Lindhardt og Ringhof. Et forlagseventyr

they had no reputation for “literature”. So overseas scouts
wouldn’t bother with Hod der’s lists – or so I was told – they
went straight to Fabers or Jonathan Cape.
Took the bright young things at Lindhardt and Ringhof to
look further, and actually read the books on offer, and decide
that I was for them, and for the new regime in publishing
they had in mind. Took Otto to bring me over to
Denmark, and offer Praxis to Danish readers at one krone a
copy. I remember being a little startled at the time. Was this
all I was worth? But when the book best sold – how could it
not? – why, there I was, labelled a best seller. And so I continued
in Denmark, while Lind hardt and Ring hof caught up
with my back list.
Times in publishing are very different these days. The
market rules. Individual judgment is subordinate to group
decision. No one does anything rash, like sell books at a
krone in order to introduce a writer. The short term rather
than the long term counts. Publishing is no longer a profession
but an industry. The writers are its raw material: the initial
stage in a process which must bring the stockholders a
profit. Chain booksellers can dictate what gets published.
Editors struggle to make their voices heard.
But writers go on writing and readers go on reading, and
I daresay vocational publishers like Otto and Gert will always
emer ge to stick their heads above the parapet and
dare all to bring them together. And Lindhardt and Ringhof
go on publishing, so it can’t be too bad.
Hodder’s marketing department too, mind you, had
been astounded back in the sixties when the peculiar books
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