LBF international Book Industry awards 2014: Winners announced

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The winners of The London Book Fair International Book Industry Excellence Awards, in association with The Publishers Association, have been announced at a prestigious Awards ceremony held on the first day of The London Book Fair. The Awards provide recognition from the UK for the best companies and individuals from across the international publishing industry, as such UK companies are not eligible for the majority of categories.The line-up of winners was truly global with Belorussia, Pakistan, India, Denmark, Australia, Malaysia, the US and China all coming up trumps. Read more

London’s big week

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The Digital Minds conference in London yesterday on the eve of the London Book Fair took a philosophical bent, questioning is this “golden age for publishing or the end of the book?” See Roger Tagholm’s report on Publishing Perspectives here.
For an up to date insight as to what is happening in London this week, don’t miss out on Publishing Perspectives Editor in Chief Edward Nawotka and Porter Anderson’s a live Twitter chat from the LBF on this week’s Ether topic(s) at 11 a.m. ET / 8 a.m. PT—and that’s 4 p.m. BST in London—on Wednesday. They will use the hashtag #EtherIssue as they do weekly. Don’t miss it and watch for @PubPerspectives and @Porter_Anderson on Twitter.

Industry leaders discuss digital publishing at upcoming Footnote Summit

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Following on the success of the launch event in 2013, this year’s Footnote Summit will see leading publishers, content providers, and suppliers to the publishing industry reconvene for this annual event on the 13th of June 2014 at the CTICC in Cape Town.
The conference will have a strong focus on digital publishing and will highlight eLearning, the accessibility of eBooks in schools, as well as piracy and DRM.

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SA’s delegation to the Salon du livre at de la presse jeunesse

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The Salon du livre is in its 29th year in 2013. It is not a “rights/trade fair” nor an international fair, but an opportunity for French publishers to showcase their children’s books to the book-buying French public. The Paris-Monteuil International Children’s Book Fair is the largest literary festival for children and young people in Europe. In relation to the theme of the year “Heroes”, writers and artists of South Africa were invited to participate in the fair. The delegation, convened by the South African Book Development Council, were afforded the opportunity to share their experiences with communities around Paris through workshops as well as running workshops and having talks at the fair itself.

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Looking forward to the South African Book Fair

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This year the South African Booksellers Association will be adopting an interactive approach to its stand at the South African Book Fair, scheduled to take place at the Cape Town International Convention centre from 13 to 15 June.

Having participated in the now national South African Book Fair on previous occasions, it has proved an invaluable platform for us to engage and network with all industry stakeholders.

Plans this year are underway to implement an interactive podium that is equally exciting and enticing for booksellers, book loving members of the general public and well known personalities. With this in mind, the impromptu ‘soap box’ approach will provide booksellers with an opportunity to provide insight and information on topical issues currently facing their day to day business operations and the industry in general. Read more

Why should you book a stand at the South African Book Fair

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The top three goals for exhibitors at trade shows are brand awareness, lead generation and relationship building. The South African Book Fair offers the perfect platform for you to achieve this.
99% of marketers agree that they find unique value from trade shows which they do not get from other marketing mediums.
92 % of attendees at trade shows are looking for new products, making exhibiting a valuable opportunity to produce excellent sales.
Whether you are a publisher, seller or distributor, the South African Book Fair will provide you with a perfect platform to promote your product (or service) to a broader group.
Being involved at the South African Book Fair can provide you with opportunities to branch out to business-to-business trading and create a customer database from the visitors to your stand.

Call Louise Barry-Taylor to book your space now! Tel +27 (0) 11 549 8300 / Louise@ThebeReed.co.za

Bibliotech: the 21st Century all digital library

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San Antonio’s all-digital BiblioTech library, one of America’s first all-digital libraries, opened its doors in September last year and is run by the local County. The project itself is the brainchild of Judge Nelson Wolff of Bexar County, an avid book collector who was inspired by the increasing digitalization of the New York Public Library and by Walter Isaacson’s biography of the founder of Apple, Steve Jobs.
The main branch is in a low-income district about seven miles from the county courthouse in a building with a tax assessor, a constable’s office and a justice of the peace.

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Pricing people out of reading

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“The real problem with ebooks is that they’re more “e” than book,” says Art Brodsky, A former chairman of the Montgomery County Library Board, an advisory group that promotes a strong and vibrant library system in the United States.
The collusion of large ebook distributors in pricing has been a public issue for a while, but more importantly we need to look at how they are priced differently to consumers and to libraries. This, says Art, is how ebooks contribute to the ever-growing divide between the literary haves and have-nots. Read more

Education in South Africa: Problems and future possibilities

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TEXT BOOK DELIVERY
In 2012, the media was awash with reports of non-delivery of textbooks to Limpopo schools. Anticipating further problems with textbook procurement and delivery in 2013, Civil Society lobby group SECTION27 sought a court order in October 2012 imposing a deadline of 15 December 2012 for delivery of textbooks for the 2013 school year. The court order was granted, and all eyes were on the Department of basic Education (DBE) to see whether there would be an improvement on delivery of this basic entitlement, which there was.
“It became clear during the course of 2013 that the data used by the DBE to plan textbook procurement and delivery was wildly inaccurate. At one stage, the DBE did not even have accurate data as to how many schools and learners there were in Limpopo,” Reported Nikki Stein in The Daily Maverick in January. Read more

UK indies celebrated by the Bookseller.

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The Bookseller Industry Awards’ seven regional independent bookshop winners were announced in the UK last week.

Tom Tivnan, The Bookseller features and insight editor, who led the judging team, said: “There has been a lot of news about the challenges that indies are facing recently. But as judges, we were greatly impressed by the depth of bookselling talent we had to choose from. The decisions were extremely difficult, but given the level of innovation, passion and expertise that were on display from all our shortlisted shops, I think I can say without fear of contradiction that indie bookselling has a very strong future.”

Winners were chosen for innovation, reinvention, community engagement, online innovation, customer service and more. See here for the full list of regional winners.

The overall winner of the Independent Bookshop of the Year 2014 will be revealed at The Bookseller Industry Awards on 12th May. Gardners will award the winner with £5,000 to spend on their shop.