James Patterson: Sharing His Wealth Across the Pond

James Patterson is a man who, as the saying goes, puts his money where his mouth is.  In the UK and Ireland, 73 indie booksellers are feeling very lucky, indeed.

Taking a page from his 2013 announcement to give a cool $1 mil to independent bookstores around the U.S. to help keep print reading and indies alive, Patterson has extended his sharing of the green across the pond, pledging to donate £250,000 (approximately $406,000) to bookshops in the UK.

In his first round of grants, more than £130,000 (approximately $211,120) was given to 73 bookshops in the UK and Ireland. Eligible were any bookshops with a dedicated children’s book section, and 183 applied. Grants ranged from £250 ($406) to £5,000 ($8,120).

Speaking to The Bookseller, Patterson said:

I have been completely overwhelmed by just how many people have applied for the grants and impressed and enthused by the caliber of the applications. It’s been a very difficult decision process and I have worked to identify independent bookshops for whom this money may make a difference. I’m excited to follow their progress and see the proposed ideas in action.

Among the plans Patterson might see, according to The Bookseller, are a camper van that will take books into rural communities, leaving from Book-ish in Crickhowell, Wales; a “Hagrid’s Hut” children’s room come to life in the existing hidden stockroom at Far From the Madding Crowd in Linlithgow, Scotland; new shelving and display materials including a children’s books “Christmas ‘wow’ window” at the Gutter Bookshop in Ireland; and a reading and writing room for families at the Newham Bookshop in London.

A second round of Patterson’s generous grants will be awarded next year, and UK bookshops are being encouraged to apply again for a grant via The Booksellers Association in the UK.

Stateside, the recipients of James Patterson’s second round of grants have been named.

The U.S. indie booksellers will be receiving the remainder of that $1 million throughout the rest of 2014

Peter Rabbit and the Tale of a Rogue Publisher

Many of us enjoyed the film, Miss Potter, and the rise of Beatrix Potter to fame and glory.  We watched Warne Publishers take her from virtual unknown to super star of the literary world. Today brings a different slant to the Warne victory. 

The tale of consumer culture is an interesting and sad one, indeed. This is true especially in the children’s market, where the almost unimaginable monetary value of derivative merchandise, sequels, and spinoffs, and the control and manipulation of original creations through copyright and trademark, can degrade the very characteristics that distinguished the work in the first place.

Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit, has brought out the worst in companies trying to make as profit out of it.  Born in London in 1866, Potter was an assiduous student of animal anatomy and behavior from childhood on. She and her younger brother Bertram furnished their nursery with exotic pets, wild and domestic, bringing home mice, lizards, bats, frogs, birds, and, of course, rabbits. The children became determined amateur naturalists, documenting their finds in sketchbooks, never squeamish about studying dead specimens.

Potter first told the story of Peter Rabbit in 1893 in a picture-letter sent to the bedridden son of her former governess. Its simple line drawings introduce the principals — Peter and his siblings; his mother; and his nemesis, Mr. McGregor — while its tiny tale of temptation and trial in an English garden unfolds in simple perfection. She quickly secured a contract with publisher Frederick Warne, agreeing to redo the illustrations in color.

The book proved an immediate success on publication in October 1902, rapidly selling out a first printing of eight thousand copies.To her dismay, the firm failed to register copyright in the United States, leading to piracies and loss of revenue. Although she helped save the company in 1917, after embezzlement by another Warne brother nearly bankrupted it, she scolded them on quality, condemning a copy of Peter Rabbit’s Almanac for 1929 as “wretched.”

After Potter died in 1943 at the age of seventy-seven, Warne cast itself as the guardian of her legacy. But eventually the guardian began behaving badly, seeking to wring profits from its most famous long-eared property. In 1983, Warne was acquired by Penguin, itself owned by the international conglomerate Pearson, the largest book publisher in the world. 

Warne has applied for trademarks here and in the EU for every imaginable Peter Rabbit–related item that might feasibly be sold, from “books and texts in all media” to “toilet seat covers” and “meat extracts.”

Warne’s zealous pursuit of its rights has not deterred it from crass acts of its own. In 1987, the same year it published its painstakingly remade edition, the firm allowed Ladybird Books, a purveyor of cheap paperbacks owned by the parent company, Pearson, to market The Tale of Peter Rabbit with bowdlerized text, eliminating Potter’s dry wit, and replacing her illustrations with photos of stuffed animals.

 Warne was excoriated in The Times of London, which condemned the new edition as “Hamlet without the ghost, Othello without the handkerchief.” Undaunted, a few years later Warne took out an advertisement in The Bookseller — “Peter Rabbit™ Packs a Powerful Punch” — threatening those who wandered into its garden with “expensive legal action."  Have a look below: