FutureBook Innovation "Inspirationals"

Clockwise from left top: Trip Adler, Hugh Howey, Dan Kieran, Michael Pietsch, Kate Wilson, Simon Trewin, Annette Thomas, Chantal Restivo-Alessi

The winner will be named as part of The FutureBook Innovation Awards announcements at The FutureBook Conference on 14th November at Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London. (Best early-bird prices for the event are offered only for a week longer, to 17th October.)

Among a boisterous gathering at Halle 8’s Publishing Perspectives Stage on Thursday evening to hear the shortlist read out by my colleague Alice Ryan, there were particularly rousing cheers for entries from Profiles Books (Best Fiction Digital Book) and Blackwell Learning (Best Tech Innovation), perhaps led by the beaming Michael Bhaskar and Matthew Cashmore, respectively.

Already back in London, Headline Publishing Group’s Ben Willis missed the announcement of his Bookbridgr book-blogger programme as a contender in the Best Publisher Website category. Willis led our Frankfurt Business Center Master Class in marketing earlier this week, with interlocutor Jason Ashlock at Halle 4.

And of special interest to those who are following the controversial, protracted sales terms negotiations between Amazon and Hachette, both the author-activist Hugh Howey and Hachette Book Group ceo Michael Pietsch are nominated in the shortlist for Most Inspirational Digital Publishing Person. Howey led the writing of the independent authors’ Change.org petition — which is addressed to Pietsch, each signatory writing to the executive:

Please help put an end to these negotiations. Accept Amazon’s offer to create a 50/50 joint fund to support your authors. And then work on a resolution that keeps e-book prices reasonable and pays authors a fair wage.

The group of eight nominees represents an assortment of positions in the industry and range of expertise, from children’s to adult trade; from agenting to subscriptions; from the author corps to the executive suites; from the UK to the US: