John Blake launches Ad Lib publisher as Soho Friday closes

John Blake has started a new non-fiction publisher called Ad Lib and announced the closure of Soho Friday, the business he went into with ex-Bonnier bosses Richard Johnson and Derek Freeman.

Blake’s new venture, named after his Evening Standard columns from the 1970s and 1980s, will be run in partnership with illustrated book publisher Palazzo Editions. Ad Lib will share Palazzo’s office in Barnes, west London, alongside the infrastructure and its staff.

The new press will mainly focus on true crime, popular culture and some celebrity biography, putting out titles across all formats.

Blake explained: "We have already put together a great list of hardbacks and paperbacks, by prominent authors including Wensley Clarkson, Peter Bleksley and Chris Berry Dee. I am looking forward to working with the Palazzo team and I’m thrilled by the prospect of bringing new titles to the market with Ad Lib."

Blake’s old firm John Blake Publishing boasted of selling more than 10 million books, winning two Nibbies and an IPG Trade Publisher of the Year award before Blake sold it to Bonnier in 2016.

He later joined Soho Friday, a short-lived venture with Johnson and Freeman that launched in November 2018. Blake told The Bookseller things had ended "amicably" and the company was being wound down, adding: "Richard just got very busy and really didn’t have the time to devote to the company and without him it wouldn’t work. It’s just one of those things that didn’t quite work out."

Johnson told The Bookseller he was concentrating on his own writing, including a book called The Meaning of Man, a new publishing venture named 10 Matches, plus other business interests outside of publishing.

One of the books Blake signed for Soho Friday was a memoir by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar’s son, Roberto Sendoya, following a chance meeting in Mallorca. Rights for that book have now been transferred over to Ad Lib and it could be one of the launch titles. Blake said: "It remains an incredible book with colossal global appeal."

An investor team, led by Jon Rippon of Palazzo, is funding the new company.

Rippon said: "It is an incredible pleasure to be working with someone with the reputation and calibre of John Blake. Together with my Palazzo investors, I have been looking at expanding the genres into which we publish. I can’t think of a better publisher to partner with than John. We are incredibly excited to start this new non-fiction publisher and we are looking forward to our first titles coming out this summer."