London Show Daily 18 April 2012

CEOs debate
industry future
I
s the publishing industrys
business model sustain-
abl e? That was t he
question for the London
Book Fairs 2012 CEO
Panel, chaired by Association of
American Publishers President
Tom Allen. With the industry
facing seismic change, Allen
characterized his role at AAP
as working with other global
organizations to establish rules
of the road that would allow
the publishing industry to
survive, and thrive mainly
through copyright advocacy and
legislative efforts. On that front
Allen acknowledged that 2012
had yielded some spectacular
failures, namely, those of
SOPA/PIPA, the controversial,
publisher-backed copyright
legislation in the US. It high-
lighted, Allen noted, a new
reality for publishers they now
compet ed wi t h new, bi g
industries with sometimes
divergent business and legisla-
tive agendas Apple, Amazon,
Google, and Microsoft.
The first panellist to address
the question of sustainability
was Donald Katz, CEO of digi-
tal audio publisher Audible.
com, now part of Amazon. Katz
drew on his experience as an
author, with booksellers, as well
as in the transition of audio from
tapes and CDs to digital, observ-
ing that the publishing business
had always been in flux. He then
seized on a theme thats become
popular at this years Fair that
publishing must become more
consumer-oriented. Publishers
should never start another
imprint, he noted, saying that
imprints were inward facing
models, and instead should
focus on developing consumer
brands. He also noted that
territorial rights should go away.
Its a global economy.
Katz was followed by John
Mitchinson, co-founder of
Unbound, a reader-supported
f undi ng and publ i s hi ng
platform. Mitchinson said the
current publishing model was
probably not sustainable, in
its current form, and added that
there was a lot of bad karma
in publishing. Publishers like
to come here to parade their
inadequacy, he quipped. But
publishers had not done a bad
job of delivering content, he
observed, as reading culture was
in fact surging. Nevertheless, he
descri bed t he publ i shi ng
business as broken, and as
Heralde honoured
at LBF
authors. For Jorge is impervious
to censorship, bad reviews, non-
existent sales all the various
forms in which the serious tries
to impose itself.
Herral de was, Thi rl wel l
saluted, El Editor, El Novel-
ista, El Guapo!
El Editor responded in a low-
key fashion to this unexpected
award, which had a very
special value for me, as it is given
by my colleagues. Publishing,
he said, was among the paths to
happiness, and he talked of
the pleasure of accompanying
young debut authors through-
out their brilliant careers,
including members of the
so-called Granta Generation, or,
as they are known in Spain, the
British Dream Team, and
of rel aunchi ng f orgot t en
classics. Herralde talked also
of intellectual explorations
and beligerent series from
Spains turbulent years.
Anyway, he concluded, as
he thanked colleagues, friends,
family and authors, who are
clearly also friends and family,
there is no better profession for
me than being a publisher.
A
n inside-
out novel-
ist, a nov-
el i st wi thout a
novel who had
curated in one
space the most
a c r o b a t i c o f
British and Ameri-
can novelists was
how Adam Thirl-
wel l descri bed
London Book Fair
Lifetime Achieve-
ment Award-win-
ner Jorge Herralde. Thirlwell,
25, with just two novels on the
Anagrama list so far, painted a
loving portrait of a man who
has the character of a novelist:
he refuses to take seriously what
other people take seriously,
which can be comforting for
Fo r t h e l a t e s t f a i r c ov e r a ge , go t o www. p u b l i s h e r s we e kl y. c o m/l b f a n d www. b o o kb r u n c h . c o . u k
18 April 2012
London
Visit us at
Stand G470
Herralde (centre) with Thirlwell (left) and David
Roche, LBF Chair
Continues on page 3
Visit us at the Constellation Stand X735
in the Digital Zone of Earls Court 2
ConstellationDigital.com
340
PUBLISHERS
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ONE
COMPLETE
DIGITAL
SERVICE
3 18 APRIL 2012 LONDON SHOW DAILY
I
n what looks to be one of
the biggest dollar figure
deals coming out of the
London Book Fair so far,
Amanda Cook at Crown
took North American rights,
for a rumored seven figures, to
a non- f i ct i on t i t l e cal l ed
Dataclysm by Christian Rudder,
one of the founders of the dating
Web site OkCupid.com.
Chris Parris-Lamb at the
Gernert Company brokered
the deal, and Cook won North
American rights to the title
after emerging at the top of a
10-bidder auction. Parris-Lamb
confirmed that the book was
pre-empted in the Netherlands,
and that a UK auction was under
way. Describing the book,
Parris-Lamb said it would be a
witty, provocative, visually fas-
cinating look at how big data is
transforming our understanding
of race, politics, age, beauty,
sex, humour, even history, and
ushering in a new era in the
study of human nature. Parris-
Lamb added that Rudder was
interested in using big data to
understand ourselves, rather
than to sell ourselves.
Rudder graduated from
Harvard in 1998 and, with
three classmates, launched
SparkNotes. The website, which
was initially called TheSpark.
com, was ultimately bought by
Barnes & Noble. With the same
friends behind SparkNotes
Chris Coyne, Sam Yagan and
Max Krohn Rudder went on to
launch OkCupid, which sold to
IAC for a reported $50 million.
At OkCupid, which was
profiled in Nick Paumgartens
New Yorker piece about online
dating, Rudder oversees the
popular blog OKTrends. For the
blog, Rudder, whose work was
highlighted in Paumgartens
story, mines the sites mathemat-
ical data and offers amusing
takes on the numbers. (OkCu-
pid provides, among other
things, percentage breakdowns
of how members match up based
on the answers they provide to
optional questions posed by the
site.) Rudder also plays in the
band Bishop Allen and appeared
in the mumblecore film Funny
Ha Ha, which was directed
by fellow Harvard alumnus
Andrew Buljalski.
Crown secures seven-gure deal
with OkCupid co-founder
CEOs debate industry future
FAIR DEALINGS
As Harlequin expands more
heavily into non-ction, the
publisher has announced a
deal with the creators of the
popular YouTube series, Sh*t
Girls Say, Kyle Humphrey
and Graydon Sheppard. The
videos, which mock behavior
some might consider ste-
reotypically feminine, have
drawn over 28 million views,
and accompany a Twitter
account that has over
1 million followers. The
book will feature full-colour
pictures and, as Harlequin
put it, will capture the hilari-
ous essence of silly everyday
phrases used by women.
Deborah Brody acquired
world rights to the book
from Simon Greene at CAA,
and Harlequin is planning to
release the title in hardcover
in October 2012.
Sh*t book to
Harlequin
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madness, where books failed to
earn out advances, retailers got
high discounts, and publishers
lied to authors about how well
their books were doing. Like
Katz, Mitchinson also pegged
the problem as a lack of connec-
tion to readers, as publishers
have traditionally outsourced
that critical piece of the value
chain to retailers. He urged a
model that brings readers and
writers together, and that was
format neutral.
Next up, George Lossius,
CEO of Publishing Technology,
said he had come to the conclu-
sion six years ago that the pub-
lishing model was not sustain-
able, and begun investing in
change. He also addressed the
role of government, raised in
Allens introduction.
I do think government plays
a role, we cant descend into
lawlessness, but good business
does not rely on government,
he said. Dont worry about leg-
islation, lobbying, he said,
most of those actions are defen-
sive. The danger, he said, was
that publishers waited on gov-
ernment outcomes before decid-
ing what path to take. He noted
that while publishing continued
to be profitable, profits would
diminish, because the digital age
was content greedy. It is about
new ideas, new discovery, new
search, new networks and a
new audience. The digital age
offers a vastly larger audience,
he observed, but not necessar-
ily from books, but sometimes
from things that come from
books. Paper books may have
served us for 100 years but
the age of formats surviving
that long was over, Lossius said,
noting the future would be one
of constant change, new prod-
ucts, and new business models
coming ad infinitum.
Closing was Bloomsburys
Richard Charkin, who added a
witty touch, sort of agreeing
with his fellow panellists while
noting that the sessions ques-
tion was wrong. The question
was not whether the current
publishing model was sustain-
able, but was it desirable? With
a print book, between manufac-
ture and purchase, it is handled
on average 24 times. Now the
price might be $5, $10. Nothing
can support 24 handlings of a $5
product. Publishing in the digi-
tal age had the opportunity to
create a new, environmentally
and economically sound model,
he noted, without the frustration
of piling up 10,000 books in
Tesco onl y to have 9, 000
shipped back.
But the real problem was
not with the models, he stressed,
but with the practices we under-
stood, and shared. Trust is a
more powerful weapon than
the law, and were in danger of
losing it.
Continued from page 1
www.publishersweekly.com www.bookbrunch.co.uk
Etymologicon. It has sold US
rights to Berkley/Penguin.
Meanwhile, in the UK, Icon
will package The Etymologicon
as a gemmel edition (old English
for twin) with Forsyths
followup, The Horologicon, in a
slipcase, price 25. The new title
will also be available separately,
again as a giftable hardback.
To add to the birthday cele-
brations, Duncan Heath has
been shortlisted for Imprint and
Editor of the Year, sponsored by
the Publishing Training Centre,
at the annual Industry Awards.
Furlow was named Young Pub-
lisher of the Year at the Indepe-
nent Publishers Guild Awards
last month.
4 LONDON SHOW DAILY 18 APRIL 2012
FAIR DEALINGS
Icon signs book by
former MD
The Rowman & Littleeld Publishing Group (RLPG) and Gardners
Books announced that they had reached an agreement on ebook
sales and distribution. With the deal, signed yesterday at the
London Book Fair, Gardners is to offer ebooks of RLPGs various
imprints. We are very pleased to be partnered with Gardners,
said Jed Lyons, President and CEO of the Rowman & Littleeld
Publishing Group. As individuals, libraries and academic
institutions transition toward their books and reference
resources becoming more and more digitally based, we want to
make certain our content is available to anyone who wants it and
offered through whichever platform is right for them.
Gardners, Rowman &
Littlefield ink ebook deal
I
con Books celebrating its
twentieth birthday this
year with the continuing
success of The Etymologi-
con, sales of which now
top 75,000 copies has signed
a title by former MD Simon
Flynn, who left the company at
the close of 2011 to follow what
he feels is his true vocation
teaching science.
The Science Magpie: A Mis-
cellany of Paradoxes, Explica-
tions, Lists, Lives and Ephemera
from the Wonderful World of
Science has been bought direct
from the author, and Icon has
world rights. MD Philip Cot-
terell (right) and Andrew Fur-
low, Sales and Marketing Direc-
tor, see it as bestseller for Christ-
mas 2012 a Schotts Miscel-
lany for the many among us
who feel we should know more
about science and seek an enjoy-
able way to learn. Cotterell says
the book, which Flynn who has
degrees in philosophy and chem-
istry is writing while he waits
to take up his place at teacher
training college, will comprise
one-third stuff you know, one
third you think you know and
one third youd like to learn.
Icon will publish the book
this autumn as a 12.99 giftable
hardback, much l i ke The
Andrew Furlow and Philip
Cotterell
A middle grade series by Guillermo del Toro initially shopped a
few years ago before being shelved is back on track. The series
will mark the second major book project from the director, whose
vampire series The Strain, which is written with author Chuck
Hogan, is published in the US by William Morrow.
Agent Richard Abate at 3 Arts Entertainment, who handles the
directors book projects in the States, conrmed that the series is
being shopped, and that he had just closed a deal with Hyperion in
the US for the books. (Hyperion was originally slated to publish the
series, before the project was put, as Abate phrased it, on hold.)
The series has also sold in Spain. Agent Melissa Chinchillio, with
Fletcher & Company, is handling foreign rights at LBF.
Del Toro, who is from Mexico, has directed such lms as The
Devils Backbone and Hellboy. He was set to direct the lm
adaptat--ion of The Hobbit, but stepped down from the job in 2010,
remaining on the lm as a screenwriter.
Del Toro back on track
D
o library ebook lends
spur retail sales, or cut
into them? Thats a nag-
ging question in the US for the
major houses, half of whom
dont allow library ebook lend-
ing at all, and the other half
restrict lending in some way.
Into this debate, OverDrive yes-
terday announced it would offer
some much-needed data to help
parse the browsing and reading
habits of library patrons with
the release in a series of Big
Data reports. The report looks
at billions of ebook impressions
and other data collected from
Overdrives 18,000 public and
school library customers and
the numbers are eye-opening.
For example, in March 2012,
an average of 337,000 visitors
from 219 countries browsed the
OverDrive-hosted virtual
branch websites every day.
These patrons viewed more than
146 million page for the month,
averaging 9.5 minutes per visit,
and viewing more than 636
million title cover images. What
does this say about libraries?
OverDri ve s ebook dat a
confirms the benefits that books
and authors in library channels
enjoy in terms of exposure and
discovery to a highly desirable
audience, said Alexis Wiles,
Ov e r Dr i v e Ma na g e r of
Publisher Relations.
The reports are developed in
consultation with an advisory
panel which includes librarians
and marketing professionals from
libraries in the US, Canada, and
the UK. For more information,
visit overdrive at booth #X700.
OverDrive releases big data on
library ebooks
Alison Hennessey at Harvill
Secker has bought UK and Com-
monwealth rights (inc Canada)
in Black Chalk by Christopher
J Yates. The novel is the com-
pulsively readable story of six
friends at Oxford University who
begin to play a truth or dare game
at first, an elaborate variation
on truth or dare with mildly
embarrassing consequences, but
soon, as the stakes grow higher,
evolving into a vicious struggle.
Twenty years later, one player
believes he has escaped the game,
but he is wrong.
Harvill Secker bought rights in
the the book from Arabella Stein
at Abner Stein. Hennessey said:
I cant remember the last time
I stayed up all night to finish
a submission Black Chalk is
clever, dark and a completely
compulsive read.
Harvill Secker buys truth or
dare thriller
The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group
Stand # i605
InternatIonal orderIng InformatIon:
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e-mail: orders@nbninternational.com
Website: www.nbninternational.com
UnIted StateS orderIng InformatIon:
rowman & littlefield Publishing Group
15200 NBN Way, P.O. Box 191
Blue ridge Summit, Pa 17214
Tel: 1-800-462-6420
fax: 1-800-338-4550
Website: www.rowman.com
rlPg ebooks
a simultaneous release of all frontlist books in print and ebook editions
muniCh 1972
tragEdy, tError, and triumPh at thE oLymPiC gamEs
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finding love that lasts
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alfred hitChCoCk s frenzy
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FAIR DEALINGS
LONDON SHOW DAILY 18 APRIL 2012
Faces of London Book Fair 2012
6

www.bilbary.com

Contact:
amy.riach@bilbary.com
kate.thomsen@bilbary.com
Simon & Schuster held a dinner to celebrate Lynda La Plante and her new
paperback Bloodline. From left: Siju Ravi of Jashanmal, Dubai, Gill
Coleridge, Suzane Baboneau and Lynda la Plante.
Sybil Ruscoe, author of London 2012 Olympic and
Paralympic Games: The Official Commemorative Book,
cut the cake at the Wiley stand party to celebrate Wiley's
Olympic and Paralympic titles.
At the Canongate stand: Jamie
Byng with author Ruth Ozeki.
Reza Mahammad, celebrated chef at the Star of India, dropped in to the Gourmand
Book stand.
Celebrating the launch of
Constable & Robinsons new
Canvas list: Nick Robinson with
Commissioning Editor Victoria
Hughes-Williams.
VISIT US AT
LONDON
BOOK FAIR
Stand U105
SHARJAH
INTERNATIONAL
BOOK FAIR
Gateway to the Arab
Publishing world
It was such a great fair, great program, great
hospitality, great business opportunities,
great selection of international publishers.
I am so happy to be involved and will be
promoting it everywhere.
Nermin Molloaglu, Kalem Agency
Hosting an international publishing
programme & translation grant programme
8040 a-w A4:Layout 1 4/4/12 10:38 Page 1
Trogg, soon to be a hit for Sony Pictures
Animation, and Rachel Wards Numbers,
for UK critics favourite Warp Films. While
on the television front, Sophia Bennetts
Threads is to make Lime Pictures (TOWIE)
very happy.
Soon the attraction of the Chicken House-
branded vision became apparent, and the
possibilities of taking the whole concept as a
part of an existing programme seemed more
and more attractive.
In 2009 Carlsen in Germany, and the
inspirational Klaus Humann, suggested to
me that they launch a unique collaboration,
bringing all Chicken House new publishing
into its own separate list in Germany;
Chicken House Deutschland was born.
Launched to immediate and huge success
with Rachel Wards Numbers series, the
German Chickens have gone on to establish
the brand in a new way. Working with
our home team on a new local design and
identity, Carlsen has given Chicken House
a special impact, and it will soon begin
publishing Chicken House local authors too.
Strong avour
The important thing here, and in Chicken
Houses other collaborations, was that all
the partners had very strong existing
childrens lists (and in fact often were not big
rights buyers from the Chicken House).
They saw that the refreshing nature of
another editorial vision with a strong
flavour could give their own market a
new taste. All of them used the distinctive
identity of the list, my position as its
personality, as well my authoritive
reputation and colourful qualities!
Chicken House continues to grow this
vision, and has just announced that in Spring
2014 Chicken House Netherlands is to
launch its first list with new partner, The
House of Books, in Holland. Here, too, I
strongly expect to learn as much from new
friends as ever.
Truly in a quiet way, I believe that Chicken
House with its outstanding team, Elinor
Bagenal, Rachel Hickman and Imogen
Cooper is showing that partnerships based
around a strong understanding of childrens
real tastes can make the kind of international
impact that bigger companies can only
dream of. Of course, I also like to think it
helps that the man in the chicken suit is the
wise old bird himself.
Barry Cunningham is Publisher and Managing
Director of Chicken House Publishing.
B
ritain is good at producing pop
stars and childrens writers.
Something in the water, art
schools and folk tale heritage
mixes with music hall, comic
i nversi on and pl ai n ol d- f ashi oned
eccentricity to produce world-beaters. And
perhaps, more seriously, children around
the world seem to have more in common
than their adult contemporaries.
So I had this firmly in mind when I
launched Chicken House Publishing 12
years ago with a business plan to discover,
nurture and promote new writers around the
world with a commonality of vision edito-
rially and, equally importantly, an inte-
grated marketing perspective. Of course it
helped that I had a strong reputation to trade
on; I was, after all, the man responsible for
discovering JK Rowling when I started
Bloomsbury Childrens Books, and prior to
that had cut my promotion and publicity
teeth as Marketing Director at Penguin
Books working with Roald Dahl and Spike
Milligan! I knew that good books had to be
found, but then really thought about, so that
when bringing them to market a clear sales
and marketing overcoat was put warmly
around them. From covers, to individual
messages inside the jackets, to personal notes
from the authors and me, all had to be
Chicken House identified from the start.
Id also seen the legendary Kaye Webb at
Puffin really work on the texts, getting the
book out thats inside your head, dear, she
said to the occasionally recalcitrant new
authors. So once again, in my mind, Chicken
House had to be editorially clear from the
start about the direction and appeal of the
novels it took on. Old-fashioned editing and
bang up-to-date marketing, both developed
together, that was our creed.
Brand list
It was gratifying that the publishing world
seemed to like the idea of an international
brand list, commissioned and personally
packaged around this Barry Cunningham
character and his ideas. Scholastic, in the
USA, immediately approached the fledgling
list, asking to be its North American partner
(the only non-Scholastic part of the mega
publishers portfolio). There swiftly
followed other Scholastic partnerships in
Canada, Australia and New Zealand, while
Egmont kept the home fires burning.
Authors such as Cornelia Funke and
Kevin Brooks blazed bestselling trails, to be
followed by contemporary YA hits like
Rachel Wards Numbers series, Lucy Chris-
tophers prizewinning novels, and modern
fantasy classics like The Tunnels series by
Rod Gordon and Brian Williams. Scholastic
then moved to take the by-then-independent
Chicken House more firmly under its wing,
and Chicken House became part of the
wider Scholastic family in 2004.
But showing a wisdom not normally
associated with multi-nationals, the canny
Ellie Berger insisted that my team and I
remained fully independent, working at
arms length with Scholastic companies
around the world.
Maverick vision
So, Chicken House preserved its unique
creative edge, which allowed our maverick
vision to thrive. Chicken House Entertain-
ment began cutting media deals representing
the parent houses authors and big name
movie studios signed up winners like Muncle
Chickens, children and the global market
Barry Cunningham explains how old-fasioned editing, good marketing and strong
partnerships have made Chicken House a success
Barry Cunningham in front of the chicken
house that his children used to read in, and
which gave the Chicken House its name.
(Photograph by Michael Orth)
( )
I believe that Chicken House is showing that
partnerships based around a strong understanding
of childrens real tastes, can make the kind of
international impact that bigger companies can
only dream of.
mimic the print world, where a
patron has to go to a library
location to check out a title.
Unfortunately, most imposed
friction, such as DRM, serves
only to frustrate readers, and
ul ti matel y dri ves them to
explore other options. And in an
age where everything, from the
latest community jobs roster to
the most talked about romance
bestseller, is increasingly likely
to be available in digital format
only, the potential disenfran-
chisement from such friction
threatens to be not merely incon-
venient, but divisive. Less than a
year from the London Riots,
you would think there might be
some willingness to explore
ways digital access might help to
level cultural differences, rather
than exacerbate them.
Free to all
When our public library systems
were first established, Western
democracies were just emerging
from the worst excesses of the
industrial revolution. Libraries
then were seen as a stabilising
force the words Free to all
stand over the Boston Public
Library, because philanthropists
recognised that a literate work-
ing class becomes invested in
social order.
How ironic that in the digital
age, for all its promise, we are
poised to throw aside this
commitment to our collective
prosperity, as the worlds largest
publishers don the cloaks of
New Industrialists. Placing
commerce before commonweal,
Adam Smiths Invisible Hand
would rest on the tiller of a
ship crewed only by those who
can afford Amazon Prime.
It doesnt have to be this way.
The digital transition brings
unparalleled opportunities for
libraries and publishers, authors
and readers. This is no time to
stand apart, but a time to come
together, to provide a bulwark
of access and to create a new
generation of readers.
Publishers Weekly contributing edi-
tor Peter Brantley is director of the
Internet Archives Bookserver Proj-
ect, a not-for-profit digital library.
I
ts been a difficult period
for libraries as the worlds
major publishers continue
to prevent them from
licensing and lending
frontlist, popular ebooks, writes
Peter Brantley. After Penguin
backed out of the library ebook
market entirely in January, Ran-
dom House now stands as the
only big six publisher to allow
US libraries to purchase access
to its full catalogue in digital for-
mat although last month they
caused consternation by tripling
their prices. The widely reported
motivation for this state of
affairs: fear that ebook lending
cuts into ebook sales.
But in a world where ereaders
and tablets are falling in price
and surging in popularity, the
removal of ebooks from libraries
creates an unfortunate outcome:
the poor must trek to their local
library branch if they have one
while the rest of us can read on
our devices. This let them eat
print philosophy not only
betrays the advantages digital
has to offer, it needlessly carries
forward barriers to knowledge
and advancement that an entire
class of individuals has histori-
cally struggled with.
It i s al so bad busi ness,
because, in their fixation on pre-
serving traditional book income,
publishers stand to lose some-
thing more important: readers.
Borrow and buy
In the digital age, turning
potential readers away from
libraries only serves to turn them
away from books. Those who
lack the opportunity to read
the books they are interested in,
in the manner they wish, will
instead turn on the television,
watch a movie or play a game,
al l of whi ch can be done
cheaply (often for free), and
increasingly using the very
same tablet devices on which
one could also choose to read
a book. In the economy of
attention, the major front in
culture wars is not free books
vs. purchased ones, but reading
vs. not reading.
Meanwhile, despite the fears
of publishers that library ebook
lending may hurt sales, we know
that libraries create readers.
More and more evi dence
suggests that peopl e who
borrow books from libraries are
actually the greatest purchasers
of books. Data collected by
the Library Journal in its recent
Pat r on Pr of i l es s er i es
suggests that the biggest book
borrowers are also publishers
best customers.
Ama z o n a l s o c l e a r l y
understands this; in February, at
the 2012 Digital Book World
Conference, Amazon officials
said its Prime ebook lending
library correlated with an
increase in book purchasing.
And the largest vendor of library
ebooks, Overdrive, reports that
its Buy it Now option, crafted
to relieve the tension of patrons
frustrated by long queues for the
scarce numbers of books, has
driven significant sales, a point
to which the publishers that
work with libraries can attest.
Thi s represents perhaps
the most shortsighted aspect
of publ i shers wari ness
rather than library borrowing
replacing purchasing, it is
increasingly clear that a love
of reading incites the wallet
as well as the imagination.
Still, the major publishers resist,
with many now expressing
a desire to insert artificial
friction into library ebook
lending friction that would
The new industrialists vs libraries
Peter Brantley
11 18 APRIL 2012 LONDON SHOW DAILY
and Australia simultaneously,
and will be working in Australia
with the Bonnier-owned com-
pany Five Mile Press. We shall
also be focusing on selling rights
in the list and have aimed, as far
as possible, to acquire world
rights for our books.
The team that is behind
Hot Key Books is a dynamic
and original-thinking group of
people, who come from a range
of different publishing houses.
We all offer something different
to the process of publishing the
list and believe the combination
of our diverse backgrounds
will create an exciting list that
booksellers will understand and
fi nd a pl ace for. Readers
will enjoy the list both for the
stories that will be told, as well
as the digital identity that we are
creating for them to be part of.
Sarah Odedi na i s Managi ng
Director of Hot Key Books.
U
nderpinning Hot
Keys Books i s
t he bel i ef t hat
good stories, well
told, by talented
authors, sell, writes Sarah
Odedina. Our challenge as a
publisher is to get those stories
into the hands of readers.
Hot Key Books is a thriving
start-up business operating in a
difficult financial climate where
uncertainty is rife. But rather
than seeing the uncertainties
of our business as a threat we
see them as a positive challenge,
for never before in the history
of our business have we been
able to so comprehensively
and completely communicate
with readers.
Being part of Bonnier Publish-
ing is of course also a huge ele-
ment of our confidence. Having
published great books for more
than 200 years, they are offering
us a home in a very supportive
larger environment. We know
that there are many people to
turn to for advice and many
routes by which we can get our
books to market.
Hot Key Books is so called for
two reasons. The symbolism of
the key is universally under-
stood. It unlocks things. In asso-
ciation with books it unlocks the
joy of reading just as those books
unlock other worlds for readers.
The name also refers to the hot
key command on the keyboard,
acknowledging our enthusiasm
for and commitment to the
electronic publishing arena. As
our tag line states, we wish to
unlock the power of reading.
Our ambition in publishing is
to provide great stories for read-
ers from nine to 19. We do not
have a specific brief in regard to
what we will publish other than
that each book has to be author-
led with a unique voice one
that we feel we can really get
behind and publish originally,
and with dedication.
We have already commis-
sioned more than 30 titles, with
nine on the launch list for 2012
and the rest following soon after
to get our title count up to
approximately 50 titles a year as
quickly as we can. The launch
list is an eclectic range of titles
with each offering something a
bit different to the reader, or
offering a reading experience for
a wide range of readers.
The book ai med at our
youngest audi ence i s t he
humorous fantasy Shrunk! by
Fleur Hitchcock. For our oldest
audience we have A World
Between Us by Lydia Syson, a
historical romance adventure
for young women, whether they
are 15 or 25. The range also
takes in a brilliant ghost adven-
ture story, Constable and Toop,
by Gareth P Jones, an urban
paranormal Romeo and Juliet
novel, Angel Dust by Sarah
Mussi, a quest adventure by
Al ex Shearer, The Cl oud
Hunters, and a startlingly
original literary masterpiece by
Sally Gardner, Maggot Moon.
On our launch list we shall also
have three buy-in titles from the
US, where we believe remark-
ably brilliant writing is being
published for young readers: S J
Kincaids Insignia, Katherine
Marshs Jepp and a collection of
short stories, edited by Jonathan
Strahan perfect for Halloween.
All our books will be pub-
lished simultaneously in print
and digital formats, and we will
create one book app in our first
year to work alongside Maggot
Moon. It will be a truly immer-
sive reading experience, which
will wonderfully complement
the world that Sally Gardner has
created in this book.
So, how do we ensure that
people know what we are doing
and by extensi on buy our
books? The staff at Hot Key
Books is engaged and committed
to taking part in the digital
world. We have already created
a blog that has had tens of
thousands of visitors and our
website will expand in June to
fully include all of our books. A
visit to the website will be an
inclusive experience for people
and one that will allow for
plenty of interaction with us, the
publishers, and the authors. It is
clear that people now need a
social element to the sites they
use and this is to be a focus for
us. We are aiming to ensure
that the reader will be part of the
Hot Key Books community.
Bonnier Publishing has also
created a dedicated UK sales
force, which will be selling
in Hot Key titles around the
country. We know that getting
information to booksellers and
librarians is also crucial.
Our first books publish in
August 2012 and continue to
come out until November. We
will publish them all in the UK
Unlocking the power of reading
Sarah Odedina
|S]omewbere on |be sbe||
be|ween so||re, sc|ence
hc||on, ond |||erory hc||on,
recommended |or |ons o|
Po|obn|uk, kur| Vonnegu|,
Mox erry, Cbod ku||gen,
ond Cro|g C|evenger."
~Andrew Sbo||er, ou|bor
o| Great Philosophers Who
Failed at Love
UPCOMING FROM
RI GHTS QUERI ES:
UK: Li nda Bi agi , Bi agi Ri ght s Management, Tabl e 39S, l i nda@bi agi ri ght s. com
Sean Ferrell
January 2013
UK Rights Available
THE MAN IN
THE EMPTY SUIT
A IIM IkAVlk SIS OUI IO SAV HIS IUIUk SlI
IkOM ING MUkDkD AI HIS OWN IkIHDAY PAkIY
Most translations into English sell more
copies in Australasia and Canada than the
UK, and certainly more than the US, with
certain high-profile exceptions. How many
countries published Pasternak, Mrquez or
Larsson successfully before the English-
language publication? When I started
Picador Asia for the Holtzbrinck Group,
I was nave in thinking its authors would be
supported in the US and UK, and equally
nave about how long it would take to make
the books successful.
If as an agent you have one book a year
from China, that is enough. To be successful,
be very, very choosy about what you publish
and whom you pick to translate then the
books will carry on selling 20 years later.
Good publishing is slow, thoughtful and not
based on supermarket sales. You need the
backing of Australia, New Zealand, South
America, Europe and Japan to make a book
work for both author and translator. Conti-
nental Europe is currently a better market
than the UK or US for Chinese authors,
unless that author is fluent in their English or
American and providing a critique of China.
Ultimately, successful publishing, within
and without China, takes time. Time to
find the one book that will work. Time spent
on a good translation. Time getting to know
Chinese publishers and authors. Time spent
on understanding the cultural differences.
Time visiting their different stands at the
Fair and looking through their catalogues.
Without time, China will remain an enigma
that we struggle to understand.
Toby Eady began his publishing career at
Penguin in the 1960s, setting up the literary
agency Toby Eady Associates in 1968. Alongside
many notable English-language authors, the
agency is pre-eminent in its championing of
Chinese, Middle Eastern and African literature.
W
ith China the guest of
honour at London 2012,
more than ever I will be
asked to reveal the secret
to successful publishing
with China. Ive been working with Chinese
publishers and authors for 25 years and have
had considerable success both inside and
outside China. But it hasnt always worked
and there have been times when a book has
done extremely well in one territory while
completely disappearing in another. So what
is the secret, and how can we take advantage
of the large delegation of eager Chinese
publishers gathered in London?
Chinas publishers have expanded into
all of China, from Beijing and Shanghai
to Chengdu, Chongqing, Guangzhou,
Nanjing, Harbin and Wuhan. It is a vast
country, parts of it as different as Sicily
is from Poland, with at least 50 different
dialects spoken across the country. To
understand Chinas publishers, you need to
know what publishing means in each of
these cities, as each has its own way of
publishing and its own culture.
Of a population of 1.3bn, how many
really speak Beijing Mandarin? Advising
a client who was about to film a series for the
BBC all over China, I explained that it was
vital to hire local guides, not a linguist from
Beijing it makes that much difference. And
at a press conference for Yilin, a Nanjing-
based publisher with whom I worked on
translations of Harold Pinters plays, I was
asked why I hadnt chosen a Beijing
publisher for the translations. Because
Nanjing is a long way from Beijing, I
replied. The audience laughed, instinctively
understanding what I meant.
If western publishers want to expand
in China, they need editors like Jo Lusby
of Penguin. I have watched her at work,
her taste dictating her buying watched
her operation flourish. She speaks fluent
Mandarin and understands publishing
both inside and outside China. Its the
relationships shes built over time that have
helped Penguin China to grow. They are
the same sort of relationships that make
publishing successful the world over,
relationships formed by meeting people face-
to-face and learning their different tastes.
As western publishers, we need to work
on building our relationships with Chinese
edi tors, to fi nd a
successful way to
make lasting business
c ont ac t s wi t h a
working culture that
is so vastly different
to our own.
Language i s so
i mport ant wi t hi n
China, but its even
more so for English
a n d E u r o p e a n
publishers who want
to publish Chinese
fiction outside China.
Transl at i on bot h
ways i s ke y f or
Chi na s aut hor s .
Nonetheless, editors in the US and the
UK too often acquire a Chinese novel
without knowing who should translate it
and Im frequently called by editors asking
to recommend translators. However,
there are far too few Julia Lovells and
Esther Tyldesleys in the UK and they are
shamefully underpaid. It took me two years
to find the right translator for The Good
Woman of China, to the fury and frustration
of Xinran, but that book is taught in
school s across the UK, US, France,
Germany, Brazil, Italy and Indonesia 10
years after its publication and continues
to sell. Would the same have happened to
a tone-deaf translation? Would that have
led to five more of her books being
translated into more than 20 languages?
In 2007, Zhonghua in Beijing published
Yu Dans Confucius from the Heart. Yu
Dan, a media professor who speaks all over
China and across Asia, has simplified
Confucius philosophy. To the publishers
amazement, this book based on a CCTV
(China Central Television) show has sold
10m copies. Her subsequent project,
on Chuang Tzu, a Beat Generation philoso-
pher, sold two million copies. Translations
of her books have worked in some countries
and not others. I have asked myself why, in
particular, the book didnt work in the
English language, and I suspect it should
have been published on the back of its
French success, where it sold more than
100,000 copies, as English-speaking editors
are more willing to take risks with a book
that has worked elsewhere.
One country, many cultures
Toby Eady looks at the challenges of forming publishing relationships in China
( )
To understand Chinas publishers, you need to know
what publishing means in each of these cities, as each
has its own way of publishing and its own culture.
Toby Eady (right) with theatre director Meng Jinghui (centre) and Haiyan
CHEN, head of PPMG, at a press conference for Harold Pinters plays
Build YOuR Own BRand
deliveR tO ManY PlatfORMs and devices
MaxiMize sales with flexiBle selling OPtiOns
Reach a glOBal audience
Presentation
Today / 18-Apr
DIGITAL THEATER 1
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LBF12 PW Ad.indd 3 4/7/12 10:46:53 AM
UK market steady despite switch to digital
A
ccording to Bowker Market
Researchs Books & Consum-
ers survey, purchases of
printed books by consumers
in Britain fell 3% in the calen-
dar year 2011 compared to the previous
year, although with the growth of ebook
purchasing (accounting for some 5% of
all book purchases by the fourth quarter of
2011), the number of books bought
altogether by consumers rose very slightly,
writes Jo Henry.
Despite seeing nearly 50m more spent on
ebooks in 2011, however, the overall value
of consumer book purchases decreased in
2011 compared to 2010 and was some 9%
lower than purchasing in 2008. The more
recent decline reflects the relatively low
prices paid for ebooks. Overall, these cost
the consumer a third less on average
than their purchases of paperbacks, and half
their purchases of hardbacks despite the
fact that a 20% VAT rate has to be levied on
digital book purchases.
The lower prices paid for ebooks is to
some extent a reflection of the proportion
now coming from outside the traditional
publishing sphere. Ebooks from self-
publishers and new media companies
accounted for perhaps a quarter of ebook
purchases in volume terms in 2011, but
reflecting their much lower than average
prices only about a tenth of the value of
the ebook market. However, even taking
only purchases from traditional publishers
into account, the average price paid for
ebooks is still lower than for paperbacks
14% lower on adult fiction titles, and 20%
lower overall.
In 2011, adult fiction genres were the
most likely to be bought in digital format,
with ebooks accounting for more than 10%
of volume purchases of horror, romance,
c l a s s i c f i c t i o n ,
thrillers and science-
fiction/fantasy titles.
In non-fiction, ebooks
have had the greatest
i mp a c t o n t h e
travel writing, true
story and self-help
markets.
Take up of ebooks
has, however, been
much slower in the
childrens market;
their greatest impact
so far has been on
purchases of young
adult fiction and, in
particular, where that
genre has been bought
for an adult rather than a teenage end user.
In the broader book market, older buyers
continue to dominate, particularly among
women. Only half of all 13-24 year old
women, compared to three-quarters of
those aged 65-79, bought books in 2011. In
addition, older males have increased their
book purchases over the last four years as a
whole, although men aged 45+ are still
around 10% less likely to buy books than
women in the same age group.
The childrens market has also been
remarkably resilient. In particular, purchas-
ing for boys aged 9-12 and girls aged 13-16
has increased over the last four years, and
the market saw growth in 2011 in childrens
categories such as
g e ne r a l f i c t i on,
adventure/mystery
stories, picture books,
annual s, act i vi t y
books and art/practi-
cal non-fiction an
increase somewhat
offset by a decline in
the childrens fantasy/
horror genre that
reflects a drop in pur-
chasing of Stephenie
Meyer books over the
past 12 months.
The rise of ebooks
has accelerated the
shift in purchasing
away from chain and
independent book-
sellers to internet-only retailers. These
accounted for more book purchases than
the chains and independents together in
2011, although only in volume terms;
bricks and mortar booksellers remain
slightly ahead in terms of market value. The
dominance of online-only retailers in the
ebook market reflects their increasing
dominance of the sales of physical books
too, where they now account for 86% of
all online spending on books the other
14% going to retailers with both a high
street and web presence.
Over the past few years Books &
Consumers has tracked an increase in the
purchasing of books as gifts, reaching 27%
of all adult purchases, and 55% of all
childrens purchases, in 2010. However,
2011 has seen a drop in gift purchasing for
adults. This does not, however, appear to
be directly related to the switch to ebooks,
even though ebooks tend not to be bought as
gifts. Rather, the decrease seems to echo
the more general decrease in purchasing of
non-fiction books.
The fact that ebooks are not considered
suitable gifts was one of the key issues
preventing ebook purchasing, according to
Bowker Market Researchs Understanding
the Digital Consumer research study
conducted in 2011, alongside the cost of a
suitable device and a continued affection for
using printed, rather than digital, books.
So, while the digital revolution has not, as
yet, increased the number of people buying
books, it has certainly had an impact on
what books they are buying, from where,
and for whom. Genre fiction, impulse
purchasing, books bought for self all these
are purchases that seem set to become e
but a liking for and continued purchasing of
physical books seems likely to be with us for
quite a while yet.
Jo Henry is Director of Bowker Market Research.
Bowkers Books & Consumers survey uses
data collected from a continuous panel of
15,000 consumers aged 13-79 who record all
their book purchases, including source of
purchase, reason for purchase, price paid and
person bought for. For more information contact
jo@bookmarketing.co.uk.
www.READandNOTE.com
Read and Note digital content publishing, collaboration and
management platform makes content useful. See the presentation
Monday April 16
th
at Noon - in the Digital Zone, Theater Two.
A world of information
at your fingertips - but
can you use it?
Read and Note provides a superior cloud based reading
experience with the capability to manage vast libraries of content.
It takes your reading and comprehension to new levels by
seamlessly integrating annotation, interpretation and illustration in
a fully interactive and collaborative environment.
Email us to schedule a demo: info@readandnote.com
Advanced Business
Publishing Technology
Visit us:
Earls Court Two in
the Digital Zone
Stand: W960
READ
AND
NOTATI ON REALI ZATI ON SYSTEM
TM
NOTE
Read and Note, 2012. All Rights Reserved

www.READandNOTE.com
Read and Note digital content publishing, collaboration and
management platform makes content useful. See the presentation
Monday April 16
th
at Noon - in the Digital Zone, Theater Two.
A world of information
at your fingertips - but
can you use it?
Read and Note provides a superior cloud based reading
experience with the capability to manage vast libraries of content.
It takes your reading and comprehension to new levels by
seamlessly integrating annotation, interpretation and illustration in
a fully interactive and collaborative environment.
Email us to schedule a demo: info@readandnote.com
Advanced Business
Publishing Technology
Visit us:
Earls Court Two in
the Digital Zone
Stand: W960
READ
AND
NOTATI ON REALI ZATI ON SYSTEM
TM
NOTE
Read and Note, 2012. All Rights Reserved

digital, and an infrastructure that allows
scalability. However, our challenge now lies
in building on traditional marketing skills to
ensure the discoverability of our titles, to
understand digital pricing structures and to
identify the rules of engagement with the
new gatekeepers to market. End-user
marketing now takes pre-eminence over
trade promotion, for in the digital world all
books are equal unless publishers find ways
to make them stand out. Simultaneous
release dates mean that both print and
digital benefit from the marketing and pro-
motional effort behind each titles release.
Likewise, global distribution means that
marketing also has to spread beyond
national boundaries. While systems do the
donkey work behind the global distribution
of data and assets, this still has to be
supported by local marketing.
Pricing in a global digital world is highly
problematic. The drive to ever-cheaper con-
tent leaves all rights holders with a dilemma.
While consumers clearly should expect the
best possible price, the misconception that
digital is cost-neutral undermines our ability
to explain why we need to price digital as we
do. VAT at 20% in the UK, enhanced author
royalties and perhaps the most neglected
factor of all the increasing cost of the print
edition (smaller print runs result in increased
unit costs), all have an impact. However, I
am certain that good content, with a value to
its market, will maintain a price level that
makes sense.
Further issues loom on the horizon. Mul-
tiple ISBNs will create an administrative
nightmare for most publishers with inevita-
ble additional cost. The lack of consistency
in reporting by channel partners is also an
additional administrative burden, which
will carry a cost if not standardised. It is now
up to stakeholders to start discussing what
makes for a sensible and efficient supply
chain before processes develop that end up
suiting no one.
While there is still a great deal of work to
do in understanding where these changes
will take us, there is no doubt that the oppor-
tunities to develop new product, offer value
to authors and customers, create brand pres-
ence in specialist global communities, and
develop a multi-channel and format business
is exciting. Publishers are certainly chal-
lenged as the sector changes, but many inde-
pendent publishers are well placed to cope.
Hel en Kogan i s Managi ng Di rect or of
Kogan Page.
I
t has been described as the perfect
storm: the shrinking of the physical
retail trade, global recession and the
momentous rise of all-things digital.
Change has hit publishing; and
nothing is as it was. We are faced with the
fragmentation of the supply chain; the ease
with which authors, agents and retailers can
now become publishers; new competitors;
new channel partners (no longer can
we call them booksellers); and consumer
expectation that, if not free, then content
should be as cheap as chips. And yet,
amongst all of this change, very real oppor-
tunities arise for independent, specialist,
non-fiction publishers such as Kogan Page.
Kogan Page started its digital business
in 1999 when it signed its first digital
distribution agreement with an aggregator
supplying the library market. Some 13 years
on, we have 30-plus channel partners and
more than 5,000 assets are held by our
digital distributor, Coresource. All titles are
published simultaneously in both print
and ebook editions. We supply global
aggregators, online databases and eretailers,
and our digital revenue currently stands at
14% of our total revenue and is growing. We
have an active app development programme
and were recently awarded the CMI Best
Digital Book for our app Bold. Of the 150
titles a year we publish we have global and
digital rights to more than 98% of them a
critical point for some independent publishers.
Many independent, non-fiction, specialist
publishers own the global and digital rights
to their titles. Without the internal politics of
territoriality that has tended to occupy
corporate publishing houses, independent
publishers have the ability to fully exploit the
global market. Indeed, one of the most
compelling attractions for our authors is that
we are a one-stop shop providing a multi-
channel service offering multiple global
print and digital channels to market, as well
as foreign rights exploitation. As a publisher
working in multi-niches the vertical nature
of our markets transcend territorial or
format boundaries. Authors recognise the
inherent benefits of being able to mine deep
these global vertical communities.
Having established an emerging digital
business during the noughties, Kogan Page
realised that there was significant potential
for growth in this area. However, the com-
plexities of the digital supply chain the
secure distribution of digital assets and the
need for help to meet the new channel part-
ners varying metadata demands led us to
review how we supply digital product.
A strategic review of the business in 2008
established that we needed a global digital
distributor to partner with. Ingram was the
first distributor to recognise where the mar-
ket was going and Kogan Page became one
of Coresources first clients in 2008. (Ingram
already distributed Kogan Page print titles in
the US.) However, we also recognised that
we needed a wholesale review of our legacy
systems in order to exploit hybrid print and
digital publishing models. Significant invest-
ments in a new Publishing Information Sys-
tem (Virtusales Bibliolite), a predomi-
nantly cloud-based IT infrastructure, and a
new website have all helped automate legacy
processes enabling us to free up time for new
processes and roles.
Attention to data flow and ensuring that
metadata is correct have become a company-
wide focus, for we believe that accurate and
timely distribution of information is essen-
tial to optimise sales. Indeed, Kogan Page is
one of only nine publishers in the UK to have
attained the BIC Excellence award. Further-
more, the investment in systems enables
combined P&Ls for digital and print with-
out which it is impossible to understand the
impact digital sales has on the profitability of
producing the print version.
Much of our effort, to date, has been on
being able to create efficient supply chains,
simultaneous publication of print and
Emerging from the storm
Helen Kogan argues that, while publishers face challenges as the sector changes
beyond recognition, many independent publishers are well placed to cope
( )
It is now up to stakeholders to start discussing what
makes for a sensible and efficient supply chain before
processes develop that end up suiting no one.
Helen Kogan
LONDON SHOW DAILY 18 APRIL 2012 20
Sailing through the data deluge
Andy Richardson explains why publishers need to better harness the data they obtain
from the growing number of digital sales channels
A
sk any publisher
what their biggest
digital challenges
a r e a n d t h e
chances are they
will mention copyright, pricing,
digital rights management and
piracy almost in the same breath
While some publishers are sail-
ing through the data deluge,
others are sinking from informa-
tion overload. In our experience
(over 20 years) keeping tabs on
data has become an increasingly
daunting task.
Having the right data at your
fingertips is vital. Last months
sales data printed out on copious
spreadsheets is not a productive
way to do business in todays
fast-moving environment.
It is ironic that while numer-
ous companies will take a step in
the right direction by embracing
the latest innovations from
Apple, Amazon and Google,
most end up having to take two
steps backwards because their
existing systems do not have the
capacity to handle the increas-
ingly complicated, fragmented
and varied data from these
multiple digital channels
leaving them ill-equipped to
process and act on the informa-
tion as quickly as they could.
There are still many publish-
ers who struggle to get a handle
on the way they manage the data
that they obtain. This is a result
of a growing number of sales
channels ebooks, mobile, apps,
etc which can leave publishers
unable to aggregate their data
accurately, and so limiting their
ability to measure the success of
particular channels. This is cru-
cial for gauging profitability and
for understanding the direction
a business needs to take.
A leading global humanities
and social sciences publisher, a
client of ours, is an example of a
company that has recognised the
benefits of receiving fully recon-
ciled sales data in close to real-
time. Sales and finance represen-
tatives have access to one of our
bespoke business intelligence
solutions, one function of which
is to allow users to view sales and
financial data across all their
sales channels instantaneously.
Results are felt across the
entire organisation as staff can
better gauge product profitabil-
ity apportioned down to ISBN
and identify profitable sales
opportunities more efficiently.
Editorial staff can make better
informed decisions on the future
direction of the publishing pro-
gramme and succinct reports are
delivered to inboxes automati-
cally. But sadly, not all publish-
ers are this forward thinking and
many do not realise that there is
so much value to be had from the
data they already own?
Customer data
As the industry moves towards a
direct to consumer model, pub-
lishers need to act with immedi-
acy to be on top of market
trends, consumer demand, and
sales spikes and troughs. In a
survey carried out by Forrester
Research for Digital Book
World in the US recently, 71%
of publishers acknowledged that
customer data will be a key fac-
tor for future success, despite
only 42% claiming they cur-
rently know anything about
their customers reading habits.
This indicates a general per-
ception within the industry that
getting closer to customers
through data will be critical to
the way publishing houses will
be run in years to come, and with
the likes of Amazon drawing its
success from consumer data
rather than intuition, publishers
are under growing pressure to
follow suit. Academic publish-
ers, such as Elsevier, seem to be
leading the way in making their
customer data go further
realising the importance of get-
ting closer to the customer,
learning about their purchasing
and reading habits, and then
tailoring and bundling content
accordingly.
Missed trick
Another missed trick is utilising
data in an immediate manner,
which can help bring publishers
closer to authors, who often
express frustration at the diffi-
culty of getting up-to-date sales
figures something that has
made Amazon all the more
endearing to authors. Last Octo-
ber, when three major publish-
ers opted to share their real-time
sales statistics with their authors
via online portals, this was
hailed as a major development in
publishing, a move towards a
culture of transparency. But per-
haps more significantly it was a
sign of things to come, a state-
ment of intent that data is fast
becoming the glue that will hold
the publishing industry together
in the future.
As publishing diversifies, the
threat of getting submerged in
the data deluge grows and clever
use of both sales and customer
data is likely to be the difference
between sailing and sinking.
Andy Richardson is the CEO of
Influential Software (www.influen-
tialsoftware.com). Stand J205.
Andy Richardson
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the article by a Nobel Prize-winner.
Business change
The values and the practices of Britannica,
while remaining true to their roots, are now
built into a business that moves very fast.
Gone are the long, slow updates to text; the
stands in public places that heralded an
approach by a Britannica salesperson; and
the four-hour personal demonstrations in
the family living room. Also gone are hun-
dreds of employees who worked at Britan-
nica around the world.
In the 1990s, the vision of a new owner
was that all information would be online.
Led since 2003 by Jorge Aguilar-Cauz, the
President and CEO of the worldwide Britan-
nica group of companies, a smaller, leaner
and fast all-digital global publishing busi-
ness has emerged to express that vision.
Huge change in editorial practices and
work-flow has been implemented and a
proprietary digital editorial and production
system which constantly develops to adapt
to the changes in market needs in terms of
digital output was put in place. The sales
system, once driven by high commission
payments to individual salespeople, has been
replaced by a consultative approach to the
needs of universities, libraries, schools and
families at home, who subscribe to online
and mobile services tailored to their needs.
Britannica now has a sales and marketing
staff that is experienced in the teaching and
learning skills used in classrooms and librar-
ies, and it develops new teaching products to
complement the reference databases.
The 21
st
-century business is operated from
a headquarters in Chicago and offices in
London, Delhi, Seoul, Tokyo and Sydney.
Half the companys turnover is generated in
the US. The core databases at primary, sec-
ondary and undergraduate/life-long learn-
ing level are common around the world,
with variation for curriculum and language
needs. And new products, for closer engage-
ment with the customer-base, or adapted
and updated to meet the requirements of
ever-changing technology platforms are
being developed.
While the current printed edition will be
the last, Britannicas mission and values
remain unchanged. It has rebuilt its business
model to match the needs of its customers
who respond by according the company rec-
ognition as a global Superbrand.
Ian Grant is Managing Director, Encyclopaedia
Britannica (UK) Ltd.
I
n December 1768 British consumers
were invited to buy the first instalment
of Encyclopaedia Britannica, a weekly
partwork published in Edinburgh
describing and organising all forms of
knowledge, with particular attention paid to
the utility of the subject matter. Consum-
ers were invited to judge the uniqueness of
the brand, the excellence of the editorial
matter and the consistency of the publishers
delivery on the brand promise. By February
2012 Encyclopaedia Britannica was one
of the top two media brands (after the
BBC), in the annual Superbrands survey
(www.superbrands.uk.com).
Britannica has developed its global
presence through its 243-year history by
delivering on that brand promise every day,
from the time when customers were invited
to bind up their partwork instalments by
taking them to the cobblers. Since then Bri-
tannicas encyclopedic work has been pub-
lished in printed, multi-volume, hardcover
format; electronically in fixed media (CD-
Rom and DVD) and as real-time databases
of rolling information online; and for the
past two years for smartphones and tablets.
Technological innovation has led to a
huge change in the way people wish to
receive information, and the value they put
on that delivery has required Britannica to
undergo a colossal business transformation.
The brand values and editorial standards are
the same, but production has been revolu-
tionised. And Britannica has been trans-
formed into one of the few profitable, cash-
generative digital publishing businesses.
The brand values
Britannicas mission is to enable all our users
to become confident global citizens. The
founders of the company were at the epicen-
tre of the Scottish Enlightenment, when
intelligent people started examining the
world through an empirical, scientific pro-
cess enquiry-based learning. They asked:
What does the world look like from inside
the head of an educated person? How does
that person express that view? How does a
collaborative group of people put those
views into an ordered framework so that
others can find what interests them and use it
for their own needs? Britannicas editors do
the same thing today.
The 100-strong editorial staff commis-
sions its world-wide (constantly changing)
community of 4,000 contributors. There is
no Britannica view, no ideological or
political approach, and no market-centric
angle. There is simply the application of cur-
rent educated thought to the professional
gathering of facts and the expression of that
knowledge into text, illustration, video and
animation. The practical expression of these
values the utility the founders sought is
in the published output.
This is written in a common style, inspired
by the Chicago School of editing, that
endeavours to communicate clearly and
accurately the essence, and then the appro-
priate detail, of each subject to the level of
understanding of the particular audience.
Currency and accuracy
One of the most important demands of
information-seekers is currency. In 1768,
Scotlands view of California was limited
and expressed in six lines of text. By 1790,
the occasional correspondence of European
explorers had turned into a stream of letters
and the Britannica article on California had
expanded to 16 pages of detailed informa-
tion. As I write this article on 8
th
March
2012, I read on Britannica.com about the
resignation on 7
th
March of Mohamed
Rasheed, former President of the Maldives,
which is set in context; the outcome of the
Russian presidential election on 4
th
March
has been added to Vladimir Putins biogra-
phy and the article on the political structure
of Russia; the events in Syria in February and
early March 2012 have been incorporated
into a rolling section on the Syrian uprising
and todays newsfeed from the BBC (on Bri-
tannicas homepage), notes the defection of
the Deputy Oil Minister from the Syrian
Government. Britannica is not a news organ-
isation, but it sets the events in context.
Human error does creep in, but is cor-
rected as soon as it is spotted. Users contri-
butions are encouraged, and where a user
provides new, verifiable information or
offers an additional subject, that material
goes through the same editorial process as
Rule Britannica
Ian Grant explains that while the current printed edition will be the last, Britannica's
values remain unchanged
Ian Grant
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in contemporary China of workplace
novels fictionalised accounts of the travails
and triumphs of office workers and govern-
ment officials appears to confirm that
picture of a people obsessed with getting on.
But the image of the work-hungry Chinese
has actually been out of date for some time.
Older citizens often complain about the lazy
balingho the supposedly spoiled genera-
tion that was born after Chinas opening up
in the 1980s. And the attitudes of the young
are indeed different from those of their par-
ents. There is also an increasing emphasis
among them on self-fulfilment, rather than
mere material acquisition and status. Dont
get wrapped up in your title and the words
on your business card, says the popular
27-year-old Beijing blogger, Zhao Xing.
Life is not lived for the sake of those few
words. Dont sacrifice your soul and your
ideas for anything.
The frenetic pace of Chinese life, which
Western visitors to the country find so stag-
gering, is also being called into question. In
the wake of a high-speed train crash in Wen-
zhou last year Raymond Zhou, a commenta-
tor in the China Daily newspaper, caught the
popular mood when he wrote: We dont
really need the frenzy of non-stop accelera-
tion, especially when higher speed comes at
higher risks to safety. It is time we paused to
reflect on the purpose of the journey that is
life. We work to live, not live to work.
And political change? As the Chinese
develop a more Western outlook on the
proper balance between life and work, can
they be expected to demand Western-style
political freedoms too? Some say no. The
view that the Chinese care more about
money than their ability to challenge the
( )
T
here was a time when China
believed it didnt need the out-
side world. In 1792 Lord
Macartney was despatched to
Beijing to persuade the Middle
Kingdom to throw open its doors to trade
with Britain, that eras nascent superpower.
The diplomatic mission was not a success.
We possess all things. I set no value on
objects strange or ingenious, and have no use
for your countrys manufactures, sniffed
the 80-year-old emperor Qianlong in a letter
to King George III.
How the wheel of history turns. Today
China cannot get enough of the great world
beyond its borders. The lifeblood of Chinas
economy now the second largest in the
world is international trade. The countrys
thirst for knowledge from the rest of the
world is also a marvel. There were around
500,000 Chinese students attending foreign
universities in 2010, some 90,000 in the UK
alone. Any ambitious middle class Chinese
parent a group whose numbers are swell-
ing by the millions each year regards a
Western higher education as vastly superior
to a domestic one. The daughter of Xi Jin-
ping (the man expected to be installed as
Chinas new leader) is studying at Harvard.
One can understand this appetite for
learning from the West. China has benefited
colossally in recent decades from the know-
how of the outside world. The living stan-
dards of an estimated 600 million people
have been lifted from the breadline since
Deng Xiaoping threw off the shackles of
Maos command economy in 1980. This has
been the most successful poverty alleviation
programme in human history. But a great,
and thus far unanswered, question hangs in
the air: how will the Chinese people spend
the dividends of this newfound economic
dignity, this liberation from drudgery? We
know this vast nation of 1.3 billion souls is
growing richer, but what will a prosperous
China over the coming decades look like?
There is an old Western stereotype of the
Chinese as work-hungry drones, a people
who care about little except making money.
Work is the breath of his nostrils. It is
his solution of existence, was how the
American author Jack London summed up
the diligent Chinese character a hundred
years ago. And, in one sense, the popularity
authorities has become fashionable among
Western commentators. But facts on the
ground hint at something different. The
apparent attempt by the Chinese govern-
ment to cover up the Wenzhou train crash
provoked an unprecedented popular public
backlash. A tidal wave of public hostility
directed at the authorities was channelled
through the Chinese social media platform
Weibo, which has some 200 million users.
The Chinese people appear to be discovering
their dissenting voice.
But media savvy political truculence is
only one aspect of the new China. This is also
a country that is wrestling with some thorny
social conflicts, which pit tradition against
modernity. For decades the local dialect of
the people of Shanghai was suppressed in
favour of Mandarin by the Communist
regime. But last year the Shanghai city
authorities allowed the dialect to be used in
public transport announcements some-
thing that has greatly pleased many older
Shanghainese. It is an example of how some
Chinese people are increasingly keen to pro-
mote and preserve their distinctive regional
cultures. Yet the change has been controver-
sial. A younger Shanghainese friend tells me
that he, and others, fear that the move may
worsen the already fraught relations
between the local population and the four
million migrant workers in the City who do
not understand the dialect.
China today is a basket of contradictions.
It is the workshop of the world, yet its people
are beginning to question the merits of end-
less toil. It is a country running at top speed
to catch up with the West, but also trying
desperately to slow down. China is deter-
mined to modernise, but wants to preserve
important aspects of its traditional culture.
Western pundits love to make dramatic
predictions about China. Some say the coun-
try is destined to rule the world, others
that it is destined to end in messy economic
collapse. I suspect that China will confound
such simplistic forecasts, not least because its
own people lack a clear idea of what they
want to do with their growing prosperity.
The Middle Kingdom, much like the rest of
the world, is simply trying to find its way.
Ben Chu is the Economics Editor of the Indepen-
dent. His first book Chinese Whispers: Why
Everything you Thought you Knew About the
Worlds Most Populous Nation Is Wrong, will
deconstruct seven key myths that underpin the
Wests perception of China and will be published
by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 2013.
The Middle Kingdom
Ben Chu describes China as a country of contrasts, ahead of the publication of his
book that dispels Western myths about the country
Ben Chu
The countrys thirst for knowledge from the rest of
the world is also a marvel.
our office, and
we all benefit
greatl y from
being so close
to the people
for whom our
b o o k s a r e
i n t e n d e d
which is every-
o n e r e a l l y ,
because each of
us has an inner
c h i l d wh o
learns by play-
ing and loves to meet like-minded people.
Stories come first for us, and we see them
as an essential part of life, not only in
their own right, but also in the way that read-
ers and listeners can make them their own.
So, in our studio the stories we share are
also gateways to all kinds of activities and
experiments. We are open seven days a
week. For a full calendar of events, visit
www.barefootbooks.co.uk.
Tessa Strickland is Co-founder and Editor-in-
Chief of Barefoot Books.
W
hen we decided to open a
Barefoot Books Studio in
Summert own, nort h
Oxford, we wanted to
create a space that would
act as a bricks-and-mortar community cen-
tre a space that would be a living, breathing
counterpoint to the communities of the vir-
tual world, writes Tessa Strickland. We have
embraced social media as a business, but we
do this for adults, not for infants. In Sum-
mertown, we have set out to create a place
where children and adults can come along
and have fun, explore, experiment, listen to
stories and make up their own. We wanted
food for the body as well as food for the soul,
and we wanted to honour the process of
food production from plant to plate, so we
have also opened a cafe serving locally
sourced organic food.
On the shelves of the studio, visitors find
all of our books that are currently in print.
Nowadays, this numbers more than 500 and
falls into four categories: Fun First Steps,
which are books that typically combine sev-
eral different learning concepts for children
under five; Tell Me a Story, which
includes illustrated independent readers, as
well as gift anthologies and picture books;
Natural Child, which are books with a
clear environmental message; and Travel
the World, which are books that introduce
children to different cultures through a com-
bination of fact and fiction. The shop also
carries a range of beautiful games by the
French company Djeco; puppets from the
Californian company Folkmanis; and music
CDs from Putumayo.
Every day, we run free storytelling ses-
sions at 11.00am and again at 4.00pm. We
offer many other activities too, ranging from
yoga classes to baby signing, to arts and
crafts sessions. The studio is also home to
Barefoot in Summertown
Author of the Day Patrick Ness
When I was asked if I would consider
turning her work into a book, I hesitated.
What I wouldnt do what I couldnt do
was write a novel mimicking her voice. That
would have been a disservice to her, to the
reader, and most importantly to the story. I
dont think good writing can possibly work
that way.
But the thing about good ideas is that they
grow other ideas. Almost before I could help
it, Siobhans ideas were suggesting new ones
to me, and I began to feel that itch that every
writer longs for: the itch to start getting
words down, the itch to tell a story.
I felt and feel as if Ive been handed a
baton, like a particularly fine writer has given
me her story and said: Go. Run with it.
Make trouble. So thats what I tried to do.
Along the way, I only had a single criteria: to
write a book I think Siobhan would have
liked. No other criteria could really matter.
And now its time to hand the baton on to
you. Stories dont end with the writers, how-
ever many started the race. Heres what
Siobhan and I came up with. So go. Run with
it. Make trouble.
Patrick Ness will be talking about his work, in
conversation with Nicolette Jones, today, 18 April
at 11:30am, at the English PEN Literary Cafe.
The event will be followed by a book signing.
T
he question I get asked over and over
again about A Monster Calls is how
much of the book is me and how
much is the original idea of the late, great
young adult writer Siobhan Dowd. Where is
the split? I understand this question. Id ask
it myself if I werent the one whod written it.
But books dont really work that way, do
they? Lets go with food metaphors and say
that a book isnt trifle, with discernible lay-
ers; its a cake, where everythings blended
together to make a single pudding. Okay,
thats actually pretty terrible, but 1) you see
my point and 2) Im writing this before lunch.
Siobhan and I are both everywhere in A
Monster Calls, occupying all the same points
at one time. Thats what books do, thats
what stories do. If that answer isnt satisfac-
tory, how about giving Siobhan all the credit
for whats good, and Ill take all the blame
for anything you might not like? I wish I
could answer better, but I cant.
The best explanation I can give is what I
wrote in the Authors Note, reprinted below.
Whenever I get asked if writing the book was
a sad experience, I point people here as well.
Because yes, of course, it was sad as Siobhan
couldnt write it herself, but it was also mis-
chief, it was also fun, it was a feeling like I
was saying to her: Just look at what were
getting away with.
Being Author of the Day is brilliant, but
if I can get even more people reading
Siobhan Dowd, then Ill be a happy author
on any day.
Authors Note
I never got to meet Siobhan Dowd. I
only know her the way that most of the rest
of you will through her superb books.
Four electric young adult novels, two
published in her lifetime, two after her too-
early death. If you havent read them,
remedy that oversight immediately. This
would have been her fifth book. She had
the characters, a detailed premise and
a beginning. What she didnt have,
unfortunately, was time.
Patrick Ness
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