COMPANY PRINCIPLES
We do not condone manipulation of the public through unsound marketing practices.

One Broken Ankle employee recalls lunching with the head of a major international publishing house and listening to him explain how the success of a bestselling novel - "a fucking pile of crap," as he eloquently put it - was due to "a surprisingly successful marketing experiment."

Another major publisher of our acquaintance confessed his distaste for authors ("a pain in the ass"), conveniently forgetting that his lifestyle is funded by the labor of said authors (generally paid a disgraceful 10% or so of sales, which only works if you are J.K.Rowling).

This is not the way we operate.

We do not believe in networking, drinkies after work, sitting on photocopiers, corporate volleyball matches, the bottom line as a form of evangelism, competition as a conduit for unsavory psycho-sexual frustrations, cretins, cruelty, complacency, or secretaries who touch their toes.

Broken Ankle employees study elite car engines, help run charities, stand on their heads, some are hardcore NA members, others play the bagpipes, and most study Buddhism or martial arts in their spare time. (One of our lawyers used to work as a male stripper.) We read Ayn Rand, Vladimir Nabokov, Anne Sexton, Bertrand Russell. Readers Digest is not a publication over which we froth.

If we publish a book, we believe in the book and its author.

Above all, we believe in the service of beauty.