Last evening the Press invited their friends in to share Christmas drinks and a most enjoyable occasion it proved to be. The highlight for me was the excellent address made by Sam Elworthy who was appointed Director of the Press on Elizabeth Caffin's retirement earlier this year.

I managed to persuade him to part with his notes and here they are for your interest.

2007

--On the ferry coming to work this morning I was talking with a neighbour about what a publisher like me does all day and he commented: “But you don’t actually publish the books, do you?” What he meant was that we didn’t print our books. And I had to admit that was true. And it was also true that there were many more parts of the book making process that we did not do ourselves. From writing the books, to finding the illustrations, to cover design and copyediting, to printing, sales and distribution, a publisher like Auckland University Press relies heavily on a network of individuals and companies to publish books.

--Many of those individuals are here tonight and this is a chance for the Press to say thank you to all our collaborators in the world of books:

--our authors most importantly

--Our network of supporters at the University of Auckland who work so hard for the Press, especially my boss Raewyn Dalziel and the Auckland University Press Board.

--The wider network of people who work for our books: Mike Wagg, copyeditor on Kiwi Keith and other books; Peter Dorn from Astra Print; Margie Thompson from Whitcoulls; Denis Welch and Graham Beattie who do such a great job promoting our titles; and many more.

--In particular tonight, I’d like to thank Linda Tyler and Andrew Clifford from the Gus Fisher Gallery for hosting the event tonight and working with us on our art list, and to Gus Fisher for creating this magnificent space.

2. I’m going to reflect for a moment on what strike me as the Press’s key achievements in 2007 and talk for another moment about the Press’s plans for 2008 and beyond. I’ve promised the AUP team to be done in less than 7 minutes, in which I shall fail but I will try to be close.

I arrived on a plane from LA at the end of May this year to a country I hadn’t lived in for 15 years and with everything I knew about the Press and its reputation coming from what I could google up from half the world away. I was very luck to inherit a Press that was much stronger and more vigorous than I expected.

I think that the Press’s publishing during 2007 revealed three key strengths of Auckland University Press.

The Press is New Zealand’s leading scholarly publisher. We are plain bigger than anyone else--producing a record 26 new books and 11 reprints in 2007. And we are bigger by impact--with major authors like poet laureate Michele Leggott, PM Literary Award winner Fiona Farrell, leading art writer Peter Simpson, economist Brian Easton, historians like Hazel Petrie--just to mention a few of our 2007 authors.

The Press has a reputation for publishing big ideas that matter. In November, we launched Barry Gustafson’s KIWI KEITH, a major book by any standard: a book 8 years in the making on one of NZ’s most important PMs; Launch by Jim Bolger; media attention from a Sunday Star Times to Chris Laidlaw; Selling out its first print run in less than a month and back to print. It’s a big book on a big subject that’s having a big impact--it’s just what we are here to accomplish.

The Press has a reputation for publishing beautiful books. In a world where some claim that everyone can find out all they want to know from the internet, books increasingly have to be something special--beautiful, useful objects that are built out of careful attention to everything from proofing to paper to design.

A couple of beautiful books stand out for me this year. We have been lucky enough to work with Theresa Graham and the Auckland City Library to produce a spectacular book in REAL GOLD, launched by the Prime Minister a couple of weeks ago and lauded everywhere for its sheer physical beauty. And I’d like to extend a big salute here to our designer Katrina Duncan, whose work on BRIEF LIVES won her the award for best book at the Spectrum Print design awards earlier this year.

So, I was lucky enough to arrive at a Press famous for the strength of its scholarly publishing, its focus on publishing big ideas that matter, and for turning those big ideas into beautiful books. Now I claim no credit for that and would like to thank:

--Elizabeth Caffin, director at Auckland University Press until May this year, who did so much to establish the Press’s excellence

--And the staff at AUP: Annie Irving, Katrina Duncan, Christine O’Brien, Anna Hodge, and Dan Porter. It has been a very busy year at AUP, producing more books than ever and changing directors in the middle, and they have all worked hard, laughed a lot, and only screamed occasionally. That’s a real testament to their great qualities.

The Future.

Part of my aim at the Press is to sustain and deepen Auckland University Press’s current strengths. But I am also working with the staff to reach out in three ways.

To reach out to a broader range of intellectual life. I have a history degree, but I spent the last 10 years working on science books and publishing in everything from business to physics at Princeton University Press. That time convinced me that the life of the mind is very active well beyond the humanities. And at the University of Auckland we are lucky to have tremendous faculty in science, business, and the medicine. Over the past few months I have been meeting doctors, medical researchers, biologists, birders, marketing professors, economists and others as we work to develop strong lists of books in business, science, and health. I am very grateful for the support from key people within the university for these efforts--Science Dean Dick Bellamy, Business Dean Barry Spicer, Medical and Health Sciences Dean Iain Martin, and Head of the Medical School Des Gorman.

To link our efforts to the rest of the world. I spent the last 15 years in the United States and developed strong ties to publishers in the US and UK. Over the next few years, we intend to work hard to establish to establish Auckland University Press as a leading scholarly publisher on the international stage--by publishing books on the Asia-Pacific region that have an audience beyond New Zealand, by publishing books in business, science, and health that can find international markets, and by developing relationships with university presses and commercial publishers around the world with whom we can develop mutually beneficial relationships.
To deepen our relationships with stakeholders.

As my conversation on the ferry this morning made clear, publishing is about relationships--with authors, readers, booksellers, the media, and many other individuals and institutions. We are keen to deepen those relationships by working with the Alumni and Advancement offices at the University to reach out to the wider university community, by establishing alliances with art galleries and museums around the country with whom we can develop publications, and by developing a capacity for electronic marketing and publishing that will allow us to reach potential readers in new ways.

We are very lucky to have many of our collaborators in the world of books here with us in this room. Thank you for you support for the Press over the years and for coming to share a drink tonight.