But when Marcus Gipps, an editor at Gollancz and former bookseller, lost his copies of JP Martin’s Uncle series, they turned out to be not quite so easy to replace. Originally published in the 60s and 70s, the six books concern the adventures of an elephant called Uncle and his entourage of friends who live in the seemingly infinite castle, Homeward. Illustrated by Sir Quentin Blake, who was then still in the early part of his career, old copies are in high demand.
“I was lucky enough to buy them in a secondhand bookshop and I didn't know there was anything particularly rare about them,” Gipps says. “I think I paid 10p a copy. Years later, after they'd been cleared away with the rest of my childhood stuff in a car boot sale, I realised that they, in fact, had never [all] been reprinted and were very, very expensive to buy secondhand.”
Although the first two books in the series had been reprinted as part of the New York Review of Books Children’s Classics series, the last four have not been so lucky. People wanting to buy a full set could find themselves being asked to fork over some £800, or more. So Gipps has taken things into his own hands and, after negotiating with rights holder Random House, will be producing a hardback omnibus edition for fans and new readers alike.
Gipps turned to Kickstarter, asking for £7,000 to fund the basics of the project. He met that goal in about four hours, and is now heading towards £21,000 with 19 days still to go. Enthusiasm for the project is not just felt amongst Martin’s fans, whom Gipps describes as “a small but vociferous bunch”, but also amongst some well known names, including Neil Gaiman, Justin Pollard and Garth Nix each of whom will contribute “a short piece about the series, or a particular book, or the impact the stories had on them”.
Says the Kickstarter project page:
James Currey, Martin's grandson, will pen a new piece about the history of Uncle. Martin Rowson and Andy Riley will provide a new illustration each, as well as introductions. Kate Summerscale will revisit an article she wrote for the Guardian in the late nineties, expand and bring it up to date. I have permission from Richard Ingrams to reprint an article he wrote a few years ago for a small-press magazine, although I still need confirmation from the publishers.
In 2005, the Economist asked Whatever Happened to Uncle?, and Gipps' project has now been covered by the The Bookseller, the BBC, The Guardian, amongst others.
What’s fascinating about this Kickstarter, however, is that it is a whole new way for a publisher to realise value from its back-catalogue without taking any financial risks. Just as any other publisher would, Gipps is paying an advance and royalties to Random House and it is he who is assuming the risk in this project.
“Random House, who control the copyright, were very, very generous,” says Gipps, “and after lots of negotiation and discussion they agreed to let me have a go. Having been a bookseller in central London, I knew a lot of people from various publishers and I was also lucky enough to know someone who worked at Quentin Blake's agents. But even with that, it took a while to get to the people who could actually make the decision.”
Gipps says that those people at Random House who already knew of the books were keen to see something happen with them, particularly as there was “no real evidence that these books would sell enough for a major print run.”
The New York Review of Books allowed Random House to sub-licence the omnibus hardback rights, which means that Gipps can't do ebooks or individual versions. But by creating this new version, including new introductions and additional new artwork, Gipps hopes to show that there is a demand for Uncle and his adventures.
“This is my chance to produce the definitive version with as much of the Quentin Blake art rescanned from his originals as possible. He's got about two thirds of the originals in his archive, which they're happy for me to scan, clean up and use. I’ve also been granted access to the Jonathan Cape archive, the people who originally published the books. They've got about 400 pieces of paperwork related to the series, which includes a letter from Spike Milligan saying how much he likes [the books]. No one has seen that since 1967.”
Gipps will be creating a print-ready electronic file, and he hopes that Random House will then use that to produce ebook editions themselves, thus making Uncle available to a much wider audience.
Is this, then, a test case for publishers who could work in tandem with the fans of underappreciated and out-of-print books to bring them back into circulation? Gipps thinks so, with some caveats:
“This is a slightly unusual case,” Gipps admits. “One, I have the contacts and I have the experience. I suspect that if I was just a keen amateur, I probably wouldn't have got as far as I have. But also, any project which can get Neil Gaiman involved has just gone quite a long way down the road of getting attention, especially when you're talking about Kickstarter which he has been very supportive of. The right people are fans of Uncle, I don't think you could do this with every book.
“But I am certain there are other books that are just as fondly remembered by people who have high profiles which absolutely could work. And, to be honest, most of them would probably be much easier because you wouldn't be trying to do six books in one expensive edition!”
So what happens now that Gipps has raised nearly three times his original goal?
“I’ve been thrilled by the success so far – I thought we’d make it, but not in the first four hours!” says Gipps. “All of my planned stretch goals have been hit, mostly on the first day, so there will now be distribution both in the UK and North America.”
Gipps is also looking at an expanded print run and several upgrades to the book including “better quality paper, an 8 page colour section to reproduce the covers, and illustrated endpapers.” And when the project reaches £21,000, he will be make a charitable donation on behalf of the contributors to the project, who have all given up their time without recompense.
“I’d like to be able to thank them,” Gipps says, “even if only in a small way.”
