A conversation with James Smith, CEO and Publisher at ACC
Who and what is ACC Art Books?
ACC actually has quite an amazing story. It was founded as The Antique Collectors Club in 1966.
A visionary woman by the name of Diana Steel came up with the idea of a club for people interested in art and decorative arts. The club had a magazine called Antique Collecting, amazingly still published today 10 times each year. So nearly 600 issues in total. From that the idea grew for books and price guides for collectors about furniture, silver, clocks, textiles and so forth. Incredibly the first ones were printed on a hand printer on the kitchen table and the pages stapled together. From that small beginning the company grew, soon producing what were called ‘standard works of reference’ on the subjects of art and design. Most 500 pages long! Every book had to be the best and the one that an art dealer would want to consult on the subject. Soon those dealers became the authors of new books. Many became friends and some still write for us today. The most famous was a book of hallmarks of English silver, selling well over 100,000 copies.
Things went well and the company expanded, setting up its own printing press in the English countryside to print its own books and also expanding into the US market, where we still have a small office.
As publishing tastes changed the company had to diversify, but always produced books about arts related subjects and always illustrated. That’s still our foundation today, producing +/- 50 new books a year through our UK office (35 employees) and using our international partners to sell them.
What is special/extraordinary about ACC books?
The history is great, the fact that we still honour our founding principles, the fact that many of our staff have worked for us for over 20 years, the fact that we have managed to form some amazing relationships – all of which mean we get to work with some extraordinary people and make some pretty amazing books. Our latest title, David Bowie Rock and Roll With Me is a perfect example. We got to make a book with David Bowie’s best friend from primary school, who remined a dear friend throughout his life and even co-wrote songs with him and ACC was lucky enough to get to publish his amazing story.
What are your bestsellers?
Our bestselling book of all time is the pocket version of Jacksons Hallmarks. It’s been in print for a long time and sold over 100,000 copies. Other stand out titles I’d like to mention are Understanding Jewellery and The Wristwatch Handbook, both books that any enthusiast would take to their desert island. Terry O’Neill’s Opus is a book that has sold extremely well and the man was a joy and a real honour to have known. In the last year our book Harry Styles and the Clothes he Wears has sold a really incredible number of copies.
At a time when everyone is calling for digitality, you still believe in the medium of the book – what is that based on?
I have almost no interest in digital books. Not because I am a snob or old fashioned, but it’s not what we do. We concentrate on making beautiful books and we print the vast majority of them in Europe. Our books simply do not correspond to digital except in a small number of cases.
What can we expect from ACC in the future?
We will publish around 50 titles each year. For next year we continue in a similar vein to this year, with great books on art and fashion, movie stars and musicians, books on jewellery and watches, books on cars and hopefully a book for next autumn that will genuinely get noticed over the whole world because it will be about a giant of the sports world.
