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Curriculum Vitae
James Bridle
Contact: james at shorttermmemoryloss.com
Summary
I’ve worked in a number of roles within the publishing and wider arts and media industries, from editorial to publicity and marketing, and from digital strategy to web application development and production. I also write, edit, publish and code.
I’m currently freelance, and as well as undertaking my own projects, I work with a number of businesses to explore, refine, design and implement new media products and strategies.
In 2007 I was the youngest person named as one of London’s 50 Most Influential People in Publishing by the Evening Standard, and in 2009 I was a finalist in the British Council's UK Young Publishing Entrepreneurs programme. The judges' citation stated:
'James is a passionate, sincere, and energetic publishing entrepreneur. A compelling and convincing candidate, he has the potential to become a true leader in his sector. Tremendously focused.'
Employment History
August 2009—Present
Self-employed and working on a number of projects, both personal and for clients. See my portfolio for more details, and contact me if you would be interested in working with or hiring me.
Recent clients have included Hachette UK, Bonnier, Art Public, Six To Start, Airlock, Newspaper Club, Proboscis and Dennis Publishing.
May 2007—July 2009 // Producer, Apt
Providing design and marketing consultancy for clients in publishing and the arts. Clients included Random House, Hachette Group, HarperCollins, Granta Magazine and Portobello Books, and the development of Enhanced Editions, the most advanced ereader for the iPhone. Skills included project management, planning, marketing, design, programming and execution.
May 2005—May 2007 // Publisher, Snowbooks Ltd.
Snowbooks is an independent publisher of fiction and non-fiction. I published my own list, specialising in contemporary fiction. I acquired, edited and published books ranging from Bruce Benderson's Prix de Flore-winning memoir The Romanian to popular non-fiction and bestselling thrillers, and new work by authors including Stewart Home, Steve Aylett and Matthew de Abaitua. My work also included marketing and publicity, contract negotiation, rights management, cover design, print management and typesetting. In May 2006 Snowbooks was named joint Small Publisher of the Year at the British Book Trade Awards.
Jan—May 2005 // Publicity Assistant, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Extended placement in the publicity department of one of the UK's leading independent publishers. My work involved creating publicity material for a range of titles, interacting with the media and authors as part of large-scale publicity campaigns, and assisting with marketing and title launch activities.
Sept—Dec 2004 // Cellarhand, Chateau Maris, France
Experience in all areas of 2004 vintage, including harvest and vinification, at an internationally-renowned producer in the Minervois. Responsibilities included sole charge of a 200HL winery. This position necessitated a great deal of physical work and long hours, while maintaining good interpersonal skills in a foreign-language environment. Talking to the French, basically.
May 2001—Sept 04 // Wine Adviser, Oddbins Ltd.
Assistant in busy high-street Wine Merchants both full-time and part-time while studying for my degree. Over five years in the trade (including pre-University employment) allowed me to develop in-depth subject knowledge to advise and deal with both local customers and large corporate clients. I undertook promotional design, especially point-of-sale merchandising, and shop-fitting. Responsibilities also included training new staff, key holding, cash handling and stock management.
Jan-April 2000 // Web Designer, Tupperware Corporation
Three month placement at Tupperware World Headquarters in Orlando, Florida. Tasks included Java and HTML assistance with in-house design of Tupperware.com, while experience covered understanding of the company's business practices, specifically the direct marketing model, and the culture of a large American corporation.
June-July 1999 // Web Designer, Guernsey.net
Two week placement with Channel Islands ISP and web design agency, working on HTML and ColdFusion development for local clients.
June-July 1997 // Assistant, Backspace
Two week placement at the UK's first internet café in Southwark, London. Web design and customer service.
Personal Projects
Bookkake - Launched in 2008, Bookkake is a technology-led publisher of transgressive literature. Using a revolutionary combination of print-on-demand technologies and the web as platform for direct distribution and conversation, Bookkake proved that it is possible for small publishers to operate globally and in direct competition with far larger operations, with extremely low start-up costs and overheads.
bkkeepr - Also launched in 2008, bkkeepr ("bookkeeper") is a web application for recording individual's book reading histories, and sharing bookmarks. Described as "Last.fm for books", bkkeepr gained 1000 users without promotion in its first year.
booktwo.org - Since 2006, and well before the general acceptance of the future of ebooks and associated technologies within publishing, I have written about the growing confluence of literature, publishing and technology at booktwo.org. Widely read within the industry, booktwo.org has been described by Publishers' Weekly as "An independent site… a fun, casual take on bleeding-edge book trends and a fine eye for what’s out there."
London Lit Plus - In 2007, I set up an open-source literature festival in response to the establishment of the excellent but unrepresentative London Literature Festival, creating the "fringe" LL+ in less than a month to showcase over 50 events and attracting several 1000 visitors, as well as much media attention, across the capital. LL+ ran again in 2008, and is currently on hiatus.
Education
2000-2004 // University College London
MSci Computer Science with Cognitive Science, 2:1
Four-year Masters degree in Computer Science specialising in Artificial Intelligence, with additional studies in Linguistics (concentrated in the fields of Pragmatics and Cognition), Psychology and English Literature.
1994-1999 // Radley College, Oxfordshire
A-Levels: English: A, Physics: A, Pure Mathematics: B, Applied Mathematics: B.
GCSEs: 5 A*, 4 A, 1 B