On The Bookseller this morning I noticed how Hodder has fought for, and successfully acquired, self-published author Hugh Howey's novel 'Wool'. This is yet again encouraging news for the publishing industry. Firstly, because this novelist has managed to find success with content alone. But secondly, because this author (with no doubt a push of encouragement) decided to take on a publisher despite the success he was havng without one. 

 A few of us on the MA course recently considered the phrase: 'Valuing the Valueless',  a quote from John Thompson's book 'The Merchant's of Culture'. We based our presentation to the group and the main message of the presentation was to emphasise how content alone, however wonderful, is only taken to new heights of appreciation through the aid of publishing. It is only then that the 'value' is added. This is not to say that the value is not already there, as such self-published writers such as Howey have proved. But despite these new opportunities for writers to succeed alone, publishers can take this content and create something rather spectacular. This is another example of how a writer has managed to succeed but still recognises the importance of the publisher. It is something we are seeing more and more despite the opportunities opened up in the digital world. I hope we will see more publishers taking a chance on self-published writers at a
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Last week as part of the course we visited the CUP new museum at Shaftsbury Road, Cambridge. It has been beautifully designed and holds resources from both the Press at Cambridge University library. The Press have an extraordinary history dating back to 1534 when Henry  VIII first granted them permission to print. Printing was then put on hold when the Stationers actioned printing laws and it wasn’t until the late 15thCentury that CUP 
began to print books. The museum has taken a thematic approach to presenting the artefacts from the six decades that they have been running. As Ros Grooms spoke of, people can then be drawn to articles they like in these specific sections. 

The room is split into two by dividing walls and more of the delicate items are found in the darker space at the back to help preserve the more light-sensitive items. 
  
There are many items on show to reflect the communications between the Press and writers. 
was surprised to hear that Enid Blyton’s children’s book for use in schools was rejected by the Press. The correspondence includes that of T.S. Eliot and in 1925 when he courteously declines a request from CUP to publish his work. 

Interestingly, there are few records from after 1970 and the museum curators were eager to fill the gaps that this had left them with. Therefore, they held a Pensioners event to adopt 
certain artefacts that are part of the Press’s history. They then worked  on cataloguing the papers and making them available online to bring into the public domain. Again, to preserve certain rare items there are facsimile versions on show rather that the original piece. 

The Baskerville punches were absolutely incredible to behold and on display were some carefully chosen individual wooden rods from which the type was made from. Baskerville in fact sold it and made many efforts to bring it back to the Press. The folio Bible is in the darkened space at the back of the museum  but has been consciously placed so that you can see it when you approach the  museum’s glass front. It has wonderfully accurate lighting to maximise the  impact. Above the display cabinet that holds the Bible it reads: “Paper, letter, ink and workmanship”.  It is very striking. With possibly the exception of the traditional lithograph printers, it is  my favourite part of the museum.

If you get a chance, do visit the CUP museum and you shall be surprised by how much they have on show and how vast and varied their history is.  

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Chris Boland photography
It was the tenth Wordfest since Cathy Moore founded the literary festival and it by no means disappointed my high expectations. The whole weekend provided an incredibly insightful and entertaining look into the works of a variety of authors and writers.

I assisted in the Green room on Saturday and Sunday, meeting authors, writers and publishers from all walks of life. Based in the ADC theatre and Union Chamber, Blue Room and Library, there were 75 events across three days. It was great to meet the speakers before an event, have a chat and a cup of tea and then see them come to life in front of an audience.

A great example of this is children’s writer Andy Stanton, famous for the Mr Gum series. The queue was filled with excitable children, a Mr Gum book in hand, pulling their parents hands eagerly in anticipation. Apparently the adults were laughing as hard as the children. What I most admired about Andy was his interaction with the children following the event. It is typical for a book signing queue to last 30-45 minutes- Andy’s lasted nearly two and a half hours. He spent at least three minutes with each child, drawing a picture and messing about with them. Definitely one of the highlights.

Again, children's writer and ex-laureate Michael Rosen was excellent- I was lucky enough to watch the beginning and he had the audience in the palm of his hand. Within the first five minutes, he had every audience member reciting a song about their hands, and many people tweeted after the event that they would never think about brushing their teeth without thinking of Michael Rosen. I believe that a great stage performer has the ability to mentally transport an adult into the mindframe of a child. He certainly achieved this with me.

William Boyd appeared in the Green Room, talking about the exciting news of being the new writer for the next James Bond book. This is to be published by Jonathan Cape in the UK and HarperCollins in the US.

Margaret Drabble popped her head around the door briefly and it was lovely to meet the lady who wrote the critically acclaimed biography of Arnold Bennett, the focus of my MA dissertation. Virginia Woolfe biographer, Alexandra Harris, is as lovely as she is intelligent, and I could have listened to her speaking all afternoon with her enthusiasm and intelligence of her subject.

Over the weekend there were appearances from Michael Portillo, Alain de Botton, Paul Mason and Paul Lewis, to name a few. Simon Mayo, BBC Radio 2 book club presenter, came to talk about his new book ‘Itch’ and it was lovely to meet the face of the reputable radio show.

The Angela Carter event was chaired by Alex Clarke, book reviewer for the Guardian. On the panel we had Liz Calder, publisher of one of Carter’s books and co-founder of Bloomsbury, Ali Smith, writer, and Susannah Clapp, friend of Carter’s and author of ‘A Card from Angela Carter',a collection of postcards sent by Carter. Susannah Clapp said how Carter once commented: 'I am a realist but I see a realism that no one else sees.' She would fuse the sensuality and abstract seeminglessly, and show the 'real' as having several layers. They all spoke about Angela with great respect and highly emphatically for her literary output and attitude towards life. I highly enjoyed this, seeing a great lady discussed from various people involved in her life.

A great weekend in Cambridge celebrating literary talent!


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S&B media Michael Bond at the museum of reading exhibition
We all know and love the Paddington Bear brand, but it is still quite impressive to read that over 40 million copies of the beloved story have been sold since it's creation in over 40 different countries. The other week there was an article in The Evening Standard (27/03/2012) interviewing the creator of the iconical children's bear, Michael Bond. Some of the things he said in the interview were anticipative of the future, so I thought it worth repeating.

        I never think of children when I'm writing something, I write it to please myself.
        (The Evening Standard, 27/03/2012)

Essentially, this defies the whole essence of what writing is, and it is a wonderfully individual stance on the inspiration that brings about a magical story. What pleases him, pleases millions of children around the world. When he began writing in 1958, Bond didn't know any children but what fascinated him is that children like long words that they cannot understand. He also said:

           It is the parent's responsibility [...] to get children reading

I completely agree; children need to be directed towards reading at a young age so that it develops into a habit. Too many children starting school cannot read at all because they have never been in the same room as a book, let alone read a bedtime story at night. Due to the digital transformation, there is more choice for what children can do nowadays to entertain themselves. The price that we pay for these advancements could be high.

Bond remarked that "we live in an age where people will insist on shortening things". There is too much instant information available, and we need to insist on maintaining length in content rather than cutting it down to mould to fit the current culture.

When I was a child, there was nothing better than spending a weekend engrossed in a long story. I do hope that this joy in  solitude can continue and we do not end up with children reading a 'whole' story on one page of their ipad...



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Alma Classics have taken over the One World Classics and have redesigned the list to add more 'flair'. With over 300 titles, in a mix of both hardback and paperback format, Alma have been working hard to add 'personality'.

The Bookseller reported that in September a select view will go on sale, ranging from Fitzgerald to Dante. My most favourite Fitzgerald novel, The Beautiful and Damned, shall be released on Artic paper with flaps, in paperback edition. Priced at £6.99, they are hoping to attact the consumer to these new editions with a low price  point and edgy design.

Managing Director of Alma Classics, Alessandro Gallenzi, labels the moment as a “watershed moment” when the decision came to take over the One World Classics. This updated list shall include many classics that have been perhaps overlooked in the classical canon. It hopes that the reader can ‘rediscover’ books and induce younger crowds with the catchy and individual design catered to each one. It is a great thing if it can attract younger readers, as many classics books are seen to be too great a challenge (especially in the instant gratification World that we have merged into). They are working to create a brand out of the list: if a customer is buying one classic they know, if another they haven’t heard of is included in the list, they may be persuaded to give it a try, with trust built in the brand.

The Alma Books website is quite expansive and interactive for the user. There are sections such as ‘author of the month’ and events, links and a ‘bloggerel’ page. A blog on the 17.02.2012 speaks of their aim to redefine classics and enrich the canon, “promoting unjustly neglected works of enduring significance.”

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I am currently interning at AP Watt in the media department. It is my second visit to the World's Longest Established Literary agency, and it is a great way to gain an insight into the industry from an agency's point of view.
This afternoon I was invited to the BBC Writersroom presentation at the BBC at Oxford Circus. It was great fun to meet other agents and to see the project leader speaking about the ideas behind the Writersroom. With so many talented writers wasted in the current climate, the Writersroom aims to make use of great scripts that have otherwise been missed.
They have now opened their new website: bbc.co.uk/writersroom where you can see what projects and partnerships they are working with.
It will be interesting to see what new talent will emerge from this internal agency.

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Recent Masterclass with Andrew Brown- Development Director of CUP digital strategy

20/03/2012

The topic of statistics are certainly an interesting thing to consider in the context of ebook and ereader figures. Amazon, according to a public announcement, has sold more ebooks that books. Obviously, we are unable to see the details of this statistic and the ins and outs of ebook sales are still withheld from the public and from the industry. So what can we be sure of when it come to the digital transformation of text from a page?

When the original ereader was released at Frankfurt over a decade ago, the screen was presented in the next possible light so that it would appear most accessible. It is the big giants that are indeed able to take the leap and can afford to try out new things without a huge amount of thought behind the consequences. When that sony ereader was not presented in the best possible light, it was very difficult to read.

Cambridge University Press has managed to create 2million pounds from embalmed dues. This is not an unusual stat from a publisher that has made their backlist available again through lightening source, and provides a glimpse of the money that has been made from a dead source.

So we can see that extra revenue has been formed from digitalising the book that have gone out of print. This has certainly been a great perk to this remarkable change of format. As Andrew Brown points out, the rise in digital has been matched by the rise of the search engine. However, the aspects of print on demand can not always go quite to plan and Amazon, so keen on customer service, are more lax on the quality of the service that they provide. He told us an anecdote of how a CUP author ordered their book on Amazon only to find that a fictional novel they had never heard of had been placed between the covers of his book. This goes to prove that there is too much trust in Amazon, an unreliable, but giant and incontrollable, player. Yesterday evening we had a seminar from Account Manager Warren Thorpe at Imago Publishing Ltd in Oxfordshire. Warren showed us some very interesting footage straight from the huge printing factories in China where there is an enormous amount of care and hand-made precision put into the intricate details that build their pop-up books and unique products. This is quite a different story to an example we see here from Amazon publishers, where they are unable to even put the right content in the correct binding.

Something most misunderstood by an outsider to the digital process is how similar the cost development process is. Andrew told us about the subscription model that could be offered where the library only pay for a certain journal after it has been requested a certain amount and the demand is there. This may impinge on the publishers ability to make a profit as they have to wait until the consumer asks for it, rather than getting a sum up front.

Andrew also spoke about the audit culture that we are a part of. Disintermediation (the splitting of a book into small chapters) has enabled each chapter to have its own metadata. People are able to access the parts of a book that interest them, skipping past the rest (what about that enjoyable moment when you discover the most important bit of research on the way to the chapter that you thought you required?) This is opening up a lot of opportunity yet perhaps cutting out the serendipitous chance of stumbling upon information.

There is also the cost of dark archiving: if a publishers were to go out of business and the library has paid for access to your files and data, then there needs to be a back-up system so that the content is still aviialable to them should this happen. Therefore the publishers are required to pay a portico- this is another cost.

The CUP online service: ‘University Publishing Online’ is the landing page and offers packages from different publishers selling in a similar field. Consumers can pay a fee and be able to access content from across these areas.

Andrew also reminds us of the power that a brand acquires after time. The imprint of a respectable academic and educational publisher such as CUP is well known among its area. There is still great need for the peer review, that grants a book its importance by posting reviews underneath.

He ended his wonderfully insightful lecture with contemplations for how the length of content will change. What is the point of writing 300 pages when people only wish to access a small amount of that dependent on what they require it for? He reflects upon the old-age question: what are people prepared to pay? This has to be understood to present something that the public are willing to part their cash for. It will be interesting to see how the market now develops according to this and whether authors will begin to produce extracts of content to supply the market with only what they need.

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Children’s ebook webinar: 12/03/2012

Just over a week ago I listened to a seminar online hosted by The Bookseller, Futurebook and YUDU. The subject in focus is an area that greatly fascinates me: with the rapid changes to digital production of books and content, how will the children’s publishing industry be affected and how is it adjusting? These questions, and many more, were here discussed.

Richard Stevenson, CEO of YUDO media, gave a lecture on the way that children’s literature has been transformed to fit the electronic platforms. His research has led him to comment on what needs to be done for content to 'work' on platforms. For example, enhanced ebooks need to have colourful and inviting backgrounds so that an richness is added to the experience. There are opportunites opening up, such as the read-aloud ebook for the children to hear the intonation of words, highlighting it as it goes. This matching of words to reading is very exciting to help children with the pronounciation of certain words. He then proceeded to list the 12 ways that animation can be done, including:

1.       Stampable animation
2.       Sound trigger (e.g. dog barking)
3.       Deferred event
4.       Flashing element
5.       Moving object animation
6.       Floating

It is now up to publishers in how they choose to use these new animations on books and, I suppose, how necessary they view each one to be. Richard highlights how quickly this change has come about; 4 or 5 months ago none of this was possible.

There is still no standardized form for publishers, and this is ultimately becoming one of the biggest challenges as different platforms develop and move forwards. The iBooks author is very much template driven, and is a ‘major step forward’ in speed and simplicity. Then there is the competition in the platform market: the Kobo Vox, the Kindle Fire and the Nook color.

Morten Durr, a self-published children’s author, considers a few of the perks of self-publishing children's books. He says how you can still control the little details that need to be addressed. He perceives that he will outsell the estimated print run in Norway with the sales he gains from ebooks.

We then heard from Anne Marshall,  Publisher at Ripley Publishing. For her, it has been an interesting 9 months: Ripley now have 20 ebooks, including their biggest series and new annual. She admits that there was no expectations for the sales of the epub edition, as they had no idea of what the 'norm' would be. With hardback sales, they can hazard an educated assumption of figures according to previous sales and stats. The ebooks sales are still shrouded in darkness for many publishers. The ‘Twist’ series was features by Apple on their store, and they were pleasantly surprised to see how many it sold (she did not, however, disclose further information on the numbers that it has sold in). In an attempt to work out how to price ebooks, Marshall produced a research document, but still found no rhyme or reason behind a company’s pricing. So they had to experiment with figures so that they could trial and error the price a consumer is prepared to pay for an ebook edition.

Philip Jones began the question time asking whether there is a natural distinction between an ibook layout and an app. An app stands separately on a app store, Richard answered, but the ibook generates traffic; if easily discoverable, it will have a market and can be tailored more easily. The electronic content can be discovered as an app by the channels created by social media and reach. Apple is creating the push behind this discoverability.

Brands became the next hot topic; if it is a big brand, they do not have the same problems that smaller publishers face. Jones asked another question that addressed the issue of cost; will the price come down? This, again, is a tricky question. There is such a high demand for quality, a company is limited because of the nature of how quality is maintained.

The big problem with platforms ultimately comes down to this: a lot of major players do not see the value of providing a solution and see it as commoditisation and the risk of margins falling.

It is also interesting to see how America is perceived one step ahead in the area of publishing. The Kindle Fire has become a key product as it is designed to be a content absorbing device, this content is less in the UK so perhaps would not experience the same reaction.

The conversation highlighted the speed at which children’s content is moving over to electronic form and the opportunities that have opened up in attracting children to reading. All this has happened in the last few months, as pointed in the webinar, therefore it is thriliing to consider what the next 4 months have in store and how children will respond to content become available on screen, with many adaptations.

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Blue Peter raise the issue of the ebook for children as they celebrate world book day

I was told about how Blue Peter were debating the future of the ebook, so this morning I got around to watching it on iplayer. My first thought was, what has happened to Blue Peter? The music is stringy, the presenters are children themselves…it has changed somewhat since the days when I watched it after school.

They host this special WBD show from inside the John Rylands library in Manchester, the two presenters surrounded by swarms of children, and consider what is better- the book or the ebook. The argument begins with obvious points: the book can be dropped in a bath and still be read, this is not the case for the ereader. The other side of the argument is how many books you are able to store on the kindle (3500 as he so points out).

But a book, she argues, can be swapped with friends, doodled in so they are personalised…and they do not require battery power.

The battery lasts a month when charged, (and this technology will be improved upon still) and makes you look 'cool'. With a dust jacket reading ‘latest trendy novel’, the female presenter argues that the people around you can’t see what you are reading.

They then proceed into a typical blue peter style challenge that will ultimately find out who the winner is.

Challenge 1: Speed: Who can get hold of the same book in the fastest time?

E-reader, need wifi access then download in a matter of seconds (he is outside… in a shopping centre, where there are bookshops- this is a very fair challenge)

Challenge 2: Resillence

In bad weather: -25, the kindle doesn’t turn on…the microparticles are frozen.

Challenge 3: Strength

Which book can take the ‘trauma’ of falling down the stairs, then the pressure of being run over by a tank.

Okay, so perhaps not the most accurate and strongest of arguments, but the ereader is finding its biggest challenge when trying to convert children. They like illustrations and brightly coloured books that fill their rooms with character. They like the large book with pictures being read to them at night. It may be a while before the children’s market is digitalised. It will be the added features of the ereader that will attract children: the enhanced reading of a classic that makes it easier to read. Although quite unbearable to watch as an adult, it is good that children’s television on world book day is still making a deal out of reading.

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The Bookseller reveal on 28.02.12 that Penguin are plotting their chess moves ready to attack the consumer market. One of the planned moves they have proposed is to find out more about the consumer and build upon that relationship. Publishers sell to the middle-man: the etailer, the bookseller or any space they plan or having their book on sale to the public. Up to now, they have not been selling to the consumer. As Anthony Haynes commented last week, publishing is a b2b and not to b2c. Penguin now wish to change the dynamics of this relationship and are attempting to evolve this missing relationship.

What effect shall this have on the way in which publishers sell their books? Penguin seem to be, once again, taking lead in the market with the support of their iconic brand. This consumer and publisher relationship is described as “an incredibly interesting trend” as the speculative enquiry begins.


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