Can you believe that it is shortly to be 15 years since the publication of a phenomenon of military publishing – The Hunt for Red October, the first best-selling novel by Tom Clancy? It is another special anniversary for me, not of publishing a book but of turning one down. Yes, The Hunt for Red October was turned down for British publication by me. In 1984 The Hunt for Red October was being prepared for publication by the Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, who have the world's leading publishing programme of naval books. I started working with them on a co-edition basis in the 1970s, the first book my Arms & Armour Press published with them being British Battleships of the Second World War by Alan Raven and John Roberts (1976), followed by books such as The German Navy in World War II by Jak Mallman Showell, The Warships of the Imperial Japanese Fleet (1977), British Cruisers of the Second World War and many other fine books in a special square landscape format. In return Arms & Armour Press took Naval Institute Press books on a co-edition basis, and then set up the distribution of the whole Naval Institute Press publishing programme for Britain, Europe and the Commonwealth. Hence due to our close relationship we were the first British, indeed international, publisher to be offered rights in The Hunt for Red October. And I chose to decline. The Naval Institute Press were publishing the book as a way to get American submariners, during the Cold War, interested in submarine warfare, and when they started their work on it had planned a first print run of only two or three thousand copies. At the time when the book was offered, early spring 1984, Arms & Armour Press was at a high point of success. We had published a fine book Who Dares Wins: The Story of the Special Air Service 1950–1980 by Tony Geraghty (1980) which had become a number one trade best-seller in Great Britain, and a series of very successful books followed about Special Forces such as This is the SAS by Tony Geraghty (1982), SBS: The Invisible Raiders by James Ladd (1983) and Delta Force by Charlie Beckwith (1984). As a consequence, and the main reason for rejection, the Arms & Armour Press sales team were at full stretch and I did not want to divert them to have to see a different buyer in the shops that they visited, because fiction buying is handled by a different person to the buyer for the military and general sections, plus such a diversion would be for just a single book. In addition, I have to say that I thought that the book, which had already had extensive editorial work done on it, needed further cutting in the middle. I did however think that the book could be published by a publishing house that regularly published fiction and as part of our friendly relationship with the Naval Institute Press we advised of the sale of the UK Rights, to Collins. Sales of The Hunt for Red October did not take off following publication, on either side of the Atlantic, for quite a while. It was not until President Reagan some months later, the following February, recommended the book that it began to receive wide attention, and the Naval Institute Press's marketing director Jim Sutton undertook a very successful marketing campaign. The close relationship enjoyed with the Naval Institute Press led in the early 1980s to another very special co-edition. Over dinner one evening in Frankfurt, where the then Press Director Tom Epley and I were for the international book fair, we were talking about our sons. Kevin Epley was eleven years old and Michael Leventhal ten. 'How about a co-edition of sons' I suggested, meaning that we would exchange them. We both thought that it was a great idea and went home to tell our wives, who did not. They both questioned sending a boy of that age across the Atlantic to stay with a family he had never met. But the following summer Kevin came and stayed with the Leventhal family in Elstree, Hertfordshire, and, a great natural sportsman, soon learned and was great at cricket, and the year after Michael went over to Annapolis. As part of the close relationship with the Naval Institute Press, when they offered us a fine reference work Secretaries of the Navy, we responded with a synopsis offering the companion book Secretaries of the British Navy. Theirs was about high officers in the US Government; ours provided information about the training of secretaries, typing speeds, cut-away diagrams of typewriters, and an appendix listing officers they served under. Digressing somewhat, but having mentioned publishing the important naval reference work British Battleships of the Second World War, this book gave me a particular lesson in finance, cash flow and the reality of money. When one is assessing the investment in a book it is something of an arithmetic exercise, and one reviews the costs, mark-up, capital commitment, and cash flow. In this particular case, at the time that this very substantial book was being undertaken, it was the largest ever project for Arms & Armour Press. I forget the amount of money involved, but think it was something like £ 40,000 (at that time something above $75,000). The day on which I signed the production investment schedule committing us was also the day on which I reached home to find my wife somewhat upset. The reason was that as she had come out of the supermarket and loaded the car with shopping she had dropped a package, which had a jar of mayonnaise, which had shattered. She was very upset because this was the loss of 40 pence. The 40 pence loss was however in the real world, cash out of one's own purse (or pocket) whereas the £ 40,000 investment was all on paper. Meanwhile, reverting to The Hunt for Red October, in charge of rights at the Naval Institute Press was Debbie Grosvenor, who orchestrated the sale of the book to many countries. Translation rights were licensed in all to twenty countries, and of course there was also the very popular film with Sean Connery. Over the fifteen years since publication the Naval Institute Press have sold 476,215 copies of the book in hardback (yes, that's in hardback), and in fact it continues to sell at 5,000 copies a year. What a phenomenon. Tom Clancy, of course, went on to fame and fortune following the publication of The Hunt for Red October, and the sales of his books now total above 100 million copies, with many of them being filmed. I understand that early copies of his books now sell for substantial sums, more so for early proof copies. Mine however was disposed of as soon as the rights were sold to Collins. Having worked with the Naval Institute Press for twenty-five years, for liaison started before we originated and co-published British Battleships of World War II, we look forward to another twenty-five years of partnership. Teams change over the years and Tom Epley and Deborah Grosvenor now run their own literary agencies in Washington DC, and Jim Sutton runs a book distribution company. The Press Director today is Ron Chambers, Paul Wilderson is in charge of the editorial department, and Susan Todd Brook deals with rights. It is always a special pleasure to visit the Naval Institute Press, for their handsome offices are in the spacious grounds of the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, the college for America's naval officers, a short walk from the historic and attractive town. And, yes, I still think the decision to turn The Hunt for Red October down was the right one for where my Arms & Armour Press was at that time. Back to Greenhill Military Book News No. 92 Table of Contents Back to Greenhill Military Book News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Greenhill Books This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com