Robbie Burton: a publisher committed to making a difference
by Sam Demas
(Note: this is part of the larger work New Zealand Huts: Notes towards a Country Study)
As we rambled in the world of books and ideas, Robbie popped out of his seat every few minutes to grab a book from the shelves lining his office. Few people can elaborate as many conversational threads by handing you a book they published on the topic! While huts, tramping and natural history were our particular focus, I was fascinated to learn about Potton & Burton’s remarkable range of New Zealand non-fiction, childrens books, investigative reporting (six extremely popular and controversial works by Nicky Hager), graphic novels, calendars, as well as seminal books about huts and tramping.
To me the key facts about Potton & Burton are: 1. it is New Zealand’s only remaining independent publisher and widely recognized for a strong ethos of quality publishing, 2. this consistent quality grows out of a heartfelt commitment to cultivate a strong book culture in New Zealand, 3. their publishing list reflects Robbie’s tastes, instincts and willingness to take risks, and 4. the key role Robbie played in publishing Shelter from the Storm and in other unlikely publishing successes. In a nutshell, the business is strong, publishing about 20 new titles a year, and they won the 2018 New Zealand’s “Publisher of the Year” award. See the excerpts below for more information on Potton & Burton. What intrigues me is how Robbie Burton, with no previous experience in publishing, came to be New Zealand’s premier publisher? Turns out tramping played a role.
As a kid his mother introduced Robbie to tramping, which he pursued avidly at his school, including figuring out how to spend six weeks tramping in Nelson Lakes National Park based out of his school’s Matakitaki Lodge. He credits these formative early experiences as developing resilience, self-reliance and ‘developing the skills to get yourself out of trouble’, which Barnett and Maclean cite in Tramping a New Zealand history as “attributes that would underpin both his future trans-Alpine tramping and the challenges of the commercial world”.
A serious mountaineer and tramper in his youth, in 1980 Robbie and three friends undertook an ambitious 90 day traverse of the Southern Alps from Milford Sound to St. Arnaud (only the second time in NZ history). This rugged and formative experience, described in Barnett and Maclean’s Tramping: a New Zealand history, left him with an ineffable connection to wild nature and a lifelong bond with one of his mates on the journey, landscape photographer and entrepreneur Craig Potton. They were deeply influenced by the iconic writers of their era (Kerouac, Hesse, Abbey and Thoreau), and it appears they develop early on a strong notion of participating in a literary/book culture.
After the traverse they plunged into environmental activism, working full time for the Native Forests Action Council and participating in the remarkable set of NZ movements that eventually gave birth to the National Parks System, designated wilderness areas, and an aspirational identity as a “clean, green nation”.
Craig Potton asked Robbie to help run the publishing house he had created to retain control of how he published his photos. Robbie agreed and the rest is publishing history. On a personal level, Robbie, as secretary of the Nelson Ski Club, has helped restore the Kea Hut in Nelson Lakes National Park. Professionally he has emerged as a major influence in thinking about New Zealand huts and tramping by his prescience in publishing a number of extremely influential books, including Classic New Zealand Tramps, Shelter from the Storm and Tramping: a New Zealand History. This man has made a difference.
Following are two brief background pieces about Potton & Burton.
1. Publisher bio from Potton & Burton website
Robbie Burton is the co-owner, and Executive Director and Publisher of Potton & Burton. He joined the company (which was then Craig Potton Publishing) as Managing Editor in 1990 and was its first full-time employee. Since then he has led the development of the company into the fully-formed publishing house that it is today. In recent years he has stepped back from day-to-day management to focus more on acquisition and publishing and maintains a very hands-on involvement in all aspects of the process. In particular he has specialised in the publishing of illustrated books, and apart from the usual commissioning and editorial role, has considerable experience in photo editing, book design, colour management and print production.
2. Excerpt from “Taking risks all part of business at Craig Potton Publishing” by Publishers Association of New Zealand.
Craig Potton is still the name on the masthead, and although Craig remains a co-owner of the company, it is Robbie Burton (pictured above), both a co-owner and the company’s executive director and publisher, who has driven the development of Craig Potton Publishing into New Zealand’s largest independent publisher.
“I’m the original DIY publisher – when I started, 24 years ago this month as it happens, I really knew nothing,” Robbie told PANZ News. “Craig was a friend, a photographer who moved into publishing so that he could control the quality of his work, and who realised that he needed someone else to run things, as he still wanted the space to take photos.
“As a consequence I’m largely self-taught, a rather laborious path that I would not recommend, though I have enjoyed the freedom that it has given me to develop a broad range of skills that many other publishers don’t get a chance to use, such as design and print production.”
There are a few things that set this publisher apart: their Nelson location, the quality of their production, their long-term commitment to having a sales and distribution operation, which now includes Lonely Planet and Auckland University Press, and their willingness to take risks – this year with Nicky Hager’s Dirty Politics. “It left us legally very exposed,” Robbie admits.
That is not a new experience for the publisher. “We’ve published all six of Nicky Hager’s books over the last 20 years, all of which have been controversial, embargoed and risky. After Dirty Politics perhaps the best known is The Hollow Men.”
The risk paid off: the launch function at Unity Books in Wellington in the lead-up to the election campaign created a media tsunami – the modest first 3,000 sent to booksellers unordered and SOR swept out of the bookstores. “I suspect Dirty Politics was one of the fastest selling books ever in this country after Harry Potter,” Robbie muses. His decision to print digitally was another plus. The printers kept reprinting and sales to date are well over 17,000 units.