Richard Hollick was born in Scotland and educated there and in England. After a youth spent in total devotion to rubgy football, he started working for Cambridge University Press in 1965, where he remained in various capacities for 29 years in London, Cambridge, and finally New York. Most recently he did print-on-demand for Oxford University Press in New York.
It really goes without saying (but nowadays one has to say these things) that the opinions expressed in this blog bear no relation, other than coincidental, to the policies and opinions of Oxford University Press. And now, having retired from OUP at the end of August 2013, I guess I really don’t even have to make that statement.
Making Book 
Thanks for taking the hit for me “boss”. Good to see you the other day and to now see your blog. You’re funny. BJ
Richard, I’ve just found your excellent blog and wonder if you’d be available sometime in November for an interview on my weekly audio podcast about the Kindle and eBooks. You will find my background info at http://thekindlechronicles.com/about . Thanks!
[…] Interview with Richard Hollick […]
I have been surfing on-line more than three hours today, yet I never found any fascinating article like yours.
It is beautiful value sufficient for me. Personally, if all webmasters and bloggers made excellent content as you probably did, the internet will probably be a lot more useful
than ever before.
Good morning Richard,
My name is Robert and I do some online presence management for the University of Southern California. I noticed you used our infographic titled “Industry Outlook on Library and Information Science” on Feb. 18th. First off, thank you for using our graphic! It looks great on your blog. However, I do have one question for you, just regarding proving a link to credit the use of the graphic. If you could email me back I would really appreciate it.
Thanks so much,
Robert Parmer
Are you asking if I’d add a credit link? If so yes, I would be glad to do so — indeed I believe I ought to. What wording should I use?
Hi Richard, thank you for your post on RefME, but notice you talk about the business model and how we might be looking to monetise adverts. This is not true and we have much more interesting avenues that we’d love to chat with you about, perhaps for a more in-depth article?
Thanks for the response. I steered clear of any suggestion that you might in some way be able to monetize the data you’ll collect on your users, as that acts as a red flag on many of the freedom-first crowd. But I’d be happy to hear more because I’d like to think your service will survive, and not just as a charity!
Richard
You might be interested in a post about London’s oldest bookshop moving after 78 years in the same premises which just happen to be the most haunted house in London:
[…] of the Making Book […]
Hello, Richard! I’m a journalist and printing historian (self-made) in Seattle, researching the history of standing type and printing within editions. I found your wonderful entries here, and I wonder if I could get in touch? I’m at glenn@glennf.com. Thank you.
Hi, I used to work at Bentley House too (secretary to the office manager) and wondered if you have any news of Bob and Margaret Cowper. I can’t find anything much about them anywhere, thanks so much.
Not sure my reply went through — I’ve been away on holiday — but I did say I had only the information that they were running a bar on the Costa Brava or some other Spanish beach, but that was many years ago and pretty vague.
I wonder if you read my early post “A nightingale sang in Euston Square”, which mentions Bob and Margaret: https://rhollick.wordpress.com/2012/04/01/a-nightingale-sang-in-euston-square/
Thank you very much for your response! I bet they were great at running a bar. They were always very sociable and outgoing. All the best to you, Carol
Hello Richard and greetings from the old country.
As you know, one of the benefits of the internet age is the ability to watch a vast number of films and TV programmes which were made long before the coming of the internet age. I came across one such the other day which I thought may be of interest to you.
Talking Pictures TV is a UK TV station which shows nothing but these (ahem) ‘classic’ films and TV programmes. Many merely confirm the old adage that nostalgia ain’t what it used to be, but many are of social/historical interest. Amongst the latter are the ‘Look At Life’ short films made for UK cinemas in the 1960s.
I recently saw a ‘Look At Life’ short called ‘Cover Story’ on the topic of paperback book production. It shows a range of production activities, from cover design to binding. Your old friends the Syndics even get a look in, so I thought you may be interested in it.
The film is available on Talking Pictures’ catch-up service TPTV Encore (tptvencore.co.uk) where there is a section dedicated to the ‘Look At Life’ shorts. There are, however, a couple of provisos — a) you have to sign up for a user account, and b) access may be blocked if trying to view content from outside the UK. Proviso a) isn’t too onerous, and I believe there are ways to circumvent b) (but sadly I don’t know what they are).
I always enjoy reading your posts.
Regards,
Alan
Thanks. May have to wait till I’m back in the UK for a visit!
Hello Richard,
I’ve been reading your articles for more than a year now, and I thank you very much for them.
Question I got after reading POD Quality and similar articles – have you ever seen any publishing house or print house that has a defined Quality Standard? In other industries they have huge textbooks describing what is acceptable and what is not. I have yet to encountered one in book manufacturing.
Would love to hear your insight.
Best regards,
Valts
An interesting thought. I’m assuming you are focussing on the physical side of things -— as far as text is concerned, I do think publishers “care”, and while they may not have their own handbook, many follow the Chicago Manual of Style.
But like you, I’ve never seen a Quality Standards Manual for books. Many publishers now claim to want to use only sustainably resourced paper, even in some cases mandating a level of recycled content, but that’s not “quality” — even ecologically pure paper can be of low quality. I suspect the long and short of it is that quality in a book is no longer considered important*; indeed may even in some cases be counter-productive. If the book falls apart, maybe the customer will buy another copy, or at least won’t be passing in on to anyone else! No matter how cheaply produced the point of the book is liable to be available — you can read it. (Most “printing” is actually pretty good nowadays. The days when there were old presses around that could almost be guaranteed to print wildly light and dark on different pages are long gone.) So I think quality, in physical terms, boils down to paper and binding. Here, I fear good enough is good enough.
Having said all that I do need to point out that there are of course lots of books being published all the time which are well printed, on good paper, and securely and handsomely bound. If the book is one which needs to last, publishers will make it so. But they don’t as far as I know have any Book of Rules which covers that situation.
* I need a footnote here. I don’t think publishers in the olden days made their books “well” because they “wanted” to make them well. They did it because everyone was doing it and the book manufacturing business was set up to act that way. After a few years someone figured out the there was money to be made by reducing quality, and so eventually the manufacturing industry fell in line. I suspect that eventually the specs available for POD will begin to mandate the format in which books will be produced from the outset.
Dear Robert,
I don’t believe we have met but I am always delighted by your links to Crusoe’s Books. It is always a pleasure to see my humble blog name-checked on your excellent site.
Bill Bell
Thank you for the interesting, well-worth-linking-to posts.
hi!
this is not really a reply..
I was passing by the old office on 57th street, & thought I’d see if you remembered me…
I worked for you for a year in 1981. Then I went to law school. I worked for the legal aid society defending people accused of committing crimes for 40 years! I’m now retired.
when I left Cambridge, you told me you didn’t think I would stay long, but you hired me, anyway.
anyway, thank you. It was a trip to work with you.
Of course I remember you. I couldn’t pick you out from a crowd of course, but I do remember a bright shining presence obviously smart and quick. I am glad to have been associated, however marginally, with what has obviously been a valuable and successful career.
A question: my wife, Linda, who also worked there, asked the other day if the stair case inside the office on 57th street was a spiral staircase or an ordinary one. Nobody I’ve asked can remember. Can you?