Category: Travel
London Book Fair Observations
Day number one of the London Book Fair is complete. Even though the business climate is difficult for most publishers, the show floor was busy and one could almost sense a bit of optimism amongst the exhibitors. Attendee traffic was brisk for most of the day and I didn’t notice many empty stall spaces. The aisles seem a bit wider than in years past, and that is usually an indication of fewer exhibiting publishers. All in all though, it was hardly noticeable.
Like last year, everyone is talking about digital this and digital that. This year a “Digital Zone” is set up in hall 2. The zone is actually a pad of 8 stands melded together to make an island of small kiosk’s and a theater for product and service demonstrations. I sat in on a couple of the demos, and for the most part they were informative. One must remember though that this is a publishing show, and as such, those who demonstrate need to know their audience. The term “.epub” was thrown around with abandon, and it could have easily been misunderstood by the majority. The XML standard is being heavily pushed by most everyone, so much so that the term is freely used both as a noun and as a verb.
Of the things publishers are struggling with, monetization is tops. While everyone agrees that digital is no longer a futuristic dream, it is a reality of the day, the debate over pricing and channel ownership has just begun. There is still so much for a publisher to learn. Most acknowledged that the key to addressing digital today is the length at which a publishing house is willing to take risks. Experimentation is key, yet in these difficult economic times, it isn’t easy for anyone to play with capital.
The complex discussions are being tempered by the extraordinarily nice spring weather here in the UK. If things get too stuffy inside, one only needs to walk a few hundred feet to bask in the warm 70 degree sunshine.
Greetings from Gloucester Road
I’m in London for the book fair, which officially starts on Monday. I’m looking forward to attending a digital seminar tomorrow. It will give me something additional to do on Sunday, which is traditionally my “get acclimated to the time zone” day. This year I brought along my Dell Mini 9 instead of the full fledged Thinkpad. So far, I’m mostly concerned with getting on the the net, and that’s what these things are best at. If I have to remote in to my work machine, that’s when the rubber will meet the road. We’ll see how well the Mini does. If things get interesting at the seminar tomorrow, I’ll blog about it here. I’ll be twittering as well, so if you want, you can follow me.
MORE: Well, I would have blogged about the seminar I attended today, and I probably would have twitter’d a bit too IF THERE WAS WIFI! That’s right, there was no internet in the room. A conference about digital books, digital publishing models and all sort of other digital talk, but with no internet available to the attendees. In fact, Neelan Choksi, COO of Lexcycle (the folks who make Stanza) commented that this was the first conference he spoke at where he wouldn’t be able to get on Twitter and see what the crowd said about his presentation. In 2009, not having an internet connection during a conference like this is unheard of. A major mis-step by the organizers. Other than that, the room was packed with jetlagged people who probably would have rather been outside in the London sunshine than inside a poorly lit room on a Sunday afternoon. While some of the speakers made good points, all in all, it was not a very memorable event.
Next Week – London
I’m heading to London on Friday for my annual trek to the London Book Fair. Besides the normal business meeting schedule, I’ve got plans to attend the following seminars:
- Strategies for digital publishing in a time of uncertainty (4/19 – Cromwell Room)
- Getting the best out of your digital deal: Commercial and legal issues (4/20 – Thames Room)
- Introducing the dedicated digital reading device to the UK consumer (4/20 – Cromwell Room)
- “Where’s the Money” Digital Keynote (4/21 – Cromwell Room)
I’m also looking forward to watching demos from LibreDigital and Code Mantra.
LBF is a more managable event than, say, the monster Frankfurt Book Fair. Rather than being spread across 8 buildings, LBF fits comfortably inside Earl’s Court. This years fair runs from 4/20 through 4/22.
Abort! Abort! Abort!
OK, so I didn’t exactly make it to New York City last Friday night. The reason? An emergency trip to the ER for yours truly. Yep, that was me, riding in the back of the ambulance and into the hospital. Seems that out of no where my heart started racing at not normal speeds. I didn’t have any other characteristics of a heart attack. I just had this racing heart thingy. So, rather than take chances, we dialed 911. I spent 4 hours in the ER to find out that nothing looked wrong with me, other than my heart going too fast. They administered some drugs and my rate came right on down.
I did a treadmill test and a echocardiogram yesterday just for good measure. Looks like a ongoing prescription for a beta blocker is in my imediate future. Of course, we’ll see what the doc says.
So, that’s why I didn’t make it to NYC, or to the O’Reilly event. I’m bummed to say the least, but whatcha gonna do? Health comes first, right?
UPDATE: It appears that my heart is completely healthly and that I still have work to do on this planet. The results of my test have come back normal. 
Next Stop: Earl’s Court
Like many in our industry, I’m heading to London for the book fair which starts on Monday, April 14th. I’m looking forward to the show this year. Last year, digitization was the topic du-jour. That conversation carried over to the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany. So, I expect to field more questions on this issue from my publisher partners when we meet next week.
I’ll let you know if I see a giant Kindle helium balloon floating from the rafters of Earl’s Court 1. Pictures will follow.
Technorati Tags:
Publishing, London Book Fair, Frankfurt Book Fair, Earl’s Court, London, Books, Exhibition
Kindle
And That’s All There Is
I closed the book fair today with another half dozen appointments. The floor was noticeably quieter being it was the last day of the event. The weather has stayed almost perfect the entire time, so I imagine a lot of folks decided to get out and enjoy it.
I’m on a plane late Thursday heading back to the states. Goodbye London (for another year).
My Feet Hurt
I spent all day at Earl’s Court One Tuesday, with meetings from 9 AM til 5:30 PM.
Whenever I go to shows like this, I’m always amazed by the amount of books published. More than that, I’m blown away by the variety of subject matter. During my ‘in between meetings’ moments, as I was walking down the aisles, I’d think up the most bazaar book subject I could and then wait to see how long it would take before I saw a published version. Invariably, I’d see one or something very close to it. I don’t know what’s more strange – my book ideas or the fact that there are actual markets for these things.
LBF Observations
The first day of the London Book Fair is in the bag. As far as logistics go, I’m much more pleased with the location of this event. Earl’s Court is in the heart of London, and access to food, shopping, sites, etc., is excellent. And if you’re lucky enough to have lodging like I do, you appreciate the simple 3 minute walk to the hall.
The exhibit layout is a little bizarre. Today’s Publishers Lunch email described it well.
The Earl’s Court exhibition center is new and familiar at the same. The space is reminiscent of the old location at Olympia with a reasonably sized “main floor” surrounded by a big mezzanine. The neighborhood is more convenient, the transportation by tube easier, and food and other basic services are more abundant (including a poor crew pushing a trolley of sandwiches and drinks for sale down the aisles). After last year’s poorly received riot of accent colors, organizers have gone the other way and invested in acres of manilla–beige carpeting, beige lockers, and beige bunting galore–large easy-to-find booth numbers and other functional improvements (including wider main aisles with benches to sit on; ancillary seating/meeting areas, and newly constructed closests and lockers in the Rights Center said to have cost the fair more than the price charged for a rights table).
Once people get past the basic navigational confusion of a new center–which happens to be wedge-shaped, with three different levels–business seems to be proceeding smoothly. While opening day was traditionally the quietest on the floor in the past, given a certain reluctance among some locals to work on Sundays, the change to a Monday opening has aisles as brisk as ever. And yes, the weather is much better than in New York.
I’ll say. Yesterday it was 78 degrees in London. Today it cooled to 75. It rained every day of the show last year, so you can’t ask for more with this great spring weather.
I had a light schedule today, which was intentional. Since I arrived in London yesterday afternoon, I figured I’d be pretty wiped out with jet-lag. I was. By 2 PM I just wanted to drop. Tomorrow though I’m booked solid from show open to close.
So, for now, that’s all from here. Cheerio!
Traveling Man
So, I’m heading to London tomorrow for the book fair. I’ve got a direct flight over, which limits my air time to 9 hours. I’ve spent most of the day today getting everything together – calendar, meeting agendas, documentation, itinerary, you know, the regular stuff. I’ll be plenty busy each day of the event.
I was checking on things to do after hours and I found this evening session on book digitization. Might be interesting, and then again it might be nothing more than authors bemoaning the paradigm shift toward electronic publishing. Hit or miss. If I go I’ll comment about it here.
While I’m in the area I’ll try hard not to find myself sitting down at a table here. I’ve revised my dietary intake since the last time I was in London, and this place doesn’t really align with the new me. But then again…
Talk to you from the other side.
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