London Show Daily, Day 1, April 15, 2013

Fo r t h e l a t e s t f a i r c o v e r a g e , g o t o w w w. p u b l i s h e r s we e k l y. c o m / l o n d o n a n d w w w. b o o k b r u n c h . c o . u k

London

Visit us at Stand G470

15 April 2013

PubMatch, CCC to offer online rights service

International rights portal PubMatch this week announced a partnership w i th the Copyr i gh t Clearance Center to create

an automated, Web-based exchange for rights deals, powered by the CCC’s popular RightsLink transaction engine.

With affiliates in 15 countries, c o v e r i n g 1 1 l a n g u a g e s , PubMatch offers members a range of services, including the ability to build company, author, or individual title profiles showing current rights status by language and territory; a “look inside the book” functionality through PDF uploads; and the ability to create an “on-the-fly” catalogue before trade shows. The partnership with CCC, one of the world’s most prominent global rights brokers, adds a sophisticated transaction engine to the mix, enabling users to complete direct deals online, with a focus on whole book translations and distribution, including payment transactions by credit card, and customer service.

“With this new agreement between PubMatch and the CCC, rightsholders will now have a way of facilitating transactions that might have otherwise been lost,” said George Slowik, Jr, President of Publishers Weekly, speaking on behalf of PubMatch. “Utilizing the muscle of CCC’s RightsLink, parties will have a new resource to arrange and vet rights sales. This improved efficiency will make more works available in more languages and more markets internationally than ever before.”

The partnership will benefit a

full spectrum of stakeholders, adds Miles McNamee, VP, Licensing and Business Develop-ment, CCC. “Rightsholders can list available titles and rights, and the service will make it easy for local publishers in any coun-try to find available rights.”

P u b M a t c h i s a j o i n t venture between Publishers Weekly and Combined Book Exhibit. For more information or to make an appointment, visit the USA Pavilion (stand F430) or Publishers Weekly (stand G470). ■

Children’s e-reader

Grimm Press, established 20 years ago in Taiwan by K-T Hao, is to launch

a touch-screen e-reader aimed at 2 to 6-year-olds. The aim is to create “the next generation of bookworms”.

Booki, a robust device with an eight-inch screen which comes in a bear-shaped shell, will be avail-able in the UK from September, and in Europe and the US in 2014. New books can be purchased

online, with children using “tokens” banked by their parents.

Booki is already working with Penguin and other publishers to give early readers a range of titles, including Peter Rabbit, The Snowman and Ladybird’s Ready for Phonics apps.

UK MD Ed Franklin will introduce Booki at an LBF event tomorrow with Nathan Hull of Penguin and author Babette Cole. ■

In his keynote at the fi fth

annual Digital Minds

Conference, best-selling

author Neil Gaiman kicked off

the London Book Fair by telling a

packed auditorium that authors

and publishers were “on the

frontier,” in the digital age.

“People ask me what my

predictions are for publishing

and how digital is changing

things and I tell them my only

real prediction is that it’s all

changing. Amazon, Google and

all of those things probably

aren’t the enemy. The enemy

right now is simply refusing to

understand that the world is

changing.”

Gaiman’s speech was the

opening keynote of what

conference Chair Sara Lloyd of

Pan Macmillan said was the

event’s largest ever attendance,

and most diverse, with more

than 32 countries represented.

During his 30-minute talk

Gaiman entertained and

challenged his audience to think

creatively about the future,

conceding that he himself was

“perfectly willing to acknowl-

edge the possibility that

novelists may have been a blip”

in our cultural history. “The

model for tomorrow, and this is

the model I’ve been using with

enormous enthusiasm since I

started blogging back in 2001,”

Gaiman said, “is try everything.

Make mistakes. Surprise

ourselves. Try anything else. Fail.

Fail better. And succeed in ways

we never would have imagined a

year or a week ago.

More on Digital Minds in tomorrow's

Show Daily ■

Gaiman: Try everything

Day 1 News.indd 3Day 1 News.indd 3 14/04/2013 14:1614/04/2013 14:16

www.publishersweekly.com www.bookbrunch.co.uk

FAIR DEALINGS

15 APRIL 2013 LONDON SHOW DAILY 3

To contact London Show Daily at the Fair with your news, visit us on the Publishers Weekly stand G470Reporting for BookBrunchNicholas Clee and Liz Thomson

Reporting for Publishers Weekly Andrew Albanese, Rachel Deahl,

Calvin Reid and Jim Milliot

Project Management Joseph Murray

Layout and Production Heather McIntyre

Editorial Co-ordinator (UK) Marian Sheil

Subscribe to Publishers Weekly:call 800-278-2991 or go to

www.publishersweekly.com

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email [email protected]

London Show Daily produced by Jellyfi sh Print Solutions 01489 897373

RCS Libri, Grupo Planeta, Robert Laffont, Univers Poche and De Arebiderspers / A W

Bruna Publishers have signed with Open Road for marketing and distribution of English-language digital editions of their books in English-speaking territories. The deals will add a mix of mostly popular and literary fiction titles to Open Road’s international publishing partners programme. Open Road CEO Jane Friedman said she expected to start publishing the titles this autumn, with the programme continuing to build into 2014.

In most cases, Open Road has world English rights, and the translations are being done by the company’s partners. While

Open Road has published some ebooks in translation from Barcelona eBooks–and has deals in place with Mondadori and Place Des Editeurs–the new agreements give Open Road a

Open Road ramps up

translation programme

New Ataturk biography

Guardian News & Media and Faber are launching a publish-

ing imprint. Guardian Faber will combine brands, expertise

and global reach to create “a unique publishing proposi-

tion, with a list which will span agenda-setting current affairs, sport,

humour, science and technology, health, cookery and culture”.

Guardian Faber will showcase the Guardian and Observer’s

writers alongside “other high-quality authors” and will commis-

sion up to 20 non-fi ction books annually, in both physical and

digital formats.

Highlights include Facts Are Sacred (April) by Simon Rogers, an

interactive ebook celebrating the power of data visualisation; The

Vogue Factor (May), an exposé of the fashion industry and the

lives of the people who work in it from the former editor of

Australian Vogue, Kirstie Clements; and Undercover (July) by the

Guardian’s Paul Lewis and Rob Evans, an account of “Britain’s

sordid history of undercover policing”.

The publishing team includes Sara Montgomery, Head of

Guardian Books; Katie Roden, Guardian Books Publisher; and

Julian Loose, Publisher for Arts and Non-Fiction at Faber. The team

will appoint a new Commissioning Editor for the list.

The partnership means that Faber takes over sales and

distribution of Guardian Books from Cornerstone with immediate

effect. Faber will also handle foreign rights. ■

Faber to publish with Guardian

I B Tauris, at the forefront of publishing on modern Turkey and Ottoman history for 30 years, is likely to be a centre of atten-tion at LBF with its new biography of Atatürk, founder of

modern Turkey. Written by Professor George W Gawrych of Baylor University, Texas, The Young Atatürk: From Ottoman Soldier to Statesman of Turkey draws on previously unpublished correspondence and military writings to present a reassessment of a controversial figure.

As LBF opened, nine publishers were bidding for Turkish rights in a book that IBT expects to generate considerable international interest.

Another IBT title, Writing Revolution: The Voices from Tunis to Damascus, was awarded the English PEN Award for writing in translation. US rights have been acquired by Penguin, and Turkish by Metis. ■

Shipstead renewsPatrick Janson-Smith at Blue

Door has acquired Astonish

Me, the new novel by Mag-

gie Shipstead, winner of the Dylan

Thomas Prize for 2012 for her début

Seating Arrangements. Blue Door

has UK/Commonwealth rights

(excluding Canada) from Rebecca

Gradinger and Gráinne Fox at

Fletcher & Company. Sofi a Coppo-

la’s production company, Zoetrope,

has optioned the fi lm rights.

Astonish Me, its title taken from

Diaghilev’s challenge to Jean

Cocteau and the other artists

working with the Ballets Russes,

is “an intricate and passionate

drama about what happens when

art and life collide”. It tells the story

of the 20-year aftermath of an

affair between an aspiring dancer

and the principal dancer in her

ballet company, a brilliant and

magnetic Soviet defector.

“Allison Pearson puts it

brilliantly in her description of

Maggie Shipstead as ‘a young

writer blessed with the maturity to

do what only the very greatest can

do: explain us to ourselves’,” said

Janson-Smith.

Blue Door and Knopf in the US

will publish Astonish Me in

spring 2014. ■

critical mass of titles. Friedman said Open Road

was in discussions to add more international publishers. “There are a lot of countries out there,” she said. ■

Liverpool University Press is partnering Oxford University Press to launch

Liverpool Scholarship Online on OUP’s University Press Scholarship Online (UPSO) platform.

“The strategic partnership between Liverpool and Oxford is great news for our readers, for librarians and for our authors,” said Anthony Cond, MD of Liverpool University Press. “Liverpool Scholarship Online promises outstanding scholarly content for the digital age.”

Responding to increased demand for online scholarly content, UPSO streamlines the research process by making d i s p a r a t e l y p u b l i s h e d monographs easily accessible and cross-searchable via one

Liverpool joins Oxford platform’s UPSO platformonline platform. Its mission is to create an individually branded home for monographs from

each participating university press, just as it has done for Oxford Scholarship Online. ■


FAIR DEALINGS


The London Book Fair 2013 prom-ises to be another busy, exciting and stimulating event, writes Jacks Thomas. LBF is an essential hub for serious players in our

global publishing industry–a place to come to discover what’s new in the world of books, publishing and creative content.

It’s also a place to learn; we have more than 220 events as part of the Love Learning Pro-gramme and many more events on the show floor covering all aspects of publishing. Not to mention the high-level conferences that take place, from yesterday’s thought-pro-voking Digital Minds Conference with a great keynote by the inspirational Neil Gaiman, to the IPA Education Conference on Wednesday, where policy makers and educa-tional publishers will review learning resources and technologies, and the part they play in improving educational outcomes.

We have the usual hustle and bustle of the Fair, where publishers, agents and businesses (from 120 countries) make deals and, hope-fully, discover the next big thing. The Inter-national Rights Centre, the biggest of its kind

in the world, is sold out again. On a lighter note, this year sees the introduction of the first ever pop-up, The Club at the Ivy. While watering holes provide a congenial hub, the nub of the fair must also be encapsulated in some of its debates around Intellectual Prop-erty, and this year’s Charles Clark Memorial Lecture welcomes Richard Hooper of the UK Digital Copyright Exchange. Surely a must-attend diary note for many of us.

We are also delighted to see the culmina-tion of several years of planning to deliver the 10th Market Focus programme, which this year celebrates Turkey, and focuses on both the professional and cultural aspects of Turkish publishing.

Alongside the wealth of learning and deal-making that goes on, I believe it is the warm atmosphere and the unparalleled network-ing opportunities that make LBF so special. So my advice to first-timers would be to go through the on-site guide, attend the relevan t events and take the chance to meet as many people as possible. But don’t forget to enjoy the Fair; the stories of deals made due to chance meetings in the cafes are legion!

On a personal note, this year’s Fair will also be a new and exciting experience for me. I have been attending the Fair for the last 20 years, but this is my first year as its Director, so I am here to look, to listen and to learn! I am looking forward to meeting as many exhibitors and visitors as possible over the next three days.

Welcome to the London Book Fair. Enjoy!

Jacks Thomas is Director of the London Book Fair. ■

Jacks Thomas

LONDON SHOW DAILY 15 APRIL 20134

Welcome to the Fair

Former Arsenal footballer Dennis Bergkamp has signed with Simon & Schus-

ter to publish his memoirs, which will “provide a fascinating portrait of football at the highest level”. Working with David Winner, author of Brilliant Orange, and Dutch writer Jaap Visser, Berg-kamp will look back at a golden era for the Gunners, when he helped them to a string of trophy successes, including three Premier League titles. S&S has UK and Commonwealth rights in Stillness and Speed: My Story from Dutch Media via David Luxton.

Julian Loose at Faber has signed a world rights deal with Gerard Lyons , Bloomberg “number one” global forecaster and among the few economists to predict the global downturn. The Consolations of Economics: How We Will All Benefit from the New World Order (spring 2014) will be “a positive assessment of the world economy which will surprise many”.

Mike Jones at Simon & Schuster UK has acquired UK/Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) in The Private War of J D Salinger by David Shields and Shane Salerno. The biography has been in the works for eight years, and includes interviews with over 150 sources who either worked directly with Salinger, had a personal relationship with him, or were influenced by his work. World rights are with S&S US, which bought them from Salerno.

Hachette Australia and Orion UK have bought world rights in MotoGP World Champion Casey Stoner’s autobiography. Hachette Australia Publishing Director Fiona Hazard said: “This is a huge acquisition for the Hachette Group and we are delighted to announce publication in the UK, Australia and New Zealand in October this year. This will be the sporting autobiography of 2013. I have no doubt sales to other terri-tories will follow.”

Rights round-up—the pre-fair dealsSwedish publisher Max Ström

has signed an exclusive contract with Universal Music, and its Polar Music subsidiary, to publish the first authorised photographic biography of the pop group ABBA. ABBA: The Photo Album (£35) will appear in April 2014, 40 years after the band won the Eurovision Song Contest with “Waterloo”.

Simon Prosser at Hamish Hamilton has bought a new novel by Man Booker-shortlisted novelist Deborah Levy. HH has UK/Commonwealth rights in Hot Milk (early 2015) as well as in three backlist novels, and will publish a paperback and ebook edition of Levy’s forthcoming ebook essay Things I Don’t Want To Know (Notting Hill Editions). Levy’s agent is Victo-ria Hobbs at AM Heath.

Random House imprint Rider has bought Crossing the Border by Jang Jin-Sung, former North Korea State Poet Laureate, who was forced to flee to South Korea

when a censored document in his possession went missing. The book (spring 2014) details meetings with Kim Jong-II and reveals the extreme poverty of ordinary North Koreans. Judith Kendra, in a pre-emptive deal, bought world rights (exc NA, Korea and Japan) from Marysia Juszczakiewicz of the Peony Literary Agency.

Transworld has bought an account of the friendship between Anatolian Shepherd Dog Haatchi, who had a dam-aged leg and tail amputated after being tied to a railway line, and seven-year-old Owen Howkins (known to his family as Little B), who suffers from a rare genetic condition called Schwartz Jam-pel Syndrome. The pair travel the country taking part in fundrais-ing events, and won the Cruft’s Friends for Life award. Doug Young at Transworld bought world rights in the book (sum-mer 2014) through author Wendy Holden. ■


INTERNATIONALORDERING INFORMATION:

nBn international10 thornbury road

plymouth pl6 7pp, uKtel: +44 (0) 1752 202301fax: +44 (0) 1752 202333

e-mail: [email protected]: www.nbninternational.com

UNITED STATESORDERING INFORMATION:

rowman & littlefield publishing Group15200 nBn Way, p.o. Box 191Blue ridge Summit, pa 17214

tel: 1-800-462-6420fax: 1-800-338-4550

Website: www.rowman.com

Rowman & Littlefield is one of the largest and fastest growing independent publishers and distributors in North America & the UK

Its numerous imprints publish in virtually all fields in the humanities and social sciences, including academic, reference, and general interest books.

For more information about Rowman & Littlefield and Rowman & Littlefield International visit www.rowman.com

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Stand # i605


6 LONDON SHOW DAILY 15 APRIL 2013

What’s at this year’s Lon-don confab? Donna Tartt returns after another

decade-long pause. Stephen Hawk-ing writes about history… his own. And Alice McDermott gets ordinary.

USCurtis Brown/Gelfman

Schneider

Margaret Atwood’s latest, Mad-daddam (Nan Talese) is the final novel in the speculative trilogy that began with Oryx and Crake. From Child 44 author Tom Rob Smith is The Farm (Grand Central), a contemporary thriller

set in Sweden and focused on the kidnapping of a young girl.

The Gernert Company

Alice McDermott’s Someone (FSG) is a novel that follows “the sharp pains and unex-pected joys lived by an ordinary woman.” Another hot fiction outing is Babayaga (FSG) by

Toby Barlow, set in post-war Paris about “star-crossed love, bloodthirsty witches, and a police inspector turned into a flea.”

Sanford J Greenburger

Associates

As expected, the latest Dan Brown, Inferno (Doubleday), is on SJGA’s hot list. Harvard symbolo-gist Robert Langdon is in Italy working on a mystery involving Dante’s eponymous text. Another big novel is Brad Thor’s Hid-den Order (Atria/Emily Bestler), the latest in the best-selling Scot Harvath series.

ICM (via Curtis Brown)

The Goldfinch (Little, Brown) is Donna Tartt’s first novel in over a decade, “a haunted odyssey through present-day America.” Among non-fiction is The Chaos Imperative by Ori Brafman (Crown), about “how organiza-tions can drive growth and profits by allowing contained chaos.”

Inkwell Management

Courtney Cole’s If You Stay (Grand Central), originally a self-published e-bestseller, is the first instalment in the Beautifully Bro-ken series about a bad boy who begins to mend his ways when he falls for a sweet girl. Among non-fiction offerings is USC neurosci-ence professor Antonio Damasio’s Once More with Feeling (Pan-theon), which “aims to explain the development of cultures and civilizations from the perspective of the human brain.”

Janklow & Nesbit

Crazy Rich Asians (Doubleday), Kevin Kwan’s debut, follows “jet-setting, super-rich, pedigreed Chi-nese families” involved in “gossip, backbiting, and scheming.” Sister Mother Husband Dog (Penguin/Blue Rider) by Delia Ephron is a collection of pieces “anchored by a remembrance of losing her sister, Nora Ephron.”

William Morris Endeavor

Among the agency’s offerings is Panache Desai’s series of three untitled inspirational books that

Spiegel & Grau hopes to launch in spring 2014. Desai has been fea-tured on Oprah’s OWN Network, and these books will be under 200 pages and published in quick succession. From David King, The Trial of Adolf Hitler (under auction in the US and UK at press time) chronicles Hitler’s trial after his first attempt to take down the German government (known as the Beer Hall Putsch). WME claim it’s “the first book-length account of this gripping true story.”

Trident Media Group

A book drawing comparisons to The Accidental Billionaires is filmmaker Blake Harris’s Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation (HarperCollins), a behind-the-scenes business thriller; rights sold in Brazil. Three-time Edgar Award-winner T Jefferson Parker’s Full Measure follows 22-year-old Patrick Norris’s return to his hometown after a year of combat in Afghanistan.

Ed Victor

Among EV’s notable books is Lea Carpenter’s Eleven Days (Knopf), which “touches on some of the most profound questions we have about war in the modern age.” Non-fiction includes Ten Steps to Smarter Decisions in a Confusing World (HarperCollins) by econo-mist Noreena Hertz, “one of the most influential and visionary think-ers on the international stage.”

Writers House

Stephen Hawking’s My Brief History is a short (20,000 words) work adapted from the best-selling cosmologist’s lecture of the same name, in which he narrated the story of his life. Things I’ve Learned from Dying (Twelve) by David Dow expands on journals the NBCC finalist’s father-in-law kept while he was losing his battle with terminal cancer. Dow, a law-yer at a non-profit legal aid firm that represents death row inmates, juxtaposes his family’s experience through this tragedy “with death faced by his clients’ families”. Tim

对于全球图书业众多专业人士来说，春天踏入伦敦书展是一种独特体验。在这里不仅可以了解最新的出版行

业资讯，参与版权贸易，关注作家资讯，还有机会与来自40多个国家的24,000多位参展商面对面交流。

去年，这场充满英伦风格的春季盛会聚焦中国文化，中国作为主宾国吸引了全世界的目光。今年主宾国是亚欧大陆新星土耳其，即将为书展带来别样的异国风情。除了传统版权交易之外，书展也为各国来宾准备了众多内容丰富、形式多样的研讨活动，在接下来的三天展览特刊中，我们将为您细数几个亮点活动。

位于已有百年历史的伯爵会展中心，伦敦书展主要分为两个展区，第一展区（EC1）包括综合类、儿童教育类和学术类出版区，第二展区（EC2）包括土耳其主宾国等国际展区，数字区和出版技术研讨区等。除了有作家讲座的文学咖啡厅和文学翻译中心位于第二展区之外，大部分研讨活动分布在半二层的会议室中，请注意展场内指示牌，不要错过重要讲座。

今日亮点2013年中英出版业数字创新峰会时间：4月15日下午1点至5点地点：Wellington Room语言：中英同声传译

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今日作家:国际畅销书作家威廉·博伊德（William Boyd）时间：4月15日上午11点30分至12点30分地点：English PEN 文学咖啡厅

威廉·博伊德的新作是备受期待的詹姆斯·邦德（007）新续集小说，将由老牌出版商Jonathan Cape公司（007系列小说原创作者伊恩·弗莱明的出版商）推出，并于2013年9月26日在英国出版。

本文作者刘晓爽为伦敦独立策划人，从事出版、艺术设计和音乐等文化传播项目。联系邮件 [email protected]

By Rachel Deahl and Gabe Habash in New York and Nicholas Clee in London

London Briefcase 2013

Continues on page 8 ➝

Alice McDermott




Manley’s Alice in Tumblr-Land (Penguin) is “an illustrated humor book for adults in the tradition of Goodnight iPad.”

The Wylie Agency

Pulitzer Prize-winner Mark Mazzetti’s The Way of the Knife

(Penguin Press) is about “the transforma-tion of the CIA and America’s special operations forces into man-hunt-

ing and killing machines.” From Paris Review editor and New York Times Magazine contributor John Jeremiah Sullivan, The Prime Minister of Paradise (Random) is about Christian Priber, an obscure figure from American history who arrived in South Carolina in the 1730s. Fiction, and NBA-winner Colum McCann’s TransAtlantic (Random) has already been sold in a number of countries.

UKAitken Alexander

Bridget Jones is back, after more than a decade, in the new novel by Helen Fielding (Cape). Jo Baker tells the story of Pride and Prejudice from below stairs in Longbourn (Doubleday), the subject of heated international auctions and of a film deal sealed within 48 hours.

Darley Anderson

Nine-year-old Ade lives with his agoraphobic mother at the top of a south London tower block; one day, the giant plants attack, in Boy in the Tower by debut author Polly Ho-Yen (RHCP UK). Dominion by John Connolly and Jennie Ridyard is book one of the Chronicles of the Invaders YA SF trilogy (Headline).

Blake Friedmann

Thirst by Kerry Hudson, author of Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice Cream Float Before He Stole My Ma, is a sensual love story set in contemporary East London and rural Russia.

Luigi Bonomi Associates

Killing Season is the first novel in

a new American-set thriller series by debut author Mason Cross, and features bounty hunter Carter Blake, hired to track down a serial killer with links to his own past (Orion).

Felicity Bryan

Set over the course of five days in 1920, Wake by Anna Hope (Doubleday) tells the story of three women and the mystery that binds them . Kirsty Wark’s first novel is The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle (Two Roads), about a journalist who inherits a house on the Isle of Arran.

Capel & Land

Simon Sebag Montefiore’s new novel is One Night in Winter (Century), based on real events and set in Moscow following the Second World War. Andrew Roberts’ biography Napoleon (Allen Lane) arrives in time for the bicentennial commemorations of the battle of Waterloo.

Conville & Walsh

The Amber Fury (Corvus) is broadcaster and writer Natalie Haynes’ first novel, about a teacher who discovers that one of her teenage pupils is learning more about Greek tragedy than she had ever intended to impart.

Curtis Brown

Lisa Jewell’s new novel is The House We Grew Up In (Century), the story of a family torn apart by one tragedy and brought together over another. In The Ring of Truth (Simon & Schuster), Donald McRae tells the stories of two gay boxers, Emile Griffith and Orlando Cruz, 50 years apart.

Janklow & Nesbit

The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota (Picador) is an epic novel sweeping between India and northern England over several years, and telling the intricately woven stories of a large cast of characters. Tim Butcher will tell the story of the teenage assassin who fired not just the opening rounds of the First World War but the starting gun for modern history in The Trigger: The Journey That Led to War in 1914 (Chatto).

Lutyens & Rubinstein

From Rebecca Hunt, author of the acclaimed Mr Chartwell, comes

Everland (Fig Tree), set in Antarctica. Glow (Scep-tre) is the new novel by Ned Beauman, author of Boxer, Beetle, and is a corporate thriller set in London.

The Marsh Agency

Smith Henderson’s literary debut Fourth of July Creek (Wm Heine-mann) is set in the small towns and mountains of Montana in the 1980s. Novelicious.com founder Kirsty Greenwood has written Yours Truly (Pan Macmillan), a rom-com about girl-about-town Nathalie Butterworth, whose most private thoughts begin to bubble up and pop out of her mouth thanks to a pub hypnotist.

Laura Morris

The new novel from Hilary Boyd, whose Thursdays in the Park was a “gran-lit” phenomenon, is

Straight to the Heart (Quercus), about a woman who wonders whether she can trust a man who reappears

after breaking off an eight-year relationship.

Peake Associates

Jonathan Coe’s new novel is Expo 58 (Viking), a Cold War spy caper set primarily in Brussels at the time of the Brussels World’s Fair.

PFD

Vanessa Manko’s first novel The Un-American is, in the words of Salman Rushdie, “the story of a man stranded by history in a strange land, torn away by poli-tics and paranoia from the people he loves, exiled and trapped behind an invisible frontier he dares not cross”. Philip Norman, biographer of John Lennon and Mick Jagger, turns his attention to Paul McCartney in Paul Mc-Cartney: An Authorised Biogra-phy (Orion).

United Agents and A P Watt

at United Agents

Costa winner Sebastian Barry’s new novel The Temporary Gentleman (Faber) is about Jack McNulty, washed up in Accra in the late 1950s and recalling his life and his service in the Second World War. Justin Cartwright’s new novel is Lion Heart (Blooms-bury), about Richard Cathar, a 32-year-old Hackney resident who embarks on a quest that takes him to Jordan, Austria, and eventually back to England.

Ed Victor

The Kill List, the new thriller from Frederick Forsyth (Bantam Press), stars an ex-Marine manhunter given the task of tracking a terror-ist called The Preacher . Breakfast with Lucian by Geordie Greig (Cape) is an intimate portrait of the artist as a young and old man. ■

Mark Mazzetti

Hilary Boyd

Rebecca Hunt

Choosing

favourite

events is like

asking a

parent which

is their

favourite child,

writes LBF

Conference

Manager Orna

O’Brien. But despite my inner

turmoil, I’ve picked three events

that are must-sees for all

attendees.

The Great Debate: Amazon Friend or Foe? (11.30am, Conference

Centre 1&2) will surely be a full

session. While run as a formal

debate, with strict timing and

audience voting, there is always

an air of mischief and fun with this

hugely popular LBF event.

New Adults, Steamies, Crossed Genres: Reinventing Teen Fiction (4pm, Old Press Offi ce, EC1) is

one of the many great children’s

publishing stream seminars, and

Brenda Gardner, Managing

Director of Piccadilly Press and

one of the panellists, will be

delving into this growth area of

publishing, where new market

descriptions are being coined.

Open Access is arguably the

hottest topic there is at the

moment for all involved in

academic publishing and the

discussion at Academic Publishers: Open for Business (11.30am, Cromwell Room, EC1) is

bound to get heated. I can’t wait!

LBF staff picks Today's highlights

Continued from page 6➝


The Pope’s MenThe Pope’s

Serious secrets hide within the walls of the Church: priests no longer loyal to the cloth, lobby groups vying for position, underworld connections. The Pope’s Men paints a very real portrait of Pope John Paul II’s secret war with the KGB. With tales of conspiracy, recruitment and crimes dating back through the years, the mysterious past of priests employed by Moscow is at last out in the open. This thriller presents a detailed and true depiction of Eastern Europe as the Iron Curtain crumbles, the KGB’s unique method of pulling informers into its web, and the workings of the secret services as they plan a series of strikes that personally involve bishops positioned frighteningly close to the Pope. The recent Vatileaks scandal and the ensuing cover-up only represent a fraction of what actually goes on behind closed doors in Rome. By the end of the book, readers will also know what could possibly lead to a pope resigning his throne.

Action is his life.

Writing is her mission.

Foreign rights represented by the Sárközy & Co. Literary Agencywww.sarkozyandco.com

Contact: [email protected]

pope-s men.indd 1 2013.04.03. 11:13:07



While programming the bicentennial celebrations of the birth of Charles Dickens in 2012, the B r i t i s h C o u n c i l

commissioned some research into how overseas readers viewed the UK. “Top hats,” they said, “fog, the river Thames and urchins swiping handkerchiefs from toffs’ pockets; and poverty, injustice and sclerotic administration.” It was extraordinary how the writings of one man, in the 19th century, had influenced people’s image of Britain in the 21st. Dickens’ novels are on the curriculum worldwide, proving that understanding a country through its literature can create images that are simultaneously accurate and misleading unless they are regularly updated.

Part of the purpose of the Market Focus Cultural Programme is to paint a contempo-rary picture of developing economies through their literature, one which reflects current realities for British readers. The Arab World, India, South Africa, Russia, China, Turkey–all are the subject of myths, which we have attempted to explode through bringing their top wordsmiths to represent them in the UK. This mirrors our work in choosing British writers to take part in our projects overseas. In Erbil in northern Iraq, in Karachi, in Dhaka, in a favela in Rio or at the Jaipur Literature Festival, we pro-gramme events that surprise and challenge received ideas about the UK.

The three partners in the London Book Fair Market Focus programme constitute a typical British mixed economy: the London Book Fair is owned by Reed Exhibitions; the Publishers Association is owned by its mem-bers; and the British Council earns 75% of its annual turnover with a Government grant providing the remaining 25%. Together we can create a welcoming, and artistically and commercially-appropriate environment to host overseas authors and publishers.

Real successesWith no guarantee of reciprocity, and with the UK publishing industry traditionally viewed as hostile to translations, it is some-times hard to persuade countries that a Mar-ket Focus programme will truly yield results, especially in an age of austerity. However, we have real successes to point to. After the Arab World in 2008, entries to the Indepen-dent Foreign Fiction Prize for books origi-nally published in Arabic increased five-fold. Penguin set up an office in Cairo and Bloomsbury in Qatar. (Bloomsbury has also

set up a joint venture in China and an office in India, the subjects of Market Focus in, respectively, 2012 and 2009.) We have organised tours for editors of literary fiction to Russia, China and Turkey, which has led to the UK acquisitions of authors including Mikhail Shishkin and Bi Feiyu among oth-ers. There are also less tangible successes, resulting in the development of a more accommodating climate for writers who don’t use the English language.

The British Council’s Market Focus Cultural Programme is the single biggest sustained initiative bringing authors from overseas to the UK that this country has seen: more than 300 authors have visited the UK in six years; countless UK authors and liter-ary professionals go back to the Market Focus countries; and literally hundreds of smaller projects make up a landscape increasingly populated with diverse voices. Non-English speaking writers are more fre-quent visitors at literary festivals including Hay, Edinburgh, Manchester, Cheltenham and Charleston. The programme I founded at English PEN with funds from Bloomberg, Writers in Translation, is now even more generously funded by Arts Council England than I could have hoped for.

We choose the writers carefully, consult-ing across all areas of a country’s literary fir-mament. Academics, critics, booksellers, publishers, agents, civil society groups such as PEN, bloggers, tweeters–all are included. We usually end up with a longlist of around 300 writers, which we gradually whittle down to around 20. Criteria for the final cut are tough. Authors need to be able to engage UK audiences; to appeal to UK literature pro-grammers; to be substantial figures in their own country; and, as a group, to encompass a range of genres, languages, ethnicities, reli-gions, opinions, gender and sexuality.

We need to be able to programme UK writers and chairs into sessions, which will be entertaining and credible for UK audi-ences accustomed to paying for excellently-curated events. We need to programme ses-sions by theme, as it is unusual for the authors’ names to prove a big enough draw here. This means that there will be numerous disappointed writers and, as with all lists, controversy is generated (though never sought). We need them to have rights avail-able for sale in the UK and clearly delineated access to those rights. (Cue major backstage shenanigans as authors change agents before, during and after the Fair in the hope of making optimum sales.)

Turkey boasts 8% economic growth and a population of 50% under the age of 25. Turkey’s rapidly expanding middle class, with more than 14m people currently learn-ing English, and its huge diversity of reli-gions, ethnicities and classes, make it a hugely fertile country for this approach. The written word, as in the Arab World, Russia, India and China, is exceptionally important in Turkey’s artistic and cultural landscape; poetry and short stories are particularly well represented. The third biggest user of Twit-ter, and the fourth biggest user of Facebook: this country is permanently online, and using reading and writing to communicate. The National Book Committee–drawn from writers, publishers, freedom of expression activists and the Ministry of Culture–is a partner in this year’s Market Focus.

Established and new voices Alongside established giants of contempo-rary literature in Turkey Elif Shafak, Perihan Mağden, Murathan Mungan, Ayşe Kulin, Mario Levi and Ahmet Ümit, we’re intro-ducing some newer voices to UK audiences. Murat Menteş’ writing is critically acclaimed and his latest novel is currently dominating the bestseller charts in Turkey. Bejan Matur will be back in the UK after a successful resi-dency at the Writers’ Centre Norwich in 2012 to share her evocative poetry. And we welcome Asli E Perker to London in time to coincide with the publication of her first novel to be translated into English.

Britain has brilliant home-grown writers with whom I work every day, but we need this injection of voices and ideas from around the world. It is a cost-effective way of ensuring our continued inter-connectedness on the world stage.

Susie Nicklin is Director of Literature, British Council. ■

Turkey is this year’s Market Focus. Susie Nicklin reflects on the successes of the Market Focus programme and introduces some of the Turkish authors who will be attending

An injection of international voices

Susie Nicklin

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guests.” He remembers a trip to the Maldives, a luxury hotel whose owner was Oxford-educated. “It had just opened and it had a library, but there was

We’ve all been there: you’re in a hotel and you follow signs to the

library… only to discover the kind of books you’d find at a school fête: an out-of-date guide-book; a dog-eared Jeffrey Archer or Dan Brown; Tony Blair’s memoirs, bookmarked at page 31; a pristine Brief History of Time; or worse, serried ranks of fake hardbacks.

“Oh God,” groans Philip Blackwell, booklover, scion of the Blackwell dynasty and founder of Ultimate Library. “The genesis of the business was travelling, staying in nice hotels, which s u p p o s e d l y c a t e r e d f o r sophisticated clients, but where the library was a repository of books left behind by previous

nothing in it except a few awful books. So I spoke to the owner, who got it and asked me to build him a library. We came up with a whole concept.”

The Soneva Gili Hotel was one of the Six Senses group, so Blackwell and his colleagues came up with sense of place, sense of purpose, sense of adventure and so on, “which was a way of theming the books by category. On the back of that we made a selection, putting in three- or f o u r - h u n d r e d b o o k s , a reasonable range in a select hotel with around 50 villas.” That was 2007, and since then Blackwell and his team have created getting on for 50 libraries in hotels, resorts and hideaways in 15 countries, from the Ananti Kumgang Mountain in North Korea to the L ibrary in Manhattan, an entire hotel themed around the Dewey system. UK projects include the Ampersand in South Kensington where, in addition to a bespoke library, guestrooms are themed by museum.

“When people design proper-ties, they say they’ll design a library, but what they really mean is a snug, warm room where guests can feel cosy and at home,” Blackwell muses. “When they come to execute on the book selection, it’s wallpaper. But you spend £150m on the hotel so why not spend a few thousand putting in an intelligent selection of books? As Cicero said, ‘a room without books is like a body with-out a soul’. There are a number of soulless properties around the world, or properties that have a rather plastic soul.” Which is why wealthy businessman also buy into Ultimate Library for their multifarious homes.

Get the selection right and you have what Blackwell terms “intel-ligent luxury… If you follow the debate about where luxury is going, there’s a lot of talk about ‘experience’, grey matter being the new black. Books and litera-ture help underpin that.” It is, he continues, “a shocking comment

on how much disposable income there is around,” but these days guests at the world’s plus luxe hotels include increasing numbers of children, so there’s a lot of interest in kids’ libraries and books for welcome packs. “It’s a great way to keep children quiet.”

Libraries are mostly English-language, though a shelf of French, Spanish or Russian litera-ture may be required. The books vary but the aims don’t. “We try to cover several bases, so we talk about educating, inspiring and entertaining,” Blackwell contin-ues. “So in an African game reserve there’d be books about Africa, the Masai, novels set in Africa, travel and so on, all designed to give a sense of place. Detective stories and mysteries are the new travel guides: if you really want to know about Laos, read Colin Cotterill, and there’s Ian Rankin for Edinburgh of course, Donna Leon for Venice.” Shelves everywhere feature the sort of “zeitgeist” titles that cash-rich, time-poor travellers read about in the FT or The Econo-mist. Censorship can be a prob-lem in the Arab world, while two upcoming projects in China require the creation of “a window on the Western world”.

Books are bought from British and American publishers, even remainder dealers–Blackwell laments the fact that titles go out of print so quickly, so he often has to hunt around–sometimes in quite large quantities, 3,000 cop-ies perhaps if a hotel wants to give a turndown gift. “We’re open to good ideas.” Libraries are refreshed once or twice a year, sometimes alternate years, depending on budget.

And there’s a local benefit: “Our pledge is that if we sell you a library, we will donate a library to a local institution in the community from which you probably draw a lot of your staff. All we ask is that the client to whom we sell takes an active hand in curating it and educating someone to look after the books.” ■

Ultimate Library puts books in hotels and homes around the world. Liz Thomson meets Philip Blackwell, who dreamed up the idea

Philip Blackwell in one of the themed guestrooms at London’s Ampersand Hotel

Soul trader

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child. Competition is so intense that launching a school with a proven brand, or model, and reasonably decent school leadership, is a guaranteed way to spin money: any respectable school opening turns profitable in less than 18 months, a business success that’s wholly inconceivable in the UK. In consequence, that English medium private market is growing steeply, at roughly 15% a year. Scary.

Larger schoolsMoreover, schools overwhelmingly teach much larger groups of students than we’re

used to : s evera l thousand i s not uncommon. So the K-12 market in English medium textbooks is indubitably large enough to merit investment: this year it’s probably in excess of £150m (in spite of the fact that textbooks sell for roughly a sixth the price in India), which means that just that narrow English medium segment is already as large in monetary terms (bigger in volume) as the schools textbook market in the UK. And we’re hardly likely to see steady, sustainable 15% growth a year here, certainly not in my children’s lifetime.

I said numbers make the case “almost too easily”. In truth, doing business is never easy in India. I’ve been working there since 2001, mostly in learning software development, visiting every two or three months, and flying around the metros–those dozen-odd

Colin Hughes

The idea of books for indulgent escape or cultural pleasure is not a deep-set notion in India. Film and music, yes–even poetry, to a point. Certainly story-telling.

Of course there’s a meniscus class of culturally acute and literary Indians, which has itself spawned a welter of starry, often hugely innovative writers, who are revered by their Indian peers. But it is a defining feature of India, as it hurtles ever more rapidly towards a globalised future, that more than half of all the books sold there are educational.

And they’re not just educational in a nice-to-have, soft-core, self-improving kind of way (though that variety of “learning” also abounds in a nation drawn preternaturally to guru-dom). The educational books most avidly consumed in India are published with firm intent: to improve the reader’s value in a competitively vibrant labour market.

Exam prepLook at any book stall on the street, and you’ll see fat manuals for learning C++ code piled high in plastic wrappers–not your light Sunday afternoon reading, those. You’ll see shelf after precariously bending shelf of test prep volumes, especially for any exam that is needed to enter the next phase of education–college, Institute of Technology, or foreign university. (Sadly, fewer and fewer of those aiming for the UK, since our benighted Home Secretary decided to hobble one of our country’s prime exports, higher education, by succumbing to a bizarre reading of the immigration count–but that’s another tale!)

So when we at Collins Learning in the UK started to think about how we’d grow our educational publishing organically, it didn’t take long to conclude that it was high time we ventured deeper into the Indian learning market, by launching ourselves directly into Indian curriculum school textbooks, and building our own institutional sales team.

Numbers make the case almost too easily. About 90,000 schools in India teach in English–mostly moderately or very well-funded private schools, for which parents scramble fiercely for places. I know of one school in Karnataka (Bangalore’s state) where the School Promoter and the Head Teacher quite literally have to go into hiding during the school entrance time of year in order to avoid parents attempting to p e r s u a d e t h e m t o t a k e t h e i r

high population cities that are driving Indian growth and the nation’s unnervingly rapid social change. Business practices are very different. It can be hard to understand why things happen the way they do. Federal and state government policies alter alarmingly, at times, or grind on, incomprehensibly unchanging. The nation is also hugely diverse, often barely seeming like a single entity at all, more a disparate jumble of vastly unpredictable variety. I’ve come to believe that anyone who says India is definitively “like this”, is walking around with his eyes closed, because something happening around the next corner will flatly contradict the asserted assumption, whatever it was.

Trusted brandBut we have, as Collins, significant opportunity. First, and most potent, we have a well-known brand, that’s already out there: it’s the brand that Indians associate with our dictionaries and atlases, which have long sold successfully in India, and are greatly respected. So, even though we’re going to be up against solidly dug-in opposition, in the form of OUP (market leaders), Pearson and Macmillan, the hill we have to climb is slightly less steep than it might be, simply because

schools and teachers already know who we are, and what our nearly two-centuries-old brand represents. That counts for something in India.

Moreover, we have the core content ready to re-version: a strong legacy in elementary level literacy (crucial in India), and science and mathematics schemes

for both primary and secondary that occupy first or second slots in the UK market. And we have the connections in India to ensure that, as schools start to become more confident in their take up of digital content, and learning platform technologies, we’ll be ready to supply what they’re after.

We’ll be launching literacy, mathematics and science over the next two years into all grades, as the Americans like to put it, “K thru 10”. It’s an ambitious programme, but wholly do-able. We’ll be setting up our own sales and marketing network across India. And in five years’ time we hope to have established a business that will more than double HarperCollins India’s total turnover.

Colin Hughes is Managing Director of Collins Learning. ■

Colin Hughes explains how Collins Learning is venturing deeper into the Indian learning market, by launching directly into Indian curriculum school textbooks

An Indian education

( )“About 90,000 schools in

India teach in English... that English medium private

market is growing steeply.”

Colin Hughes - Collins Learning India.indd 2Colin Hughes - Collins Learning India.indd 2 10/04/2013 16:4310/04/2013 16:43



around public access to research funded by federal agencies”.

Specifically, the Obama proposal “recog-nises that publishers provide valuable services,” and encouraged public-private partnerships, comments Tom Allen, Presi-dent and CEO of AAP, “in stark contrast to angry rhetoric and unreasonable legislation offered by some”. He adds, however, that “the key to the success of the policy,” is how “the agencies use their flexibility to avoid negative impacts to the successful system of scholarly communication that advances science, technology and innovation”.

Public access advocates say the AAP position is most likely a political manoeuvre–by supporting the Obama directive it allows publishers to claim support for public access, and to argue to Congress that FASTR is unnecessary, while also being able to work with each federal agency individually, rather than under a blanket mandate.

Joseph, however, says FASTR is progressing, noting that the Obama d irective has further added a sense of urgency to the issue. “The chances that the bill will advance in some shape or form are fairly good.” ■

After two major governmental actions in February, observers say that a decade-long effort in the US to offer free online public access to all federally

funded research is inching closer to fruition, writes Andrew Richard Albanese. But with simmering publisher opposition, public access remains far from a done deal.

The action began with the introduction in Congress of the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR) on 14 February. The bill would require federal agencies with annual extra-mural research budgets of $100 million to provide the public with online access to research, no later than six months after its publication in a peer-reviewed journal. But unlike previous–and, ultimately, stalled–legislative attempts, FASTR adds a crucial new element: it would seek to enable data-mining across government agencies by requiring articles be “provided in formats, and under terms, that ensure researchers have the ability to freely apply cutting-edge analysis tools”.

“This is a crucial step,” explains Heather Joseph, Executive Director for the Scholarly

Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition. “As the volume of research information increases, with a mind-boggling 1.5 million research articles published each year, we must enable computers as a new category of reader to help power through this volume, thousands of articles at a time, and to highlight patterns, links and associations that would otherwise go undiscovered.”

Just days after FASTR was introduced, President Obama used his executive power on 22 February to direct federal agencies to submit plans for the development and implementation of public access policies. In all, the directive covers 19 federal agencies, and asks that their plans be submitted by August 2013. Notably, the public access goals articulated in the memo are virtually identical to those in FASTR, although without a specific data-mining proposal.

But while publishers have consistently opposed previous federal public access mandates–and opposed the passage of FASTR–the Association of American Publishers (AAP) voiced support for the Obama administration’s initiative, calling it “a reasonable, balanced resolution of issues

US “public access” proposals advancing

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communicating the value of copyright and in educating people about the importance of respecting creativity. We do not need–indeed perhaps do not want–Government heavily involved in this.

There is no case for the commercial sector to back out of this fight. That said, there is a case for expecting the public sector to be in the trenches alongside it. This case is based on five factors.

Upholding the lawSimply put, it is the primary duty of the state to uphold and enforce the law. That principle applies whether it is copyright law, traffic law or employment law that is being broken. When intellectual property rights are breached and an act of Parliament disregarded, it is incumbent on the state to lead on remedial action.

Tax revenuesAside from this rather esoteric “role of the state” argument, governments should be concerned and moved to act when significant levels of revenue are leeching out of the bottom of GDP figures, especially in the current economic climate. Every time that an illegal download replaces a lost sale (and that is roughly around 30% of cases), the Exchequer loses tax income. Not only that, but the ability of companies to succeed and prosper, and thereby to pay wages and taxes, diminishes too.

New legislationThere are some things that companies can do, like promote legal services; and some that they cannot, like pass legislation. Parliament has the monopoly on creating laws (probably rightly so) and the Government of the day has the lion’s share of this power. Recourse to new laws,

Richard Mollet

Copyrigh t i n f r ingement , whether it be the online uploading and distribution o f mass ive amounts o f content, or a photocopier and

warehouse operation in the physical world, imposes a significant cost on publishing businesses. Resources have to be diverted to tackling it, either through enforcement efforts or through building safeguards and security into products and supply chains. And, of course, most importantly, it leads to revenues being foregone as people acquire the infringing copy and not the real thing.

Some might say this is simply an inevitable cost of doing business in the modern world and that creative companies should work harder to mitigate the losses–or even, given the seeming intractability of the problem–consider giving up fighting it altogether. Others might even try and claim that the problem is being over-stated; that the foregone revenues are not that great and, in any event, piracy stimulates demand.

To those of us, like the Publishers Association (PA), who sit on or close to the frontline on tackling infringement, none of these cop-outs seem to hold water. Yes, this activity may be part and parcel of life in the 21st century, but then so is online fraud. And it’s hard to imagine a serious argument for tolerating that activity. As for the false belief that infringement is really free advertising in disguise, while there may be a scintilla of truth in that for undiscovered talent, there are far too many, bigger, counter-examples in the other direction, where it is clearly demonstrable that sales have taken a dive in the face of high levels of infringement. Exhibit A: the Spanish music market.

So, something must be done. But by whom? At bottom, this is industry’s problem and industry has to have some hand in arriving at the solution. “Nanny-statism” does not yet pervade our society so much that creative businesses feel incapable of acting to defend or fend for themselves. Even if the state did wish to take total control, few companies would trust its organs to do the job competently, or even not to somehow exacerbate the problem.

Furthermore, with its marketing and communications budgets, assistance of creative talent and general great flexibility, industry has at its disposal a good set of tools to do a lot of the heavy-lifting. The single most effective approach to dealing with infringement is the provision of legal services–and our sector has those in spades. We are also getting better at

such as the Digital Economy Act, is not always the answer. But when it is the only remaining viable solution, the missing bit of the jigsaw, then the State, and only the State, can be of assistance.

BalanceLatterly it has become fashionable for civil servants and elected politicians to describe their role as one of “maintaining balance”, between competing stakeholders or rival interests. This might sound fair enough–who could be against balance? It’s up there with motherhood and apple pie. But, it is not entirely clear why this should be the role of government, especially if the entities in the weighing scales are creative artists versus infringers, or law-abiding consumers versus illegal enterprises.

Too often lately we have seen policy statements, from various bits of Government, seeming to duck the challenge of coming out in support of rightsholders, because of this perceived need to be acting equitably. But sometimes this is a massive body-swerve, even a dereliction of duty. The ability of an author or publisher to earn rewards for their talents and investment should not be seen as an equipoise to the activities of those who seek to erode copyright.

Range of powersFinally, it is the role of the state to tackle copyright infringement because it has the best range of powers for the job. Taken together, these abilities to generate new laws, enforce existing ones and, through the courts, to sit in judgement of offenders, is a unique set of competences. What is the point of trading standards officers if not, in part, to ensure counterfeit goods aren’t sold in markets? And surely the role of the police must be, to some degree, to pursue criminal levels of intel lectual property (IP) infringement. Furthermore, why have a Minister for IP if they do not act as champion for the businesses that depend on IP, and for those IP laws as well?

So both the private and public sectors have a role in tackl ing copyright infringement. If you have a view, do come along to the PA’s policy seminar at 4pm today to discuss it.

Richard Mollet is Chief Executive of the Publishers Association.

Tackling Copyright Infringement: Whose Role Is It Anyway? will take place today, in the Thames Room at 4pm. ■

Richard Mollet looks at whether it is business or the Government who should be tackling copyright infringement

Whose job is it anyway?

Richard Mollet - Copyright.indd 2Richard Mollet - Copyright.indd 2 10/04/2013 16:4410/04/2013 16:44

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Brilliant strokes

Patience Thomson and Lucy Juckes founded Barrington Stoke in 1997, back when pub-lishing output for strug-

gling readers was virtually non-existent, and the concept of dys-lexia-friendly literature seemed almost a bad joke, writes Mairi Kidd. The Literacy Trust was four years old, the National Literacy Strategy was not yet out of the box, and there would be no Quick Reads for another decade. National testing showed that just 63% of children reached expected levels of literacy by age 11.

The year 1997 also saw the pub-lication of Harry Potter, cement-ing a golden era of children’s litera-ture. But Patience and Lucy were aware of a growing inequality. While there were more and better books available for children to read than ever before, there was also a growing minority of chil-dren and young people who couldn’t access the brilliant (and increasingly long and involved) texts their peers enjoyed.

Patience and Lucy’s idea was, on the face of it, a simple one. They planned to publish brilliant short books by well-known writ-ers with special adaptations to ensure accessibility for dyslexic and less experienced readers.

Making that vision a reality was rather more complex. Before the first books were published, they consulted a raft of experts in ophthalmology, reading theory and special educational needs, supplementing Patience’s dys-lexia expertise and Lucy’s pub-lishing background. Financial backing came via a loan from the Bank of Scotland and a band of private investors, many of whose children had been pupils of Patience’s. And crucially, the authors came on board; Michael Morpurgo, Vivian French and Mary Hoffman launched the list.

So, what’s the difference between a “standard” and a Bar-rington Stoke Morpurgo? ● About 35,000 words. The first Barrington Stoke word counts were an achievable 5,000–10,000. We have since taken the count down to 250 and up to 15,000 for different reading levels.

● The books are typeset in our highly readable Barrington Stoke Roman typeface, with special spac-ing to support dyslexic readers.● Patience and Lucy printed on heavy cream paper to combat visual stress and eliminate prob-lematic show-through. Nowa-days we use a two-colour process to achieve the same effect.● We’ve never commissioned simplified books; from the off we asked authors to write the story they wanted to write. Language specialists get involved later on.

When the company published its first titles, the response was mixed. There was a level of amusement in the industry at the notion of selling books to a con-sumer base that, by definition, didn’t read. Some customers thought the cream paper looked cheap, or that it was badly aged stock. The unique editorial pro-cess was also controversial; while Patience firmly believed that her holistic approach to readability would work, many others dis-missed the books on first sight as too difficult.

Today the situation is rather different, but plenty of challenges remain. First and foremost, the list proved itself in the way that really mattered: parents, teachers and librarians found that their children could read the books. Fifteen years later, and the post-bag still brings tears to the eye: “I just wanted to let you know how much you have changed my son’s life”; “It has really boosted her confidence and she is so proud of herself”; “To hear my child read-ing out loud to herself without

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my assistance was the most won-derful thing ever.”

The company has also enjoyed “gobsmacking” support from authors, illustrators, agents, librarians, teachers, parents, booksellers and the trade press. The list is on core stock at Water-stones and Andy Stanton once told an interviewer he knew he’d made it when we came knocking at his door. We’ve been with Robert Snuggs since the begin-ning and with his support, and that of the incredible indepen-dents, chains and suppliers who have supported us all the way, we had our best ever year in 2012.

On the negative side, there is some truth in the idea that “books for people who don’t want books” is a challenging business model. The root of the problem for many struggling readers is a lack of a book culture at home, and parents who don’t read don’t buy books. Schools and libraries offer a route to these readers, but their budgets are more and more threatened by cuts. Emphasis on synthetic phonics can also see “real read-ing” sidelined.

Our list can also fall between two stools. For every librarian that promotes the books as “fast fiction for all”, another slaps on a “special needs” sticker. Every reviewer who finds a book to be a gem that just happens to be shorter than average is matched by a blogger annoyed that the same book isn’t… longer. And when a charity “gets us” so thor-oughly that we’re wanted on the main list–not the accessible selec-tion–of a national project, we

can’t always take part because the books do have accessibility features, and those cost a lot of money. (Bookgifting initiatives generally offer better terms for titles on the “accessible” list in recognition of the higher cost of producing them.)

We’re not alone in having gripes, of course. Only five years ago, Michael Rosen founded the Funny Prize because some of the best and most popular children’s writers on the market were being under-reviewed and undervalued. Perhaps our gripes are really a sim-ilar challenge. The world of chil-dren’s books can be very female, very middle-class and very literary. While studies show that one in three children don’t own a book, those children don’t crop up often in our own social circles. The result is that most of us don’t publish for them, and perhaps we all buy in to the idea that they could all be switched on to reading if only they’d pick up Mr Stink or a Mr Gum or Harry Potter.

At Barrington Stoke, we know there’s more to it than that. There are many steps on the road to reading for book-deprived chil-dren–otherwise Mr Stink or Mr Gum or Harry Potter can prove just another dispiriting experi-ence that confirms that reading really isn’t for them. That’s what our books exist to do, and our biggest challenge is to continue to win the hearts and minds of those who can help us reach all of those children who are not readers yet, but, with the right help, could be.

Mairi Kidd is Managing Director of Barrington Stoke. ■

2115 APRIL 2013 LONDON SHOW DAILY

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string of self-inflicted political crises in the US. Do you have hope that things might change in the US legislature?TA: I have hope, because no trend continues forever. This down-ward spiral to intense, rigid, parti-san gridlock in Congress will probably be reversed when con-servatives finally acknowledge

Certainly, Tom Allen is well known to the publishing commu-nity. Since 2009, the former Congress-

man has served the Association of American Publishers as its Presi-dent and Chief Executive Officer. But in late 2012, Allen added to his résumé, penning a book on the current state of the US Congress for Oxford University Press–Dan-gerous Convictions: What’s Really Wrong with the US Con-gress. Drawing on his own 12 years in the House of Representa-tives, Allen pulls no punches in his analysis of the legislative dysfunc-tion in America. Andrew Richard Albanese caught up with Allen to talk about a growing American political crisis–and how that might affect publishing-related legislative efforts.

AA: Congratulations on the book, a timely one, given the

that relentless attacks on popular government programmes don’t work politically. More modest goals to make government more effective and efficient would serve Republicans and the country bet-ter than hostility to government itself. Steps toward immigration reform and modest changes in gun laws are already occurring after the 2012 election. Redis-tricting and big money in politics contribute to gridlock, but the primary factor is the fierce clash between incompatible world-views: one view that holds that even democratically-elected gov-ernments diminish personal free-dom and therefore must be much smaller; and another view that government can increase oppor-tunity and help resolve pressing public problems.

AA: What inspired this book?TA: I was “inspired” in part by frustration–at what I considered too shallow media coverage of Congress. I wanted to under-stand why disparate subjects such as taxes, healthcare and the environment, when debated in Congress, seemed always to have the same underlying dynamic: what should we do on our own and what should we do together. I have concluded that our ideo-logical polarisation is grounded in deep emotional commitments either to individualism, a primary American virtue, or community, our characteristic instinct to cooperate. But a more pragmatic approach to politics depends on keeping those two in balance, and writing the book helped me puzzle that out.

AA: Did your time in Congress prepare you for the challenges facing the publishing industry?TA: Life in Congress is a bit like whitewater rafting: fast-paced, always changing, new obstacles around every corner, never enough information about the rocks below the surface and lim-ited control of the raft. Sounds to me like that analogy works for publishing today. But I do enjoy coping with new and difficult challenges for causes in which I believe. I had them in Congress

and I have them now. The book and journal publishing indus-tries are embracing digital, but we are also working hard to con-vince the public that we need an internet that is free and open but not lawless, one that respects the interests of the creators of con-tent as well as users.

AA: Is the level of political dys-function in Congress hindering the work of AAP?TA: Yes. For example, deadlock on the federal budget makes edu-cation funding uncertain, with adverse consequences for schools and colleges that ripple down to parents and students at every level. Half of the book and schol-arly journal publishing industry is engaged in educational materi-als and products. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was scheduled for reau-thorisation in 2007, but nothing has moved in over five years. Copyright laws, including the Chafee amendment on accessible materials, need updating for the digital age. Digital piracy remains a significant problem. Our dys-functional Congress has a nega-tive impact on a wide range of issues that very much need prag-matic attention.

AA: What would you say to our international colleagues who may be watching political events in the US with great concern?TA: I would say that the Ameri-can political parties–particularly the Republicans–are stuck in an unproductive, ideological debate about the size of govern-ment rather than how to truly cope with economic, healthcare, environmental and energy chal-lenges that are increasingly global in nature. Those Ameri-cans that place such a high value on independence from others are having a hard time understand-ing that 21st-century challenges demand much broader collabo-ration–climate change is one example. But while our capacity for international leadership is currently diminished by this stalemate, I do believe we’ll eventually recover a more prag-matic brand of politics. ■

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Ebooks have been an important part of the US publishing land-scape for the last few years, reaching a tip-

ping point in 2012, with around 50% of some key fiction genres now being purchased in “e”, writes Jo Henry. How far behind is the UK market?

In 2012, Bowker’s continuous survey of book buyers, Books & Consumers, registered consumer purchasing of a total of 296m books, on which £2,108m was spent. Overall, ebooks accounted for around 6% of this spend, more than double the figure recorded in 2011–although this increase was not enough to pre-vent a 1% decrease in the value of British consumer book market year on year.

In volume terms, ebooks accounted for 11% of consumer book purchases overall in 2012, reaching a high of 12% in Q3, when the Fifty Shades phenome-non was at its peak, but dropping

back to 10% in Q4 as consumers bought proportionately more printed books as gifts in the run up to Christmas (see Chart 1). A similar pattern can be seen in the US, although the share taken by ebooks is much greater–up to 27% by the last quarter in 2012 (see Chart 2).

In adult fiction, however, ebook share in the UK has continued to rise throughout the year, account-ing for nearly one in five books pur-chased in this category by Q4 2012, compared to less than one in eight in the same period in 2011. And over 2012 as a whole, ebooks accounted for more than a fifth of all purchases of romantic, crime and classic fiction–a rise that has been mainly at the expense of the paperback format.

Non-fiction generally has been slower to migrate to the new for-mats. While some genres such as true crime, travel writing, humour and MBS are showing higher than average share of pur-chases as ebooks, less than 5% of

Chart 1

The impact of ebooks

Chart 2

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those in the more highly illus-trated sectors such as food and drink, home and garden, art, sci-ence and nature genres are being bought in digital formats.

With adult fiction leading the digital revolution, it’s no surprise that women are buying more books in this format than men: nearly one in eight books bought by women in 2012 was an ebook, compared to one in 11 bought by men. And the share of purchases taken by ebooks was also higher among older consumers–although those aged 30-44 bought more ebooks than any other age group last year.

We know from Bowker’s Understanding the Digital Con-sumer study that around 24% of the British adult population downloaded an ebook in March 2013 (this study measures down-loading of all types of digital material, including academic and professional) and another 10% claimed to have done so in the previous six-month period–although downloading for free is still more prevalent than buying. But this study shows good poten-tial growth, with over half of respondents saying they are likely to download an ebook in the future, whether they have done so or not in the past, with more say-ing they are likely to buy rather than, or as well, as downloading for free.

Month on month, Books & Consumers has been tracking the percentage of book buyers who have purchased at least one ebook, a figure standing at 12% by December 2012. The pattern is

very similar to that seen in the US market, but at lower levels; there, the equivalent figure was 22% by the end of last year (see Chart 3).

From Bowker’s Understanding the Children’s Book Consumer in the Digital Age we can look at the impact of digital on this all-important sector. In June 2012, when the last s tudy was conducted, on average 20% of children had read an ebook of any kind, rising to 29% of girls aged 8-13. There appears to be a huge appetite for digital formats among children, with around twice as many keen to e-read as are currently doing so. As yet, this isn’t being reflected in purchasing: data from Books & Consumers shows the ebook share of children’s books bought for 0-12s failing to exceed 2% at any stage of 2012. Last year, however, did see ebooks s ign i f i cant ly increasing their share in the YA market, hitting 11% of volume by Q4 2012. This genre, of course, is one where many books are not just bought by adults, but for adults too.

So, there is still some way to go before the British ebook market reaches the dizzy heights of that now seen in the US. The data indi-cate that it will not be a pattern of unmitigated growth, but that there will be peaks and troughs, depen-dant on the purchaser, the type of purchase–and the time of year.

Jo Henry is of Global Director, Bowker Market Research. For more information on any of the research ref-erenced in this article, please contact Jo Henry, [email protected]. ■

Chart 3

*

*

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LT: Do you think Bond became less literary and therefore much less like the Fleming original?WB: I think the Bond novels maintain their integrity, but everybody’s impression of Bond is diluted by the movies and it is the movies that have changed the perception of Bond. When you go back and look at Fleming’s novels you realise most of them were published in the 1950s and that is what makes them so extraordinary. The literary Bond remains quite true to himself, and is quite a distinct, clear-cut creation.

LT: Did you enjoy writing the new Bond novel?WB: My book is about a real spy on a real mission. I had great fun doing it. I think it is true of all writers that you can’t do it lightly, complacently or frivolously. You really have to take it seriously, which is why I re-read all the books, with a pen in hand, taking notes and steeped myself in Bond’s world. I knew a lot any-way about the Bond novels, but it was an interesting re-education, and I took all that information and applied it to my own version.

You enthusiastically say “yes, I’ll write a Bond novel”, then you realise shortly thereafter you are stepping in to this global phe-nomenon that is James Bond and his image, and how it truly is global. People are as fascinated about it in Japan, Venezuela and Russia as much as they are in Aberdeen or St Ives, so it is quite an experience to suddenly be part of that for a short while.

LT: Are you looking forward to visiting the London Book Fair?WB: I’ve been to the Fair twice before. I like it very much because even though it is vast and it’s always daunting for an author to go to big trade shows, something about it is quite author-friendly. I’ve enjoyed my two visits to LBF in the past, and am looking for-ward to going again.

William Boyd will be in conversation with the Times Literary Editor Erica Wagner, today at 11.30am in the English PEN Literary Café. ■

Liz Thomson caught up with Author of the Day Will iam Boyd, ahead of his third visit to the Fair.

LT: What was it like being one of the Granta best of Young British novelists in 1983? Amis, Barnes, Rushdie, McEwan, Swift, Ishig-uro, Tremain, Barker–a great accolade.WB: We didn’t realise it at the time, as it was the first of these promotions finding a generation of writers. I didn’t know many of them at all, just by reputation. I was living in Oxford and came up for the famous photograph, and I don’t think any of us realised par-ticularly that we would still be around 30 years later.

LT: You have won and been shortlisted for lots of awards; do you think they still matter in a digital age?

WB: I think they do because they get people talking about books and they become a topic of con-versation, debate and contro-versy, but I don’t think you should take them too seriously. They are part of the sideshow of literary life. I have a very phlegmatic, phil-osophical attitude to prizes: if you

win one or you are shortlisted, then it is a very nice thing to hap-pen, but I certainly don’t agonise over it. I don’t expect now to be on any shortlists any more. I’ve had my moment; there are newer and younger writers coming up.

LT: Do you think self-publishing is a democratising trend?WB: The self-publishing explo-sion is a sign of people’s hunger to see their writing in some form of print. It is like the explosion of literary festivals; you can go to one a week, every week of the year. It shows there is a real curi-osity and a need that can be met. Very few successful self-pub-lished novelists seem to continue on that road. They are nearly always snapped up by a pub-lisher, who will then do the edit-ing, promotion and marketing in a way I think you physically can’t as a self-published writer.

LT: You are bringing Bond back to the 1960s. Did you think twice when you were asked to write a Bond novel?WB: I said yes instantly! It was a very good time for me as I had just finished my own last novel, Waiting for Sunrise, which is a spy novel. I’ve written two spy novels and I am sort of steeped in that world. I also knew a lot about Fleming, as I put him in one of my own novels, so it was just one of these wonderful, ser-endipitous moments.

LT: What is your favourite of the Bond novels?WB: I think my favourite Bond is From Russia with Love, because it is like a real spy novel and in many ways Fleming’s most inter-esting. It is a honey trap and it is about agents, Russia and the Cold War. The Bond novels that get a bit extravagant and gimmicky are my least favourite. The ones that have their feet firmly on the ground are the ones I like best. I like the much maligned Man with a Golden Gun, the last posthu-mous Fleming novel, as well, because that’s another real mis-sion. My own novel is a straight-forward mission for our most famous spy.

The man with the golden pen

William Boyd Photo: Trevor Leighton


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US market. The BEA Global Market Forum programme has become a cultural event that takes place all over New York City. Russia took centre stage in 2012, with Mexico up in 2013.

The Author Breakfasts offer a wide cross-section of speakers and the Author Stages pro-vide access to the authors for booksellers and the media. Civil rights leader John Lewis, Neil Gaiman, Amy Tan and Jim Gaffigan will appear on the Author Stage; the Breakfasts will be moderated by Chelsea Handler, Octa-via Spencer and Chris Matthews, and boast a range of speakers including Helen Fielding, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Mary Pope Osborne and Ishmael Beah.

And, an exciting new development is the limited introduction of consumers. The 2,000 “Power Readers” anticipated in 2013 won’t be very noticeable among the 8,000 trade attendees, but it is important for how the con-sumer press covers BEA, and as a way to engage consumers in BEA’s video efforts–ulti-mately impacting on the discovery of new titles and authors.

Steve Rosato is Event Director for BookExpo America. ■

The Chinese have a phrase that can be viewed as a curse or a blessing: “May you live in inter-esting times,” writes Steve Rosato. It was Robert Kennedy

that brought this phrase to people’s atten-tion, when he said: “Like it or not we live in interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are also more open to the creative energy of men than any other time in history.”

Kennedy’s statement aptly describes the publishing industry in 2013; there has been as much change in the last five years as there was in the previous 50. BookExpo America (BEA) has embraced that change, and while serving publishers and booksellers today, is also focusing on the industry’s next generation.

The 2013 event is set for 30 May to 1 June in New York City, and BEA and its partners will deliver an innovative technology event new to the book industry–bringing prominent angel investors and partners from the leading venture capital firms to BEA. This will be in addition to world class digital education from BEA, IDPF (International Digital Publishing Forum) and Publishers Launch.

BEA will also stream marquee events live via the web, as well as making many of the events available for viewing or listening on demand. More than 150,000 individuals viewed or listened to 400,000 videos or pod-casts from BEA in more than 20 countries last year. This will continue to grow with the launch of www.bookbliss.com, an easy access portal to BEA content.

Internationally, BEA is the premier access point for emerging markets to engage with the

Steve Rosato

BEA: Embracing interesting times

2715 APRIL 2013 LONDON SHOW DAILY

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business as it stands. Get all the information you have to hand and try to create a vision of your com-pany as a business proposition. Assess the company’s strengths and weaknesses, financials, staff-ing and all operations. Build a complete picture of all your assets. Look at your products and your distribution channels afresh. Consider where your current

When is the best time to branch into foreign mar-kets? It’s a

tricky question, writes John Sty-ring. There are big costs and risks attached to setting up abroad; there may be language barriers. Certainly, it is something I spent time thinking about in terms of my own business, Igloo Books, when we looked at setting up offices in America and, more recently, Germany.

The answer? There is no perfect time, but there are some processes that will greatly improve your chances of succeeding.

Play to your strengthsThe idea of setting up shop in another country can seem too big to contemplate, with too many options and too many countries to choose from. So, before you start, it is essential to take stock of your

relationships are strongest, where you think your, or similar, products do well.

This exercise is an excellent means of assessing your business goals and what you hope to achieve by setting up in a foreign market. It should also highlight any obvious locations where the market looks ripe to invest in. If you have a lot of contacts and distributors in East-ern Europe for example, these nat-ural successes should be built upon. Similarly, if you have another lan-guage, try to utilise it. Don’t under-value the skills in your back pocket.

Research, researchThe truth is that even once you have identified a market you would like to move into, it can be difficult to make that a reality. Moving beyond the developmen-tal stages of such an idea is com-plex, and it is reasonable to be prudent. It can be really challeng-ing to turn multiple immaterial ideas into one secure, financially viable opportunity, and that is what must be pinpointed in order to safeguard the significant finan-cial commitment required.

Do as much research as possible: use the book fairs to meet new con-tacts, drop in on seminars and look at other people’s stalls. Attend con-ferences, talk to fellow publishers, and ask as much advice as possible from your contacts within your country of choice. I value straight-talking, and I think when you are committing to a scenario like this, it is important to be as open as possible about your plans, as your contacts are far more likely to talk candidly in return.

When you are looking to set up a foreign office you should wel-come hard facts and not look for cushioned answers. You will also build your address book with really useful contacts, which will help grow your business no matter which country you are in. By tak-ing nothing for granted and drill-ing down into the minutiae of a publishing market in detail, study-ing competitors, logistics and financial forecasts, I was able to thoroughly inform my vision of my future office.

But, however much research you undertake, it is no replace-

ment for native knowledge. While Igloo Books has much experience in foreign markets, I knew I had to find a local, in my case German, partner to look after our affairs. The contacts you build through research will often lead you to the right person.

Everyone’s an individualHaving established a presence for my company in two familiar Western countries, where you might expect publishing to be roughly similar to our own, I can say with complete certainty that every country has its own busi-ness culture and idiosyncratic working methods. I’m not advo-cating that you make yourself flu-ent in every business custom, but do expect that there may be stick-ing points–even if it’s as simple as the tone of emails and the fre-quency of communication. Little infelicities can be forgiven, but only if there is awareness and honesty on both sides–another example of why a native business partner is irreplaceable.

Playing the long gameSetting up in a foreign market has been an incredibly positive expe-rience and I believe developing a global presence is important for the overall success of the busi-ness, as it enhances its credibility and productivity.

Being open to the differences between cultures, and open to the way businesses evolve over time, is a key factor to long-term success. You must also be open to the likeli-hood that however well you plan, some things will come to surprise you, and being open to change is essential to success. And, you must be prepared to commit a serious amount of time in building the business, working with your new employees and ensuring that the office becomes part of the publish-ing community. It shouldn’t be merely a satellite to the activities of your home office.

In short, a successful foreign expansion requires an eye for detail, endurance, vision and great people skills.

John Styring is Managing Director of Igloo Books. ■

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Oren Teicher

Often, when I talk with folks about our member bookstores, their reaction is: “Oh, I just love independent bookstores. But aren’t most

of them closing?” This is what I call my You’ve Got Mail moment.

In You’ve Got Mail, the 1998 Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks movie, Ryan plays the plucky owner of an indie bookstore who unknowingly falls in love online with Hanks, who runs the behemoth chain store. By the time the movie ends, love has triumphed, but t h e i n d i e b o o k s t o r e h a s f a i l e d . Unfortunately, for many, the perception that indie booksellers can’t swim against the tide of industry change has not changed in the 15 years since that movie was released. But indie bookselling in 2013 looks a lot different than it did in 1998–or, even 2008, for that matter. And the good news is that we are in fact seeing a renaissance of indie bookselling.

Renaissance In 2012, sales at American Booksellers Association (ABA) member bookstores were up almost 8% compared to 2011, based on the unit sales of the approximately 500 bookstores reporting to ABA’s weekly Indie Bestseller List. Also contrary to the You’ve Got Mail expectations, new independent bookstores are opening nationwide. For the third year in a row, ABA’s bookstore membership numbers have shown modest growth, with 43 new indie bookstores opening in 2012 in 25 states.

The news in 2012 was also very good for indie booksellers’ sales online. More than 4 2 0 b o o k s t o r e s n o w u s e A B A ’ s IndieCommerce platform, and those participating stores saw a 28% increase in online sales in 2012.

While the general wisdom holds that technology is the enemy of the indie bookstore, the reality is that independent booksellers are embracing technology, not fighting it. A broad range of indie bookstores now apply new technology throughout their businesses, from POS systems, to inventory control, and payroll management to store websites, and social media and email newsletters.

Independent booksellers today fully understand that they can’t run a viable 21st-century business without an online presence. Ten years ago, the debate was whether indie bookshops should be online. Today, the discussion is about how to make indie websites better.

Indie booksellers also fully understand that some of our customers want to read digitally, and are working hard to make sure that they can sell ebooks to their customers. After an unsatisfying early ebook experience with Google, ABA and the Canadian company Kobo announced a new partnership last August. Participating ABA member stores now offer a full line of Kobo e-readers, apps, accessories and ebooks from Kobo’s catalogue of nearly three million titles.

ABA bookstores in the Kobo programme retain their customer relationships, and share the revenue on every sale. And from ABA’s perspective, the Kobo partnership is made stronger because of Kobo’s “Read Freely” philosophy. Kobo supports an open platform and the adoption of industry standards to ensure that people own the books they buy, and are never locked to one device or service. We are still in the very early stages of the Kobo partnership, but the initial numbers are very encouraging, significantly outperforming our earlier efforts in this area. I should be clear: we at ABA believe that the overwhelming majority of what our members sell will continue to be physical books. But we also know that being able to say “yes” to our customers when they want to purchase an ebook is a huge strategic benefit.

DiscoveryStill, I believe that the most important element of the indie bookstore renaissance is that physical bookstores continue to offer a unique, essential browsing and discovery experience. Other channels may command a larger overall market share, but the indie bookselling formula of knowledge, innovation, passion and business savvy creates a unique shopping experience

especially suited to a publishing and self-publishing landscape that continues to see an extraordinary escalation of new titles.

This is not to say that indie booksellers are not using a wide range of digital tools. Whether it’s website updates about staff picks and author events, pithy tweets and Facebook updates, or email newsletters, indie bookstores are using digital means to connect customers with great authors, great writing and with their own community. But the fact remains: there isn’t yet an online equivalent to the experience of browsing and discovery in a physical bookstore.

To bolster that critical mission, in 2011, ABA began urging our f r iends in the publishing community to recognise the essential role played by bricks-and-mortar bookstores, and to work with us on testing new business models. That outreach, I’m happy to say, has led to a number of new initiatives from publishers, including new consignment arrangements, extended dating for invoices, additional discounts, publisher rebates for sales of selected titles, and trading co-op in return for title placement in stores or a broader representation of inventory.

This work can only strengthen our entire industry, and I urge publishers who have not yet begun to rethink their business operations regarding indie stores to join us in dialogue. I’m not suggesting that the current renaissance in indie bookselling will garner quantum leaps forward in our market share. But I do believe it is in everyone’s interest to maintain a diverse and healthy book retailing ecosystem.

I certainly don’t want to sound like a Pollyanna when it comes to the small business realities of 2013. But I’ve been in this business long enough to have read the putative obituary of indie bookselling several times–the catalogue of deathblows includes mall stores, department stores, corporate superstores, warehouse clubs, online retailing, ebooks and a whole lot more. And, in each case, indie booksellers have innovated and adapted to meet the changing competition and the changing times, all with their eyes firmly fixed on the unchanging goal: connecting readers with their next great read. And while I have nothing against Tom Hanks or Meg Ryan, let’s retire the You’ve Got Mail perception of independent bookselling for good.

This is an excerpt of a speech Teicher gave at O’Reilly’s Tools of Change conference held in February in New York City. ■

Contrary to popular perceptions, American Booksellers Association CEO Oren Teicher says America’s independent booksellers are on the upswing

You’ve got growth!

Oren Teicher - Indie Bookseller.indd 3Oren Teicher - Indie Bookseller.indd 3 12/04/2013 11:5012/04/2013 11:50



the year ahead. While reprography licences will remain in place–welcome news given this was by no means certain during the consultation period–the threshold of fair dealing (what you would in theory be allowed to copy without a licence) will be raised to 5%; that is the same amount that the CLA licence provides schools with.

Agreements in place with DfE and with the Higher Education sector indicate that licensing income is secure for the next three years. But we will all need to give serious thought to what happens after that, not least because of changes to copyright elsewhere: there will now be a fair dealing exception for the purposes of teaching, as yet undefined, but presumably for illustration and to legalise the use of white boards for display in classrooms. The Government is yet to clarify the legal language to explain this, nor has it made clear how this proposal is going to apply to anyone engaged in teaching (not simply confined to schools or teachers), and how it will work for distance learners.

The PA will continue its dialogue with officials, and stay closely engaged in the review of the technical language put forward to deliver the policy goals above (anticipated in the next month). And we are right to be suspicious about the proposals–and not just because the Intellectual Property Office’s track record. One only has to look at the European landscape, where we are faced with calls to reopen the Copyright Directive and introduce a host of new exceptions, to see why.

While we have managed to see off the worst for now, and a series of stakeholder dialogues to look at licensing (and licensing alone, much to the disappointment of the copyright erosion-ists) is being pursued, we know that the issue of education exceptions is never far from mind. So, in discussions

Gemma Hersh

Ahead of the first IPA Education Conference on Wednesday, Gemma Hersh looks at the challenges facing educational publishers in the coming year

Educating offi cials

On W e d n e s d a y , t h e International Publishers A s s o c i a t i o n w i l l b e hosting its first Education conference at London Book

Fair, and we can expect that the policy landscape will be under discussion. But what does the terrain look like in the UK and EU?

At a time of massive change to the National Curriculum, from primary through to secondary and including A-Level, publishers await final confirmation of the programmes of study that schools will have to follow, alongside the assessment criteria and accountability frameworks of which teachers will have to be mindful. These three ingredients are essential for publishers to be able to produce high-quality learning resources to assist teachers in the delivery of not just the Government’s own Curriculum (which is now slimmed down), but overarching aims of improving educational outcomes.

The Department for Education (DfE) understands the need for publishers to have early sight of programmes of study, assessment criteria and accountability frameworks, but it’s not clear how much they appreciate just how tight the schedule for implementation is. Publishers can help here: the Publishers Association (PA) has made it clear to DfE that, despite the tight deadline (with old programmes of study being dis-applied from this September, and the new ones ready to go from September 2014), publishers can and will provide the learning resources crucial for delivery.

But their role can be broader than this. Publishers could help by bridging the gap between change and implementation, and by informing teachers about the changes to come and the resources at their disposal. The DfE also needs to understand–and all the signs suggest that at the moment it does–that quality assurance (“kite marking”) is not the way to secure this. Publishers are in the business of providing high-quality learning resources, and can do this if given adequate time and information, which includes the publication of final drafts, and full accountability and assessment criteria, now.

Copyright and educationThe challenge of the Curriculum, however, pales into insignificance in terms of the policy challenges publishers are facing elsewhere. The Government’s proposed changes to copyright exceptions, set out in Modernising Copyright (published in December 2012), set the policy direction for

about user-generated content, the focus of one of the dialogues, some have suggested that education should be on the agenda.

User-generated contentWe also know that if the European Commission is minded to introduce one exception, user-generated content (as yet loosely defined) will be top of the list (alongside text mining). We are working to keep education out of these discussions and instead keep them where they belong: in a separate (but also troubling) dialogue with the Commission about Open Education Resources (OERs). The Commission held a consultation about this towards the end of 2012, and we, along with others, went in to see (educate) officials about OERs and how they can be useful, but are certainly no alternative to published learning resources. This education will continue through 2013, and we await the Commission’s response to the consultation.

At international level, with the WIPO Treaty for Visually Impaired Persons (VIP) likely to be signed in June, we know that education is next on the agenda, along with libraries. That is why we need to make sure the VIP treaty is as sound as possible, and does not set any worrying precedents for the battles ahead.

The overriding theme of all of the above is the value-added of publishers. This is being questioned in every sphere, and the PA is continuing to counter this view at all levels of Government. Each of the policy items above can be linked back to this. So if publishers add no real value, then it doesn’t matter what role they play in Curriculum delivery. Or, if publishers are not appreciated as producers of high-quality learning resources, kite marking might be the way to achieve quality, or perhaps by letting teachers produce their own–which would be greatly aided by more favourable language on open education resources, and perhaps through copyright exceptions in the education space and in other areas.

Over the next year, demonstrating the value of publishers, and of published learning resources, to the economy and to society, will be front and centre of the PA’s agenda.

Gemma Hersh is Head of Public Affairs at the Publishers Association. The conference, “What Works? Policies, Resources and Technologies for International Education Success”, will be held from 9.30am to 5pm, on 17th April, at the Earls Court Conference Centre. ■

Gemma Hersh - Education.indd 2Gemma Hersh - Education.indd 2 10/04/2013 15:3210/04/2013 15:32

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