More Power To His Elbow

Before Life of Pi, which has sold more than two million copies, Byng says he used to wake up in a state of paranoia that everything was going to crash and burn. "I used to look at the books and think 'f***, this is all going horribly wrong. I knew I had a great catalogue of books. I knew we had talented, original writers but was anyone going to buy them?" That was when he realised that he himself had to promote the books and so, in a way, the myth of Byng was born. "I don't care what people think of me," he says. "I don't care if they hate me. I'll do anything to publicise our books."

- From an interview with Jamie Byng, who's almost single-handedly made Canongate a name to watch in publishing circles. Without publishing a single J.K. Rowling book.