Brendan Fredericks is a publicist with the Orion Division of Hachette Australia – one day, when you’re a rich famous best-selling author, you may be lucky enough to have someone like him on book tour with you. Brendan has been aide-de-camp to the likes of Richard Morgan, Alastair Reynolds and Jeff Lindsay. He’s also fun, clever, amusing and willing to answer questions.
1. You’re a publicist with the Orion arm of Hachette Australia: what’s the best part of your job? Worst part?
The best part of my job is the books. Getting paid to read awesome books and then promote them. I mean really, check out some of the people on my list: Richard Morgan, Alastair Reynolds, Charlaine Harris, Joe Abercrombie, Joe Hill … and that is just Gollancz! I also get to work on the rock books here, like Mick Wall’s bios on Led Zeppelin and Metallica, Vince Neil’s Tattoo’s & Tequila, Neil Taylor’s story of Rough Trade Records … Then I get to tour some of these authors. How can you beat travelling around Australia with Dexter author Jeff Lindsay? Too cool. Though he put my liver to the test. The worst part of my job? That is a tough one. Having to get excited about not-so exciting books. But even that isn’t half bad.
2. You get to be a fictional character for one day, with no consequences: who do you choose, where do you go and what do you do?
Easy. Henry Chinaski. Though I guess he wasn’t entirely fictional … but he was definitely a (slightly) romanticised version of his author … I’d go to every pub and bar I could, and get drunk and pick fights and rant and rave to fellow drunks and then go home to my girl who’s have a fresh bottle of Jameson waiting for me and I’d bash out the stories and poems on my typewriter and then go do readings at the universities where I’d drunkenly spew out my words and wake people up from their lives of literary mediocrity, conservatism and boredom so they’d stumble off to a pub somewhere and have a few drinks and then stumble out onto the streets with a bit of fire in their bellies and maybe it would stop them reading shit like Dan Brown. Ok, back to reality. Humans are like sheep and will always read the easy read.
3. How did you fall into your current job?
After spending 7 lovely years studying English Lit and Creative Writing at Sydney Uni, I decided I was going to write, but realised that I needed money to support such a life, so I thought working in a bookshop by day, writing and drinking by night would be the dream. Gaining paid employment was harder than I thought. Eventually I got a job at A&R Town Hall Square, was promoted to manager, then moved to the big store on Pitt St Mall, where I took on the role as Events Manager … and forgot completely about that other dream when the good money started coming in … but at the end of the day it was retail, and I had always wanted to work with a publisher (to support that other life) so I started looking at publishing jobs, like editing and stuff, and then the day I was made redundant from A&R I noticed there was a publicist role going in the Blue News with the then newly formed Orion division at Hachette, and I thought, oh yeah publicity, I could do that … and I applied for the job, got an interview (thanks to some friends I had made on the inside that recommended me) and I got it! That was 3 years and 10 months ago.
4. Is there writing in your future or are you happy to be a facilitator?
I hope there to be writing in my future. There is a little bit of writing in the present, but it’s very sporadic. Working for a publisher (and in a bookstore) has given me an inside look (from both sides of the fence) at the workings of the publishing industry, so I’m pretty realistic about the chances of being published. It would definitely be cool to have my own publicist one day.
5. Donuts or danishes?
P?czki (Polish donuts) ohhh baby!