Local history proves a winner

MALCOLM Thomas, pictured, says he has never had a bad review, which is a grand confession for someone who both writes and publishes books.

It was the writing of a tome on old Blaenavon in pictures with co-author John Lewis that first made him switch from being scribe to a scribe-cum-publisher.

He was supplies manager for the Girling brake company in Tredegar at the time, his fingers traversing Yellow Pages for a printer.

He came across the name of long-established family firm J R Davies, of the Old Bakehouse, Church Street, Abertillery.

After it published the book - the first of a few - he took early retirement and became its full-time publications manager in 1994, the subsidiary books arm, Old Bakehouse Publications, having been set-up by managing director Gwilym Davies in 1987 at the same Church Street premises.

"It's a very old building, once owned by the Co-op - or 'Kwawp' - as they used to call it around here," Mr Thomas said. "Upstairs was the bakery and downstairs the funeral directors."

Under the same time-honoured roof and many, many local history titles later, by a variety of authors, the company boasts a tenfold increase in sales over 15 years. In 2000, it recorded a six-figure turnover, its best so far.

Although it has published such titles as Without Fear, by Diana Lamplugh; From Hell, the Jack the Ripper Mystery, by Bob Hinton; two books on the Cornish art colony of St Ives, by Peter Davies; and novels by Nansi Selwood, Marguerite Shaw and Ralph Thomas, the majority of its books are of local factual interest.

"In 1987 we produced one book, our first on Blaenavon, but that set minds thinking among other people that they might like to do the same thing," Mr Thomas said.

"Gradually we were approached by a number of locals who were interested in old photographs and other things that would constitute a local book."

This was close to Mr Thomas' heart. He was born and bred in Blaenavon, went to West Mon School, Pontypool, and is a collector of postcards. Meeting others with the postcard collector's obsession, he encouraged them to put books together that would interest a local audience.

That 1987 Blaenavon volume has been reprinted three times and is still selling, an example of how well the company has judged its market and the economies of scale involved in targeting its reading public.

From the end of the 1980s, more titles came out at a faster rate so that there are around 70 currently in the catalogue.

Threequarters are of local South Wales interest, the rest of widely varying subject-matter.

Similarly, 75 per cent of the titles are sold within a radius of 20 miles of Church Street.

"I have at least two manuscripts to read each month on every subject you could possibly imagine," Mr Thomas said. "We always take a keen interest in local authors and I read everything and give an honest opinion. People accept this."

Everything is done at Church Street except bookbinding, which all publishers farm out anyway, and the close relationship with authors means they come forward with further projects. But the company still has to have an eye for a winner, which happened when Bob Hinton, a magistrate and member of the crime-writers' Cloak and Dagger Club, came along with his book on Jack the Ripper, further illuminating a subject all but knackered by relentless speculation.

Mr Thomas had to learn a lot about publishing, printing and business methods. "Once we had progressed to the third or fourth book, new ideas came in and it was pure development and improvisation," he said. "And that still goes on today."

Although books are proofread three times, Mr Thomas subscribes to the 'Persian carpet' theory of production. Nothing is perfect - not even an Oriental rug bought from Harrods; only Allah is without flaw.

Local history is a particular minefield. Any number of hawk-eyed readers will spot a mistake for which not even the publisher is responsible, especially anachronistic conflicts between pictures and captions.

Another of the company's balancing acts has been to control the dramatic impact of technology and foresee its future readers.

"We have tried to keep the same number of employees - 12 - increased the turnover and moved with technology," he said. "I would say the average reading age of our local books is 40-plus but in 20 years those people who are teenagers now will be reading them and it is ongoing."

These are shrewd achievements and conclusions made in an industry which is complex, not to say unpredictable. Because the overheads are fixed, the print run of a book is virtually predetermined. Popularity, however, can be accommodated by reprinting.

"We never dump books," he said. "We print on what we see as the demand. The future for us relies entirely on the quality of our work but, as with any other company, you are always asking yourself what is going to happen tomorrow."

One thing which is probably NOT going to happen is the arrival of a bad review on Malcolm Thomas' desk.