Tag: Digital

London Book Fair Observations

| April 21, 2009 | 0 Comments

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.

Next Week – London

| April 13, 2009 | 0 Comments

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:

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.

HarperCollins Dumps Print

| March 23, 2009 | 0 Comments

Actually, they are dumping their print catalogs. Starting this fall, HC will forgo the traditional bound catalog in favor of a digital one. Hard to believe this decision wasn’t made years ago.

HC’s digital catalogues, housed at www.harpercollinscatalogs.com, will, in addition to featuring the standard information in print catalogues, include reviews, interviews and promotional videos. The publisher is also promising that the online catalogues will be updated frequently, reflecting any evolving changes with the publication details or marketing efforts surrounding titles. The digital catalogues will also feature access to authors’ backlists and, on select titles, link to browsable galleys. The search functionality will allow users to create lists of titles based on categories like genre, format and on-sale date. A pdf version of the catalogue will also be available, for those who want to print it out, but HC will not mail any print catalogues.

Josh Marwell, president of sales at HC, said the new online catalogues mark the “next step in the evolution of how we bring our books to market.”

Amongst the trees, there was much rejoicing.