money

The stereotype has long been that publishing literary fiction is no get-rich quick scheme. The digital age and dawning of the e-reader has generally reinforced that idea. But Newton opens his secret weapon: a good old-fashioned cardboard folder, and pulls out a list of typed facts and figures, each neatly chained to a small black bullet point.

Said sheet states that print book sales in the United Kingdom rose by almost 8 per cent last year, while ebook editions fell by 4 per cent, according to figures from Nielsen, UK.

"Sadly for you, when it comes to digital, there's a big distinction between journalism and books," he says when I bemoan if only newspaper print sales were tracking up like print books. "In the digital age, journalism has been the loser given that online, so much news is free, hence media houses have dramatically cut back staff.

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Nigel Newton has a manner that seems to make people anticipate he will take command.  

"There are many free opinions out there on every issue under the sun.

"But with book publishing, the opposite has happened: each book is unique and copyrighted, so it's protected."

In a salute to this unlikely print sweet spot in the digital age, at this point our mixed berries arrive.

As for Newton, he likes Kindles but prefers print. "Our hearts are in print books. There's a resurgence back to print because people are sick of being in front of a screen. Their work life and social media involve screens. It's nice to get away from the glare of the computer screen, plus a bookcase in your home is a living museum of your mind."

Oz market punches high

Talking of print vs digital, in a lovely sign of the times, Alice read the Classics at Cambridge University, as her father did before her. However, she then took the digital path; she's Vice President in charge of Product with WorldRemit, which makes it easier for migrants to send money back to their families. Does he hope Alice or one of her siblings - he and his wife Joanna have an older daughter, Catherine, and a son, William - will eventually move into the business? "No! I didn't start it to become a family dynasty," he says. "It's a public company."

Newton allows himself a brief sojourn down memory lane, explaining he loves coming to Sydney (usually once a year) given the small office of just 17 people reminds him how things started out in London more than three decades ago. "We have hundreds of staff in the London office now," he sighs. "It's too big."

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The Australian office might be small, but "this market has always punched above its weight", he says. "Since 2010, we've tripled our sales here.

"Australia is so successful for us because of the strength of the independent book sector – like Potts Point Bookshop, the Blues Point Bookshop run by Helen Baxter – and Leading Edge." The latter is a national buying and marketing group behind 170 independent book sellers. "So hooray to the independent book trade." Newton also approves of the book departments in the major chains like Target and Big W: "Sadly, we don't have an equivalent of that in the UK."

Nigel Newton at lunch at the Park Hyatt Sydney, at the "rock star" table with the best views of the Opera House.  Louise Kennerley

Finally, the strength of our literary festivals, particularly the iconic Sydney Writers' Festival, is another contributing factor. Bloomsbury's two pin-up writers of the moment, Mallaby and Saunders, will be in Sydney for the festival this year, which runs from May 22 to 28.

A touch of Dumbledore

Berries, eggs, porridge and numerous coffees have come and gone. We close the conversation with a last minute thought on my part: what are his all-time favourite books, especially when he was younger? Ian Fleming's Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car (published in 1964 by Jonathan Cape) tops the list. "I learned that cars fly; I hadn't previously been aware of that!" The Metaphysical poets "his first great love" come in second, including John Donne and Andrew Marvell. With that he breaks into – what I later discover via Google – part of the sixth stanza of Marvell's 1681 poem, The Garden: "The mind, that ocean where each kind/ Does straight its own resemblance find,/ Yet it creates, transcending these,/ Far other worlds, and other seas;/ Annihilating all that's made/ To a green thought in a green shade."

And his all-time favourite novel? "The English Patient [by Michael Ondaatje]. I don't often re-read books, but I did re-read The English Patient last summer for the first time since we published it [in 1992]."

Newton has a busy day ahead. As we stand to leave, he asks for a quick happy snap of the two of us on his phone, remarking "Otherwise it didn't happen". He then hands me his business card – with his email and mobile number. "Contact me direct if you have any questions," he instructs before remarking "at Bloomsbury, we get very upset with factual errors – so do check anything with me".

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At that moment, I could not have been more terrified than if Dumbledore had called me to his office direct.

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The Dining Room,

Park Hyatt Sydney,

The Rocks, Sydney

J. K. Rowling in July 2000, with her fourth book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. AP

1 freshly squeezed spinach kale celery, $8

1 juice anti jet lag, $12

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2 flat whites, $12

2 long black, $12

2 mixed berries, $38

1 porridge, $12

1 eggs benedict, $22

Total: $116

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