 Cameron Brown started his career as a banker, and quickly
climbed the corporate ladder to become CEO of a high-financial
institution. At the age of forty, and at the height of his career,
he changed course and entered the world of publishing, co-founding
Collins & Brown (with no experience in the publishing arena)
tuning it into one of the largest illustrated book imprints. In
2001, he once again ventured down a new path, this time creating
his own publishing company, AAPPL [Artists' and Photographers' Press
Ltd.] Cameron understands art and artists, and has played an
important part in the advancement of artists in the Renderosity
community. Last year AAPPL published Renderosity: Digital Art For The 21st
Century. Cameron is also one of the driving forces
behind Renderosity: The Best of Digital Art
as both publisher and a member of the judging panel. It is with
great pleasure that I introduce you to the man behind Renderositys
art books Cameron Brown.
Your life has been filled with amazing accomplishments in your opinion, what makes a person successful in business? Is it merely luck, manifest destiny, intuition, hard work and perseverance, or a combination of all? What drives you? How do you find the inner-strength to take potential career risks and turn them into career successes? Lets not exaggerate!! A lot is luck; being in the right place at the right time. I started a career in merchant banking in London in 1970, a time when young people were being given autonomy early and it was a fun period. My parents could never believe what my employers let me get up to at such a young age. The 1970s were also still a time of generalization in the banking world. Today new employees fresh from university have to decide immediately what they want to specialize in. Being something of a dilettante, that wouldnt have suited me. I dont believe in destiny but do believe in intuition and hard work; but luck is still the most important. Im not sure why I have been a risk-taker; it certainly is not from my parents who, like most of their generation, sought nothing above security, having gone through the economic doldrums of the thirties then the second World War. My wife Ditz, a successful artist and photographer has always encouraged me to do things that are fun rather than career-enhancing and that certainly helped. As a fledgling company, how does AAPPL recruit artists for publication? What do you look for in a new artist? How hard has it been, as a London based company, to gather clients from outside the United Kingdom? Although I only started AAPPL in 2001, I have been publishing photographers and artists since 1989 when I co-founded Collins & Brown. I basically approach photographers whose work I like, such as Tony and Eva Worobiec, and Sam Lloyd, and put ideas together with them. However good something might be I wont publish it if the subject doesnt interest me personally; why else have your own publishing company? With the art books Ive been helped a lot by John Grant, who under his real name, Paul Barnett, acts as a consultant editor and scout for me. I met him when he was commissioning editor for Paper Tiger, part of the Collins & Brown group. Over the years, the traditional book-publication business has seen some drastic changes with an increasing amount of books flooding the market, and the advent of online publications. What are the average costs involved in creating a book? Cost to author? Cost to publisher? There are certainly too many books being published these days, but there is not much I can do about that problem, other than retire and cut the number by 0.004% per annum The costs of publishing a book vary greatly, depending on size, colour or monochrome, paper quality, binding, size of print-run. With illustrated books some of the costs are coming down as printing moves more and more to Computer To Plate (CTP), so no printing film is needed. With digital photographs and other images there is also a big saving from no longer incurring the old scanning and reproduction costs. Stage 1 of the budget is a mixture of writers and artists costs, editor and proof-reader, design and layout, initial PR and Marketing; stage 2 is the printing, which I do almost wholly in China, where prices are low and quality excellent; stage 3 comprises the ongoing marketing and PR, royalties, sales commissions, warehousing and distribution. Then of course there are the overheads rent, phones, computers, stationery, post, insurance, travel, exhibitions and fairs, bad debts, etc. The cost to the author is generally just his time and pain. What steps would an artist take to submit work to AAPPL for publication consideration? Does your company deal with novice artists/writers? Ill only publish what I like and its only 2-4 books per year. Novice artists should really have a go at our forthcoming Renderosity: The Best of Digital Art, which I hope will become an annual showcase, and similar publications such as Spectrum. There isnt really a shortcut to publication. Artists tend to get into print once they have established themselves through exhibitions, sales, publication in art journals and so on.  The image quality of AAPPL publications is exceptional
[which is evident in last years Renderosity: Digital Art For The 21st
Century]. How does your printing process differ from
other publishing houses? I have the time to take care. This is
not unique to AAPPL but its difficult to achieve in the big
publishing houses where work comes off a conveyor belt and costs
are always being trimmed. I always go for heavier (and therefore
more expensive) paper than I need to, and that has a lot to do with
it. The Renderosity community is filled with enthusiastic
anticipation over the upcoming AAPPL publication of the new
Renderosity art book: Renderosity: The Best of Digital
Art. As one of the judging panel members, what qualities
will you be looking for in artists submissions? Originality
and quality of execution and that indefinable something
which lifts the work up to a higher level, makes you want to come
back to it. Digital art deserves that description only when
an artists vision raises it up above mere craft. Besides the
Renderosity art books, what other publications can we expect from
AAPPL in the near future? Keep an eye on my website AAPPL for new titles
and backlist information. Believe it or not Ive just written two
books called Wimbledon Facts, Figures & Fun (I live in
Wimbledon) and Christmas Facts, Figures & Fun, both of which
Ill publish this year. This Fall I also publish What is it? 200
Photos to keep you Guessing a small format 416 page gift-book
of photographs by Ditz (my wife, oops!), and a beautiful book of
fairy-paintings by Maxine Gadd, called Faeries and other
Fantastical Folk. Maxine was brought to my attention by one of
your artists community, audre, and Im most grateful to her for
the introduction. Next Spring there will be a photographic book
about London, by Sam Lloyd. Thank you for sharing your time with
us in parting, what words-of-wisdom can you pass along to our
readers who have dreams of seeing their works of art displayed
within the pages of a coffee table art book? Its not easy.
Most of these books dont make money for the publisher or the
artist, and fewer and fewer of the mainstream publishers are doing
them. They can however be great for the artists prestige. Your
best bet is just to work hard at building a customer/client base,
try to exhibit, go in for competitions wherever you can, get an
agent if possible, let your work be published on cards, posters,
mugs, anything. Dont be precious about your work and dont give up
if some idiot says no!
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"Let's Talk" with Cameron Brown
Mar 14, 2005 at 03:06 pm by deemarie
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