Matt spent 8 years building an award-winning digital creative agency working with big brands such as The Body Shop, Kiss, TalkTalk, Stylist and The Royal Albert Hall, helping them focus on engaging their customers online.
He joined Faber & Faber as Marketing Director in 2012, building a list-focussed consumer-facing marketing team along side an award-winning website and Members programme.
Since leaving Faber in 2017, Matt has been consulting for publishers and creative agencies on a broad range of topics – from digital development, to list & campaign planning, to marketing and publishing strategy.
What was the last book you read?
Hell’s Gate by Laurent Gaudé (Gallic Books http://belgraviabooks.com/product/hells-gate)
A beautiful and heartbreaking book exploring loss, parenthood and redemption.
What’s next on your reading list?
Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski
What is the one piece of advice you’d give to someone starting out in publishing today?
Work to develop a broad, transferrable skill set. Roles are (in many ways) getting conflated and career paths are less singular than in times past. To make the best of your opportunities, make sure you are flexible, skilled and proactive.
Which imprints do you most admire and why?
Picador because they defined my literary identity in the 1990s
Ebury for energy, focus and brilliant commercial acumen.
Faber & Faber (slightly biased of course…) for leveraging publishing, heritage and brand to massively over-deliver within the industry for their size.
Which is your favourite bookshop or e-bookstore and why?
The Sheen Bookshop. It’s my local bookseller and it’s well run, with quality titles. The team really understand how to connect their readers with new titles that they might love.
Go on, let us know your musical guilty pleasure.
Waiting For A Star To Fall by Boy Meets Girl (don’t tell anyone)
Which great novel have you tried to read but failed?
I am STILL battling with Moby Dick. I will tame the white whale.
What was your first job?
Archiving paper copies of Private Eye in a dusty office in Clapham Junction (it was like a terrible version of Hogwarts).
What do you love about The London Book Fair?
LBF has an amazing energy that changes and develops as the fair progresses. You can really get a temperature of the entire publishing world. There are stories broken, friends made and deals done at a frenetic pace and this creates a unique atmosphere that makes those post-fair beer(s) oh so much sweeter.
What piece of advice would you give first-timers at the Fair?
Be brave. Try and arrange meetings with people you follow on social media or admire. Be honest and approach them. You never know, it might be the most important meeting you ever have…