The Enid Blyton Society

Hi everyone,

Just something I found myself wondering while exploring the Cave of Books. Enid had an incredible output of titles, as we all know, but it also strikes me that she had almost as incredible a range of publishers too.

Most well-known authors I can think of, from Enid's period or later, have had just one publisher (or maybe two) and stuck with them for nearly all their books - either because they had a contract with them, or both author and publisher knew they were onto a good thing, I suppose. For example, almost all C.S. Lewis's books, later Collins; Tolkien's were published by George Allen & Unwin; Roald Dahl's by Penguin - mostly regardless of genre or intended audience.

But even just a look through the "popular series" in the Cave reveals a remarkable array of publishers for Enid...

Basil Blackwell - Secret Series
George Newnes - Galliano's Circus, Faraway Tree, Wishing Chair, Adventurous Four, Naughtiest Girl
Methuen - Five Find-Outers, St Clare's, Malory Towers
Hodder & Stoughton - Famous Five
Brockhampton Press - Secret Seven
Macmillan - Adventure Series
William Collins - Barney Mysteries
Sampson Low - Noddy

That's 8 different publishers just for her best-known series, let alone all her hundreds of others!

Was there a particular reason why Enid never got an exclusive contract with just one publishing firm (especially considering they'd be sitting on an absolute gold mine thanks to her!)? Did she shop around for the best deal, so to speak, each time she came up with a new idea for a series, or were there particular frictions between her and certain publishers? It's not a hugely important issue in the scheme of things, but it's just got me wondering.

Malcolm Saville also had different publishers for his various series. Newnes for the Lone Pine books, Hodder for the Nettleford books, Lutterworth for the Jilly books, Nelson for the Susan and Bill books, Evans for the Buckingham books and Heinemann for the Marston Baines books. I've often wondered why he and Enid had so many different publishers. Unfortunately, I don't know the answer.

Was it something to do with paper rationing, during the war. If Enid went to different publishers, then each one would publish with the paper quota they had.

If she stayed with one or two, then she wouldn't have been able to publish so many of her books.

I think I read somewhere (possibly in a Journal) that Enid did go to different publishers during the war because of paper rationing. I also think she produced different types of books for different publishers. For example, The Lutterworth Press favoured religious and books with a strong moral message.

Then I think some publishers were bought by other ones, so that adds another name to the list which might not otherwise have appeared. I think that the SS books were published by Brockhampton which was part of Hodder and Stoughton.

I think part of it was due to her business like approach - she wanted to keep her options open and to make sure that publishers did not take her for granted. Similarly she used a considerable number of illustrators with a few favourites including Eileen Soper, Beek and Stuart Tresilian.

I think part of this was paper rationing, but I also think it had a lot to do with the fact that Enid's books SOLD in their thousands. Naturally every publisher wanted to have Enid on their lists, and I think quite a few probably approached her to write a series/novel for them.

I think one way and another most of the answers have been given in the above replies. The simplest reason is the volume of titles that she produced, to a slightly lesser extent Malcolm Savile was in the same boat. The authors that Courtenay mentioned in her original post all produced a limited number of children's books and wouldn't have needed more than one publisher.

The only publisher that I believe she fell out with was Newnes, ironically one of her original publishers. After she left Sunny Stories in 1953 she wrote no further books for them at all, although they did publish one or two books using previously published material.

Looking at the list of three illustrators that Francis mentioned I wouldn't have included Beek and Tresilian. Beek only produced illustrations for her on the one character from 1949 to his death in 1953 and Tresilian only illustrated the one series. Her major illustrators were Hilda McGavin, Grace Lodge, Dorothy Wheeler, Sylvia Venus and E.H. Davie. All of these were producing numerous illustrations for both books and magazines long before Eileen Soper arrived on the scene in 1942.

Tony wrote

Looking at the list of three illustrators that Francis mentioned I wouldn't have included Beek and Tresilian.

Betrayed by my own prejudices!

I think it probably was to do with paper rationing too, though it's not uncommon for authors to have more than one publisher, especially if they are popular. Enid would no doubt have been approached by publishers to write a series for them.

Illustrators are commissioned by the publishers, rather than by the author. If an illustrator is particularly suited to an author's type of book, the publisher will try to commission them - but sometimes it doesn't work out, because the illustrator is already busy on another project and can't complete the illustrations within the time frame.

Thanks, everyone - those all sound like very sensible answers to me, most of which I hadn't thought of (especially the paper rationing).

Perhaps also control.Enid didn't want to be in anyone's pocket or beholden to just one company.
Also of course she could create a bidding frenzy for her work as companies clamoured and fought to be accepted by her to publish her work.
Just thinking about it with my business hat on....

Good point, Pete. No publisher would have dared arguing with Enid knowing full well that other publishing houses would be waiting in the wings to snap her up.

You only have to look at how many reprints most of Enid's books went through (sometimes one or two a year!) to realize just what a hot property she was - and also a canny business woman. I think people who criticise her overlook this fact - she was pretty much a self-made woman. This can be seen by the fact that during the 1940's she was one of the only authors with a string of merchandise capitalising on her name. Along with Walt Disney I think she was one of the few people to do this in a pre television age.