13 A P R I L 2 011
For round-the-clock London Book Fair coverage go to www.publishersweekly.com and www.bookbrunch.co.uk
Sonny Mehta – a very
full lifetime
O
ld friends – including
Caroline Lascelles,
first Picador editor –
spanning years and continents
gathered to see Sonny Mehta
presented with the LBF Lifetime
Achievement Award, sponsored
by SBS Worldwide. It was an
emotional occasion honouring
a man who treated all authors
with “great respect”, who “never
patronised” and showed “a depth
of care” that is unparalleled,
said Kazuo Ishiguro, who as
a yet unknown author first
encountered Mehta on a trip to
New York. Wherever authors
were gathered, they moaned
about their editors. “But mention
of Sonny kills all the fun. No one
ever moans about him.”
Simon Master, who worked
with Mehta during the glory
days of Pan, noted that, “since
the turn of this year, he has
published across six decades”,
beginning with “a starter job” at
Rupert Hart-Davis. Then came
Granada, where he worked with
Carmen Callil, and published
The Female Eunoch. He
succeeded Clarence Paget at Pan,
becoming Editorial Director of
both Pan and Picador, showing
that “his literary skills embraced
both sides of the street” – Jack
Higgins and Jackie Collins on
one, Edmund White and Bret
Easton Ellis on the other. He
recalled editorial meetings,
Mehta “his head under a brown
blanket, a full ashtray to his
left, a half-empty bottle of Jack
Daniels to his right and a fierce-
looking dog sitting on his lap”.
Then, in 1987, he crossed the
Atlantic to create more magic
throughout Random House.
Mehta said he didn’t recognise
himself. “I share this award
with all [my colleagues] but the
honour, as always, belongs to
the writers who make our work
possible.” ■
Severn House
Available now
Last King of Brighton
ISBN 978 0 7278 8009 3
Sonny Mehta (third from left) with (l-r) Steve Walker, Chairman of SBS Worldwide,
Simon Master, Chairman of the LBF Advisory Board, and Kazuo Ishiiguro
Harrison
remembered
I
n New York, Abrams has
signed an agreement with
Olivia Harrison, widow of
Beatle George, to publish the life
of her late husband in pictures.
Living in the Material World:
George Harrison – named after his
1973 solo album – was bought
by Editor-in-Chief Eric Himmel
from Andrew Wylie.
It will be created by Olivia
Harrison and will have a foreword
by Martin Scorsese and an
introduction by Paul Theroux, and
its autumn publication will coincide
with the release of Scorsese’s
documentary of the same name.
Drawing on Harrison’s personal
archive of previously unseen photos,
letters, diaries, and memorabilia,
it will reveal the full arc of his life
and will include reminiscences
Tracers from Eric Clapton, Eric Idle, Terry
ISBN 978 0 7278 8013 0 Gilliam, Paul McCartney, Ringo
Starr, and his family.
Abrams President and CEO
Michael Jacobs described it as “a
publishing event that George’s
fans all over the world have been
waiting for”. ■
London Fair DEALE R Wednesday 13 April 2011 1
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P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y & B O O K B R U N C H L O N D O N F A I R D E A L E R

F A I R D E A L I N G S

Ghonim book up for grabs

at buoyant Rights Centre
T
raffic was strong at the he gave hour-long presentations
International Rights discussing his life. Inkwell has
Centre during the not closed any deals yet for
second day of the London the book, Revolution 2.0, and
Book Fair, writes Rachel Deahl. is, instead, letting interested
While many agents and other publishers leave their names, so
insiders said there was no to speak, at the door.
big book at the Fair, talk was Aside from the buzz about
gurgling up about a coup Ghonim, many agents seemed
Michael Carlisle and Richard positive, if low-key, about the
Pine at Inkwell Management Fair itself. Katie Dublinski,
scored, signing Egyptian internet at Graywolf Press, who was
activist Wael Ghonim. Ghonim attending the Fair for the first
became an international folk time after multiple trips to
hero after his Facebook page, Frankfurt, said she was busy Fresh from commentating on the US Masters for Sky, Colin Montgomerie visited
LBF as Orion announced it had bought world rights in his autobiography Monty
about an Egyptian man who and noted that there was less (September 2011). Guy Kinnings and Sarah Wooldridge at IMG handled the sale.
was beaten to death by police, talk about ebooks than there The golfer is pictured (right) with publisher Alan Samson, both clutching the
went viral and helped spark had been in Germany. “It Ryder Cup, which Europe won last September under Montgomerie’s captaincy.
the revolution that swept seemed like every conversation
Egypt.(Ghonim, who works I had at Frankfurt ended with, “urgency” publishers once felt important, he said, and it was
for Google, is to be awarded ‘So what are you doing about about buying books at the Fair a “mistake to be overly focused
the 2011 Kennedy Profile in ebooks?’” she said. no longer existed. on the royalty issue alone”.
Courage Award and is slated to Brian DeFiore, of DeFiore He added that while German agent Michael Gaeb,
appear in the Time 100.) and Company, said that the there was talk about ebooks, who was seeing strong interest
In an unorthodox sales lack of a big book seemed a foreign publishers, including in a debut crime novel he
approach, the agents set sign of the times. Since it was the British, did not seem to represents by Max Bentow called
Ghonim up in a conference so easy to spread information believe fully that ebooks would The Feather Man—it has sold
room in the Rights Centre, about projects via email these penetrate their local markets in Spain and the Netherlands
where, Monday and Tuesday, days, DeFiore thought that the in the same way they had in – said he had been heartened
the US. American publishers, to see a growing interest from
he said, had seen the numbers American publishers in literature
To contact London Fair Dealer at the Fair with ebooks “get so big, so in translation.
with your news, visit us at the Publishers quickly” that the format had
actually infused an excitement
Although much talk in
the States has been focused
Weekly stand G445 into the business and had on a boon in Swedish crime
London reporting for BookBrunch by
caused American houses to buy bestsellers, on the heels of the
Nicholas Clee (nick@bookbrunch.co.uk)
more aggressively. That was not global success of Stieg Larsson’s
Liz Thomson (liz@bookbrunch.co.uk) happening with the foreign Millennium Trilogy, Gaeb
London reporting for Publishers Weekly by publishers, he said. thought that this new interest
Andrew Albanese (AAlbanese@publishersweekly.com) Marta Fricke, who handles went beyond just crime fiction
Rachel Deahl (rdeahl@publishersweekly.com) international rights for St and just Swedish authors. That
Jim Milliot (jmilliot@publishersweekly.com) Martin’s Press, said there was a serious literary authors were
“nice energy to the show” and finding footholds in America
President: George Slowik Jr that, mostly, everyone seemed and England – in the States
Project Management: Cevin Bryerman (Cbryerman@publishersweekly.com)
pleased to be back in London Roberto Bolano has been a hit
Advertising: Joseph Murray (jmurray@publishersweekly.com) and Fiona Valpy
after so many people could not for FSG and in the UK Faber
(fvalpy@googlemail.com)
Layout and Production: Heather Brown
attend last year because of the published, last year, French
Editorial Co-ordinator (UK): Marian Sheil volcanic ash cloud. author Tristan Garcia – may be
Mapping: Kady Francesconi Robert Gottlieb, Chairman sparking the trend.
of Trident Media Group, Gaeb said he was seeing more
To subscribe to Publishers Weekly, go to PublishersWeekly.com or acknowledged that “ebooks are interest in literary translations
call 800-278-2991. a big topic”, but said he was from the British and Americans
hoping the conversation would here in London than he had
Subscribe to BookBrunch via www.bookbrunch.co.uk or move away from the heavy even in Frankfurt, where, he
email subscriptions@bookbrunch.co.uk for special rates focus on royalties. Figuring said, he tended to do more
out where ebooks fitted into business with other continental
London Fair Dealer produced by Jelly Fish Print Solutions 01489 897373
an author’s career is what was European publishers. ■

London Fair DEALE R Wednesday 13 April 2011 3

P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y & B O O K B R U N C H L O N D O N F A I R D E A L E R

F A I R D E A L I N G S

RIGHTS NEWS
Beautiful Books has signed
a world rights deal with the
Real Man Pizza Company to
produce a series of The Real
Man Cookbooks. The series
will offer readers a range of
menus and approaches to the
enjoyment of food “reflecting
the values of The Real Man
company”. The first book will
be published in the UK in
physical and ebook formats
in autumn 2011. The deal
was signed at LBF between
Beautiful Books MD Simon
Petherick and Real Man MD
Tom Winnifrith.
Chatto & Windus has acquired
UK/Commonwealth rights to
a debut novel by Francesca
Segal, in a two-book deal
from Rogers, Coleridge &
White’s Zoe Waldie in a hotly
contested auction. Temple
Fortune – “an age-old tale of
love, temptation, confusion,
commitment and coming to
terms with the choices we’ve
made” – will be published
next year. Chatto is describing
it as “a triumphant and
beautifully executed recasting
of Edith Wharton’s The Age
of Innocence”. Said Poppy
Hampson: “‘We couldn’t be
happier to be publishing this
book – it’s witty, charming,
clever and utterly enjoyable,
and there’s no doubt that it will
be a highlight for us next year.
We’re thrilled that Francesca is
joining us.”
Segal – the daughter of
Erich Segal, a classicist who
achieved worldwide fame with
Love Story and who wrote the
screenplay for the Beatles’
Yellow Submarine – was
brought up between the UK
and America. He studied at
Oxford and Harvard before
becoming a journalist and critic.
Simon and Schuster Children’s
Books has acquired further
titles for the successful Dork
Diaries series by Rachel Renée
Russell. Jane Griffiths bought
UK/Commonwealth rights
(excluding Canada) in three
new titles from Angharad Kowal
at Writers House UK. The deal
comprises two further titles in
the series and a spin-off journal.
The first title under the new
contract, Dork Diaries: Pop
Star, will be published in June.
Dork Diaries was first
published in the US in 2009,
followed by the UK release
in spring 2010. The first two
books have already sold over
230k copies for S&S UK, with
almost 1.7 million copies sold
worldwide.
CEOs talk revolution
“I’ve never been to a revolution,
but what is happening doesn’t
feel very evolutionary,” John
Makinson, Chairman and CEO
of the Penguin Group, told the
CEO panel at LBF. There was
“a transformation” in every area
of the publishing chain, and
publishers were forced to learn
new skills, including the creation
of direct relationships with
consumers and the production of
better pricing analytics. Publishers
needed to “Try to understand how
the growth in digital is going to
track with the inevitable decline of,
and in some parts of the world the
collapse of, physical book retail.”
Finally, there was the challenge
of understanding readers and
how they responded to new
forms of content. “Will they
read immersively, as they have
done,” Makinson asked, “or will
they expect some other kind of
experience?”
Li Pengyi, President of the
China Education Publishing and
Media Group, said that digital was
more than a change of people’s
habits, but a “change of lifestyle”.
Li said it was unlikely that
publishers would be replaced – as
long as they found ways to make
themselves indispensable; but he
likened print to species rendered
extinct by environmental change.
If print were to die, though, “it
would be a sad story”.
Elsevier CEO YS Chi,
speaking from an STM
industry perspective, said of the
major publishers: “We are the
incumbents. When change is
fast incumbents are toast. When
change is gradual, incumbents
reign. So it is not in our interest to
make this a revolution.”
“The closer you are to the
consumer, it definitely is a
revolution,” said HarperCollins
CEO Brian Murray, citing the
rapid adoption of ebook readers.
In the US, some titles were selling
50% in ebook format in the first
few months. “That is a watershed
to me. That means we are beyond
the tipping point in some genres.”
Publishers’ best customers were
no longer visiting bookstores,
Murray said. That raised issues
of discoverability and marketing.
Piracy was also a significant
concern, as was scale. “When you
move to a complete digital product
and value chain, some of the
(manufacturing and distribution)
scale goes away, and that’s where
new ventures can challenge some
of the incumbents.”
However, Murray said, we had
“an opportunity to really reinvent
our business”. It was “an incredibly
exciting time”. ■

BEA welcomes Italy

Italy is to star at the Global Market Forum at BookExpo America, which
takes place in New York in May. “We are excited to roll out the carpet for
publishing professionals and authors from Italy in New York in one month,”
said BEA director Steven Rosato, adding: “Italy is one of the strongest and
most dynamic publishing markets in Europe at this point.”
Italy will be at the centre of events on Monday, 23 May, the day before
the show floor opens. Topics of the debate with speakers from both major
Italian and US companies and institutions include an overview on the
Italian book business; the rights and translation markets, with specific
emphasis on fiction and on children’s books; and digital publishing. On the
digital side, there will be a panel on “Arrow”, an Italian project on identifying
orphan works for digital exploitation.
Rosato said: “We are working with the Italian publishers’ association
Usborne toasted debut thriller writer Paula Rawsthorne with drinks and
AIE, the Italian trade commission in the US, and major corporations cupcakes at LBF. Rawsthorne wrote her novel, The Truth About Celia Frost,
from both Italy and America, assuring that the most relevant voices will for the SCBWI Undiscovered Voices competition, and was signed up by one of
be heard at BEA.” Participating houses will include Europa Editions, the judges, Jo Unwin of Conville & Walsh. Unwin sold the novel to Rebecca Hill,
who said that she had “never read a thriller that packs such a punch”.
Rizzoli, RCS, GeMS and Mondadori, as well as the book fairs of Bologna L to r: Unwin, Rawsthorne, and Hill.
and Turin. ■

4 London Fair DEALE R Wednesday 13 April 2011

P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y & B O O K B R U N C H L O N D O N F A I R D E A L E R

F A I R D E A L I N G S

London Book Fair gallery

Under the big top of Earls Court – a celebration of

Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus

Andrew and Gilly Johnston toast

10 years of Quiller Publishing

Up on the Kensington Roof Garden – Robert Harris with

(l-r) Caroline Gascoigne, Gail Rebuck, Emma Mitchell and Susan Sandon

Peter Balis (right) and colleagues from Wiley

celebrate 20 years of Dummies

Denis Avey, 92-year-old survivor of Auschwitz, with his Dutch publishers Heleen Buth (left) and Maria
Rutgers of House of Books. Hodder hosted a dinner at the Bluebird Cafe for Avey, co-author Rob Sheila Bounford and David Taylor pause
Broomby, and many of the 13 international publishers who have bought rights in the memoir for a beer at the Ingram party

6 London Fair DEALE R Wednesday 13 April 2011

PARIS COOKBOOK FAIR
March 2012
T r a d e m e e ts p l e a s u r e

Photo: Denis Nidos

Meet us at the London Book Fair

GOURMAND Edouard Cointreau - CEO
ecointreau@gourmandbooks.com LBF / Gourmand Cookbook Corner
International www.cookbookfair.com
Earls Court 2- Z305
P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y
Revisiting Bologna
George Slowik Jr on his first visit to Bologna in 17 years
F
or my first visit to Bologna in
17 years, I roamed the halls
seeking to re-familiarise myself
with old friends and a new world
order. The size of the fair felt similar,
the tone just as spirited and intimate
as I had remembered, but lacked
the big book frenzy. The new agents
centre is now brightly lit, well placed
and quite abuzz. So, I tried to resist
my tendency toward introspection
and sought the opinions of folks
from around the globe.
Italian publishers held a meeting
where results of the Associazione
Italiana Editori study were released.
For the first time Italian publishers
sold more children’s titles than
they bought; a 25% increase in
sales to 1,607 titles paired with
an 11% decrease in purchases to
1,283 created a unit gap of 324.
Not surprisingly only 4% of Italian
title/sales were to North America.
Fiammetta Giorgi, editor-in-chief
of Mondadori’s children’s division,
shared that “even local bestselling
authors like Licia Troisi do not sell
Visitors from 65 countries attended the
48th annual Bologna Children’s Book Fair
into the US market”. Troisi has nine
titles translated into 17 languages;
in an effort to make an English-
language sale, Mondadori plans to
translate her work on spec. “In fact,”
Giorgi reports “we have not sold
any title to the US”.
On the other hand, Claudia
Mazzucco, CEO of Atlantyca
Entertainment, has created a
worldwide phenomenon with Italy’s
own Geronimo Stilton, for whom
they launched a seven-country web
and social media platform, with
many more to follow. Commenting
on this year’s event Luisa Bianchi,
8 London Fair DEALE R Wednesday 13 April 2011
& B O O K B R U N C H
The Fair was busy, with more people coming
from many European markets, which are
recovering after the recession.
her publicist, stated that “everything
is becoming extremely hectic,
opportunities are multiplying,
content digitisation has forced all
of the publishers, even the most
conservative, to accept the new
situation”.
Bastian Schlueck of Thomas
Schlueck Literary and Art Agency
reported that “over the last years,
more German publishers/editors/
agents are coming – more foreign
clients either added juvenile literature
to their list or expanded their YA
lists and are coming now, too. So
the number of our agency
meetings improved. Over
the last two or three years
German adult publishers
are now here as well and
are looking for the same
material that pure YA
publishers are interested
in. So there is more
competition.”
John Erik Riley of
Cappelen Damm,
Norway’s largest
publisher, noted, “For us,
every book fair is a good
one, but some are more exciting
than others. Last year’s acquisition of programme coordinator
The Emerald Atlas comes to mind.
“All in all,” Riley said, “Bologna
always blows me away, particularly
when it comes to illustration.
There’s always a lot of good stuff out
there. When it comes to innovation,
things go in waves. There seemed to
be less innovation this year. There’s a
lot of talk about digital publication
and things are certainly changing.
Most publishers are working hard
to get things in place. We saw a few
apps here and there that sparked our
interest. All in all, though, the fair
L O N D O N
was about books in the
old fashioned sense of
the word.”
Lippo Luukkonen,
publisher of children’s
books at Finland’s WSOY,
echoed his sentiment,
saying: “For all children’s
publishers Bologna is the
key event, as well as the
most beloved event of
the year. Two years ago
the fair was quiet; last
year there was a huge hype around
The Emerald Atlas, which was the
book everybody wanted to have
and some got. This year there wasn’t
anything that extraordinary going
on, but it looked quite healthy,
with more people coming from
many European markets, which are
recovering after the recession.”
Turning to the digital outlook,
Luukkonen noticed that many
publishers were only for the first
time “actively promoting their
first proper enriched ebooks for
tablets. I find it quite amazing how
relatively late this whole branch,
internationally, has awakened for
this change. For the first time now
it looked as if this change has been
accepted broadly everywhere.”
The Asian publishers had no
larger presence than the Korea stand,
reflective of their highly acquisitive
children’s publishers. Nearly 30%
(11,681) of all Korean
titles published each
year are translations,
with Japan being the
number one trading
partner and US number
two. Hyo Jin Kim,
for the Korean Publishers
Association, producers of
the upcoming Seoul Fair
(15-19 June), reported
that last year’s fair had 194
exhibitors (32%) from 23
countries reflecting their increasing
importance. She, too, spoke quite
favourably about the activities at this
year’s Bologna Fair.
Yuko Nonaka, foreign rights
manager for Kaisei-sha Publishing
of Japan, noted how “active and
strong” the Korean publishers have
F A I R D E A L E R
become in Bologna. “They had a
wider collective stand compared to
previous years, and our Japanese
area was squeezed. My colleague
had a half-day meeting with Korean
publishers, and said it was great
and interesting. We have always
had a selling meeting with Korean
publishers every year, but this year
was the first time to have so many
buying meetings with them.”
Some companies, Nonaka, noted,
stayed home because of the natural
disasters in Japan.
Paulina Lin of the Taipei Book
Fair Foundation, organisers of
the recent Taipei Book Fair, said
that “the mood was much more
favourable [than in recent years].
When we first attended in 2009 I
seriously questioned the purpose
of our presence, but now am quite
satisfied.”
Peter Whitfield of New Frontier
Publishing in New South Wales,
Australia, observed that “the fair was
alive with a buzz it hasn’t seen for
five years. This was in stark contrast
the flat vibe of the fair last year. This
year was the opposite. Publishers
are trying to find new avenues to
drive their content into the hands
of readers, and all seemed ready to
jump on the ebook, epub, iPad,
‘I-don’t-know-what-is-coming-next’
electronic bandwagon.”
All in all, it was a true pleasure
Kate Wilson of Nosy Crow with
Markus Weber of Motitz Verlag
to be back in Bologna, where fair
manager Roberta Chinni puts on
a wonderful week, and to see old
colleagues such as Nancy Gallt or
Dick Robinson and enjoy their
generous hospitality, and make
new acquaintances such as Markus
Dohle and Jack Jensen. ■
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P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y & B O O K B R U N C H L O N D O N F A I R D E A L E R

Digital readers: The tablets are coming!

Calvin Reid reviews a selection of the new tablets due for release this spring

T
hanks to Steve Jobs and the iPad, this is the year of the tablet, a device some observers believe will change the way consumers use
computers. To be sure, the US e-reading market is still dominated by dedicated e-ink reading devices such as the Kindle3 and the Sony
Readers. But tablets are cool, offering multimedia functionality and the ability to consume a vast array of content from books to movies
to games. The tablet market has attracted new hardware players (such as HP, Blackberry and Toshiba) looking to compete with Apple and its
platform; and Google’s much anticipated Honeycomb OS, optimised for tablets, is about ready to drop, powering several new tablets. Tablets
completely saturated the news coming out of January’s Consumer Electronics Show and the crop of devices showcased there are starting to
appear in the marketplace now, with the rest to be available by the summer. A selection of the major devices is below.

iPad 2
Still $500 (Wi-fi only) to $826 (3G/Wi-fi)
150,000 titles or so via iBookstore and more via
Amazon, Kobo, B&N, Copia ebook software
9.7-inch backlit colour/iOS4
Better than ever. Lighter than iPad 1, with a
faster processor, back and front-facing cameras
and now the iBookstore has Random House
titles. Lighter, thinner, faster. What’s not to like?
NookColor
$250 (Wi-fi)
500,000 titles
7-inch. backlit screen; Android OS (maybe 2.2 in April)
The surprise device hit of the year, B&N is reported
to have sold more than 3 million units. An April
software update should add access to more
Android apps, email, Flash support and – thanks to
a lot creative hacking – who knows what else?
Motorola Xoom
$600 (3G only with contract)
Ships with Google ebooks (2 million titles),
with more available via Amazon, Kobo and
B&N for Android
10.1-inch HD screen; Android OS 3.0
(Honeycomb)
One of the first tablets with Honeycomb, Android’s tablet OS; with
front and back cameras, Flash support “soon,” and fast dual core
processors. Wi-fi only model still to come.
RIM Blackberry Playbook
$500 with Wi-fi (16GB), $600 (32GB)
and $700 (64GB)
Ships with Kobo (200,000 titles) and
access to books via Android marketplace
7-inch backlit screen/QNX OS (reportedly
will run Android 2.3 apps)
Available in April. Hands-on impressive at CES; very responsive, fast
dual core processor, true multi-tasking; swipe-gesture bezel; front
and back cameras. Could make RIM a tablet player.
Dell Inspiron Duo Convertible
$550 (Wi-fi only)
Ships with Blio (several hundred thousand
titles), Dell Book Stage (online bookstore
powered by B&T) and more than 1 million
titles via Amazon, Kobo, Copia, B&N for
Windows 7 OS
10.1-inch backlit screen/ “Genuine” Windows 7 OS
This device is a clever transformer, designed to flip the screen and
hide the keyboard; it’s really a laptop that converts into a tablet, with a
dual core processor, webcam and both physical and virtual keyboards.
Dell Streak 7
$200 (with 3G contract; 4G to come)
Ships with Book Stage,
Dell’s online bookstore, and access to
hundreds of thousands of books through
the Android Marketplace
7-inch backlit screen/Android OS 2.2
Smaller than the iPad or the Duo, the Streak has front and back
cameras and supports Flash. A handy size at a great price.
HP Touchpad
No pricing yet; scheduled to arrive this
summer with Wi-fi; 3G and 4G to follow
Hundreds of thousands of titles through
Blio and Kobo; 800,000 titles available
through an Amazon/Touchpad ebook app
9.7-inch backlit screen/HP webOS
HP shows off its acquisition of Palm and webOS, offering a
much-anticipated, updated webOS powered tablet with dual core
processing and true multi-tasking.
Samsung Galaxy Tab
7-inch ($250, 16GB with 3G contract); and by
June: 8.9-inch ($469, 16GB),
10.1-inch ($500, 16 GB)
More than a million titles through Android
marketplace and multiple e-readers (Kobo, Kindle,
B&N, Aldiko) supporting Android OS
Backlit screens; the new 10.1-inch and 8.9-inch run
Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) optimised for tablets
The 7-inch Tab came first, now Samsung is releasing two larger
screen devices with optimised Android OS; back and front cameras,
dual core processors, Flash support and very competitive prices.
Look out Apple!
Toshiba “Honeycomb” Tablet
No Price or availability information yet.
Maybe summer?
Millions of titles through Android Market
(Blio, Kindle, B&N, Kobo etc.) and the new
Toshiba App Place store
10.1 backlit screen with “adaptive” display
(readable in sunlight); Android Honeycomb 3.0 optimised for
tablets
Much buzz at CES; lots of specs but no hands-on sightings of this
much anticipated tablet. Fast dual core processor, front and back
cameras, Flash support, replaceable battery and, of course, the
Honeycomb updated Android OS. We’re waiting Toshiba.

10 London Fair DEALE R Wednesday 13 April 2011

P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y & B O O K B R U N C H L O N D O N F A I R D E A L E R

Publishing for multi-taskers

I
magine the year is 1857, writes
Michael Bhaskar. Charles Dick-
ens and his publisher, Bradbury
& Evans, have just published the
final instalment Little Dorrit. Come
the evening you can settle down in
front of the fire, comfortable in the
knowledge that the servants will take
care of the washing up, secure that
very little will interrupt the pleasure
of the story. It’s you, the book and
the fire (assuming that you are of the
better class of persons, naturally).
Fast forward to 2011. You slump
onto the sofa, iPad in hand, ready
to finish that Dickens novel you
downloaded for free. Quite apart
from the nagging call of the washing
up – servants having become expen-
sive in the intervening years – you are
faced with the seductive embrace of
the television. You switch it on, one
eye on The Apprentice, the other on
Dickens. Somewhere on the edge
of your consciousness, or perhaps
creeping up beneath the words,
comes an awareness of “Angry Birds”;
of mounting emails; wittily phrased
tweets; and a host of fun entertain-
ment. It’s you, the book and the fire...
and every other media producer in
the world.
Being alone with books is getting
rarer, and on convergence devices
becomes impossible. Publishers have
always competed vertically among
themselves and horizontally between
other information and entertainment
sources. Yet with each technological
Michael Bhaskar
openings. Now on tablet devices we
have a new mode of attention, what I
call fractured partial attention. Unlike
a desktop, tablets do not generally
allow for the easy moving between
open elements; apps still tend to run
one at a time, or at least many work
best when used in that way. We
concentrate on one app, but always
with an awareness of everything else,
and often we then switch between
bouts of concentration on one app,
then on to another, and so on.
Why does this matter? Mainly
because it means trade books at
least are fighting competition on
three fronts: first with other books,
secondly with other forms of media,
and lastly, within new systems such
as app stores, with other media on
the same platform. Headspace and
consumer spend are being squeezed
more than ever, making our job of
convincing people to spend time
you might say, but we just have to
get on with it, make it work. Quite
right. Mostly, this is what has been
happening. Publishers are making
strategic alliances with developers, IP
owners and media producers from
across a spectrum of businesses, at the
same time redefining their business
goals in wider terms (not just as a
producer of books, but as curators
of experience, etc). An initiative such
as World Book Night was clearly
an attempt to articulate the case for
reading, to underscore once again
the value of this quiet, largely solitary,
often difficult activity. So on the one
hand we are moving out beyond the
boundaries, taking the fight to these
new competitors, and on the other
we have a robust argument for why
reading is still unbeatable in the age
of Call of Duty, Foursquare and even
My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.
We’ll never know what chal-
lenges Bradbury and Evans faced
in 1857, but they knew they were
If you are looking for
non-English rights to:
NY Times Best Sellers
...and Titles on:
onto a winner with Dickens – the
author, then as now, the basis of
the industry. They might have
lived in a time more conducive to
single-minded concentration (still
a building block of book publish-
ing), but then they had much lower
literacy rates (another building block
of publishing). Paying attention to
the lived experience of reading, the
day-to-day, reality of picking up a
book, or iPad, and concentrating on
it, is important. This is still the sine
qua non of reading and selling books,
and it is getting more difficult over
time, a process exacerbated by digital.
We need then to think hard about
how we are going to keep on deliver-
ing the kind of experiences taken for
granted in 1857 – long form reading
– while adapting to new markets and
a new economy of attention.
Michael Bhaskar is Digital Publishing
Director at Profile Books. He can be found
on Twitter as @ajaxlogos. ■

Contemporary Social
advance this gets harder and the op- and money on books correspond-
portunities for grabbing attention and ingly harder. Moreover, when we are
money comparatively fewer. Brad- competing directly with other media

& Political Issues

bury & Evans never had to contend
with television, let alone a television
literally sitting in the same physical
space as the book, as on a tablet.
When books exist in digital for-
mats they begin not only to confront
the two-screen situation (where we sit
watching the television, laptop on or
book in hand, our attention divided
between the two), but even have a
one-screen problem: as we read a
book we are aware of a multitude of
possibilities available at the touch of
a button. Surfing the web has given
rise to continuous partial attention,
where we flit gnat-like between
10 emails, five browser tabs and
Tweetdeck, never really there but
never absent, our attention moving
constantly between the different
on the same platform publishers
contend with a lack of experience
and comparatively puny develop-
ment budgets. We compete on a
level playing field, but one where the
terrain is unfamiliar, difficult and
expensive to traverse. Contact:
Carl Dobrowolski
For a century healthy trend
growth demographically and
economically has meant that, even
as its absolute position in the media
landscape has shrunk, publishing 1.347.247.2106 (mobile)
has managed to maintain long-term
growth of revenues and unit sales. Yet
as the boundaries blur we cannot rely
Goodwill Rights Management
on this: others can move easily into
the spaces occupied by publishers, carl@goodwillrights.com
even as consumers are enticed out of
the reading experience. www.goodwillrights.com
Pointing this out is all very well,

London Fair DEALE R Wednesday 13 April 2011 11

P U B L I S H E R S
Who killed the Google Settlement?
Judge Denny Chin rejected the controversial Google Book Settlement in March.
Andrew Albanese looks at how it was derailed, and wonders ‘what next?’
I
magine a comprehensive
digital library of millions
of books destined for the
dustbin of history, a literary
treasure suddenly saved, made
searchable, viewable, accessible
and again viable for sale, all
within a decade’s time. That’s
what’s been lost, critics say, after
Judge Denny Chin rejected
the controversial Google Book
Settlement on 22 March. A
status conference is set for 25
April, in New York, where we
will learn more about what the
future holds, but as it stands,
the Google Book Settlement is
history – and the questions have
now begun. Who is to blame for
derailing the great digital library
we were promised – and what
happens now?
In legal terms, lawyers agree
that the volume and scope of
objections put the final nail in
the settlement’s coffin. “The
ultimate basis for the rejection
was the class’s negative reaction
to the settlement,” observed
Jonathan Band, a Washington-
based lawyer and library
consultant. “In other words,
the ASA (Amended Settlement
Agreement) was found not
to be fair, reasonable and
adequate because a significant
number of class members
opposed it strongly.” Scott
Gant, an author, objector and
a veteran class action attorney,
agrees. “If there hadn’t been
an outpouring from objectors,
this probably would have been
approved,” he suggested. “It
was the third parties who came
in and helped educate the
court about the problems. If
this had been a non-adversarial
proceeding, with no objections,
the same merits, and the same
arguments, this probably would
have snuck by.”
In the aftermath of Chin’s
rejection, “tech” writer Ryan
Singel, blogging at Wired.
com, was among a number of
commentators that questioned
12 London Fair DEALE R Wednesday 13 April 2011
W E E K L Y & B O O K B R U N C H
the ultimate wisdom of the
objectors. Singel suggested
that “the paranoid and the
curmudgeonly” essentially
exercised a “veto over the library
of the future”, and he expressed
doubt that legislative efforts
could achieve in decades what
Google’s largesse was poised to
do so quickly. “Killing off the
one promising digital library
at the behest of copyright
maximalists and jealous
competitors is no way to get a
dithering Congress to make a
decision that will benefit the
public,” he wrote.
The objectors may have
derailed the settlement, but
they reject the idea that they
snatched away the great digital
library that was so tantalisingly
close. Rather, they focus the
failure squarely on the parties
for attempting an ill-advised
end-run, and question whether
it was ever reasonable to think
that a plan so sweeping and
international in scope, involving
public resources and private
concerns, crafted in secret by a
few major organisations, could
The public will now see exactly
how committed the parties – and
objectors – are to realising the digital
library and the public benefits they’ve
touted since 2008
be pushed upon the broad
universe of authors via a district
court. “This never belonged in
the class action forum,” Gant
says flatly. “I’ve asked myself
many times if Google really
thought it had a meaningful
chance of making this work.
Perhaps because the costs were
so low measured against their
resources, and the payoff would
L O N D O N
have been so significant, they
thought it was worth a shot.
Maybe they thought they’d
get lucky. But to jam this
into a class action settlement
box was extraordinary, and
inappropriate, and the Judge’s
ruling reflects that.”
Other settlement critics
agree, including media scholar
Siva Vaidhyanathan, author
of the recently published The
Googlization of Everything.
Vaidhyanathan suggested the
settlement’s rejection was a
humbling rebuke of Google’s
strategies. “Google figures that
if it creates good products and
they get popular, the courts
and Congress will be less likely
to undo them,” he said in a
recent interview, “but that is an
arrogant, audacious perspective
on the legal and legislative
system, and it’s fundamentally
anti-democratic.” If the law does
not permit a digital library, he
explains, the public mobilises to
change the law. “And we make
those arguments in public,” he
says, rather than having “major
information policy” being
made by judges, via class action
F A I R D E A L E R
settlements between and among
major corporations. “That is not
how it is supposed to work.”
Certainly, major questions
loom for the parties, and for
the prospects of a meaningful
digital library. For one, Chin’s
rejection of the settlement’s
forward-looking business
effectively removed the parties’
only common ground – the
settlement was only struck,
the parties admit, because they
could not settle the simple
question at the heart of the
initial lawsuits: whether Google’s
digitisation for indexing and its
display of “snippets” was fair use
under the copyright law.
From the outset, the parties
defended the settlement almost
exclusively on its public benefits.
But the public benefits were in
fact a mechanism to help the
parties avoid the intractable
disagreement at the heart of the
matter. After Chin’s rejection, it
remains to be seen if either side
will budge from their unyielding
original positions.
One thing is certain, however:
the public will now see exactly
how committed the parties –
as well as the objectors – are
to realising the digital library
and the public benefits they’ve
touted since 2008. “Will
Google start putting together a
coalition to push for a legislative
solution?” asks New York Law
School’s James Grimmelmann.
“Who will sign up? What will
the proposed compromises look
like? Who will oppose it, and
with what arguments? And, is
this the route by which we will
get a national digital library?” ■
 The Way to Happiness is a pivotal cornerstone to the improvement of society.
This bestselling common sense guide to better living can be followed by anyone, of any race, color or creed.
Readers on every continent are living proof of that universal appeal.

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;OL>H`[V/HWWPULZZ (words and logo) are trademarks owned by L. Ron Hubbard Library.
P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y
Best New Illustrators
As Booktrust promotes a new set of Best New Illustrators, Rebecca Wilkie looks
at the careers of the original 10
T
wo prestigious Kate
Greenaway Medals
and a BAFTA award
are among the achievements
that have been notched up
by the inaugural group of 10
Best New Illustrators, selected
in March 2008. The list was
greeted with excitement by
the publishing industry, and the
illustrators’ work was celebrated in
features in national newspapers and
by an exhibition at the Illustration
Cupboard in London.
Nicolette Jones, the Sunday Times
children’s books critic who chaired
the 2008 selection panel, recalls:
“The coverage of the first Best New
Illustrators campaign was huge, and
all of the participants noticed an
increase in interest in their work, in
some cases includ-
ing, for instance,
more foreign rights
sales. At home
there was a splen-
did programme of
events, involving
winners and other
illustrators, which
stimulated discussion about picture-
books in many arenas.”
Booktrust set up Best New Illus-
trators as part of its Big Picture cam-
paign, which sought to reawaken
public interest in picturebooks and
help to stimulate the then unhealthy
UK picturebook market. Three
years later there has been something
of a revival in picturebook sales –
according to the Nielsen Bookscan
data for 2010, the pre-school and
picturebook market is growing
steadily in an otherwise declining
children’s book market.
Anthony Browne, Children’s
Laureate, revealed the names of
the Best New Illustrators 2011
at an event at the Illustration
Cupboard on 22 March.
The judges – Anthony Browne,
Antonia Byatt, Lauren Child,
John Huddy and Ken Wilson-
Max – also highly commended
Susan Steggall.
14 London Fair DEALE R Wednesday 13 April 2011
& B O O K B R U N C H
For many of the
illustrators, being named
one of the Best New
Illustrators marked a
turning point in their
careers. Oliver Jeffers,
whose Lost and Found
was turned into a
BAFTA award-winning anima-
tion, says: “Being in the select group
of Best New Illustrators 2008 was an
honour of the highest proportions
and a huge milestone in my career.
“Since 2008 I feel that my career
in picturebook publishing has grown
beyond any realistic expectation
I ever had, and I believe being a
recipient of the award was integral
to cementing my reputation. British
publishing is some of the finest in
the world, and to be considered
in such high regard among such a
stable of talent is very humbling.”
Emily Gravett, whose beautiful
illustrations can be seen adorning
Booktrust’s online reading journey,
echoes Jeffers’ pleasure: “I loved be-
ing one of the Best New Illustrators.
It was an honour being part of a
group of such fabulous illustrators,
many of whom I was and am a big
admirer of.
“There have been many highlights
since, but the greatest thing has
just been being able to carry on
doing what I do – and feeling like
my career has become established.”
Gravett went on to win her second
Kate Greenaway Medal in 2008, for
Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears.
In 2009 Catherine Rayner
followed in Gravett’s footsteps by
scooping up the Kate Greenaway
Medal with Harris Finds His Feet,
a moving and ultimately uplifting
They are:
Joe Berger
Claudia Boldt
Katie Cleminson
Chris Haughton
Alice Melvin
Sara Ogilvie
Levi Pinfold
Salvatore Rubbino
Viviane Schwarz
Kevin Waldron
L O N D O N
story about a young hare taking his
first steps towards independence.
Rayner has continued to produce
delightful, animal-inspired picture-
books, the most recent of which is
Iris and Isaac, a tale of friendship
and polar bears.
Animals are also the primary
subject of the work of Vicky White,
who was one of the two debut illus-
trators selected in the 2008 cohort.
White’s detailed wildlife illustrations
for Ape (written by Martin Jenkins),
captured the attention of the
judges, and she has since gone on to
produce a second picturebook with
Jenkins, Can We Save the Tiger?
White’s fellow debut illustrator
was Lisa Evans, whose sensitive
illustrations for The Flower brought
John Light’s story of a boy’s quest
for beauty and colour to life. Evans
has since illustrated versions of The
Nutcracker and The Snow Princess
for Templar, as well as Holly Webb’s
Rose series.
For Alexis Deacon, whose books
such as Beegu and Slow Loris had
already received glowing praise,
selection brought welcome attention
at time when ill health had left him
unable to work. He says: “Happily
I am working again now and have
had a very busy two years. I have
begun teaching on the MA course in
children’s book illustration at Anglia
Ruskin University. I have
also been for a five week
residency in the Galapagos
Islands and taught illustra-
tion students in Iceland.”
Mini Grey had won
the 2007 Kate Greenaway
medal for The Adventures
of the Dish and the Spoon. Selection
gave her, she says, “an ongoing glow
of excitement... Since then I’ve been
a judge for the Roald Dahl Funny
Prize, and realised how tricky prize-
judging really is, and had several
picturebooks published including
Traction Man Meets Turbodog, Jim
(by Hilaire Belloc) and most recently
Three by the Sea.”
Joel Stewart is designing, writing
and directing a new animation series,
which he hopes will be broadcast in
autumn 2011. He says that being se-
F A I R D E A L E R
lected as a Best New Illustrator “was
great for me, because despite having
been an illustrator full time for eight
years, I really felt that for one reason
or another I was embarking on new
things... The television work (and
hopefully linked books) really feels
like the coming together of all I’ve
learnt over the past
decade.”
David Lucas
said that his selec-
tion was “hugely
important to
me – it is vital
for me to know that my work has
connected with people. My career
has progressed steadily since – and
although I was probably the oldest of
the 2008 Best New Illustrators I do
feel that I am just at the beginning.”
Like several of her peers Polly
Dunbar has embraced media be-
yond the world of illustration – her
successful Long Nose Puppet
company stages versions of her
picturebooks, including Shoe Baby
and Fly Away Katie. Most recently,
she has taken her version of Penguin
(shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway
medal in 2008) to the Edinburgh
Festival, and she has been a Book-
trust online writer in residence.
It will be interesting to see
whether the work of the 2011 Best
New Illustrators has been influenced
by the innovative illustrative
techniques and sophisti-
cated themes that many of
the class of 2008 employ.
One thing is for certain – if
the new generation can
capture the imaginations
of their readers half as
well as their 2008 peers have done,
they will take their place in a rapidly
expanding and rich tradition of UK-
based picturebook makers.
This is an edited version of an article
commissioned for the Booktrust website.
Drawing Out New Talent: Booktrust’s
Best New Illustrators 2011 takes place
in the Children’s Theatre at 1pm on 13
April. Chair Nicolette Jones, and with
panellists including Anthony Browne,
Lauren Child, and Polly Dunbar. ■
P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y
Looking forward to Frankfurt
Thomas Minkus and Katja Böhne look ahead to the next Frankfurt Book Fair, and
explain how the Fair is responding to changes in the publishing landscape
K
atja Böhne: Thomas,
you now live in the
United States. Has
this changed your
perspective on publishing?
Thomas Minkus: I relocated
from Frankfurt to New York
exactly one year ago. I’m
fascinated by the speed at
which publishing here in the
US is changing because of
digital innovation. While it is
interesting to follow the current
digital gold rush in the US,
with all of its optimism and
energy, I think that the US
doesn’t hold all the answers.
The market forces are not the
same in every country. Fixed
book prices in some European
markets, distribution challenges
in emerging markets and
widespread mobile reading in
Asia are examples of various
forces that don’t apply to every
country, and the publishers
working internationally need to
keep things like that in mind.
Katja: Even though digitisation
has created a lot of new
opportunities for publishers, it
also presents new challenges,
especially in terms of rights.
Thomas: As new technology
emerges, defining and
separating digital rights (ebook,
enhanced ebook, interactive,
digital content licensing, etc)
and deciding what rights
publishers should include in
their contracts is increasingly
complicated. There is a need for
publishers and agents to learn
about the latest technology and
digital content developments,
not necessarily from a “tech”
perspective, but from a book
publishing perspective, to
help them identify new rights
opportunities.
Katja: That is exactly right and
that is one of the reasons why
we launched StoryDrive last
year. Our goal with StoryDrive
is to bring all branches of the
media and entertainment
industries together under one
roof. In 2011, we will focus on
& B O O K B R U N C H
Thomas Minkus
connecting television, film and
games with book publishers
and agents. We will also add
a Business Centre featuring
information events on cross-
media licensing, as well as
networking and matchmaking
events. We want to bring key
market leaders together to
facilitate the buying and selling
of rights across various media
industries, and to create lasting
partnerships and business
relationships.
Thomas: Another way we are
bringing technology companies
and digital leaders to Frankfurt
is by offering them special
exhibition opportunities in our
Hot Spots, which we introduced
last year and will expand this
year. These collective stands offer
a hands-on look at the available
and emerging technology
directly related to book
publishing. The focus of the Hot
Spot in Hall 8 will be on mobile
technology and devices.
Frankfurt in London
For more about the Frankfurt
Book Fair, go to Stand F 605.
Visitors can learn more about the
German book industry and the
latest news from the Frankfurt
Book Fair, including Frankfurt
SPARKS. The digital initiative
Frankfurt SPARKS offers new
exhibition formats, conferences
and events for thought leaders in
the international media industries
in the form of the Hot Spots and
L O N D O N F A I R D E A L E R
2011 Guest of Honour, Iceland.
Around 60 Icelandic authors
are expected to be on-hand in
Frankfurt and by October, around
120 new titles will be published in
the German language alone.
Thomas Minkus was Director of
Marketing for the Frankfurt Book
Fair, and later also directed the Fair’s
Press and Corporate Communications
departments. In April 2010, he moved
to the Frankfurt Book Fair’s New York
office to further expand the strategically
Katja Böhne important field of exhibitors from the
English-speaking world. He is now Vice
the StoryDrive media conference. President Emerging Media and English
The goal of the initiative is to Language Markets.
develop new and sustainable Katja Böhne joined the Frankfurt
business models for content Book Fair team as Vice President of
(www.frankfurtsparks.com). There Marketing and Communications in
will also be information about the April 2010. ■
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London Fair DEALE R Wednesday 13 April 2011 15
P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y & B O O K B R U N C H L O N D O N
Things can never be the same
Peter Balis looks at the events of 2010 that represented a “tectonic shift towards
digital”, and looks forward to more change in 2011
Y
esterday, I sat down with had become a different
my assistant to review person with new roles and
this year’s London Book responsibilities, which had
Fair appointment diary. Like forever changed me and
seasons past, the day would John Wiley and Sons – for
start early and end after dinner the better.
with little time for lunch in The year 2010 has been
between. And yet, something called the year of the tiger,
was peering out at me between the tablet, or the “app.” To
the appointments with Google, me it was simply the year
Apple, Amazon, Waterstone’s, of “more”. More ebooks
WHSmith and EBL… was it sold (we ended 2010
excitement, exhilaration, a sense with triple-digit growth),
of accomplishment? Identifying more ebook retailers
the emotion was less important (worldwide), and at times,
to me than the realisation, for more headaches. None
the first time, that things would of this surprised me, nor
never be the same again – not did it occur without the
our customers, our product Peter Balis calculated efforts of my
formats, nor our retailers and talented and committed
intermediaries. What really gave in the short 12 months since I team of global peers.
me pause was the awareness that last laid eyes on Earls Court, I A few things happened in
2010 that had a significant
impact on the market –
representing a tectonic shift
towards digital that I had not
Budget & Forecas ng seen before. The first is increased
Workflow Bibliographic Management content digitisation. More
publishers have put more ebooks
Produc on Reports into the marketplace than ever
before. At the end of the day (or
Digital Asset Register perhaps more appropriately at
CRM advance the beginning of the day), we
must begin with content. Why
does every ebook platform tout
Asset Bundling & Fragmenta on the number of titles they have?
It is because size does matter
Title Management when it comes to content
offerings. Without a critical
Wizards DAM Billing mass of offerings producing
a robust selection of available
E‐commerce Automated titles, we would repeatedly upset
and disappoint our readers.
Contract, Rights & Royal es Management After readers invest in a new
Sales Order Processing device they are frustrated when
Fulfilment an ebook is not available for a
print title that can be shipped
to their doorstep in 24 hours.
Your process workflow is central to our systems. But since most publishers
Learn how our flexible software can be shaped to support your entire business process. release ebooks on the same day
as print editions (having now
Talk to us today. Stand V607, EC2.
digitised their backlists and with
“windowing” fairly dormant),
readers who have transitioned to
digital can be assured of a robust
Publishing Technology partners with information providers of any size, discipline, or technical literacy helping to capitalise
on the full potential of your content in the digital environment and increase efficiency throughout your publishing processes. title selection. They can make
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choices based on their individual
needs and can choose from great
18 London Fair DEALE R Wednesday 13 April 2011
F A I R D E A L E R
devices, mediocre devices, e-ink
and four-colour devices, phones
and tablets.
Another welcome
development is that prices of
dedicated ereaders have dropped
significantly from almost $400
in 2007 to a little more than
$100 since late 2010. The
reduction in price is a “game-
changer,” causing a seismic
shift from niche early adopters
to significant ebook market
penetration. This follows the
pattern set by other recent
technology products like flat
screen televisions and blue-ray
DVD players. Some end-of-year
estimates suggest that more
than six million ereaders were
purchased in 2010, an 80%
increase over 2009. This figure
does not even include non-
dedicated ereading devices such
as iPhones and iPads. Great for
those of us involved in electronic
publishing.
It has been an exciting year,
but it has been extraordinarily
challenging. When I began
working in the ebook space
I was the nerd and career
outlier. Co-workers would
ask me how I could give up
managing sales for big growth
accounts such as Amazon.com
to attend library conferences
and trade acronyms such as
SITB and FTE? (Amazon’s
Search Inside the Book and
the insititutional measurement
“full time equivalent”). I began
my transition to digital in a
fairly static, moderate revenue-
generating ebook market where
I could carefully assess and
revise our internal workflows
with limited financial/human
resources. But that was then.
Now, nothing is the same;
I have become an even bigger
nerd, but instead of being an
outlier I am fortunate to be
in the centre of the action.
Everyone wants to know what is
going on with ebooks. Editors
Continued on page 20 ➝
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P U B L I S H E R S
➝
Continued from page 18
through to marketers are now
engaged and interested in our
ebook business. I could not be
happier.
But the biggest change is how
my role and responsibilities have
evolved. When I started in this
industry I sold print books, I
was a salesman; give me product
and a customer and I would
sell. I didn’t have a clue how
the physical product came into
being, I just needed to know
the ship date and the number of
units the account needed to buy.
Today in my current role I
have to know the difference
between an epub file and
a mobipocket file. ONIX
compliance issues can keep
me up at night. I frequently
begin my day speaking with a
production manager in Australia
and end it with someone from
a metadata processing company
in the US. I am actively involved
with twice the number of Wiley
colleagues around the world
than I was last year. I need to
understand all of the parts of
our organisation that affect
digital content. Wiley’s global
interest in and commitment to
digital products has evolved and
grown. At the close of 2010 we
had vibrant, indigenous ebook
programmes in all of our global
publishing locations including
Singapore and Australia.
And agency/commissionaire
terms? I never imagined that
I would have to know the
intricacies of tax nexus. Now, I
work closely with our corporate
finance and taxation group to
ensure that we are receiving the
appropriate remittance reports
from our global retailers. There
are days when I spend more
time with our in-house counsel
than with my sales team.
Our industry is in transition.
For more than two centuries
we lived and breathed print.
At Wiley, we began to adjust
our journals business to a
digital workflow more than a
decade ago. This was followed
by the creation of our online
book platform and our digital
20 London Fair DEALE R Wednesday 13 April 2011
W E E K L Y & B O O K B R U N C H
textbooks/elearning system
WileyPLUS. Our internal
systems were originally created
to service print products. We are
in the process now of creating
scalable solutions for a rapidly
growing digital world. We are
beginning to replace existing
analog-based systems that have
been hobbling along with work-
arounds. This remains a major,
but surmountable, challenge.
Our increased focus on digital
products and services also affects
long-established roles within
the organisation. Editors are
becoming multi-format project
managers working with authors
and agents to develop various
products from plain-vanilla
ebooks to enhanced products
and mobile applications.
Production managers are hiring
programmers who know as
much about HTML5 as they
do about Creative Suite. Our
industry has had to become
more nimble and creative as we
seek to hire and retain in this
new era.
A frustrating challenge outside
of any one company is the lack
of industry standardisation in
ebook file formats, ISBN and
other metadata standards, sales
reports etc. Some accounts
take ONIX, some take ONIX
with a twist – making living
in the ebook fast lane a bit
of a traffic jam. Scalable
The reduction in price [of ereaders]
is a game-changer, causing a seismic
shift from niche early adopters to
significant ebook market penetration
systems are based on rules and
standards that fail to function
properly when anomalies are
introduced. Sometimes I fear
that Sisyphus had a better
chance getting the rock up the
hill than the publishing industry
has in reaching 100% global
standardisation. I hope that I am
wrong.
We are navigating through
L O N D O N
this landscape, with short-term
and long-term strategies to keep
up with print while investing
in our digital production and
distribution capabilities. This
includes continuing to invest in
content management systems
that will satisfy our need for
more granular levels of content
creation, management and
distribution for our digital
future beyond ebooks.
Despite the challenges it has
been one of the best years in
my career. I have witnessed all
of our global investments in
education, training, systems
and business relationships result
in significant sales growth,
while sharing this success with
great people and dynamic
companies. How thrilling it has
been to still learn so many new
things, after so many years in
the industry.
One important thing I
learned this year (and I am
not certain that my peers or
co-workers will confirm this) is
the ability to exhibit patience.
Change does not happen
instantly or painlessly even if
everyone is welcoming it. Years
of creating and selling books
have established successful
practices. Ebooks, as much
as they appear to be simple
digital facsimiles of print
books, are not. As such, they
require unique processes from
end to end. As many if not
more changes are taking place
in ebook bookselling as in
publishing. Nothing exists in a
vacuum.
Patience however does
not negate the drive or need
to develop and change. I
expect to see a few important
developments in 2011. The
first digital improvement will
F A I R D E A L E R
be a greater global reach for
ebook platforms with increased
multi-language offerings. The
US and UK have made deep in-
roads into ebook retail markets
and we have opportunities to
penetrate international, English
language markets around the
world. We can deliver ebooks
on the same day of publication
to a customer in Singapore and
Canada – a challenge in print.
And as the market grows, so too
will multi-language offerings
in ebook format. I hope that
this year emerging nations will
be able to gain more access to
robust digital offerings in areas
where shipping delays and
inventory issues limit access to
physical books.
Enhanced ebooks, not
mobile applications, but
narrative ebooks with additional
capabilities like audio and
video, began appearing at the
end of 2010. But few accounts
could sell them and consumers
often failed to “discover” them.
This year will see a significant
increase in enhanced title
offerings with more platforms
capable of supporting these
ebooks. This expansion coupled
with increased marketing and
merchandising efforts will
increase purchases of these
value-added products.
Lastly, I think 2011 is going
to see continued growth in
truly interactive elearning
products, such as WileyPLUS,
which offers interactive learning
materials, tools and resources
for higher education classes, the
workplace or the home. Analog
to digital does not end with
the conversion of content to a
reflowable text format. Where
appropriate it must be and do
more.
So as I review my
appointment diary for the 2011
Fair I look forward to seeing
great industry friends. We are
going to celebrate the incredible
success of the past year and toast
2011, which is already on track
to be even better!
Peter Balis is Director, Digital Content
Sales, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ■
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P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y & B O O K B R U N C H L O N D O N F A I R D E A L E R

Cookbook apps heat up

M
ore and more publishers are investing in apps, and cookbooks seem to offer some of the best opportunities for experimentation, writes
Lynn Andriani. The most successful cookbook-related apps right now are tied to big-name authors such as Mario Batali, Mark Bittman,
Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay and Martha Stewart. But later this year and in 2012, developers are planning to unveil a slew of new
cookbook apps from a range of authors big and small. For example, David Chang’s forthcoming journal from McSweeney’s will have a companion,
and apps are also due for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s bestselling cupcake books, Hello, Cupcake and What’s New, Cupcake?, developed by
Culinate; as well as apps from Dorie Greenspan and Eric Ripert from CulinApp, a new company focused solely on culinary apps.
Here are some of this spring’s new apps and newly updated apps based on cookbooks.

How to Cook Everything Vegetarian
Publisher/Developer: Culinate
Available: Mid-April
Price: $4.99, with a probable short-term discount at release
Background: How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark
Bittman came out from Wiley in 2007, a vegetarian spin-off
of the bestselling How to Cook Everything. HTCE’s app, which was updated in
February, has consistently ranked among the top apps in the iTunes app store.
Interactive features: The app will have 2,000 vegetarian and vegan recipes,
all searchable.
iCookbook
Publisher/Developer: Publications International
Available: 16 March
Price: $4.99
Background: The app comes with more than 2,000
recipes, many from brand names such as Campbell’s, Crock-Pot slow
cooker and Hershey’s. Each month, users can download more free recipes.
Interactive features: A feature called Voice Command lets users speak simple
instructions, which allows for hands-free use of the iPad while cooking.
Vegan with a Vengeance
Publisher/Developer: MobiFusion
Available: Updated 9 February
Price: $9.99
Background: Da Capo published Vegan with a Vengeance:
Over 150 Delicious, Cheap, Animal-Free Recipes That Rock by
Isa Chandra Moskowitz in 2005.
Interactive features: Users can scroll through recipes individually, or
search recipes by keywords and mealtime themes.
Recipes from Harvest to Heat
Publisher/Developer: Taunton Interactive
Available: Updated 20 December 2010
Price: Free
Background: Taunton released Harvest to Heat:
Cooking with America’s Best Chefs, Farmers, and
Artisans by Darryl Estrine and Kelly Kochendorfer, with a foreword by
Alice Waters, last fall.
Interactive features: The app is a useful promo for the book; it features
12 recipes for starters, soups, main dishes, sides and desserts from chefs
including Daniel Boulud, Johnny Iuzzini, Thomas Keller and Nancy
Silverton. It also has an interactive map to restaurants, farmers and food
artisans across the US.

Cheese Plate
Publisher/Developer: Chronicle
Available: December 2010
Price: $4.99
Background: The app is based on two Chronicle books: The
Cheese Course and Cheese and Wine, both by Janet Fletcher.
Interactive features: More than 150 identification photos;
search for cheeses by country, type of milk, country of origin;
instructions on buying, tasting, handling and storing; social media out-
messaging with thumbnail photos to email, Facebook, Twitter.
The cost of print The Seriously Good Gluten Free Living
Publisher/Developer: MS Internet Limited/Spots
procurement is as important Consulting Limited
Available: November 2010
as the cost of print Price: $6.99
Background: The app is based on Phil Vickery’s Seriously
Let Jellyfish handle your commercial Good! Gluten-Free Cooking, which Kyle Cathie published
requirements in the UK. (The book has not been published by an American house,
although Firefly Books released Vickery’s Gluten-Free Baking in the US in
We offer our clients best prices, unbeatable service
February.)
and outstanding operational support Interactive features: Recipes for meat, fish, vegetarian dishes, baked
Jellyfish Print Solutions Ltd. T: 01489 897373 goods, snacks, desserts and kid-friendly food, plus a section on “basics”,
www.jellyfishsolutions.co.uk such as gluten-free flour mixes, shortbread. Tapping on certain
paragraphs within a recipe turns them bold, making them easier to read.
Jellyfish Print Solutions - ‘Breaking the Mould’ Videos offer instructions on making fruity sherbet slush, almond and
blackberry feather cakes, and more.

22 London Fair DEALE R Wednesday 13 April 2011

P U B L I S H E R S
Publishing in Italy
Anna Sarkisov looks at the publishing industry in Italy, the Guest of Honour
country at the 2011 BookExpo America
T
he Italian publishing market
has experienced several
years of slow but consistent
growth. The Association of Italian
Publishers (Associazione Italiana
Editori) reported that, in 2009, the
overall cover price turnover of the
Italian publishing market (including
digital publishing) was $4.7 billion.
Although this figure represents a
4.3% drop from 2008, the market
is starting to see improvement, with
an increase of 2.1% in the first six
months of 2010. Italy published
more than 58,800 titles in 2008
– the last year for which definitive
data on production is available – and
64.3% of these were new titles. The
children’s book market is an area of
opportunity, generating sales of $217
million in 2009, up 4% over 2008.
Bookstores are the largest
channel for book sales, accounting
for roughly 32% of all books sold
in Italy. In 2009, bookstores sales
were valued at $1.5 billion. Other
key distribution channels are the
internet, news-stands and large-
scale distribution (supermarkets
and department stores), generating
a total of $561 million in 2009, a
5.5% increase from 2008. As in
many other countries, the bookstore
channel is consolidating, with 717
of 2,135 Italian bookshops now
belonging to chains.
Reading rates in Italy still lag
behind those of other EU countries.
Of Italy’s literate population (people
over six years old) only 45.1% read at
least one book in 2009, an increase
of 1.1% over 2008. Reading rates
in the north of Italy – 51.8% – are
significantly higher than in the south
– 34.6%. And women generally read
more than men: 51.6% of women
read a book in 2009 compared to
38.2% of men.
Best prospects
In a country with a generally low
number of readers and a declining
number of school kids, one bright
spot is the relatively high rate of
reading among children. In 2009
an average of 57.2% of school-age
children (aged six to 19) read at least
one non-school book, putting them
W E E K L Y & B O O K B R U N C H
in the “reader” category. This puts
children more than 12 percentage
points above the general population
in terms of reading rates. Preferred
genres of books among Italian
children are adventure stories,
followed by fairy tales and comic
books. For Italian children under 14
years old, reading a book still wins
over internet use.
As a member of the European
Union, Italy applies the EU
common external tariff to
goods imported from non-EU
countries. However, no tariffs or
import duties are levied on books
entering EU countries from the
United States. A Value Added Tax
(VAT or IVA) of 20% is assessed
on products based on their Cost,
Insurance, Freight (CIF) value, plus
the import duty at the port of entry.
In a country with a generally low
number of readers, one bright spot
is the relatively high rate of reading
among children
On 1 July 2003, a European
Union Directive relating to VAT
on digital services came into force.
The legislation requires any seller
of electronically supplied services
and broadcasting services from a
non-EU member state to charge
and collect VAT on those products
and services sold online to EU
private consumers. This includes
ebooks and other publications
delivered online.
L O N D O N
Another issue publishers
should consider when
thinking about doing business
in Italy is the protection of
intellectual property. Despite
the implementation of the 2000
Copyright Law and increased
enforcement actions, piracy and
counterfeiting rates in Italy remain
among the highest in Western
Europe. Piracy continues in
virtually all copyright-based sectors.
Italy is a signatory of both the
Berne Convention and World Trade
Organisation’s (WTO) Agreement
on Trade-Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights
(TRIPS). Therefore, the author or
creator of any original intellectual
work is protected in Italy, even
without registration. However,
US copyright registration is
advisable. US registration through
the US Copyright Office of the
Library of Congress provides
documentation of date and
originality and is an important
safeguard in case infringement
occurs and legal action is
necessary. In Italy, copyright
protection is automatically provided
for during the life of the author plus
70 years after his or her death. For
London Fair
F A I R D E A L E R
works created in Italy, authors and
publishers can register copyrights
in Italy with the Italian Society for
Authors and Editors (SIAE).
Market entry strategies
Building a strong relationship
with an Italian publishing house is
important when approaching the
Italian market. Ideally, a partner
should have experience in translations
and an established distribution
network. Issues to negotiate will
include the licensing of texts, images
and graphics as well as licensing fees,
advances and royalties. Publishers
are strongly advised to seek local
legal counsel before entering into an
agreement. In the Italian publishing
field, perhaps the best place to
identify an international partner
is the annual Bologna Children’s
Book Fair, the world’s largest trade
show for the children’s publishing
industry. Another key venue is
the Turin Book Fair, Italy’s largest
event covering the entire publishing
industry, held every Spring.
Publishers may also consider
exporting English language titles
to Italy to take advantage of the
global trend of increased reading of
original English language works. In
this case, publishers may want to
work through some of the larger
international book distributors
based either in the US or Europe
that supply English-language
bookstores and English sections of
large retail chains. In Italy, Feltrinelli,
Marzocco, Mondadori and other
booksellers have stores dedicated
to foreign language works with
much of the shelf space dedicated to
English titles.
Anya Sarkisov is Commercial Specialist for
Education, US Commercial Service at the
American Consulate General in Florence.
To find a US Commercial Service trade
specialist go to www.export.gov/eac, or
learn about Publishing Team activities at
www.export.gov/industry/paper.
PW is working with the Commercial
Service to publish a report that provides
an overview of the publishing industry in
25 countries, available at BEA 2011. ■
DEALE R Wednesday 13 April 2011 23
P U B L I S H E R S
Crime pays
Seamus Murphy, of Murphy Literary Agency, examines genres in modern
Russian literature
P
opular genres in modern
Russian literature are
similar to those in the UK
and the US. There is, however, one
important difference, and that is in
how the audience and the market
in Russia are structured. In Russia
literary means “intellectual”,
mass market means “other”.
Consequently, mass market
books would not be considered
as prospective winners of any
significant book prizes, would
not be reviewed in reputable
media and would have little or
no chance of being promoted by
publishers or literary agents as
potential rights bestsellers.
A good example is the recent
(2006) City Tariff by bestselling
Russian crime novelist Alexandra
Marinina, which is in essence a
powerful anti-corruption novel.
It could have received attention
and media coverage comparable
to Stieg Larsson’s or Henning
Mankell’s novels if only Russian
intellectuals had read it. The
critic Lev Danilkin, of Afisha
online magazine, in his review of
one of Henning Mankell’s books
writes: “Swedish people en
masse… are so concerned about
fair play that even crime fiction
writers write about it too: what
is really happening in the world
and who exactly in one place or
another is trying to make money
at somebody else’s expense.
Can you imagine Alexandra
Marinina writing a crime story
in which, in order to identity the
murderer, one has to understand
the essential features of Chinese-
Zimbabwean relations?”1
In fact, Marinina, a former
Russian militia sergeant,
has written a crime story in
which, in order to identify the
murderer, one has to first accept
that it is impossible to bring a
guilty party to justice if the state
stands behind the criminal – but
Russian intellectuals do not read
Marinina, so who cares?
“Intellectual” readership
is strong in Moscow and St
Petersburg, so literary publishers
24 London Fair DEALE R Wednesday 13 April 2011
W E E K L Y & B O O K B R U N C H
Seamus Murphy
target this audience, while the
mass market publishers look to
the provinces. Of the 70 million
people (about half the population)
who read books in Russia, 20
million live in Moscow and
St Petersburg, and 50 million
live in the provinces. However,
according to the booksellers
Bookmate and Ozon.ru, 80%
of the books they sell are sold in
Moscow and St Petersburg and
only 20% in the rest of Russia.2
So the 20 million people living
in the two capitals purchase 80%
of published books, while the 50
million readers in the provinces
purchase the rest. As a result those
20% have much wider readership
and become bestsellers. But most
of the readers in the capitals know
nothing of these books, which are
considered to be trash and of no
true literary value.
It comes as no surprise then,
that when the Russian Book
Chamber makes public the list
of most published authors3,
it includes names that well-
read people in Moscow and St
Petersburg have hardly heard of,
such as Tatiana Lugantseva, Oleg
Roi, Daria Kalinina, Yulia Shilova,
and A and C Litvinovi. And it
does not include many domestic
and foreign authors widely read
in the two Russian capitals.
L O N D O N
Crime, fantasy, science
fiction, chick-lit,
romance, horror
Crime is possibly one of
the genres that is equally
popular in Russia and in
the West. Both Russian
crime novels and those
in translation can be
found in the top lines
of bestseller ratings in
Russia. Things get more
complicated with fantasy
and science fiction,
which are not as clearly
divided into two different
genres in Russia.4
One of the reasons for
this is probably the
strong influence of the
Strugatsky Brothers (the
bestselling 1970s science fiction
writers) on both fantasy and
science fiction writers in Russia.
Another reason is the
missionary idea of Russian
literature as a whole: in Russia,
as it used to be in the West in
the 19th century, literature is still
much more about understanding
and/or changing the world
then about amusement. Fantasy
writers are no exception, and
as fantasy has a reputation as a
somewhat light genre, “serious”
writers do not like identifying
themselves with it. Thus, the
Russian Science Fiction and
Fantasy website gives a list of
authors and presents a Russian
Science Fiction Award (notably,
there is no separate Russian
fantasy award), but does not
offer any demarcation between
the two genres.
Chick-lit and romance are
comparatively new genres for the
Russian book market, and they
are not taken seriously by the
literary opinion-makers. Modest
attempts have been made to
incorporate them in the Russian
literary canon, but they still have
to struggle for success. Last but
not least, a horror genre appears
to be missing from contemporary
Russian fiction. If it does exist, it
is probably extremely marginal.
F A I R D E A L E R
On Stieg Larsson and
Henning Mankell in Russia
Stieg Larsson is indeed popular
in Russia: according to the Pro-
books bestseller rating5, which
accumulates data for the eight
leading Russian bookshops,
he was fourth in the top 10
bestseller list in Russia in 2010.
The second place was taken by
Dan Brown, whereas the first
and third went to the Russian
authors (Boris Akunin and
Lilianna Lungina respectively).
Henning Mankell is also
well-known and well-reviewed.
However, neither Larsson nor
Mankell are as popular in Russia
as in the West. There are two
main reasons for this. First, book
marketing culture in Russia
is weak and book promotion
campaigns still do not play such
a big role in creating bestsellers as
they do in the UK and the US.
Second, Russian literature
is pre-occupied with its own
internal issues and with ideas
that are interesting to the
Russian reader and often
inaccessible or uninteresting
to outsiders. At the same time,
Russian writers and Russian
readers are often unreceptive to
global issues. When commenting
in blogs on Larsson’s books,
Russian bloggers say they
“remain unmoved”and feel
indifferent to problems in
Sweden, which seem so far away
from Russia’s everyday reality.6
1
www.afisha.ru/book/1767/
2
www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/
russianow/technology/8345760/Russias-
e-book-boom-is-a-page-turner.html
3
www.bookchamber.ru/content/
stat/stat_2010.html
4
www.rusf.ru/english/
5
pro-books.ru/raiting/chart/hud/year
6
www.afisha.ru/article/8231/
The Russia Market Focus cultural
programme for the LBF is organised
by the British Council and the Russian
Federal Agency for Press and Mass
Communication with their official
partner Academia Rossica. ■
P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y
Into India
Andrew Kidd and Shruti Debi of Aitken Alexander Associates explain why the
literary agency has opened an office in India
L
ast month Aitken Alexander
Associates became the first
British literary agency to
open an office in India. Since then,
what has been most surprising is
just how many people have asked,
“OK, but why?” To us, the reasons
could not be any more obvious
or abundant. There is an English-
language Indian readership growing
at a rate one can only just get one’s
head round – and it is a readership
hungry for books that work in all
the ways books are supposed to: as
entertainment, certainly, but also
as unique and vital sources of new
ideas, which mediate our relationship
with the world.
Much of the current emphasis in
the UK seems to be on “concept”
books that can be pitched in a single
line and digested in a single sitting,
which is probably just a matter of a
particular culture at a particular time
running its course. But as an agency
with a long tradition of nurturing all
kinds of writing – of valuing great
storytelling, but equally relishing the
challenge of bringing the less obvious
into the light – we see other parts
of the world as being open to and
engaged with books in a way that
interests and excites us.
What’s more, the genres that are
“working” in India include literary
fiction, history, reportage, self-help,
travel, cookery, celebrity, business,
dieting, fashion, pet-care, romance,
politics, thrillers, finance, horror,
poetry, film, manifestos, crime,
religion, adventure, health, biogra-
phy… and that’s just for starters. In
other words, books in India are alive
and well, in whatever form, whereas
an equivalent list for thriving genres
in many other parts of the world
would, sadly, be much shorter.
So, this growing and infinitely
curious readership is reason alone
to look to India. But even more
importantly, from a literary agency’s
point of view, there is the question
of authorship. If the 19th century
could be said to have belonged to
Europe and the 20th century to the
US, as writers brought urgent news
from rapidly changing societies,
transforming that news into vivid
& B O O K B R U N C H L O N D O N F A I R D E A L E R
lifting this burden from publishers, multiplicity of tongues. A staggering
we can free them to concentrate on number of different languages feed
addressing the invigorating challenges the Indian writer working in English.
of selling into that market. We are interested, not least, in those
As for how that market gets its who can best harness the riches of
books to readers, in the UK and US, those languages and make of them
the vulnerability of the traditional something new.
retail sector is all too apparent, and Finally, don’t mistake us. We
painful, to behold. And of course believe there is life left in the old
there is the giant called “digital” markets yet, and we are as fiercely
throwing its ever-longer shadow. In committed to them as ever. And who
India though, there are new ventures knows, when Europe and the US
springing up monthly, both on-line emerge from this period of transition,
and on-the-ground, with a few thrilling times could be ahead. But,
major and potentially game-shifting for now, much of the fun is to be
The Mulji Jetha Fountain in Mumbai, which developments soon to be announced. had elsewhere, in the places where
features this boy in a dhoti with a book.
So, what are we looking for? new ideas are being both devoured
reportage or urgent polemic or art Aitken Alexander wants to find and born at a dizzying rate. We want
(sometimes all three), then the 21st writers whose voices, in one way all of our writers, not just those we
century could well be Asia’s (and or another, rise above the fray. This source from the Subcontinent, but
Russia’s and Brazil’s and, perhaps, the could be about seeing the world with also those we sell into it, to be part of
Middle East’s and Africa’s too). This fresh eyes. It could also be about a that fun. ■
has forcefully been borne out already
by many of the most successful
books of the last decade. Good
writing will continue to come from
all sources, both old and new, but
there is no question those sources are
more abundant than ever before.
India is at a turning point, both
culturally and economically. There
are a number of very fine writers
producing important work (and
indeed, Aitken Alexander, which
has a long association with the
Subcontinent, already represented
more than two dozen Subconti-
nental writers before the opening of
the Indian office). They are young
and old, dedicated and hopeful,
and some of them are destined for
greatness. They are working to pres-
ent, chronicle, report on, catalogue,
grapple with, call it what you will,
this fascinating part of the world.
The fact that almost every
English-language publisher now
has a presence in India – a process
that began with Penguin 25 years
ago – is evidence enough that
exciting things are happening. But
the rate of growth in this evolving
and sometimes confusing market is
such that publishers alone cannot
be expected to keep on top of the
discovery and curation of new
talent. By positioning ourselves to
go straight to source and so, in part,
London Fair DEALE R Wednesday 13 April 2011 25
P U B L I S H E R S
Understanding the digital consumer
E
xponential growth in
the number of people
buying ebooks in the US
may soon be followed in the
UK, the latest research shows,
writes Jo Henry. BML’s Books &
Consumers survey revealed that,
in January 2011, more than 3%
of book buyers had bought an
ebook in the month, up from just
under 2% in December 2010.
In the US, Bowker’s PubTrack
Consumer panel showed nearly
13% of book buyers purchasing
ebooks in January 2011, causing
a “hockey-stick” growth curve
2.8%
Source: Bowker’s PubTrack Consumer (US), BML’s Books & Consumers survey 2011 (UK)
from the 5% purchasing ebooks
in October 2010. The UK ebook
market has just passed the point
that the US ebook market was at
around 12 months ago (in red on
the chart).
Two specialist ongoing studies
undertaken by BML and Bowker
(Understanding the Digital
Consumer in the UK and BISG’s
Consumer Attitudes Towards
E-Book Reading in the US), have
given us a greater understanding
of the emerging ebook consumer,
revealing that in the UK, despite
the growth over the past few
months, ebook users still exhibit
an early adopter profile; they are
much more likely to be men, and
from the younger age groups. In
February 2011, around 10% of
the population claimed to have
ever paid to download an ebook
– up from 7% in September
2010 – with 15% of men saying
they had done so, compared to
only 6% of women; and 22%
of 16-24 year olds compared to
only 6% of those aged 45-54. As
of February 2011, nearly 60% of
the current ebook buyers in the
26 London Fair DEALE R Wednesday 13 April 2011
W E E K L Y & B O O K B R U N C H
UK are under 34 years old.
In the US, the profile of ebook
buyers has changed dramatically
over the past two years as the
market matures, so that the
primary buyers of ebooks are now
females – accounting for 59%
of ebook purchases in February
2011 – and older, with those
aged 45+ now responsible for
56% of all ebook purchases.
In the UK, students are
helping keep the ebook buyer
profile young, with 20% saying
they had paid to download a
complete ebook in February
12.7%
4.9%
3.3%
1.9%
2011. In the US, educational
qualifications are also an
important factor, with 66%
of ebook buyers being college
graduates.
Among the key drivers
encouraging ebook usage in the
UK are the portability of this
format (25% of downloaders
said this was important to them),
price, the fact that ebooks take
up less space in the home and
their environmental benefits.
Also of importance is the fact
that, with free extracts and even
free complete ebooks available,
book buyers can try for free
first. In the US too, free content
is an important factor in the
market growth, one of the top
five reasons for buying an ebook.
And, as in the UK, a low price
is another key component of
choosing to buy digital.
It is clear that the proliferation
of suitable devices is also driving
the market, particularly in the
US where the Kindle is now the
preferred device for two out of five
ebook readers, having overtaken
computers some time ago. In the
L O N D O N
US, the Nook is now in second
place, with 15% preferring this
device to read their ebooks on,
with the iPad preferred by 10%
of US ebook users – compared to
5% in the UK.
Among British ebook readers,
the computer was still the
device used by more ebook
readers (45%) than any other in
February 2011, but the Kindle
had increased in popularity,
preferred by 14% of ebook users,
and up from 9% in September
2010. Smartphones are also
important devices for the UK
ebook market, preferred by 7% of
ebook readers in February 2011.
They are more likely to be owned
by the younger age groups, while
penetration of dedicated ereading
devices is greatest among the
older age groups: 56% of all
dedicated ereading devices are
owned by those aged over 45
years, compared to only 19% of
Smartphones (see below).
Two factors are causing
particular concern as the ebook
format gains followers. The first is
pricing. It has already been seen
that keen pricing is attracting
ebook buyers into the market,
but BML’s Books & Consumers
survey reveals that, in the last
quarter of 2010, the average
price paid for an ebook was
£4.35 – around half the average
price of a hardback (£8.50) and
two-thirds the average price of a
paperback (£6.12). Unless unit
sales of ebooks outpace those of
physical books, or the prices of
Source: BML’s Understanding the Digital Consumer (UK)
F A I R D E A L E R
ebooks increase, then the value of
the overall book market will see
a decline as consumers move to
digital formats.
The second factor is one of
discoverability. Around 47%
of purchases in bookshops in
the UK can be classified as
“impulse” purchases, and it is
a similar percentage in the US
too. However, in the online
environment, less than a quarter
of purchases are made on
impulse. It is more difficult to
see the full breadth and depth of
the books available for purchase
in an online bookshop than it is
in a physical bricks-and-mortar
store, so how will any title that
is not heavily marketed find
its audience if online channels
continue (especially as digital
develops) to gain share of
consumer book purchasing?
And a third factor that may
have a bearing on the growth
of the ebook market is the
issue of gifting. In the last
two years, according to Books
& Consumers figures, the
purchasing of books as gifts has
increased while other types of
book purchases have declined. It
is as yet unclear how gifting of
ebooks will develop.
Jo Henry is Managing Director of BML,
the dedicated book market research
agency (www.bookmarketing.co.uk). She
will be speaking about Understanding
the Digital Consumer at the 12th LBF
Supply Chain Seminar in the Cromwell
Room this morning. ■
P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y
Reforming libel law
With the draft Defamation Bill under discussion, Richard Mollet looks at the
effects of UK libel laws on the industry’s freedom to publish
F
reedom of expression is
among the fundamental free-
doms that lie at the heart of
liberal democratic societies. Without
it, creativity is stifled, knowledge
hoarded rather than disseminated,
and opinions unshared and untested.
The United Kingdom’s libel laws un-
fortunately come into direct conflict
with this right, as one person’s freely
expressed view is another person’s
unjustified calumny.
This tension is exacerbated, indeed
perhaps occasionally deliberately ma-
nipulated, by those who hide behind
the cloak of libel in an attempt to
suppress legitimate debate and airing
of opinion. The current structure
of UK libel law allows this to hap-
pen, because it sets the debate about
libel with the wrong tests and at the
wrong level. The result is an imbal-
anced and distorted system, whereby
the risk of litigation is borne almost
entirely by the publishing sector due
to the absence of any meaningful
disincentives to bringing a libel ac-
tion. This imposes significant finan-
cial burdens and -- most disturbingly
of all -- leads to self-censorship, borne
out of the fear of anticipated costly li-
bel actions. The recent publication of
a draft Defamation Bill for England
and Wales by the UK Government’s
Ministry of Justice in March of this
year is therefore welcomed by the
industry as a significant step towards
resolving these issues.
The PA recently ran a survey on
the impact of libel on publishers,
which found that:
• 100% of the responding pub-
lishers had modified content or
language before publication in
light of the risk of libel action
• 60% had avoided publishing
about people or companies
who had sued for libel in the
past
• 40% had withdrawn a publi-
cation as a result of threatened
libel action
• A third avoided publishing on
controversial subjects
• A third had refused work from
authors for fear of libel actions
The financial impact of even the
threat of libel can be huge, with
& B O O K B R U N C H
Richard Mollet, Chief Executive of the Publishers Association
the cost of actually being sued for
libel in the millions of pounds. The
publishers who responded to our
survey spent on average £83,000
a year per company on libel insur-
ance alone, with many reporting
that they simply could not afford to
take the risk of fighting libel threats
because of the resulting increase in
libel insurance premiums that this
would create.
Very few of the libel threats that
publishers receive ever result in suits,
and very few suits end up being
heard in court. The upshot is that
courts are not making the final
decisions on what should or should
not be published, and what is or
is not libellous. Rather, financial
considerations and imperatives are
dictating which views and opinions
This year will be crucial in putting our
stamp of approval on the final legislation
see the light of day. This, more than
anything else, has a chilling effect
on both freedom to publish and
freedom of expression.
It is not just the threat from mul-
tinational corporations that is able
to create this effect: Conditional
Fee Arrangements (CFAs) have
ushered in an era of exorbitant legal
costs across the board and, as our
survey revealed, the claimant’s legal
fees were 200 times greater than the
damages actually received by the
claimant after settlement. Claimants
are exposed to very little financial
risk themselves in bringing a case
under such agreements, but defend-
L O N D O N
ants are left extremely vulnerable
and facing prohibitively high costs
while defending themselves. The
risk of action is borne almost entire-
ly by the publishing community.
I believe wholeheartedly that
those who have been defamed
should have full recourse to court
proceedings, and that there should
be mechanisms in place to enable
those with scant financial resources
to defend themselves against false-
hood. However, it is surely absurd
that a system that is meant to assist
justice (the original reason for creat-
ing CFAs was to open up access to
justice to those without finance for
legal fees) should result in published
works being withdrawn, modified
or refused for publication without
the facts of the cases ever being
heard before a court.
Defence should be open to all
and should not be placed out of any
party’s financial reach. It is question-
able as to why these concerns are
not addressed directly in the draft
Defamation Bill, but they have
been substantially dealt with in
Lord Justice Jackson’s Review of Civil
Costs, to which the PA responded
in February of this year. The Review
put forward a number of significant
reforms to CFAs, including the pro-
posal to prevent the recovery of suc-
cess fees and after-the-event insurance
premiums from the losing party (the
two elements that normally drive
London Fair
F A I R D E A L E R
up the costs in CFA cases to unac-
ceptable levels). We look forward to
finding out whether these proposals
have been taken on board by the
Government later this year.
While the threat of libel action
clearly affects freedom to publish
in the UK, ultimately it is the treat-
ment of libel under our law that
has inspired the image of the UK
as an easy jurisdiction in which to
mount a defamation suit. The draft
Defamation Bill represents real pro-
gress in addressing these problems.
We strongly support many of the
draft Bill’s proposals, including the
introduction of a “public interest”
defence and the requirement for
claimants to demonstrate substantive
harm inflicted by the alleged libel
before they are able to sue.
We also welcome the draft Bill’s
proposal to introduce a “single
publication” rule, so that new libel
actions cannot be brought each time
an online article is accessed or an
epublication downloaded by a new
individual. This is essential as pub-
lishing increasingly becomes a digital
endeavour. Notwithstanding these
proposals, we recognise that we have
some way to go in ensuring that this
draft Bill truly reflects the needs of
the publishing industry and enhances
fairness and justice for all.
It is clear that the libel laws, and
the financial instruments that are
in place to enable individuals to
access justice, must be reformed,
as they currently create significant
barriers to the freedom to publish.
This impinges upon freedom of
expression, endangers the integrity
of academic research, and very often
hampers the release of information
that the public interest demands
should be made available. The draft
Defamation Bill is currently open
for consultation, and we shall be
responding, and monitoring its
progress through Parliament. It
is scheduled to be implemented
by May 2012, so this year will be
crucial in putting our stamp of ap-
proval on the final legislation.
Richard Mollet is Chief Executive of the
Publishers Association ■
DEALE R Wednesday 13 April 2011 27
P U B L I S H E R S
Independence Day
N
owadays, when asked to
think about marketing
independent bookshops,
one starts to consider which
colours and fonts are best to
use on the “Closing Down”
posters, writes Damian Horner.
Bookshops are getting killed. No
matter what country they operate
in, sooner or later they are
gong to be run over by the twin
juggernauts of supermarkets and
online retailers.
The problem is that (bizarrely)
there are far better ways to buy
books than from bookshops.
Supermarkets are cheaper, more
convenient and focus on just the
books that most people want to
buy. Online is also cheaper, also
more convenient and offers an
even greater range. The public
aren’t complaining either. Light
readers continue to be drawn to
the supermarket bestsellers, while
heavy readers are being seduced
by the increasingly acceptable
wiles of the Kindle.
And if all this wasn’t bad
enough, the twist of the knife
for independent booksellers is
the fact that even the publishers
no longer need them as much
as they did. The independents
can no longer “make” an author
because they simply can’t deliver
the numbers. This means that
publishers are reluctant to give
them the levels of support that
they used to – no matter how
much they deny it. The brutal
truth is that publishers would
far rather put their faith in
the marketing weight of the
supermarkets and the online
power of Amazon.
So how do independent
booksellers fight back? The
answer is not “to do more of the
same – but better”. For most, all
this means is longer hours and a
relentless quest for “efficiency”,
which does nothing more than
erase the nuances and character
out of their stores.
The time has come for
independents to get radical and
make significant changes to the
way they think and work. There
are four major paradigm shifts
that might stimulate new debate
and a fresh perspective:
28 London Fair DEALE R Wednesday 13 April 2011
W E E K L Y & B O O K B R U N C H
Damian Horner
Stop thinking that you sell
books
Whether we like it or not, books
are products. They are not a point
of difference. They are not what
make the indies special. They aren’t
the reason why people go out of
their way (and pay more) to visit
independent booksellers.
Independents aren’t selling books.
They are selling the romance of the
bookshop. Once they grasp this,
everything changes. Success is not
about becoming “better” retailers.
The secret is to find ways of being as
different as possible to supermarkets
and online.
Most booksellers believe this is all
about their knowledge and passion,
which is true, but only a fraction of
the potential audience engage with
staff and actually experience this. As
important, is the way booksellers
use the store itself to express their
differences. And the most public
medium that the indies have to
demonstrate what makes them
special, is their shop window.
There is little point in piling books
in a window; most passers-by already
know it is a bookshop. Instead of
trying to sell titles “through the
glass”, indies should set themselves
the target of stopping traffic. Get
people’s attention and then you will
be able to sell them some books.
Stop thinking that your
customers are book buyers
If the indies regard their customers
only as book buyers they will see
them very infrequently. In order
to engage with them more often,
they need to think about their
customers in broader terms and
L O N D O N
this leads to thinking about their
stores differently too. Instead of
regarding it as a bookshop, think
of it as a creative hub – a place
where like-minded people can be
stimulated, meet, learn, create, relax,
debate and generally buzz together.
Books are just one aspect of this.
Most bookshops have taken
this only as far as opening a café or
forming a reading group, but the
most interesting (and usually the
most successful) are going further.
They are holding “Philosophy
Breakfasts”, creating “Reading Spas”,
setting up music concerts, developing
Scrabble clubs and knitting groups
or in addition to books, selling
antiques, art and housewares.
Some even operate as the ticket
office for local theatre events.
Whatever they are doing, they
have all recognised that more
important than books are the
people who love books. What
they are creating are environments
where more of these people come
together, more often. Again, it
cannot be copied by Amazon or
the supermarkets and more visits
by more people means more sales.
Stop thinking that service
is your competitive edge
Good personal service is not
enough to keep the independents
afloat – otherwise people wouldn’t be
buying from supermarkets in such
large numbers. It is a nice point of
difference but not a competitive edge.
The real strength of the independent
booksellers is that they are opinion-
ated. They have a point of view
about almost every book they sell.
Note that being opinionated is
very different to being knowledge-
able. Knowledge is cheap. The
internet is full of “knowledge”
about books and that is exactly the
problem. In a world of informa-
tion overload, what customers
crave are navigators – experts who
can tell us what they think.
Being opinionated is a symbol of
the independent bookseller’s expertise
– without it they are just retailers
flogging printed paper. Booksellers
have to exploit this. Everything
from their displays, to their
promotions, to their hand-selling
needs to deliver a point of view.
And the more subjective the better.
F A I R D E A L E R
It is no use being neutral, or fair,
or even nice about all the books
they sell. They need to celebrate
being opinionated, because it
is this more than anything else
that enables them to make such
fantastic recommendations.
Stop being so independent
Independents need to stop being so
damned independent. Success will
come from joining together – not
in the real world, but digitally. For
all the value of being opinionated,
it only impacts upon the people
who enter the store. Independents
need to express their views on
books beyond these confines in
order to seduce new customers. The
best way to do that is on the web.
“Opinion” is the fuel of the
internet and because of this,
rather than being a threat to the
independents, the web should
be one of their favoured (and
most powerful) platforms. Some
independents have grasped this,
and have set up Facebook groups
or use Twitter, but (almost without
exception) they are failing to reach
beyond their existing customer bases.
A better strategy would be for
the independents to get together to
create a social network presence that
actually has critical mass and scale
– the kind of scale that can make or
break a book once more and make
publishers take them seriously again.
And of course, once a digital
collective of independents is using
opinion to shape the views of the
public about certain books, it is not a
big step to start selling some of those
books online too. Re-investing the
profits into the site and continually
expanding its potential. Then the
game gets interesting…
To sum up, the indies are at a
crossroads. The traditional and the
stubborn are going to suffer (merci-
fully fast) deaths. Those that want to
survive will have to embrace funda-
mentally different ways of thinking
about what they do. This will shake
the very foundations of how the indies
have worked for decades (even
centuries), but those that do adapt
will thrive. Good luck to them.
Damian Horner is a freelance marketing
strategist specialising in books, music and the
arts. www.damianhorner.com ■
P U B L I S H E R S
Changing lives with ebooks
Worldreader expands into Kenya. Andrew Albanese explains
A
fter two overwhelmingly
successful trials in Ghana,
Worldreader, the non-
profit organisation dedicated to
establishing a reading culture in
the developing world via ebooks
and ereaders, has announced
that it will expand its efforts
into Kilgoris, Kenya, starting
in May. The expansion will
bring hundreds of Kindles, and
thousands of ebooks into the
classrooms at the Intimigon
Nursery and Primary School.
And if things go as they have
in Ghana thus far, many lives
will be changed. “Thanks to
simple innovation, we can send
tens of thousands of books to
children thousands of miles away
from us, separated by oceans
and very difficult roads,” notes
Worldreader’s Susan Moody
Prieto. “It’s mind-blowing.”
Worldreader is the brainchild of
David Risher, who was Amazon’s
Senior Vice President of Product
and Platform Development
– certainly no stranger to the
potential of ebooks. But it was
while on a year-long trip around
the world with his family in
2008, after leaving Amazon, that
Risher realised the true power of
ebooks, and ereaders. “We were
in Ecuador at an orphanage,
and I looked across the field at
a building that I could see had
Priscilla Sarpomaa downloaded 21 books and
was the top reader over the winter holidays
W E E K L Y & B O O K B R U N C H
books stacked up inside it. It
used to be a library, but now it
was locked up and out of use,”
Risher recalled. “Here I was
looking at my two daughters,
each of whom had a Kindle, and
had read probably 50 books that
year, and I thought, this could
bring life to this part of the world,
because we now live in a world
where, theoretically, you can get
your hands on a book as easily as
getting a phone call.”
Together with partners Colin
McElwee and Mike Sundermeyer,
Risher launched Worldreader
in 2009, as a “market-based”
not-for-profit organisation with
the aim to put “a library of books
within reach of every family on
the planet, using electronic book
technology.” In its first trial, sixth
graders in Ghana took quickly
to the Kindle experience. Risher
says they were
able to use them A key component of Worldreader’s
in a matter of
hours; enjoyed
the experience;
vision is rooted outside
liked the tools
such as the built-in
of the classroom: that is using
dictionary; and
they are reading
ereaders to jump start a
more and more,
thanks to the
reading-for-pleasure culture
instant availability of titles.
But a key component of
Worldreader’s vision is rooted
outside of the classroom:
that is using ereaders to
jump start a “reading-for-
pleasure culture” and to
seed a vibrant publishing
business in parts of the
world that currently
lack strong bookstores,
libraries and a distribution
infrastructure. Ebooks can
clear that infrastructure
hurdle, Risher insists.
“An analogy would be
cell phones,” he explains.
“In the developing world,
cell phones leaped over
the whole landline phase,
because they didn’t have
the legacy of the landline.
Ebooks might turn out to
be similar.”
L O N D O N
Deborah Tetteh (middle) reading to her friends in front of her house.
Each ereader is being used by three people.
With its successful second trial
in Ghana concluded last fall,
Worldreader is picking up more
support. In addition to the success
with the iREAD programme in
Ghana and its pending expansion
into Kenya, the organisation has
now caught the attention of some
major players, and international
organisations and governmental
agencies, including: the World
Bank; international publishers
such as Random House; African
publishers such as Afram
Publications and Sub-Saharan;
as well as authors such as Justina
Chen, Daniel Pinkwater, Janet
Wong and Cory Doctorow, all of
whom have recently signed on to
make a selection of their books
and stories available to students
and families at no cost.
Overall, Worldreader has made
nearly 40,000 books available to
Ghanaians in the last four months,
and officials say they hear “almost
daily” from authors who want to
help support the organisation.
Participating in Worldreader is “a
London Fair
F A I R D E A L E R
no-brainer,” says bestselling author
and Boing Boing blogger Cory
Doctorow. “It’s the first inkling
of the real promise of electronic
publishing, the realisation of the
ancient and noble
drive to deliver
universal access
to all human
knowledge.” He
adds, “a situation
in which a writer
can do good at no
cost to himself,
no cost to his
publisher”.
There are, of course, costs, and
Worldreader is always looking for
more involvement – including
financial support. Each fully
loaded Kindle costs about $250,
so while the group welcomes
donations of ebooks and is open
to ideas from publishers and
authors, financial support is
critical to support its mission.
Fully 100% of contributions,
officials say, go to support reading
efforts, and contributions are tax
deductible. Further, by supporting
Worldreader, Risher notes,
publishers and authors are not
only helping the developing world,
they are helping themselves, by
investing in a reading culture –
and building a potential market –
where none currently exists.
For more information, and to discuss how
you can help, visit www.worldreader.org. ■
DEALE R Wednesday 13 April 2011 29
P U B L I S H E R S
Making your User Experience work
James Edwards, of online marketing company bpi., believes that the online
experience should be seamless, engaging, entertaining and relevant. He explains
how to achieve this
E
conomic uncertainty
means budgets squeezed
to within an inch of
their lives. As a result, any good
online marketer worth their salt
should be asking themselves how
to deliver a no frills approach
to usability. Here are my top six
tips for no nonsense usability.
Think about the
destination, not the
journey
The best way of achieving
simplicity is to switch the focus
from tasks to deliverables. In
other words, first think about
where you need to end up
before you decide how you’re
going to get there.
For example, when learning
about the audience, don’t
doggedly follow the process of
interviewing users, trawling
through stats, writing personas,
planning detailed user journeys,
user testing, etc.
Instead, first think about
the fundamentals of what you
need to know about your users.
Who are they? Where are they?
What do they do? What do
they need? How can you help
them? Then plan the tasks that
get the best answers in the
quickest way. For example, is
there someone in the business
who can effectively represent
the audience and their needs in
an unbiased way?
Accept that we live in an
imperfect world
You may also have to accept
that the perfect approach may
be compromised because of
budget constraints. You should
be ready to come up with
an approach that is simpler
to create but still meets the
fundamentals.
For example, you may not
be able to build your own
e-commerce system, but may be
able to build an excellent product
30 London Fair DEALE R Wednesday 13 April 2011
W E E K L Y & B O O K B R U N C H
catalogue with clear links to
retailers. (Amazon does quite a
good job of selling books.)
Ultimately, we should all
be prepared to come up with
an approach that we can take
on small budgets and short
deadlines. If we don’t somebody
else, who is ill-equipped to do
so, will do it for us.
Use the right tools for the
job
We at bpi. use “UX” principles
in four ways:
Through research and
evaluation we explore the
business, the audience and the
market place so that all our
ideas are well-informed.
Through planning and
information architecture we
demonstrate and validate our
ideas before we spend vast
amounts of time and money
building them for real.
Through interface design and
build we create sites that make
sense to users; sites that are
not ruled by the inflexibility
or technical constraints of the
chosen back-end system.
And through user testing we
Think about where you need to
end up before you decide how
you’re going to get there
can learn what users actually
do and how they feel so that
we can improve what we give
them.
Although the tasks we
undertake may vary, we apply
this process of research, plan,
create and test consistently
across all our projects, no
matter what the budget or
platform. In doing so, we have
L O N D O N
shown clients how to deliver
a more effective, efficient and
rewarding online experience for
all; one that has pleased their
customers and met their own
business objectives.
Talk to friends and
colleagues
When
starting
a new
digital
project
and you
want to
know
what
direction
to take the first and
the simplest thing to
do is talk to the people
you work with. This
could be the people in your
department, people from other
departments who have a vested
interest in what you’re doing
or even trusted suppliers and
clients.
Run stakeholder workshops
to find out what you and
your colleagues think. For us,
stakeholder workshops are
usually one-day events that
involve between 10 and 15
people from across a business,
with a wide range of roles and
personalities. For example:
• Senior positions and
lower tiers of the
business
• Strategic people and
tactical people
• Tech-savvy and not-so-
F A I R D E A L E R
tech-savvy
• People from different
departments
Stakeholder workshops allow
participants to share their ideas
with each other.
Talk to your audience
Recruit real people who
represent
your
audience
to take
part in
individual
interviews
and
group
discussions.
Through
interviews
and group
discussions
determine:
• What your audience
wants from your business
• Where they go online
and what they do online
• What they think, feel
and expect from the
internet
• Their appetite for buying
your products online
• What else they want
from your website in
future
UX is not a cheap
marketing gimmick
So, if UX is a process, why do I
see a growing trend for using it as
a marketing campaign idea? You
know the sort of thing: “Hey, we
understand you Mr Customer.
Here’s a picture of someone like
you saying the sort of thing you
say! Now buy stuff from us…”
James Edwards is CEO and founder
of bpi. It works in the publishing
sector for clients such as Hachette
UK, Transworld, OUP, Bloomsbury,
Orpheus Books, Random House and
Oxford University Press.
www.bpiagency.com. ■
 




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