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Publishing veteran Peter Usborne outlines his plans for the future
Peter Usborne has more than 40 years in the trade under his belt, is 77 “years young” and the recipient of the 2015 London Book Fair Lifetime Achievement Award, but the very last thing he wants to talk about is the past.
He bounds into our meeting at last month’s Independent Publishers Guild conference looking decidedly perkier than many of his younger industry colleagues who stumble past. Usborne launches into his eponymous publishing company’s plans for 2015 and beyond with boyish enthusiasm, frequently gesturing wildly with his arms. What energises him most this morning is Usborne Korea, the seventh foreign outpost in the publisher’s portfolio, due to officially launch in October.
Why a Korean imprint? Partially because there are few territories left to conquer. “We’ve done Europe and Latin America. We’re in the US—we’re niche there, but established. Asia, of course, was the next logical step.”
China, he says, “is a fascinating prospect but not the easiest territory to launch a business in, and of course we export a large quantity of books there already”. Japan appealed, but ultimately Korea won out. Usborne explains: “Korea is an amazing rights market; I can see us using it as a base for selling into other East Asian markets. It has a young population that is hungry, absolutely hungry for quality children’s books—particularly if they come from an English-language publisher. English is cool in Korea.”
The next generation
Another huge change for the business is what will happen when he is no longer around, but he has no plans of retiring: “I’ll carry on until I drop. Here I am, 77, fitter than I have been in years and doing something I completely love. I don’t like golf. I would be bored if I retired.”
But he has taken more of a back seat in recent years — a passion has been the Usborne Foundation literacy charity he set up four years ago — and has been thinking of succession planning. Usborne will remain a family business, with daughter Nicola poised to take over the running of the firm, helped by her brother, Martin. Yet this was not decided until recently as the younger Usbornes had carved out their own careers: Nicola working as a vice-president at Scholastic US, Martin as a photographer and founder of the illustrated independent publisher Hoxton Mini Press.
The details were ironed out over a week of consulting with a French university professor who specialises in family businesses. Usborne says: “We all sat down together, it was wonderful, soul-searching, cathartic. My children discussed how they would work together. We discussed the future of the business, the future of children’s publishing . . . I’m particularly glad the consulting panned out because it was horrifically expensive.”
Usborne has had a remarkable run of 40-plus years of sustained growth. What’s the secret? Being proactive is one reason, he says, with much of its content created by its huge team of in-house writers, artists and designers. “Many children’s publishers just essentially open a window and hope the next J K Rowling flies in. We don’t do that.”
He finally does pause to reflect on his LBF award. “It is nice, it says: ‘Forty-odd years on and here we are, still alive’,” he laughs. “I think it says that we’ve come a long way, from a nice little publisher to a serious player. We haven’t reinvented the wheel — other publishers do novelty titles, or colouring and sticker books. But my philosophy is that it doesn’t matter if someone else is in the market: you just have to do it better.”