London
THURSDAY 14 MARCH 2019
LBF 2019 ad 1-Flint-new:Layout 1 01/03/2019 17:13 Page 1
Bullish in the
shadow of Brexit
With Britain days away from leaving the
EU, Brexit was a concern to some, less
to others at Olympia
Tom Weldon, PRH UK CEO, said: “Brexit is a massive issue,
not in deals but in supply chain.” Key concerns were logistics
and book production, and PRH has been stockpiling books
in the UK and looking at printing on the continent.
French publisher Heloise D’Ormesson, whose
eponymous publishing house is owned by Editis, said: “It is
interesting – because of Brexit, we are seeing an actual
increase in interest in our books and translations. It is as if
the publishing community in the UK, which is largely anti-
Brexit, is worried that they will become intellectually
disconnected from the continent and are trying to mitigate
this by committing to translating more books.”
Suzanne Baboneau, MD of adult publishing at Simon &
Schuster, said Brexit had not affecting any deals – but “we
are in a bubble in here”. Discussing trends, Baboneau said
that true crime was on the up in particular, and non-fiction
in general, “in this age of uncertainty”.
Interviewed in the cacophonous International Rights Centre,
Jamie Hodder Williams, CEO of Hodder & Stoughton and
John Murray, said: “The whole world is talking about
Brexit, but it is not affecting business in here.” Hodder
Richard
Charkin
The man ‘An independent
behind company, reaching
Mensch. the world from
Page 16 a basement in
Fulham.’
Page 17
VISIT PW AND BOOKBRUNCH AT STAND 6C73
EL James (red top) launched her new novel, The Mister,
at the Ivy Club at Olympia, in the company of her global
publishers
Williams described the general mood of the fair as busy,
saying international publishers had money to spend, and
pointing to Holly Miller’s The Sight of You, which has gone
for large sums in the US and Germany.
Caroline Michel, CEO of literary agency PFD, said: “It’s
been a very good fair, people are saying there is so much to
buy and people have money to spend.” She has a record
nine agents at the IRC; this was “at least” her 32nd fair –
and “there are more deals than ever”. Michel also picked
out non-fiction as “becoming more important”.
Alan Samson, non-fiction publisher and chairman at
W&N, said: “I’m surprised at how busy the Hachette stand
is – this is the first year when it has been hard to find a
table,” and, “Oddly, Brexit has not cropped up in any
business meeting.” He noted that Netflix was driving a
surge in crime proposals.
Chad Post
Promoting
literary
translations.
Page 20
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 THURSDAY 14 MARCH 2019 LONDON SHOW DAILY

Ian McEwan leads writers against Brexit

Speaking at LBF to BookBrunch before the House of subsequent fall-off in
Commons vote last night, Ian McEwan described leaving the British people’s
the EU as “a national tragedy”, writes Neill Denny. sense of that Empire,
“I would like the Prime Minister to revoke Article 50, a they still think they
one-line email would do, although we know that’s not going have those 760 million.
to happen. There’s a possibility of a second referendum, but That’s what has fed
an extension is only going to be a couple of months. I think Brexit, but Empire is
the Tories are going to look for a new leader, and the Labour the ugly word that no
party is in a state. So I’m feeling quite pessimistic, but I’ll one in Parliament will
be marching on the 23rd for a second referendum.” say today.”
McEwan’s comments came hours before Prime Minister Struggling to find
May was heavily defeated in the House of Commons; any upside to Brexit,
commenting after the vote went against her, she raised the Meek said: “There is
prospect of a second referendum. at least the hope that
Earlier in the day LBF had seen a session examining the we will break out of
processes that led up to the original decision to leave the EU the very restricted
in June 2016, entitled “Contested Identities; Writing, Writers white, fortified, post-
and the Brexit Enigma”, which featured journalist-turned- Ian McEwan in conversation at the fair
Imperial space that is
novelist James Meek and Caryl Phillips, Author of the Day. the EU, and deal with
“If you are old you actually are from another country, in the rest of the world on a more equal basis. The shock of
fact from an empire,” said Meek, who said he viewed Brexit the reality of being outside fortress Europe will rid us of
partly as an inter-generational issue, and a shadow of a our post-Imperial delusions.”
much more profound conflict between immigrants of the Phillips was asked if he had a message for the 52% who
past and immigrants of the future, between the old and the voted to leave: his message was they should “grow up”.
young. Would a great pro-Brexit novel ever be written? “Someone
Meek also blamed much of the groundwork for Brexit on will write a great Brexit novel,” he said, “but it won’t be
Margaret Thatcher. “We are now living in a different me!”
country, a country that Margaret Thatcher created.

FEATURES INSIDE
Somehow, global free markets were going to replace the
Empire, and Brexit is the same, the idea that we can swap
the EU for some magical other place.”
Phillips agreed that the folk memory of the Empire was a LBF GALLERY BAREFOOT BOOKS
significant factor driving Brexit. He pointed out that the SCENES AT OLYMPIA
6 NANCY TRAVERSY
19
British Empire in 1945 ruled 760 million people; by 1991
that figure was 168,000 – “but there has not been a AMERICAN TRENDS CHAD POST
ANDREW RICHARD ALBANESE
8 TRANSLATED LIT
20

ARGENTINA HACHETTE DIVERSITY

To contact London Show Daily at the CARLO CARRENHO
10 SASKIA BEWLEY
22
Fair, please visit us at the Publishers SHARJAH SPRINGER NATURE
Weekly Stand 6C73. ANDREW RICHARD ALBANESE
11 DANIEL ROPERS
23

Publisher: Joseph Murray AMAZON LITERACY TRUST

LINA KHAN
12 JONATHAN DOUGLAS
24
BookBrunch Executive Chairman: Jo Henry
Editors: Andrew Albanese, Nicholas Clee, Neill Denny
Reporter: Ed Nawotka INFLUENCERS BOOK AID
ANDREW RICHARD ALBANESE
14 EMMA TAYLOR
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Project Coordinator: Ryk Hsieh
Layout and Production: Heather McIntyre RICHARD CHARKIN SPANISH MARKETS
ON MENSCH
16 JAVIER CELAYA
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Editorial Coordinator (UK): Marian Sheil Tankard

For a FREE digital trial to Publishers Weekly go to BOLDWOOD

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STAR WATCH 2019
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publishersweekly.com/freetrial AMANDA RIDOUT PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Subscribe to BookBrunch via www.bookbrunch.co.uk PLS COPYRIGHT BTBS

or email editor@bookbrunch.co.uk SARAH FAULDER
18 DAVID HICKS
30

3
 LONDON SHOW DAILY THURSDAY 14 MARCH 2019

Rights round-up
Jonathan Galassi and Jeremy Davies at Farrar, Straus and Ravi Mirchandani documentaries I’ve ever seen.
at Picador have signed world rights at auction to Dolores Prato’s Giu’ La I’m so pleased that we will
Piazza Non C’e’ Nessuno (Nobody in the Square) from Raffaella de Angelis now be publishing Lindsay’s
on behalf of Quodlibet Edizioni. Nobody in the Square is billed as a “towering inspirational account – and
work of autobiographical fiction”. It was originally discovered and published it’s very exciting to find that
in abridged form by Natalia Ginzburg, three years before Dolores Prato’s death Lindsay can write as well as
in 1983. The complete version was recovered only recently. It tells the story of take amazing film and stills.
the author’s childhood as an introverted and abandoned girl in the small village This book is a joy.”
of Treia, raised by eccentric and distant relatives, and trying to make sense of
her world through precise observation. Publication will be in spring 2020. Louise Moore, MD of
Michael Joseph/Penguin,
Bloomsbury has signed a work of non-fiction by journalist Eliot Higgins, whose and Jill Schwartzman, VP,
investigative website Bellingcat identified the suspects behind the Skripal poisoning. executive editor at Dutton,
Publishing director Alexis Kirschbaum signed UK and Commonwealth rights have bought a memoir by
at auction from Natasha Fairweather at Rogers, Coleridge & White. Rights have Andrew Ridgeley, who
also gone in Poland and the Netherlands, with sales underway in other territories. with George Michael
The book will tell the story of how Higgins, a college dropout with a passion for comprised pop group
playing online games from his home in Leicester, became the founder of a platform Wham! The agent is Tim
“at the helm of open-source journalism”. Bellingcat’s investigations have also Bates at Peters, Fraser and
uncovered Russian involvement in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, and Dunlop, and publication
the sourcing of weapons in the Syrian Civil War. Bloomsbury will publish in 2020. will be this October.

Rupert Lancaster at Hodder has signed a memoir by Lindsay McCrae, a
cameraman who worked on the acclaimed BBC Dynasties documentary about
emperor penguins. The book is a record of the year that McCrae spent in the
Antarctic, where he endured conditions including freezing winds in excess of
100kph. Hodder has world English rights in My Penguin Year: Living with
the Emperors from Annabel Merullo at PFD, and will publish in November.
Lancaster said: “That penguins film was one of the best, most moving wildlife
Stephanie Wrobel Michael Joseph won a
“major” eight-way auction,
and Penguin/Berkley made an undisclosed pre-empt, for The Recovery of Rose
Gold by Stephanie Wrobel. There have been numerous international deals and
offers. The Recovery of Rose Gold is the story of a young woman who, despite
being slowly poisoned by her mother for 18 years, makes a calculated decision
to take her in after her prison sentence (agent Madeleine Milburn).

Brexit hits academic publishing

Scholarly research has always been a global affair, which is
why, explained a panel of stakeholders at LBF, Brexit might
hit the UK scholarly publishing community hardest of all.
“Brexit will rewrite rules governing partnerships with
European colleagues,” noted Copyright Clearance Center’s
Christopher Kenneally, who moderated the discussion.
The session gathered just hours before the UK parliament,
for a second time, overwhelmingly rejected Theresa May’s
proposed Brexit deal. But the panellists agreed that, deal or
no deal, Brexit had already damaged scholarly research.
“I think at the moment the most significant consequence
comes purely from the currency exchange,” said Outsell’s
Hugh Logue, noting that the prospect of leaving the EU had
hit the pound hard – something acutely felt by academic
researchers, whose funding is fixed. “When they are buying
equipment or other consumables, those are already 20%
more expensive.” And that had a “knock on effect” for
scholarly publishers, he said, because when trimming costs,
scholarly publications were often the first cut.
Logue also addressed the possibility of further
acquisitions in the sector, or potential moves to Europe, to
take advantage of the labour pool. He conceded that the
weaker pound could mean some bargain-hunting for
international publishers seeking to acquire British firms.
But publishers were largely staying mum on those kinds of
plans as the political process played out.
Meanwhile, Logue said he had already heard “anecdotally”
of British lead scientists being dropped from projects
because “the likelihood of getting renewed funding is
diminished”. And the issue of immigration looms as one of
the biggest challenges, he said, noting that around one in
six researchers in the UK came from outside the country.
“I actually think at this stage it’s a psychological thing,”
observed Springer Nature’s Tim Britton. “If I was coming
out of Berlin in September having just finished my post-
doc, would I come to London? No.”
Offering an EU perspective, Petra Labriga from Technische
Informationsbibliothek (TIB) in Germany said that “London
is still London.” Nevertheless, Europeans were dismayed:
“We feel it’s divisive, and that’s what’s hard to accept.”
Windham-Campbell winners
The winners of the hugely valuable Windham-Campbell
Prizes were announced yesterday evening at Stationers’
Hall in London. The prizes, which are administered by the
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale
University, are worth $165,000 each to eight writers,
making them among the richest book prizes for writers
working in English.
This year’s Windham-Campbell Prize recipients are: in
fiction, Danielle McLaughlin (Ireland) and David Chariandy
(Canada); in non-fiction, Raghu Karnad (India) and Rebecca
Solnit (United States); in poetry, Ishion Hutchinson
(Jamaica) and Kwame Dawes (Ghana/Jamaica/United
States); in drama, Young Jean Lee (United States) and
Patricia Cornelius (Australia).

4
 LONDON SHOW DAILY THURSDAY 14 MARCH 2019

LBF gallery
f

Caryl Phillips, Author of the Day, in conversation with

David McKee (Illustrator of the Fair), Elmer, and friends Katherine Faulkner

Bestselling thriller writer Karin Slaughter was

Special Guest at the fair. She is with Fernando A “protest” in the aisles at Olympia brought Oren Teicher (American Booksellers Association)
Peire, director of the Ivy, which has a pop-up attention to Margaret Atwood’s forthcoming and Tim Godfray (UK and Ireland Booksellers
club at Olympia sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale Association) met up at the Ingram party

Peter Usborne was in characteristically enthusiastic form as he introduced
fairgoers to Usborne’s relaunched Poppy & Sam series
BookBrunch presented its inaugural Selfies awards. Left to right are Heleen
Kist (shortlisted), Susan Grossey (shortlisted), Robin Cutler (IngramSpark),
Anita Belli (shortlisted) Kathleen Jowitt (shortlisted), Jane Davis (winner),
Jane Steen (runner-up), Mel Gough (shortlisted), Jo Henry (BookBrunch),
Caroline Goldsworthy (shortlisted)

6
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 LONDON SHOW DAILY THURSDAY 14 MARCH 2019

Spotlight on America What’s up with

photo: Gage Skidmore, wikimedia File:Donald_Trump_(39630669575).jpg

fiction?
Despite rising print
sales since 2013, it
Andrew Richard Albanese reflects on isn’t all good news for
publishers. Over the
the trends that defined 2018 for US same period, adult
publishers and looks at what we might fiction sales have been
on the decline.
expect for 2019 According to NPD
BookScan, sales of
adult fiction declined
For the US publishing industry, 2018 started off with a 4.6% in 2018. And
bang. The January publication of Michael Wolff’s dishy Association of
Fire & Fury: Inside the Trump White House captured the American Publishers
public’s attention (as well as the attention of Trump (AAP) stats from
lawyers) and just weeks into 2018, the industry had its first reporting publishers
million-seller of the year, and a trend was born. Donald Trump speaking at the 2018 show that adult fiction
Conservative Political Action Conference
According to NPD BookScan, which tracks 80% to 85% sales from the major
of print sales, unit sales of print books in the US rose 1.3% houses declined roughly 16% between 2013 and 2017.
in 2018, continuing a winning streak for print that began So far, 2019 isn’t looking
in 2013. And trade publishers had an even better year, much better. According to
thanks to Trump-related political books like Wolff’s and NPD Bookscan, adult fiction
veteran journalist Bob Woodward’s Fear. NPD’s Kristen fell 8.7% in the first four
McLean confirmed that politics and Trump-related books weeks of the year. And
were driving US print book sales. The question is, she reversing that trend will be
noted, will that continue in 2019? challenging, for a number
It’s early, but so far it doesn’t appear likely. Without a of reasons. For one, US
blockbuster like Michael Wolff, sales of political books publishers have been
were down 40% in January 2019 from a year ago, and hamstrung by a well-publicised lack of printing capacity.
overall print sales slumped 5.9%. And there are signs that Another factor is the softness traditional publishers are
the fascination with Trump may be weakening. The first seeing in genre fiction, as consumers shift away from the
Trump-related titles of the year – Team of Vipers by Cliff mass market paperbacks (mass market sales were off 14%
Sims and Let Me Finish by Chris Christie – sold just in January, 2019) to low-priced ebooks offered by Amazon
15,000 and 13,000 copies, respectively, in their first week (whose sales are not counted by BookScan). And finally, by
on sale. summer, the 2020 election season will be underway,
Of course, there are plenty more books about Trump and commanding the news coverage, and making it harder to
his to come, and it’s possible one or two might hit big. But break out new fiction.
really, how many bombshells are left out there? Robert
Mueller, are you listening? PRH dominated the 2018 adult bestseller list
Given the company’s sheer
Becoming led 2018 bestsellers size it should come as no
Despite not being published surprise: among the Big Five
until mid-November, Michelle publishers, Penguin Random
Obama’s Becoming was House (PRH) dominated the
2018’s runaway top seller, 2018 adult US bestseller lists,
selling more than 3.4 million taking 38.3% of slots on the
copies at outlets that report PW bestseller list, more than
to NPD BookScan. double the share of its closest
And as publishers were competitor, HarperCollins, which claimed 17%. For children’s
arriving in London for the books, however, it’s a slightly different story. Though PRH
2019 London Book Fair, the book remained atop the topped the picture book bestseller list, Scholastic had the
bestseller lists, having sold nearly 320,000 more copies in strongest run of children’s fiction bestsellers in 2018.
January. The former first lady’s memoir looks poised to have
a long run on the list. And don’t forget: Penguin Random Audiobooks lead; ebooks bleed
House also has Barack Obama lined up next, although no A decade ago, in the teeth of the ebook hype, if you’d
release date has been set. No Pressure, Mr President. predicted that audiobooks would lead publishers’ digital

8
 THURSDAY 14 MARCH 2019

departments into the

black, few would
Immerse yourself
have believed it. But
that’s the case today
for many houses. In
in Knowledge
2018, digital audio
sales again posted
healthy double-digit
growth, with AAP
reporting sales up a
robust 37.1%.
In contrast, trade
ebook sales for
traditional publishers
reporting to the AAP
declined 3.6%,
marking a fourth
ABA CEO Oren Teicher with Margaret straight year of
Atwood
declines. Of course,
the major publishers don’t seem alarmed – in fact they
seem rather pleased. At the 2017 Frankfurt Book Fair,
PRH CEO Markus Dohle suggested that trade publishers
had achieved “a healthy coexistence between print and
digital books”.
In 2019, it will be interesting to see if ebooks have finally
found their floor, while digital audio is expected to
continue its surge. “Given the continued adoption of smart
speakers, the format’s appeal
with younger, 20- and
30-something readers, and
seeing our early sales so far
this year, I feel optimistic
about another year of double-
digit growth,” says Amanda
D’Acierno, president &
publisher, PRH Audio Group.

Indie bookstores resurgent

One of the most heartening publishing stories in recent years
is the resurgence of indie booksellers. Last summer, the
American Booksellers Association (ABA) reported 1,835
member stores, with 2,470 locations, up significantly from
the 1,401 ABA members with 1,651 locations a decade
earlier in 2009. And 2018 was another good year for indie
bookstores, reports ABA CEO Oren Teicher. “We saw
growth of nearly 5% in 2018 over 2017, and the compound
growth in our channel over the past five years is a very
Curriculum-aligned rich media
healthy 7.5%,” Teicher says. “There’s also been a discernible
increase in the number of younger booksellers in our
solutions for elearning portfolios
business, which gives us enormous confidence in the future.”

Stand 3E08
Meanwhile, US publishers remain concerned about the
nation’s largest bookstore chain, Barnes & Noble. The
chain’s sales continue to drop, and the company is now
embroiled in an ugly lawsuit after firing CEO Demos
Parneros last July, the fourth change in leadership in five
years. With the company reportedly on the block, publishers
in 2019 will be watching developments closely.
cenveopublisherservices.com/learning
■
 LONDON SHOW DAILY THURSDAY 14 MARCH 2019

Javier Llovet: experience in Latin

QA
American markets.

Complexity in These synergies could

help Companhia to
give even more focus
Argentina to the expansion of its
extraordinary catalogue
in Brazil, and in the
Argentina’s book market is the most traditional market in Latin American
all of Latin American. In the 1940s, for instance, its book countries.
production was probably the largest in the Spanish-speaking
world, and Argentina continues to pride itself on a flourishing What is your take on
independent landscape, both in bookselling and publishing. digital books in
The last couple of years, however, have been not easy for Argentina? Do you
Argentinian booksellers and publishers. Carlo Carrenho have an estimate of its
recently caught up with Javier Llovet, CEO of Penguin market share? Do you
Random House in Argentina and also responsible for the expect it to grow?
group’s operations in Latin America. They talked about the Javier Llovet The digital market is
challenges of the industry in a presidential election year. somewhere close to
”The presidential 2%. Until a retailer that
Give us a sense of the market in Argentina, and what are is able to significantly
your expectations for 2019?
election will surely push sales enters the
The market is very recessive. The sales drop in 2018 really divert people’s Argentinian market,
affected the whole commercial chain – printers, publishers, ebook sales will only
booksellers. With annual inflation reaching 40%, it is very attention from keep its organic
hard to keep the prices updated and the whole chain was cultural growth. And that will
forced to drop margins to avoid even deeper sales declines. happen without any
We don’t think 2019 will be any better. The presidential consumption, bounces like the one
election will surely divert people’s attention from cultural that happened in Spain
consumption, including books. The elections affect the book
including books.” after Amazon arrived.
market because people direct their attention to news outlets,
where they can follow the political debates. Meanwhile, What about audiobooks?
they are not so attracted to a more relaxing experience, like Audiobooks are a growing market in the whole world, and it
reading fiction, which requires a certain “peace of mind”. is no different in Latin America. This market has grown a lot
in Argentina and there are cases where the audio edition of a
Argentina has very few online sales of books, around 1% of title has sold more than the ebook version. You can explain
total sales, and a huge presence of brick-and-mortar this by the ease of using an existing device – the mobile
bookstores. Do you expect this to change? phone – to listen to audiobooks, while ebooks demand an
In the short run, we don’t see any meaningful change in the e-reader to provide a pleasing reading experience. The use of
online vs. offline sales ratio. Amazon is not present in Argentina, a single telephone opens the market in a significant way in
and they were the ones who developed the online market in countries where the importation of advanced technology
the countries where they launched operations. Concerning devices, such as Kindles and iPads, is still complicated.
physical retail, the independent bookstores – and also the
chains – were the ones who most suffered with the recent sales What Argentinian author or authors is the world missing
drop. In fixed-price markets like Argentina, booksellers can because he or she hasn’t been translated into English or
only keep or improve their margins by cutting costs, and that other major languages?
has a very precise limit during high inflation. If the economic Fortunately, most of our authors are translated and known
situation does not improve in the short run, we could see a in all major languages. But still, there’s always hope for
very complex scenario in retail with the closure of bookstores. other great voices to be known overseas. That is the case of
María Moreno, a legendary writer and journalist whose
Penguin Random House recently acquired control of recent memoir was an acclaimed success; Daniel Guebel, a
Companhia das Letras in Brazil. Can we expect more 2018 National Literature Award winner; or María Teresa
integration in the region now? Andruetto, winner of the prestigious Hans Christian
Since Companhia das Letras does not report to our LatAm Andersen Award. I would also point out that Florencia
division, I can’t really comment much. That said, PRH Grupo Bonelli’s books (Argentina’s bestselling fiction author) have
Editorial could contribute with many back office synergies to yet to be offered to an English-speaking audience. ■
Companhia, given its presence in seven countries and its wide Carlo Carrenho is a publishing consultant and founder of PublishNews.

10
 THURSDAY 14 MARCH 2019 LONDON SHOW DAILY

Sharjah Publishing
City strengthens
distribution links
Less than two years after opening for business, Sharjah Publishing
City – a free trade facility offering print-on-demand and other
publishing services – has welcomed more than 50 publishing
houses from the UK, China, Africa, Middle East, India and more,
writes Emma Wenner. In addition to using SPC’s one-site printing
services and storage facilities, publishers are exploring more cost-
effective and efficient distribution services in order to better reach With more than 600 ready offices for leasing, and an additional
markets in the Middle East, as well as Africa and Asia. 53,000 square feet of space for custom, SPC says it is ready for
“All of our offerings are designed to assist the publishing expansion to service the Arab world and beyond, and it expects to
industry reach its targets, nurture them through our offerings to triple the size of the UAE publishing market to $650m by 2030.
expand to neighbouring and international markets, while being “SPC was born with a mission to support and nurture the
strategically stationed in the cultural hub of the UAE and the publishing industry, and enrich the local, regional and
region,” said Salim Omar Salim, director of SPC, in a press release. international markets with quantitative and qualitative content,”
UK publisher Austin Macauley plans to sell English-language Salim said in the release. “To achieve this, we set up a one-stop-
books to the Middle East region through its office in Sharjah. UK shop for publishers where we offer state-of-the-art infrastructure,
publishers Laurence King and Liberty Education, as well as India’s logistics and services in a convenient geographical location, and in
Nageen Prakshan, are also among the companies setting up a cost-effective manner.” ■
business, according to a press release. Sri Lanka’s online bookseller
SPC is a subsidiary of the Sharjah Book Authority, the host of the Sharjah
Makeen Books is among those poised to open offices. 1 28/02/2019 International
4147_LBF_Dailies_E-book_Advert_185x130mm_HR.pdf 15:59
Book Fair as well as the Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival.

UNDERSTANDING FIND OUT MORE

LONDON BOOK FAIR
THE UK E-BOOK STAND 6D101

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CONSUMER
CM
Nielsen Book’s E-book Report delves into the latest trends:

MY ● Over 40% of e-book consumers are buying more e-books

now than they were 5 years ago
CY

● 39% of e-book consumers would choose an e-book over

CMY
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K
● One in five e-book buyers have bought an e-book in the
past year that they previously owned in a printed format

For more information or to purchase this report full of

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11
 LONDON SHOW DAILY THURSDAY 14 MARCH 2019

Amazon’s antitrust the structural dominance

and the structural market

paradox power that the company

is amassing.”
As the title of Khan’s
At the end of the 19th century, many local railroads in the Yale Law Journal article
United States became consolidated into giant iron networks, implies, Amazon’s
and the anticompetitive practices that resulted soon made “antitrust paradox”
these trusts – also called monopolies – a hot political issue, yields a paradoxical
writes Christopher Kenneally. Now, more than a century later, result – because
a new rebellion is gathering strength against domineering consumers are benefiting
players on the digital network. And e-commerce giant Amazon from lower prices,
could soon find itself in the sights of antitrust regulators. Amazon has escaped
“My argument is that in many regards, Amazon has become antitrust scrutiny thus
a form of infrastructure for 21st-century commerce,” argued far, thus Amazon’s rise
Lina Khan, an academic fellow at Columbia Law School and is effectively promoting
senior fellow at the Open Markets Institute, in a recent concentration in
interview for Copyright Clearance Center’s “Beyond the Book” Lina Khan businesses, not opposing
podcast series. “If you’re an independent merchant [or] an it. And as Khan sees the
independent producer, and you want to reach consumers in the “Because consumers issue, the short-term
21st-century digital markets, you have to ride Amazon’s rails.” are benefiting from attention being paid to
In January 2017, Khan published a piece entitled “Amazon’s prices is overlooking
Antitrust Paradox”, in the Yale Law Journal. It was awarded lower prices, other long-term effects
the 2018 Antitrust Writing Award for best academic unilateral Amazon has on businesses and society.
conduct article from Concurrences Review and the George “If the goal of the
Washington University Law School Competition Law Center. escaped antitrust antitrust laws is to
And her ideas are gaining traction: she was recently named in the scrutiny thus far,” promote competition,
Politico 50, a list of thinkers whose ideas are driving politics. then you need to be
“Amazon now captures $1 of every $2 spent online, and – Lina Khan thinking about that not
that share is growing significantly,” Khan said. “Over 50% of just in the short term, but
American households are [Amazon] Prime customers, and also in the long term,” she said. “If you’re enabling consolidation,
around 99% of Prime customers stop engaging in any real price if you’re enabling concentrations in ways that allow a single
comparison. Amazon’s capture of online commerce and of the company to control 60%, 70%, 80% of the book market [and]
infrastructure of online commerce is significant, and it’s able to use of the ebook market, that will have hazards down the line.”
that dominance in ways that I argue are bad for competition.” In 2019, Lina Khan and others in the so-called “hipster
In its original conception, antitrust enforcement in the US antitrust” cohort strongly challenge whether consumer welfare
focused on how markets are structured and whether there are is the only appropriate “proxy for competition”. Alternatively,
conflicts of interest baked into certain business models. However, she said, “we need to think more about the competitive process
beginning in the 1960s, antitrust enforcers began to focus on what and the structure of competition”.
they called “consumer welfare”, which, Khan explained, has come Of course, even advocates for rethinking antitrust policy in the
to mean asking whether prices are too high. But “viewing Amazon US concede that any successful challenge to Amazon isn’t likely
through the prism of price exclusively,” she argued, “really misses to come soon. “When it comes to [the Amazon] marketplace of
sellers, all of them sign a contract that requires them to bring
any dispute in arbitration,” Khan noted. That leaves the federal
Department of Justice to take up the case. But as time passes, that
prospect, she suggests, is not an entirely unlikely scenario.
“The Justice Department did sue to block the AT&T-Time
Warner merger, which was pretty significant, because it was
the kind of merger that the government hadn’t sued to block in
court for around 40 years,” Khan observed. “I think we are
seeing some renewed activity and interest among both the
Justice Department and potentially the Federal Trade Commission.
Competition is good for innovation. It’s good for consumers. It’s
good for producers. So any move towards greater competition in
the online marketplace I think would have a lot of benefits.” ■
Christopher Kenneally hosts “Beyond the Book”,w a podcast series from
Copyright Clearance Center.

12
 VITAL INSIGHTS BEYOND LONDON
BEYOND THE BOOK PODCAST
Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and Google Play. New episodes
twice weekly featuring leaders and disruptors from across publishing.
beyondthebookcast.com

VELOCITY OF CONTENT BLOG

Informative posts exploring today’s trends, changes and challenges
across open access, data security, copyright law and more.
www.copyright.com/blog

Advancing Copyright. Accelerating Knowledge. Powering Innovation.

ATTENDING LONDON BOOK FAIR?

Visit us in National Hall: Stand #7C16
www.copyright.com/london
#LBF19CCC
 LONDON SHOW DAILY
Tapping the power of
“influencers”
No question, the rise of social media “influencers” has had
a profound effect on the publishing industry, writes
Andrew Richard Albanese, evidenced by the first-ever UK
Book Blog Awards, given at the 2018 London Book Fair,
which recognised award-winners in three categories: Book
Blogger, Bookstagrammer and BookTuber. And at a recent
event in New York, organised by Publishers Weekly and the
NYUSPS Center for Publishing, a panel of experts shared
their views on how publishers are using social media to
connect their books to eager audiences.
It takes time
“I think we all like to think about influencer campaigns as
being free marketing and publicity,” said Kristin Fassler,
v-p, director of integrated marketing for Simon &
Schuster’s Atria Publishing Group, who moderated the
day’s programme. “But even if we’re not spending a lot of
money on influencer outreach, it is a huge investment of an
even more valuable resource – and that’s time. It takes a lot
of time to find and research these influencers, to cultivate
them, and to build a relationship of trust so that you can
deliver an effective pitch that will motivate them to go out
there and spread good words about your book.”
Fassler said that Atria’s influencer campaigns tend to focus
more on volume – that is, creating a lot of “touch points” for
potential readers, which helps create brand awareness as well
as generate sales. “Given that it is still something of an emerging
technique, it’s hard to say that every book needs an influencer
campaign,” said Leslie Prives, senior director of consumer
engagement and analytics at Penguin Random House. Prives
talked about the kinds of books that benefit most from PRH’s
influencer campaigns – for example, titles that have already
reached those who get PRH email newsletters or follow PRH
social media accounts, but still need a boost, or, on the flip side,
titles that need to reach an audience that doesn’t interact with
the publisher at all. She also stressed the benefit of early
outreach to influencers on sites such as Goodreads, a practice
that cannot only help build buzz for forthcoming titles, but can
yield insight into how best to market a book. “There are books
where we as publishers want to let the readers lead the message
about how the book might be promoted,” Prives said.
Suzanne Skyvara, v-p of communications for Goodreads,
agreed that publishers should be reaching out to
Goodreads members – but judiciously. Do your homework,
Skyvara advised publishers, and then reach out in “a very
personalised” fashion – even if that means hours spent
sifting through the Goodreads “shelves” or parsing reviews.
“It’s a lot of work,” Skyvara noted, echoing Fassler’s earlier
observation. “But remember, you’re going in for the long-
haul here. You’re going to build relationships over time
with these people.” And the key to success in any influencer
campaign, she stressed, is “trust, and authenticity”.
14
THURSDAY 14 MARCH 2019
Panelists at PubTechConnect’s Unlocking the Power of Influencers panel
(l. to r.): Kristin Fassler (Atria); Brittany Hennessy (Carbon); Karah Preiss
(Belletrist); Adam Small (Southern Made); Suzanne Skyvara (Goodreads);
and Leslie Prives (Penguin Random House)
Influencer marketing
“There are books is not new, of course,
where we as tracing its roots to
industries such as
publishers want to fashion, beauty and
let the readers lead luxury travel, where it is
now a prime marketing
the message about tool. But books, the
how the book might panelists suggested,
are a good fit for the
be promoted.” approach, since people
– Leslie Prives who read tend to be very
passionate about books.
Look outside your industry
Brittany Hennessy, author of Influencer: Building Your Personal
Brand in the Age of Social Media, urged publishers to look
broadly at which influencers might work for them. “I think
something that every industry does wrong is that they only look
for influencers who are in their industry,” she said. “Plenty of
people read who never talk about reading. You really can reach
out to anybody, as long as they like what you’re talking about.”
And the thing about books, observed Karah Preiss,
cofounder of Belletrist, an online community for readers
created with actress Emma Roberts, is that reading has a
positive image on social media. “There’s a number of young
girls starting their own bookstagram accounts because they
want to show people that they are reading,” Preiss said. “There
is such enthusiasm – especially because, on social media, it is so
hard to cut through the noise, and I think being a reader gives
people something to say,” she added. “It’s not just posting a
selfie – being a reader can really set you apart.”
The panel agreed that influencer marketing has been
positive for publishers, and Fassler said she expects the trend
will continue to grow as publishers sharpen their focus and
develop better metrics for evaluating the effectiveness of their
campaigns. “We know there are lots of consumers hungry for
a new read, and we also know that word of mouth is the most
compelling driver of book sales,” she noted. “I think
influencer campaigns bring those things together.” ■
 MAY 29 - 31, 2019
JAVITS CENTER, NYC

ESSENTIAL FOR ANYONE SELLING

IN THE NORTH AMERICAN MARKET

BOOKEXPOAMERICA.COM
 LONDON SHOW DAILY THURSDAY 14 MARCH 2019

Four questions publishers, so you

QA
don’t need a

for Richard warehouse any more,

and you don’t need a
sales force in the field.
Charkin I mean, I basically I
have no overhead
whatsoever. None.
Richard Charkin’s new venture, Mensch Publishing, That allows me, and
launched last month with Guy Kennaway’s darkly funny this is true of many
memoir Time to Go. Andrew Richard Albanese caught up independents, to
with Charkin to talk about his new turn as an indie spend my money on
publisher – and the simple question that inspired it all. the books.

What an interesting new chapter for you – indie publisher –
after a 47-year career at some the world’s major houses.
Surely you’ve had plenty of opportunities over that time to
strike out on your own, so why now?
Okay, so, I often have views, right? I’ve been misquoted
from time to time on my views on general book publishing,
trade publishing, that I’m entirely negative about it, and
that I love academic publishing. I do love academic
publishing, that’s true. And I do have reservations about
some of the developments in trade publishing. But I’ve also
thought, wouldn’t it be good to try and do it the way I
think it should be done? And the only way to do that is to
do it myself, and to spend my own money rather than other
people’s money, which I am doing. I’m genuinely taking the
risk here myself. I thought setting up my own thing would
keep me going and the juices working. And the final trigger
came in the latter stages of Peter Mayer’s life. I saw him
quite a bit, and I was very, very fond of Peter. And I
thought: what would Peter Mayer do? And I think he
would have set up Mensch Publishing.
Why not, right? It certainly seems like indie publishing is
having a moment. In this era of conglomerates, what is
enabling small publishers, including you, to get into the
book business?
Look, I think the modern trade book publisher is doing an
amazing job. However, size isn’t everything. And the idea of
having an utterly bespoke
service for an author on terms
that are sensible is appealing. I
suppose there are three aspects
to why more people are doing
it. One, production is no
longer such a problem.
Technology has made that
feasible. Secondly, the internet
enables marketing. That’s an
expense that in the past was
impossible. And thirdly, there
are the big companies that are
very happy to gain extra
income by representing
smaller independent
On your website, you
proudly state that you
have no mission
Richard Charkin statement, and no
stated editorial
“The idea of having strategy – but can we
an utterly bespoke wing it and put
something together
service for an here that resembles a
author on terms potential mission
statement or editorial
that are sensible strategy for Mensch?
is appealing.” Well, everyone has
mission statements,
like “do no evil” or “be the best”. Mission statements are
fatuous. That’s my mission statement. And as for strategy,
people have immense spreadsheets showing growth and
how many books they’re going to publish, 20 or 30 a year,
or whatever. And once you put 30 in the spreadsheet,
you’ve got to publish 30, irrespective of how good they are.
So, what am I going to do? Well, first of all, I’m very
limited in what I can publish because my terms are not
attractive to literary agents: I will not pay advances. I will
not acquire anything less than world rights, in all
languages. I won’t pay a royalty based on published price.
So that limits me. But what isn’t limited is what I will
publish. It could be anything: kids’ books, quasi-academic,
non-fiction. It even might be literary fiction. I do not think
I’m going to come out with a list – you know, like this is the
Mensch List. I mean, it’s just me. And the joy of not going
to meetings and being told a load of nonsense by people,
it’s great. I can recommend it.
What do you expect will be the talk at this year’s London
Book Fair?
I hate to be political about it, but I think the sort of
nationalist stuff going on in various countries, including
the UK and the USA, is unhelpful to global publishing. And
I think that’s going to appear again this year. I think the
threat to copyright is still there, and has to be taken
seriously. And I think the threats to freedom of expression
continue to be an issue. And of course, here in the UK,
Brexit is absurd and irritating and unhelpful. ■

16
 THURSDAY 14 MARCH 2019
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
M O N E TA R Y F U N D
Launching Boldwood P U B L I C AT I O N S
Another Book Fair, but
this year – for me at
least – with a
difference... After 35
years in this industry,
as a loyal employee of
both corporate and
independent
businesses, I am now
proudly representing
the company I founded
just over a month ago,
Boldwood Books.
While all around us
uncertainty and
political incompetence,
or worse, prevails, we
are optimistic enough Amanda Ridout
to believe that the
power of storytelling is
alive and well, and
that it is still
commercially viable and exciting. Boldwood will be
everything that I hold dear – global; a true partnership with
authors and team members; multi-format; flexible and
innovative, while underpinned by experience and energy.
So why now? Worldwide English-language fiction
consumption has never been higher with the established formats
of ebook and print still growing (as far as available statistics
allow us to judge), and the additional audio strand is genuinely Spring 2019. $25. Paperback. ISBN 978-1-48433-974-9. 382pp.
bringing in new consumers. Low-cost, technology-led
production and data management processes with global reach
mean that publishers can fully concentrate on partnering with Brazil: Boom, Bust and
authors to bring their very best work to readers worldwide,
in every format, through proper editorial collaboration and
the Road to Recovery
focused, energetic marketing. And an independent company, “A timely book providing a candid assessment
reaching the world from a basement in Fulham, can quickly of Brazil’s economic performance and the many
scale-up as long as it is nimble and energetic.
challenges that lie ahead. It offers a range of
The future should also look bright. Book content will
continue to provide the foundation and inspiration for so reforms that could put Brazil on the path of
many other cultural activities, creative industries and stable sustainable growth, and is an important
entertainment companies. As technology in the workplace read for anyone interested in the Brazilian
ensures more leisure time for the global consumer our industry economy.”
should be ready to offer product to fill that time. New —Raghuram Rajan, University of Chicago Booth
consumer formats will evolve needing ever-more content, and School of Business
AI will help to further reduce costs and to offer solutions for
everything from translation to voice recording and more. 
As a founder of a new publishing house I have to be optimistic, Visit IMF in Stand 7G10a
but have good cause to be so. With a great team around me
and strong early support from authors, agents, retailers and
our industry friends from all over the world, we will look to be
fearless and innovative whilst being informed by the many years of
experience we share between us. And of course we are determined bookstore.imf.org
to be commercially successful whilst also having fun... ■

17
 LONDON SHOW DAILY THURSDAY 14 MARCH 2019

Tackling the anti-

T
Total publishing income

h
5% to £5.7bn (Physical and digital books, journals and rights,

e
copyright climate
coeditions and licensing income)

ye
Total book income

a
4% to £3.7bn

photo: Publishers Association Publishing Yearbook 2017

r
(Physical and digital books)

in publish
Total digital income
3% to £1.8bn
Sarah Faulder looks at copyright, its
(Digital books and journals)

5% to £1.6bn Total journal income

challenges and what publishers should do

ing 2017
Total publishing export income
8% to £3.4bn (Physical and digital books, journals and rights,
coeditions and licensing income)
Copyright remains fundamental to the economic success of the

prior to roun
NB: % chan
publishing sector. The Publishers Association’s (PA) statistics 8% physical book Digital book
export income export income
published in July 2018 reveal that the turnover of the sector is at

ding
ges calculat
least £5.7bn, with more than half of this coming from exports of
UK publications. Publishing makes a significant contribution 5% to £1.4bn Total journal export income

ed
to the creative industries sector, which overall is now worth
more than £100bn – that is 5.5% of the UK economy – and it
is growing at nearly twice the rate of the rest of the economy. “Copyright … is in some countries
And yet the fundamental principles of copyright are being towards giving users
increasingly challenged by those who do not want to have to pay important as it their own “rights” which
for access to content, which all too often they can download for incentivises more could effectively trump
free from the internet. Copyright is traditionally a property right the rights of copyright
belonging to creators and those who invest in them. It allows creativity.” owners. We have already
them to maintain control, subject to certain limitations, over seen the devastating
how creative works are used and paid for. This is important as consequences of user rights for educational publishers in Canada.
it incentivises more creativity. There is a growing view, however, on Other governments are giving serious consideration to relaxing
the part of users that they should also have rights – rights to use copyright by introducing more exceptions which allow free use.
the world’s content without permission or payment. This is not a The American doctrine of fair use is being promoted by Google
sustainable model if our creative economy is to continue to thrive. and others as the solution to freely accessing content, which they
A combination of developments is fuelling this anti-copyright perceive to be locked up. Fair use tests the boundaries of free
climate. The root causes can arguably be traced back to: use through litigation, an enormous expense for the defending
• The extension of the term of copyright by the EU in 1993 copyright owners. Australia, Singapore and South Africa are
to life of the author plus 70 years from life plus 50 years. This amongst those that have been considering this option.
extension was and still is perceived by many as allowing Recently we have seen copyright protection for publishers being
business to lock up content for much longer than necessary. threatened in the EU. In 2015 publishers lost their right to share in
This ignores the fact that most copyright owners want to make the levies collected around Europe from private copying. There has
their content available as that is how they generate revenue. been a concerted effort to recover the position for publishers ever
• The evolution of the internet with a culture that encourages since in the very slow-moving draft European Copyright Directive.
the view that all information should be free and open. For many In the same Directive, which has attracted unprecedented
consumers their first exposure to copyright was when the record levels of opposition driven largely by the tech giants, there has
industry started to sue individuals for illegally downloading been a struggle to preserve the commercial interests of publishers
songs from Napster and the numerous illegal download sites in the drafting of an exception for text and data mining, to
that followed after it was closed down. The more traditional prevent any expansion of the exception for education and to
broadcast model of disseminating music on radio or TV relied drive forward a new right for press publishers.
on b2b licensing to which listeners were oblivious. If publishers are to retain and strengthen their copyright
• The creative commons movement, which describes itself position they must use their rights effectively. Publishers need to:
as “the global community that breaks down the walls that • Get better at explaining their role and importance and the
keep people from sharing their knowledge”. This suggests, value that they contribute.
wrongly, that copyright per se prevents sharing. • Audit and manage their rights efficiently so that they can:
The tech giants have been turning the resulting anti-copyright exercise their copyright and monetise their assets effectively;
sentiments to their advantage and free-riding on the back of make their assets available through licensing; and enforce their
the owners of copyright content. rights when they are infringed.
But the free use of copyright content is simply not sustainable. • Engage in the copyright debate through their trade
The ecosystem which is dependent on copyright supports the associations and other industry bodies representing publishers,
creation and production of high-quality content for the benefit of including not least Publishers’ Licensing Services. ■
society as a whole. Money flowing through the system is essential Sarah Faulder is chief executive of Publishers’ Licensing Services. This is
if this ecosystem is to survive. And yet we are seeing a definite shift based on her presentation to the IPG Autumn Conference 2018.

18
 THURSDAY 14 MARCH 2019 LONDON SHOW DAILY

Barefoot Books Bestselling products

also include the Mindful

partners with A&CB Kids and Yoga Pretzels

activity decks, as well
as a singalong series
In a new push to strengthen its reach to UK markets, independent accompanied by videos.
US-based children’s publisher Barefoot Books has partnered “We are so pleased
with distributor Abrams & Chronicle Books (A&CB). to welcome Barefoot
Under the new agreement, A&CB will sell Barefoot’s titles Books to our client
throughout the UK as well as in selected European and family and to extend our
international markets, effective at the London Book Fair. outstanding children’s
CEO and co-founder of Barefoot Books Nancy Traversy called offering,” Brenda
the move a “new chapter” for the press. “We’re thrilled to be Marsh, managing
partnering with Abrams & Chronicle Books to expand our director at A&CB,
presence in the UK, where our Barefoot story began more than said in a statement.
25 years ago,” she said in a statement. “Our mission to nurture “Barefoot’s books and
children’s compassion, curiosity and creativity has endured gifts promote critical
over the decades and feels more relevant now than ever.” Nancy Traversy thinking, mindfulness
The publisher of books for children aged 0-12 previously and social emotional learning, encouraging awareness of
had offices in London as well as in Bath, England, but it is the world, and sparking creativity and imagination.”
now based in Cambridge, Mass. With a backlist of more than In the US and Canada, Barefoot Books focuses on direct
700 titles, including I Took the Moon for a Walk by Alison sales from its website as well as its Ambassador network of
Jay and Barefoot Books World Atlas by BBC presenter home-based sellers. The home-selling programme, which
Nick Crane, Barefoot has a mission“to create beautiful Traversy called “a community-based grassroots selling
books that celebrate diversity, spark curiosity and capture model” while previously speaking to PW, launched in 2007
children’s imagination,” according to a press release. and includes community and school events.  ■

Programme Highlights
Thursday, 14th March 2019
Olympia Centre

The City and the Sea
Indonesia has extremes of urban and rural identities
- Jakarta is one of the world’s megacities, yet many
islands and regions remain lightly populated. Is
there a ‘city’ identity, different to the lives of people
in other areas? Do the people in the countryside feel
affected by rising sea levels and climate change?
Sheila Rooswitha Putri - whose work focuses on life
in the city of Jakarta, giving depth and complexity
to the lives there and exploding clichés by creating
sympathetic portraits of mongrel dogs and thieves -
discusses this with Agustinus Wibowo, a travel writer
whose work unpicks the narratives of identity behind
the enmity of different ethnic groups. They will be
joined by Malachy Tallack, a Scottish writer whose
novel The Valley at the Centre of the World is a story
about islands, community and isolation.
Speakers : Agustinus Wibowo, Malachy Tallack,
Sheila Rooswitha Putri
Chair : Katherine Demopoulos
Venue : Cross Cultural Hub (3D10) @ LBF
Time : 13:00—14:00
Some Like it Hot + Soto of the Day
Sambal is a chili sauce typically made from a
mixture of a variety of chilie peppers plus a variety of
secondary ingredients. Sambal can be served raw or
cooked. Some cooks insist on making freshly prepared
sambal just a few moments prior to consuming in
order to ensure its freshness and flavor; this is known
as sambal dadak or “impromptu sambal.” What kind of
sambal goes well with your soto of the day? Listen as
Chef Bara Pattiradjawane explains.
Speakers : Bara Pattiradjawane
Venue : Spice Café (4B30) @ LBF
Time : 12:00—12:45
What’s Next for Indonesian Literature?
Book fair market focuses can play an important role
in shining a spotlight on languages and counties
underrepresented in the English-language publishing.
But what comes next? How do these literary markets,
and literature itself, react to a new global readership?
This discussion will examine Indonesia, London Book
Fair’s 2019 Market Focus and the Guest of Honor at
the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2015. With readers globally
reading Indonesian literature, how does that impact
what writers, translators, and publishers are doing
now? And what is the future of Indonesian literature?
Speakers : Dee Lestari, John H. McGlynn,
Laksmi Pamuntjak, Tiffany Tsao
Chair : Liza Darnton
Venue : Club Room @ LBF
Time : 14:30—15:30

#ImagineNation #LBFIndonesia

19
 LONDON SHOW DAILY
Four questions
QA
for: Chad Post,
Open Letter
What’s the state of the US market for literature in
translation? Andrew Richard Albanese caught up with
Open Letter and Three Percent founder Chad Post to get a
glimpse at where things stand.
You founded and maintain the translation database, so let’s
start there, with a wide lens on where the translation market
stands – what notable trends have you’ve observed in the data?
I hate starting off on a negative note, but let’s get this out of the
way: 2018 was the second year in a row that the overall number
of literary translations published in the US, that is fiction and
poetry translated into English for the first time ever, decreased.
The peak was in 2016 with 666 titles, whereas 2018 ended with
609 new works. Percentage-wise, that’s a significant drop. But
in reality, we’ve had consistent growth from 2008, when we
counted 369 total titles, so maybe this is a just a minor hiccup?
It terms of other trends, two jumped out – at least at the
macro-level: Spanish surpassed French as the most translated
language. French, Spanish and German have always been the
top three, with French generally being the most translated. And,
the gender gap has been somewhat reduced. In 2017, some
66% of translations were books written by men, and only
about 30% by women. Last year, just over 59% of translated
books were written by men, and about 36% by women. That
is still bad, but at least it’s a step in the right direction.
On a more granular level, any other trends that have caught
your attention – are we seeing new publishers in the
translation market, or are the same publishers still carrying
the load?
There are a lot of micro-trends I’ve been writing about at
Three Percent over the past year, but the one thing that always
stands out to me is the balance between translations published
by independent and non-profit presses, and the number done
by the Big Five. As has been the case throughout the history
of the database, about 86% of translations last year were
published by indie presses. And while these books may not
generate massive sales, they definitely are a source of prestige.
A New Directions title won the National Book Award for
Translation, and in recent years, some of the most talked
about authors are Ferrante (Europa Editions) and Knausgaard
(Archipelago). So many exciting voices are finding their way
into English via passionate editors working at smaller houses,
and a lot of critics and booksellers are recognising this.
Talk about some of these authors and books – what should
we keep an eye out for?
It’s always tempting to talk about Open Letter titles, like
Flowers of Mold by Ha Seong-nan, who is the next in the
20
THURSDAY 14 MARCH 2019
growing line of
amazing Korean
women writers to be
translated into
English. But I’ll talk
about books from
other presses that I
think deserve wider
attention. Like Sjón’s
CoDex 1962, which
was one of the best
translations published
last year – ambitious,
and incredibly well-
written and translated.
It is also going to be
the subject of the
Chad Post eighth season of the
“Two Month Review” podcast that Three Percent/Open
Letter runs – a sort of weekly book club where we
demonstrate how much fun it is to dig into titles like this.
Another recent discovery for me was Catherine Leroux, a
Quebec author with two titles out from Biblioasis. Her
Madame Victoria, a collection of short vignettes imagining
the lives of an unidentified skeleton found in the woods
behind a hospital, deserves to be considered for any and all
major awards. And, I think Virginie Despentes is about to
have a major moment. She’s already well known in France
and has a cult following in America for her books King
Kong Theory and Pretty Things. But the Man Booker
nomination of the first volume of Vernon Subutex, her
three-volume magnum opus, coming out later this year [in
the US] from FSG, is going to take her to the next level.
In 2018, Open Letter, the publisher you founded, celebrated
10 years – can you reflect a little on the last decade, and
where you hope to go in the next 10 years?
I think we’re about where we wanted to be – I mean, I thought
by year 10 we would’ve had a Ferrante or Knausgaard, but
that’s kind of unrealistic! We’ve done just over 100 titles so far
– which fits our plan of doing 10 a year. And we did have an
Enard, a Gospodinov, a Zambra and several Rodoredas. The
publishing industry runs off of aspiration, ambition and luck,
so it’s hard to ever really be satisfied. There’s never enough
donors or sales, and losing authors to larger houses always
hurts. But I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished.
I’m also extremely happy with what we’ve done with Three
Percent, which encompasses a lot of the more altruistic
aspects of the Open Letter mission – connecting readers,
translators, authors, and raising awareness of international
literature and the art and craft of translation. We’ve expanded
from a simple blog and review site to become the home of
multiple podcasts, the Best Translated Book Awards, and
the origin of the Translation Database – all of which is
pretty gratifying. So, I feel like we’ve helped expand both
the number of translations published in the US, and the
way these books are discussed by the media.  ■
 THE SPANISH MARKET MADE EASY WITH

AT THE GUADALAJARA
INTERNATIONAL BOOK FAIR
Trade Days: December 2-4, 2019

§ Turn-Key display options § 5 star hotel block minutes from the

§ Shipping, customs clearance and delivery exposition center
to your stand § Prime location opposite the Business
& Rights Center
§ Official show directory listing
§ And more…

For more information, stop by the USA Pavilion in Stand # 6C99, or contact us after the fair

JANET FRITSCH JON MALINOWSKI

Janet@americancollectivestand.com Jon@combinedbook.com
734-677-0955 914-739-7500 ext. 6

You can also participate in the USA Pavilion at these fairs:

London International Book Fair | Frankfurt International Book Fair | Sharjah International Book Fair
Beijing International Book Fair | Bologna International Book Fair
 LONDON SHOW DAILY
Changing the story
Our industry is based on storytelling and we are acutely
aware of the ways in which multiple realities can co-exist,
writes Saskia Bewley, but how much time and space do we
give to uncovering the realities within our own
workplaces? How much time and space do we dedicate to
telling our own stories? And do we really know the stories
of the people we work with?
Diversity and inclusion can sometimes appear to be an
opaque, intangible and esoteric area of focus for businesses,
sensitive to address and often difficult to measure. Right at
its core, however, is something which the publishing
industry understands intimately and something which can
be an incredible way of taking the temperature of our
organisations. Storytelling can be one of the most powerful
tools at our disposal when it comes to inclusivity.
Hachette UK’s approach to diversity and inclusion –
Changing the Story – began formally in May 2016,
established by David Shelley and taken over by Nick Davies
and Sharmaine Lovegrove as co-chairs in January 2018. In
little under three years diversity and inclusion engagement at
Hachette UK has seen incredible growth, and what began as
a core group of 13 colleagues now stands at more than 150.
IN THE SHADOW OF WAR:
Spies, Love & the Lusitania
by Colleen Adair Fliedner
When the RMS Lusitania was torpedoed by a German
U-boat off the coast of Ireland in 1915, nearly 1,200 people
drowned, including 128 Americans. The British government
wanted the U.S. to join the Allied Forces in WWI. Did
they set in motion actions allowing the luxury liner to be a
target for a German U-boat’s torpedo to achieve that goal?
This compelling novel is the story of a family torn apart by
death, and lovers who are separated when the ship slides
into the icy sea. German
spy rings in New York,
America’s $500 million
dollar loan to replenish
England and France’s
empty war chests and
much more are woven
into this gripping drama.
ISBN: 978-1-937818-93-7 ( PB )
ISBN: 978-1-937818-94-4 ( HC )
Sand Hill Review
Press, LCC ... Available
from: Ingram Content
22
THURSDAY 14 MARCH 2019
Networks launch event
This has been achieved in no small way by our community
of Employee Networks; employee-led groups which are
sponsored by the company. We currently have eight active
networks and a combined membership of more than 800
colleagues. Our largest and most established networks are
our Gender Balance Network, and Thrive (our BAME
employee network), which both have more than 200
members. Our most recently formed networks Ageless and
All Together focus on issues of intergenerational diversity
and regionality and socio-economic status respectively.
In order that all our employee networks are sustainable
and embedded in the culture of the company they each have
an executive sponsor who is their direct line to the board.
This is a critical two-way line of communication, ensuring
alignment of network goals to strategic business objectives, as
well as providing a channel for the business to listen to the
needs of employees, offer support and facilitate change. We
have introduced operational guidelines for our networks to
provide a steer in terms of an operating model, the setting
of KPIs (key performance indicators) and communication.
Our Employee Networks shape a positive and supportive
community at Hachette. They have cultivated safe spaces
within our working environment where colleagues feel able
to express their views and share their realities. Our Gender
Balance Network, for example, has been instrumental in
aiding the development and implementation of our Gender
Pay Gap action plan through facilitation of open and
honest discussion across the company.
At Hachette our employee networks provide us with a
rich source of qualitative data around how people feel and
experience life within our company, data sets which we can
use to inform meaningful change that benefits our colleagues.
For us to be truly intentional about diversity and inclusion
we must ensure that our own stories can be told, because if
we assume stories, we assume needs, and when we assume
needs, we risk compromising the integrity and wellbeing of
our people and our culture. Our culture should be constantly
evolving, supporting people who feel safe to reveal
themselves, to challenge the status quo and to present an
alternative vision. Changing the Story is ultimately about
cultural change and it unfolds one story at a time. ■
Saskia Bewley is diversity and inclusion manager at Hachette.
 THURSDAY 14 MARCH 2019 LONDON SHOW DAILY

Building bridges At Springer Nature

we have a long tradition
of making change
I cannot play the “new boy” card for much longer, writes Daniel happen. We were early
Ropers, but I hope readers will continue to indulge me as it is this movers in offering more
status which is helping me bring fresh eyes to the challenges subscription value
facing academic publishing, and this status which is guiding my through Big Deals, first
thinking as to how we move forward. The challenges facing to pilot offset deals and
academic publishing are wide and varied: how to speed up the are by far the largest
transition to open access; transitioning from a predominately open access publisher in
B2B business model to a B2C one; evolving funder mandates; the world. We invested
and the need to navigate more content than ever and the need in the future of books
to access it across multiple devices from multiple locations. by digitising our entire
However, the overwhelming challenge I have identified is catalogue, were
how to build trust and coordination amongst publishers and instrumental in the
the community they are dedicated to serve; there is a worrying industry initiative
disconnect, which is restricting the ability for publishers to be CrossRef and the first
viewed as partners by the majority of our stakeholders. This is Daniel Ropers publisher to enable the
extremely concerning and there are many fundamental legal sharing of subscription content, via our SharedIt initiative. We
improvements that we, as one of the major global publishers, have recently launched a groundbreaking pilot with ResearchGate,
are keen to lead on. These include, but are not limited to: providing ResearchGate users with legal seamless access to Nature
• Helping researchers make their data, protocols and content. I am proud to be part of a company that has shown that
methods open, and access the data sets of others it’s not afraid to introduce new ways of doing things when the
• Improving peer review quality and processes to save time whole community stands to benefit and vow to work with all
for all involved, including a vastly reduced time between stakeholders in the interests of future sustainable change. ■
submission and publication Daniel Ropers is chief executive officer of Springer Nature.
• Driving change in the reputation and recognition models
and metrics, for authors, researchers, members of our editorial
boards and peer reviewers
• Publishing negative results and reproducibility studies at scale
• Making usage easy: we should create common standards
and user-friendly interfaces that make it easy for every legally
entitled user to consume the research information they need
As is evident from this list, the prizes are huge. But we need
to re-establish the connection with the research community,
funders and decision-makers in institutions. And we, the
publishers, need to get much better at working together as
many of the improvements noted above have the ability to
deliver the most value if they happen at cross-publisher level.
So, if we have so much to offer and we are so necessary to
creating even more value to the world of research, why are
research publishers too often regarded by others in the research
community as the enemy? During my first year (and a bit) in
academic publishing there are four statements that I have heard
frequently: we are too profitable and charge too much; we are a
for-profit company in a world which should be the domain of
not-for-profits; researchers feel a level of dependency on
publishers that they are not comfortable with; and researchers
don’t feel (see?) we are providing the change they want.
Reassuringly we can provide evidence to refute each of these
statements, but the fact remains that this is what people think
and because of this, publishers have lost their right to a seat at
the table. We need to win it back, but can only do this by not
just understanding our own interests, but also the interests of
others. It means looking at what’s possible, and not shying
away from the inconvenient truth of what’s not going to work
for one or other constituent.

23
 LONDON SHOW DAILY
Reaching one
community at a time
Literacy remains one of the UK’s biggest challenges, writes
Jonathan Douglas. One in six adults lacks basic literacy
skills1 and, as a result, faces a high risk of unemployment,
poverty, poor health and crime2. Add to this the fact that low
literacy is set to cost the UK economy £32.1 billion by 20253
and you start to see the immensity of the challenge we face.
UK business is increasingly recognising that it has a key
role to play in addressing this challenge. This year, 74
businesses from a wide range of sectors have signed the
Vision for Literacy Business Pledge, committing to tackling
low literacy in their workforce, in the local communities
where they work and on a national level. But no single
industry has the power to transform the UK’s literacy
profile like the book industry.
Countless initiatives over the past two decades have shown
how publishers, booksellers, authors, poets and illustrators
have an unparalleled ability to get the nation reading,
especially when working in partnership with libraries, charities
and schools. Industry-backed campaigns such as World Book
Day, the National Year of Reading, the Summer Reading
Challenge and Bookstart have been transformational.
The UK’s literacy challenge is now more specific than
ever before. Working with Experian, we have been able to
pinpoint the nation’s literacy cold spots – communities where
as many as a third of the adult population is functionally
illiterate4, child poverty is rife, social mobility has stagnated
and life expectancy hasn’t improved – providing publishers
with unrivalled insights into where their campaigns can be
targeted to make the biggest difference.
To date, we have set up nine Literacy Hubs in these
communities, bringing together local partners in decade-long
campaigns to transform literacy levels for an entire generation.
We are starting to see evidence that place-based approaches can
move the dial on literacy in the nation’s most disadvantaged
communities: when we began working with local partners in
Middlesbrough, children from the town were starting school
Words for Work
24
THURSDAY 14 MARCH 2019
with some of the
lowest communication,
language and literacy
skills in the country.
Five years on, the
attainment gap with
the national average
has halved5.
There is no silver
bullet. The impact we
are seeing in these
communities is a
result of multiple
partnerships, campaigns
and interventions. But
the message is clear: if
we focus tightly on the
Hastings Hub launch - A pupil from The places where the
Baird Primary Academy performs the
literacy challenge is
poem she wrote on the literacy-themed bus
sharpest, we can make
a meaningful difference to children’s lives.  
The active ingredient that brings literacy alive and makes
reading irresistible in these communities is the engagement
of the book industry. That’s why we were so delighted that,
in his inaugural speech as President of the Publishers
Association, Charlie Redmayne (CEO of HarperCollins
UK) announced the launch of The Literacy Project –
enabling the National Literacy Trust to help publishers
channel their incredible assets into boosting literacy and
social mobility in the UK’s poorest communities.
Masses of activity is already underway as part of the
project. In the early years space, several publishers have
committed to working in communities where large
numbers of five-year-olds are starting school with poor
language and communication skills.
Early Words Together
In Glasgow, employees from HarperCollins UK’s local
distribution centre are volunteering on our Early Words
Together programme, which has already given 170
disadvantaged parents in the city the skills and confidence
to support their child’s language development at home. In
Nottingham, Scallywag Press illustrator Rose Robbins
helped us design A5 flyers for our Christmas book gifting
campaign, encouraging parents to read and chat together
with their young child. And in the North East, Penguin
Random House has provided us with funding, books and
intellectual property – including the iconic Peppa Pig and
Spot the Dog – to help get key literacy messages out to
parents who are traditionally hard to reach.
Puffin World of Stories
Penguin Random House has also been making huge strides in
the primary space, where almost twice as many children from
disadvantaged communities leave school unable to read and
write well compared with their better-off peers6. Working
together, we have launched a new pilot programme, Puffin
 THURSDAY 14 MARCH 2019

World of Stories, which The tools you need

gives primary schools
in deprived parts of the
North East, London
to scale your
rights business
and Essex the books,
materials, training and
resources they need to
champion reading for
pleasure across the 24/7/365!
whole school and
reinvigorate their
school libraries.

Words for Work

HarperCollins UK has
picked up the gauntlet
in the secondary Global Rights 365
space, committing to Early Words Together
improve the communication and employability skills of Global Rights 365
How It Works Members News Feed Pricing Networks

young people in Stoke-on-Trent, where half of all

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secondary students failed to get good grades in GCSE FEATURED BOOKS / TITLES What We Do
rights@pub
English language and maths last year7. They are also
PubMatch strives to be
your one-stop shop for See below for terms and price available to purchase
your international bookthe right(s) indicated. If you'd like to continue with
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sponsoring our Words for Work employability programme flowers

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Literacy Hubs
Many publishers have donated books to children in our Visit us at Stand # 6C99
Literacy Hubs, notably Walker Books and Dorling
Kindersley, and Penguin Random House has committed to Manage your data, create marketing,
gifting 150,000 books to children and families in these
communities as part of our Charity of the Year partnership.
and sign foreign rights and reprint
We are working also with Pan Macmillan on some exciting contracts in a matter of minutes
plans to celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Gruffalo across
our Literacy Hubs, and Bloomsbury will be bringing Kid with partners around the world
Normal authors, and Radio 1 broadcasters, Greg James
and Chris Smith to our latest Literacy Hub in Hastings. using PubMatch's automated rights
We are in the process of developing partnerships with transaction tools.
Elsevier, Bonnier, Faber, Sage and Nosy Crow, and we have
many more publishers to meet with in 2019. This is just the
beginning of this publisher-powered movement to support
Learn more and get started
literacy in the UK, harnessing the passion of the industry
and the unique creative assets that it can bring to bear on
at pubmatch.com
the nation’s literacy crisis. Together, we are using the power
of the written word to change children’s life stories.
Our Partners
■
Jonathan Douglas is director of the National Literacy Trust.

1
OECD (2016) Building Skills for All: A Review of England, Policy
Insights from the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC)
2
National Literacy Trust (2018) Literacy and Life Expectancy
3
Read On. Get On (2014) How Reading can Help Children Escape Poverty
4
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (2012) Skills for Life Survey 2011
5
Department for Education (2017) Early Years Foundation Stage Profile
Results: 2016 to 2017 CNPIEC

6
Department for Education (2018) Key Stage 2 and Multi-academy Trust
Performance, 2018 (revised)
7
Department for Education (2018) GCSE Results for England, 2018 (provisional)

25
 THURSDAY 14 MARCH 2019

Rebuilding the library

IS destroyed
In many conflict zones around the world, books and
education become targets. Classrooms are closed, books
burned and even where schools remain open learning is
disrupted by violence, writes Emma Taylor. After war,
rebuilding libraries and schools is an important part of
returning to normalcy and is often a top priority.
Before Mosul fell to Islamic State (IS) forces in 2014,
the University of Mosul’s library collection was one of the
most important in the region. It held more than one
million books on philosophy, law, science and poetry –

November
including many irreplaceable historic texts. IS led a brutal
campaign of violence and repression – devastating
museums, schools and libraries in an attack on free
thought itself. In 2015, fighters deliberately destroyed all

17-24, 2019
but a few of the university library’s books and the
building itself in what UNESCO called “one of the most
devastating acts of destruction of library collections in
human history”.
During the IS occupation, many students refused to give

MIAMI, FLORIDA up on their education. Some relocated to other cities where

they could continue to study, and many others sought
refuge overseas. University of Mosul’s Dr Alaa Hamdon
was one of the many academics who were forced to leave
because of the threat IS posed. When he returned to Mosul
he was shocked to see what had happened to his city, and
particularly the library. In response, he founded a new
campaign, the Mosul Book Bridge, with a simple aim:
replace the books destroyed by IS. In March 2017, the
POETRY, FICTION Mosul Book Bridge reached out to Book Aid International.

& NONFICTION FROM Books reaching Mosul

Book Aid International’s vision is a world where everyone
ALL OVER THE WORLD has access to the books that will enrich, improve and
change their lives. We provide new, publisher-donated
books for people around the world who would otherwise
STREET FAIR have few books, or even no books at all.

PUBLISHERS &
BOOKSELLERS
CHILDREN’S AUTHORS
& ACTIVITIES

MIAMIBOOKFAIR.COM Dr Hamdon (left) with the university team as the books arrive

/miamibookfair
#MiamiBookFair2019
 THURSDAY 14 MARCH 2019

The destroyed library

When Mosul Book Bridge approached us, we were eager

to help – but while Mosul had been liberated, it was still a
Congratulations
difficult place to reach. The University of Mosul also
needed higher education books which are often in short
supply. The logistical challenges of shipping to Mosul
meant it would be far more expensive than an average
to all the
shipment. It was a challenge from every angle.
Over the next 12 months, we worked to find a safe route
into Mosul and asked our publishing partners for support
in funding the costs of sending the books. In March 2018,
winners
3,700 new books arrived at the University of Mosul. It was
a moment of celebration both in Mosul, where Dr Hamdon
quite literally danced in the street, and here in the UK,
where the delivery made BBC headlines. Today, those
books are reinvigorating the university’s vibrant and
diverse academic community after years of repression. FIND OUT MORE
They will also help ambitious students gain the skills they
need to begin rebuilding Mosul.
The challenges that Mosul Book Bridge and the university www.londonbookandscreenweek.co.uk
face are still immense. The library needs a new building,
chairs, shelves, computers and a new filing system – but
progress is being made, and a plan to renovate the damaged
library has recently been agreed.
By the time this article is published, a second shipment of
5,400 new books will be on its way to Mosul – but with a
new library space being prepared, many thousands more
books will be needed.

A future rich in books

Sponsored by
In 2018, Book Aid International sent 1.28 million books to
thousands of universities, prisons and refugee camps in 25
countries, including thousands of books to Mosul, Syria, Iraq,
South Sudan and many other places where conflict has
robbed people of their libraries and left communities shattered.
It is only through the generosity of the publishers who
donate both books and money to our charity that we can
In collaboration with
do this. If you would like to be a part of helping rebuild the
University of Mosul’s Library or other conflict-affected
communities please visit www.bookaid.org or call us on
020 7733 3577. You can also find out more about Mosul
Book Bridge by visiting https://mosulbookbridge.org/. ■
Emma Taylor is head of communications at Book Aid International.
 LONDON SHOW DAILY THURSDAY 14 MARCH 2019

Spanish markets Audiobooks are

creating new
readers
As in the rest of the
Sales of print books in Spain are again global publishing
showing modest growth, but it’s ebooks market, Spanish-
language audiobooks
and audio that are doing really well. have also gained a
Javier Celaya reports firm foothold and
increasing acceptance
among consumers,
After almost a decade of decline in print sales, a staggering evidenced by a 250%
40% aggregated sales drop, the Spanish can now point to increase in the number
five straight years of modest increases, with sales up roughly of titles available in
2% in 2018. Print unit sales are still well off the levels they just the last three
were at five years ago – roughly 45 million units sold in years. According to a
2018, compared to 50 million units in 2014. The latest study published last
“Barometer of Reading Habits” study, published in January Javier Celaya February by Dosdoce.
2019 by the Federation of Spanish Publishers’ Guilds, com, there will be
indicates that just over 67% of consumers in Spain “Spanish-language more than 10,000
reported reading a book in 2018, a hopeful sign. audiobooks have audiobooks in Spanish
The really good news, however, is from the digital side of at the end of 2019,
the business, with double-digit growth reported in both [seen] a 250% compared to the
ebooks and audiobooks. The 2019 edition of The Spanish increase in the scarce thousand only a
Markets Digital Report, compiled by Bookwire, the leading few years ago.
ebook and audiobook distribution platform in the region, number of titles The arrival of
showed average digital growth of 57% in 2018 over 2017. available in just the audiobooks platforms
And the Barometer pointed out that digital readers in Spain like Storytel, Kobo,
read on average 13 books per year, compared to 11 books last three years.” Google, and coming
for a print-only reader. soon, Audible, among
others, in Spain and Latin America is not just introducing
Digital surges readers in the region to this new reading method, but it is
And publishers are capitalising on the trend: in the last also creating new readers. Several market reports indicate
three years, close to 400 Spanish and Latin American that 50% of today’s audiobook listeners in the Spanish
publishing houses, of all sizes, have increased their ebook markets did not read a print book in the last year, and 30%
offerings, resulting in roughly 100,000 digital titles now of them are under 35 years of age and listen to more than
available in the market. one audiobook a month via their smartphone.
Each year, more and more Spanish and Latin American Audiobooks generated close to €5 million in sales in
publishers are converting their print books into ePubs, Spain in 2018, compared to less than €3 million in 2017.
which has not only enabled them to better serve their local Like the rest of the world, audiobook sales will continue to
markets, but to export their titles worldwide as well; in grow in 2019, likely surpassing the €7 million mark.
fact, some 49% of Spanish digital sales come from outside Meanwhile, the arrival of leading entertainment
Spain. Mexico reached the highest sales figures for digital platforms in the Spanish markets (Netflix, HBO and
content exported by Spanish publishers (15%) in 2018, Spotify, for example) continues to transform consumers’
whereas the rest of ebook exports to Latin America (20%) cultural habits. Although unit sales via online platforms
are shared among other countries in the region (Argentina, such as Amazon, Apple and Kobo are the most relevant
Colombia, Chile, etc). sales channels for Spanish and Latin American publishers,
The US Hispanic market, meanwhile, has also grown, subscription platforms like Scribd, Nubico, 24Symbols and
now representing 10% of digital sales, double the share Storytel are becoming increasingly significant, reaching a
going to the European market, which now accounts for 5% total of 17% of digital sales, compared to just 5% in 2016.
of digital exports from Spain. And sales figures for ebook While the subscription model is developing slowly for
licences to libraries is also increasing, reaching 7% of total publishers in other markets around the globe, subscription
digital sales in 2018, compared with 5% in 2017 and 2% is a trend to watch in the Spanish markets. ■
in 2016. According to the figures provided by the Spanish
Javier Celaya is CEO and founder of Dosdoce.com, an online portal that
Ministry of Culture, ebook lending in libraries increased
analyses the impact of new technologies in the publishing sector, and a
from fewer than 500,000 lends in 2017 to nearly to 1.2 member of the executive board of the Digital Economy Association of Spain
million in 2018. (Adigital), and of the newly created E-book Association of Spain (Aselid).

28
 THURSDAY 14 MARCH 2019

PW Star Watch 2019

This year marks the
fifth anniversary of
PW Star Watch, a
partnership between
Publishers Weekly
and Frankfurter
Buchmesse, to
recognise those
up-and-coming
members of the US and
Canadian publishing
communities and help
expand their network
internationally.
“Publishers Weekly
“We look forward
and Frankfurter to… highlighting
Buchmesse are pleased
to be celebrating five
those people who
years of PW Star are innovating and
Watch and all of the
improving the Every day BookBrunch
publishing professionals
who have been industry, and provides the book trade with:
honoured through
the programme,” says
inspiring their
Jim Milliot, editorial colleagues.” • Insight and perspective
director of Publishers
Weekly.  “We look
– Jim Milliot • Concision and accessibility
forward to many more
years of highlighting those people who are innovating and • Reliability and immediacy
improving the industry, and inspiring their colleagues.”
Frankfurter Buchmesse provides the top honoree with a
trip to the Frankfurt Book Fair each fall.
Past winners have included Helen Yentus, art director
Sign up now for our free
Riverhead Books; Andrew (Harwell) Eliopulos, executive daily headline email or
editor, HarperTeen; Gabriella Page-Fort, editorial director
at AmazonCrossing; and, last year’s winners, Francesca
subscribe for in-depth
Cavallo and Elena Favilli, founders of Timbuktu Labs and stories and news:
www.bookbrunch.co.uk
creators of the bestselling series Good Night Stories for
Rebel Girls.
“It’s an incredible honour to receive such a prestigious
award, coming, as we have, from such an unusual path,”
Favilli said in her acceptance address at last year’s award
ceremony in New York. “During this journey, we had many
moments of fear, despair, profound self-doubt. But we
Discounts available
welcomed those moments as part of the conquest of for members of SYP, SoA
something bigger.”
Nominations have just opened for this year’s event. Those
and IPG and freelancers;
interested may nominate themselves, their colleagues, or students and booksellers
peers who are working hard to advance publishing in
North America. If you have been nominated before, but
free of charge.
have not been honoured, you can be nominated again.
To make a nomination go to www.publishersweekly.com/
starwatch19. ■

29
 LONDON SHOW DAILY
Affordable
accommodation
BTBS is helping young people from
diverse backgrounds enter the book
trade. David Hicks explains
Many people in the book trade know of The Retreat, run
by the Book Trade Charity BTBS (at Kings Langley, in
Hertfordshire) – although the prevailing opinion may be
that it is where old booksellers go to die!
In the last couple of decades the age range of Retreat
residents has widened considerably – the youngest are now
in their 30s and 40s, and the average age is 64 – with a
third still working; we rarely have vacancies for long. We
offer accommodation for about 40 people; four couples
and the rest single people, in a range of accommodation –
flats, townhouses, one- and two-bedroom flats, as well as
the original almshouses. It is fairly evenly split between
male and female, publishing and bookselling backgrounds.
Over the years, we have realised that, while our
accommodation offered to people working or retired from the
trade is very valuable in helping with mid- to later-life issues
(including retirement housing or addressing homelessness
arising from a change in circumstances) – and our grants
support people with a range of domestic difficulties (illness,
disability, redundancy, debt, carer situations etc) – we need to
consider how we can also help young entrants to the industry.
New partnerships
Over the last two years BTBS has developed a partnership with
Penguin Random House (PRH) to accommodate one (often
two) young people from the PRH work experience programme.
PRH contract to use one dedicated bungalow, as well as our
guest bungalow when free. These are two-weekly placements
(paid at the London Living Wage), so the individuals change
regularly. The Retreat’s proximity to Kings Langley railway
station (25 minutes from Euston and its tube connections)
means we are providing a very convenient place to stay for
young people who may not be familiar with London.
The recent merger with Matthew Hodder Charitable
Trust has provided additional funds, which mean that
while continuing our traditional support, we can offer new
entrants to the trade help with interview costs (travel,
accommodation, and even appropriate clothing on
occasion!) and support for those engaging in paid
internships. These initiatives have proved very successful in
helping many young people to take up opportunities that
might previously have been beyond their reach.
It became clear that the major obstacle to taking employment
in the industry was finding affordable accommodation. A
further merger in 2016, with the Bookbinders Charitable
Society based in Whetstone, London, has allowed us to offer
30
THURSDAY 14 MARCH 2019
The Retreat, Kings Langley
further help. The housing there had 22 flats, but only 12
were occupied, by older, retired individuals. This provided
BTBS with the opportunity to refurbish one block of six flats,
offering high-quality but affordable housing, turning three into
units of two bed-sits, sharing kitchen and bathroom facilities,
and offering three one-bedroom flats. These all filled within
weeks, and demand was such that two further flats were
upgraded and a total of 11 new residents were installed. The
idea is that tenancies will last for about a year, to allow people
to get established before moving on and making way for others.
The flats are close to both Northern and Piccadilly lines, so are
convenient for internships and employment in central London.
The success of this initiative led the BTBS Board to consider
how it could be expanded. Two blocks of four flats (a couple
of which were not suitable even for refurbishment, so still
unoccupied) were identified as a development opportunity.
Plans have now been drawn up, and planning permission
sought, to demolish these, rebuild them and – to make the
development cost-effective – add on a further two new blocks.
This will provide eight new one-person studio flats, while
all of the nine new one- and two-bed flats will be flexible,
so could also be shared accommodation, while still suitable
for any new “traditional” applicants. The development will
also contain an office and facility for social events.
Additional funding needed
Funds from Matthew Hodder Charitable Trust and
Bookbinders will cover about half of the cost of the
development (about £2.5 million); hopefully funds can be
raised from the industry to expand this vital provision –
significant corporate donations can gain “nomination
rights” if required! – while any shortfall will be covered by
a bank loan. Repayment of the interest and capital will put
pressure on the charity’s normal activities, such as grants, so
we would prefer to minimise the amount we have to borrow.
Subject to planning consent, this exciting new development
should be ready in 2020, and BTBS will be able to expand
significantly its services to the UK book trade. ■
David Hicks is chief executive of BTBS.
For further details, or to discuss funding opportunities, David Hicks or
BTBS president Ursula Mackenzie would be delighted to hear from you.
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