I first entered the world of publishing in 2009 with a rather humble ambition: to gain complete creative and editorial authority over my own book initiatives. At that point, I had already authored two books and had a career as an international sports journalist. My aim was to collaborate with friends and colleagues who shared similar backgrounds in journalism, design, and the digital realm, with the goal of creating remarkable books.
The core values that guided that journey were straightforward: uphold stringent editorial quality, aim for design excellence, and harmoniously integrate both print and digital formats. We were committed to taking on projects that we were deeply passionate about, a principle that was crucial to our growth and reputation.
Those foundational beliefs paid off. The company that I created - deCoubertin Books evolved within a few years into a thriving operation with offices, full-time employees, and an annual sale of approximately 50,000 books. Our roster of authors was a who's who of international sport and media. We were fortunate to work with footballers boasting numerous accolades, including international caps, league titles and significant tournament wins. Our list also included prominent journalists and broadcasters from leading news organisations globally. It's beyond what I could have ever envisioned when embarking on this journey.
Despite this growth, the philosophy remained consistent: commit to quality and believe in what we are doing. This guiding ethos has won us loyal readers, fruitful partnerships with booksellers, and critical acclaim.
Every business faces challenges and over a period of a couple of years we were struck by several that we could never have possibly envisaged: the collapse of our second biggest customer, the Covid pandemic, and then a ruinous dispute by a negligent and incompetent supplier on whom the entire business relied.
Throughout these ordeals - and they were ordeals and ones that I lived every day - my love for and faith in the written word was undimmed. And so, out of the ashes comes a new publishing company predicated on those same values that made deCoubertin such a success. Mount Vernon Publishing is a new imprint that publishes outstanding non-fiction books with a focus on sport and the city of Liverpool. It also operates the historic deCoubertin imprint and markets and distributes books under the brand new Toffeeopolis brand.
Toffeeopolis is a new imprint founded by four well-known Everton writers, including myself. Combining our professional skills across a range of sectors, we created the company as a cooperative.
Our mission: to create great books that celebrate the culture, history and magic of Everton FC.
In an era where global interconnectivity is the norm, we recognize that the stories we tell resonate far beyond local borders. Sport and football, especially the English variety, has a universal appeal, providing a common language for millions worldwide.
While football enjoys global popularity, with the Premier League alone reaching hundreds of millions of viewers in numerous countries each, we feel that its full potential in the publishing industry remains untapped. We've seen promising signs in the international distribution of our books and believe that a more extensive reach can be achieved through collaborations with local publishing partners.
This is the start of a new exciting journey. We hope you join us on it.
James Corbett, Co-Founder