Setting The Tone In A New Setting Putting together a major publishing conference program is never easy. But putting one together to open one of the year’s leading trade shows is particularly tricky: there are a lot of competing interests, most of them on the commercial side of the industry. And the audience for one… Read More
London Book Fair’s ‘Digital Minds’ Keep Heading Offshore
After All, After All The idea of the industry! the industry! of publishing being a global one isn’t new. Our largest trade shows — London Book Fair, BookExpo America, Frankfurt Book Fair — have always been internationally, not least thanks to their rights and translation centers and special-guest-nation programs. It’s interesting now, though, to see conferences at… Read More
Putting a finger on imprints
‘Does anyone really care about imprints outside of the book trade?’ When Canelo publishing director Michael Bhaskar starts his essay for us here at The FutureBook with that question, he could well be referencing the range of perceptions and issues we found waiting in #FutureChat. Prompted by my colleague Philip Jones’ good column, The imprint of… Read More
The Best Thing About Zuckerberg’s Reading Program: He’s A Guy
Never Say ‘Men Don’t Read’ It may be the publishing world’s most irrational lie. I mean, would you leave half the population’s money on the table? Me, either. But you’ve heard it, of course: “Men don’t read. Doesn’t matter what book you give them. They just don’t read.” Mark Zuckerberg And every time that meme is… Read More
London Book Fair’s ‘Digital Minds’ Conference: A Call For Publishing Polyglots
Non sum uni angulo natus; patria mea totus hic est mundus The usual translation of this old quote attributed to Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC to AD 65), is: I am not born for one corner; the whole world is my native land. It’s the kind of line that gets people like me going,… Read More
Torchin' For Books Data
Nobody came forward to say we have too much books data. The fact that we cannot see the size and shape of the publishing industry today, however, strikes some as more problematic than others. And shortly after The FutureBook.net community’s #FutureChat on the problem of missing data, I was reminded once more of how many folks… Read More