The SYP’s Pre-London Book Fair Seminar took place at the British Council, and was introduced by Group Exhibition Director of the LBF, Alistair Burtenshaw with an overview of the fair. Now in its 38th year, the London Book Fair is a ‘global publishing platform’ for all those working in the trade, and is, according to Burtenshaw, ‘primarily about trading foreign rights’, as well as domestic selling and networking.

 Last year, the fair saw 906 official exhibitors, and over 28,000 publishing professionals from 110 countries, which gives an idea of the ‘scope and scale of possibilities for doing business’ at the LBF. Alistair went on to speak about the fair’s market focus programme, the aim of which is to ‘strengthen cultural relations between the focus country and the rest of the world’. The idea came about six years ago, and enables publishers to take advantage of trading links, business possibilities end education opportunities, as well as exposing new writers from the focus country.

This year, the focus country is India (past focus countries have included Australia and New Zealand, Mexico and the Arab world). A partnership of organisations, including the Association of Publishers in India, the Indian Council of Cultural Relations, the Federation of Indian Publishers and of course the British Council, has facilitated five official pavilions and 86 Indian companies to attend the LBF.

But, as Alistair went on to discuss, ‘why India, why now? India is the second fastest growing large economy in the world, with great linguistic diversity (23 official languages), and the Indian diaspora in England also provides lots of opportunities. Moreover, India is the sixth largest book market in the world, and the third largest English language book market in the world.’ He encouraged SYP members to experience India at the LBF, through the professional seminars, cultural events, author sessions and networking opportunities provided. See the British Council website for full listings.

Next to speak was Kate Arthurs, from the literature department at the British Council. She spoke about the 45 writers who are coming over from India to attend the LBF this year, some well-known and some up-and-coming. ‘Many haven’t yet been published in English, but we hope they will be,’ Kate told us. The British Council have organised a series of 10 seminars at the LBF, covering the main issues in Indian publishing at the moment – subjects include fiction, identity, cinema, diaspora, translation, conflict, different genres, the battle for the Indian reader, the literature of ideas, bestsellers and popular writing. Kate concluded by urging the audience to visit the four literary cafes, which will all involve Indian authors.

Andrew Senior, Head of the Creative Economy Unit at the British Council then gave us a brief introduction to the UK Young Publisher of the Year (UKYPE) award. The international young publishers award has been running for six years, and the UK version is now in its third year. It resulted from ‘a demand from senior figures in the publishing industry to recognise talent and innovation’. Twelve finalists were whittled down to a shortlist of six, who took part in a study tour of the Indian publishing industry, about which they would speak to us tonight. These finalists, Andrew told us, are also part of a larger scheme of ‘new ways to create interaction, meeting with finalists in other creative areas, such as film, performing arts and design, thus ‘bringing together engines of the creative economy’.

Simon Littlewood, International Director at Random House, introduced the core of the evening – the UKYPE finalists. Unfortunately, James Bridle, founder of London-based Bookkake, was unable to join us, but the panel comprised of the five remaining finalists – Peter Collingridge, Founder of Apt Studio in London; Lucy Luck of Lucy Luck Associates; Davy Nougarede, Director of Heavy Entertainment in London; Nii Parkes, Senior Editor at Manchester-based Flipped Eye Publishing; and Jessica Purdue, Rights Executive at Orion Publishing Group.

Peter was first to speak about his experiences of both publishing and India. He is ‘not technically a publisher’, though his first job was as an unpaid intern at Canongate. His background is in literature, art and design, and he quickly realised that what interested him was creative marketing for books. When he discovered the internet, he knew this was what he wanted to do. Canongate was one of the first publishers to have a website, and so was an ideal place to start. After Canongate, Peter worked for a film company, and then set up Apt, a design and marketing consultancy with a specific focus on publishing and the arts.

Peter’s ‘enduring image of India was mobile phones’. Having travelled to India 15 years ago, his impression of publishing there was of a pirate industry. However he emphasised this ‘couldn’t be further from what we saw this time. The infrastructure is staggeringly advanced, and they are going through a golden age editorially. There’s not a lot of computers, especially in people’s homes, but everyone has mobile phones. 114 million mobile phones were sold in 2008, and they’re the perfect pocket device for reading on. There’s the potential here for reaching people in India who might not usually be accessing books – a healthy market and a hunger for reading.’

Next to speak was Lucy Luck, who started her career as a literary agent at Rogers, Coleridge and White when she was 23. Eight years later, though it was a ‘scary prospect to sit alone and say to authors “I know this is good, and I know where to sell it”’, she decided to start her own agency, primarily representing young authors. One of Lucy’s reasons for setting up her own company was to get involved in selling foreign rights; something she hadn’t been able to do until this point. Lucy pointed out what an interesting issue territorial rights is at the moment, especially ‘with countries like Australia wanting to be seen as an area in its own right, as well as places like South Africa and India’.

Being aware of the opportunities for distribution in India, Lucy wanted to find out more about the potential market there, so entered for the UKYPE award when she saw it advertised. ‘There are very few, if any, agents in India, but they are just at the beginning of the trajectory. There is a burgeoning of new Indian voices, and the multi-nationals have started their own concerns there and are competing against local publishers. India was mainly an educational market, but there is a new appetite for literary fiction.’

Lucy went on to speak about the ‘particular type of person’ who has traditionally made up the book-buying population in India. ‘They have to have a disposable income to spend on books. There is no internet trade, and the bookshops need work, but this is all changing.’ The Jaipur literary festival is a sign of this – ‘it is four years old, and full of editors from multi-nationals and local publishers talking about the issues in Indian publishing. There are opportunities – they are limited at the moment, but they are there.’

Davy Nougarede’s first job was on an international newsdesk in California, after which he worked with digital content at Thompson. He encountered real problems within the industry with producing quality digital content, so decided to set up his own business six years ago. ‘Audio books are seen as the runt of the publishing sector, but I carried on knocking on doors and pushing it. They’re not just for the visually impared – I really believed there was a market – look at Book at Bedtime on Radio 4 for example.’ His company started out producing 7–10 audio books a year for one publishing house, and now publish 220–250 audio books a year for 19 publishing houses.

Davy spoke of the ‘huge demand in India for publishing and digital content’. On the trip, he met many publishers and readers who expressed an interest in the audio format. ‘However, the difficulty is getting books out there. To Western distributors the system in India probably looks chaotic, but it does work. Book are sold door to door, at traffic lights, or you have to go to the counter and ask the bookseller. I don’t take the retail system in Britain for granted anymore!’

Several aspects of the Indian publishing industry came as a surprise to Davy – ‘unlike the British publishing industry, it is not predominantly female, they don’t seem to gather information or have databases, and they don’t like transparency!’ Also, Davy told us, he had assumed that lots of people would speak English, but only 20 million out of 1.6 billion people do, shrinking his potential market fairly quickly. He was also surprised that only a quarter of the population speak Hindi. ‘As a publisher, you have to deal with regional preferences and languages. The literacy rates are low too – a third of the male population is illiterate – but this could be a great opportunity for audio books. Even though people can’t read, they might still want access to literature – the country has a long history of story-telling.’

Davy aims to develop audio, make it available to the Indian market and to find ways to reach that potential audience. He agreed with Peter that ‘mobile phones create a massive market – they’re perceived like a laptop in India.’ Audio also has the advantage of low set-up costs – ‘how do you break even with a print-run of 300 copies for a local market? Audio works differently, so can be sold at a low price-point and matched to the appropriate market.’

Nii Parkes publishes poetry and literature. His aim is to ‘get literature out there cheaply’. He began his career teaching and writing, went on to become a development manager for a multi-national, and set up Flipped Eye eight years ago.

Nii went to India ‘looking at the market for opportunities. The market for literature in English in India hasn’t really developed. It is driven by population growth and transference – so if a father has a love of literature he might pass that on to his children, but this means that there is an inertia in the market; a coiled-spring effect. But this also means that there are opportunities to develop that market.’

Nii went on to discuss market appeal. ‘In Britain, books that are tie-ins to films are really popular, but this doesn’t really happen in Bollywood at the moment. But when it does, the market will grow. We need to use local appeal as well – so you could interview the author about their English-language book in a local language. Also, the education market will decrease as the population decreases. Non-academic, non-fiction is becoming more popular.’

Nii’s final point was about pricing. ‘In India, if the price-point is lower, the books sell better. The threshold point is really important. Attention needs to be paid to disposable income, and also to the distribution of English readers – they’re all over the country, not just in one place. We need to get the product to that market. It’s a market that will pay huge dividends for publishers willing to engage in a long-term plan.’

Our final speaker of the evening was Jessica Purdue. As someone who sells foreign rights, she was very interested in India as ‘the third biggest market for English language books after the US and the UK. Hindi is the dominant language – 28 per cent of books published in India are written in Hindi, but next is English, with 20 per cent.’

Jessica also spoke about the fact that the type of book varies from language to language. ‘For example, Hindi plays are popular, whereas a lot of locally-owned companies publish folk tales and religious titles, which is perhaps something to do with the oral tradition. English language books have traditionally been seen as something for the literary upper class, but this audience is widening and diversifying. Commercial fiction and self-help titles in English are becoming very popular. There is more translation between regional languages and from regional languages into English. Children’s books are popular, and you see lots of pirate editions of Harry Potter!’ The Indian market ‘needs to develop’, according to Jessica, in order for publishers there to buy translation rights from British publishers with any regularity, ‘but it does happen – Harper Collins are translating The White Tiger into Hindi.’

The speakers were followed with questions from the audience on a variety of topics, from the pirate industry in India, to how many people are actually reading books on their mobile phones. The evening provided valuable insight into Indian publishing and highlighted why it is such an interesting choice to be the market focus of this year’s London Book Fair.  The UKPYE winner will be announced in a ceremony at this year’s fair on Wednesday 22 April.

Lucy Mitchell

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thesyp/sets/72157616888667673/show/

The first speaker meeting of the SYP year jumped feet-first into the hot topic of the hour – the Credit Crunch. More specifically, the evening, organised by new SYP committee member and social secretary Nicki Crossley (Orion), focussed unsurprisingly on the impact that the dreaded C.C. is having on the book market and how the economic downturn may affect aspiring young publishers’ current jobs and futures. The event’s attendance illustrated how important the topic is to SYP members and non-members alike, as all ages and professions filled Foyles’ Gallery and latecomers either had to find makeshift seats on the floor or against the walls as all chairs were filled by kick-off at 6.45pm.

The evening began with some helpful (and sometimes mind-boggling) facts and figures from Reeta Wilson, Publishing Accounts Manager for Nielsen Bookscan. Providing a statistical grounding to the evening’s discussion, Reeta offered an insight into the sheer numbers that are technically the beginning and end of all publishing and book sales activity in the UK. She told the audience that in 2008 alone, 236 million book units were sold in the UK. Interestingly but somewhat unsurprisingly, she also pointed out that the top five thousand titles in the Bookscan charts accounted for 54% of the year’s sales, emphasising at the same time, as well as later in the evening, the importance of the ‘Long Tail’ both to support core bestsellers and to encourage more unlikely hits to emerge from a list. Reeta went on to say that 2008’s book sales were down by 5.5% on 2007’s, despite volume sales being up by 2.3%. This was down, she said, to heavy discounting which, especially around the festive period, saw the market ‘devalue its products by 500 million pounds’. As the audience audibly groaned to hear the stark reality of the already-much-debated discounting situation, more disappointing statistics were unfortunately to come.

After describing trade non-fiction by saying ‘what happens here drives the market’, Reeta went on to state that it was the ‘only area [or genre] that was in decline in 2008’. Although this statement could also be read positively – that all other genres were not experiencing downturn in 2008 – she also went on to explain that November 2008 was ‘down at the most crucial time – down 17% on last year’. Commenting briefly on the fact that ‘[book] cover price is going up but discounting is bring the price down’ to a few select giggles from the crowd, Reeta ploughed on to 2009. Despite the worrying figures that show that so far in 2009 book sales are down 1.6% by value and down 8% by volume on 2008, Reeta ended her presentation on a positive note, urging the industry professionals in the audience that ‘you can do something about it’. Asking questions such as ‘Are you capitalising on media coverage?’ she stressed the importance of ‘making the most of what’s coming’, ‘setting realistic targets’ and perhaps most important of all: ‘if you don’t keep your eye on the ball you’re going to lose out’.

Next to speak was Mark Rusher, Trade Marketing Director at Orion Publishing Group. Fluent and seemingly at ease speaking to such a large audience, Mark focussed on how harnessing the potential power of marketing in difficult times is of great importance and how the role of (especially ‘young’) publishers responsible for marketing in any organisation is to emphasise this importance to their employers. Also, he stressed, it is their prerogative to find clever, cost-effective ways to best use marketing spend and resources at a time when the ‘powers that be’ may be tempted to scale back on costs and even staff in an area/department of which it is ‘hard to quantify the value’ – there are often no tangible direct results from marketing activity. Mark talked about how today’s consumers are ‘price sensitive, prepared to shop around and respond to direct marketing’ and that marketing personnel ‘need to be clever’ to tap into the whims of the consumer and drive initiatives such as ‘encouraging shops to do lots of local events’. He also, interestingly, discussed the opportunities that the C.C. may be actually opening up for book marketing, for example on TV: ‘terrestrial advertising has now become a financial possibility’. He also made the audience laugh by ending his slot by saying ‘I was a teenager in the early ‘70s when England was really f**ked’, speaking from experience to reassure the young publishers in the audience that ‘it’s not necessarily going to be so bad’.

The last speaker of the night was Eunice Paterson, Project Manager at Sage Publications, an educational publisher. Paterson took a slightly different tack and focussed on the moral and ethical responsibility a publisher has to their suppliers and service providers. In a convincing argument, she explained how she would not necessarily automatically go for the cheapest price when choosing services such as printers, as she felt a responsibility not to demand the price to be driven so low that those printers then ran the risk of going out of business, even if their production costs were also unavoidably rising. Stressing that ‘best practice is always best practice in good times and bad times’, she went on to expand on this, saying that ‘we’ve got to keep trusting each other and building relationships’ so that businesses at all ends of the publishing spectrum know and support each other to keep the industry alive and operational from a basic level. Concentrating mainly on the importance of structuring strong foundations and inter-business relationships, she explained that a best practice code now may be tomorrow’s insurance against potential disaster: ‘if you’ve built up relationships, those people aren’t going to let you go down the pan’.

The evening provided lively discussion, with three different enough perspectives on the panel to provide the audience with a great deal of food-for-thought. With at least fifteen minutes of very animated Q and A afterwards, the topic clearly got the speakers and audience involved with the subject, and the variety of opinion and viewpoints provoked some impassioned debate.

Rebecca Fenton

The 2009 AGM was a spectacular way to open the SYP's 60th year.  Committee member Rachel Menzies came up with the original idea of a Publishers Q&A, and the 2008 Chair, Jon Slack, was as instrumental as ever in establishing a stellar cast: Will Atkinson (Chair of the Independent Publishers Guild and Sales Director, Faber & Faber), Bob Campbell, (Senior Publisher, Wiley-Blackwell), Mike Clarke (Head of Libraries, Camden), Helen Fraser, (Managing Director Penguin and Chair of the Environmental Action Group), Simon Juden (CEO of the Publishers Association), and Graham Rand (President of the Booksellers Association).  The panel was chaired by the very witty Sandy Balfour, who is an author, as well as writing for the Guardian.

  A wide variety of questions came from floor, concerning topics such as the Net Book Agreement, electronic copyright theft, diversity in publishing, and the fate of independent bookshops.  As an ex-Amazonian, I was particularly interested in the following question: "How can chain and independent booksellers work together to prevent Amazon from completely dominating the book retail industry?"  Simon Juden's practical response was to say that they couldn't, since that would be illegal, and Sandy Balfour commented that while he ideally wanted to support independent bookshops, when it came to the buying of books, Amazon's fast and competitive service tended to win the argument for him.  It's a pity that there was no opportunity to put points forward from the floor, but we only had one roaming mike, limited time, and besides, our expert panel covered every issue in great depth.

  Then came a part of the night that I was perhaps not so eagerly anticipating, for, in a first for the AGM, there were three candidates for the position of 2009 Chair, myself included.  I was first up to speak, and I thought my speech went well, despite my legs shaking slightly - people laughed in the right places, although there were a few good-natured boos when I mentioned that I had previously worked for Amazon.  However, I was then blown away by the depth and quality of the speeches from my competitors, Angie Solomon and Julia Wells.  So, I wasn't totally surprised when Angie was elected as the 2009 Chair, and Julia as the Vice Chair.  I think it was the correct decision on the night, and I'm sure that they'll be a very strong team.

  The AGM was also the opportunity to meet the new committee members, who were all voted into their new offices.  It was also the chance for me to speak to Nicholas Jones and Giles Clark, as I had been previously worried that they had regarded me as very rude when I arrived late for their seminar at the 2008 Conference, especially as I had seemed to be texting throughout, when I was actually jotting notes down into my PDA!  Suzanne Collier, Business Director of bookcareers.com and a sponsor of the AGM, then stood up to give a speech to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the first time that she became Chair of the SYP (and her record of having been Chair most often will never be bettered).  Angie got down to business straight away, as she met the new committee members. Later on in the evening, I overhead one former Chair congratulating Jon Slack on the success of the night: in her opinion, the AGM had been bigger than some previous conferences!  A splendid time was had by all, and it's gratifying to relate that the SYP is in some very safe hands.

At the recent SYP AGM, I was amused to hear Amazon described as a 'monopoly'.  As a former employee of Amazon, I have mixed feelings about the company, as I had both good times and bad times there.  Generally, I think I prospered there, and they are currently selling my debut novel, A Fame of Two Halves, at a very good price.   But my view is tempered by the fact that I believe that there is an even more dangerous monopoly out there.  Amazon, after all, is just a retailer, in a marketplace that is still very competitve.  Google, on the other hand, as the leading search engine, arguably controls access to the world's knowledge, which is far more valuable.

  My fear of their power was the reason why I was so angry this afternoon when I tried to access the SYP site via Google.  I was alarmed to see a very prominent warning message which informed me that the SYP site could harm my computer.  My panic subsided after a few moments when I discovered that the BBC website had the same error message attached to it.  Oh, and, in a very humorous aside, I must report that Google's own website had the same error message attached to it, which will make the company look even more foolish.  A report on CNET suggests that "this problem was caused by an outage at StopBadware.org. If so, Google needs to rethink its failsafe strategy for this data source".  I'm glad to announce that things have gone back to normal, and that Google no longer regards the SYP as being a menace to anyone's computer.

  When Google first came along, I loved them, as they gave high rankings to my literary website Authortrek, and awarded sites that had the best content, and were generally far less snooty about what they listed than AltaVista.  However, a decade down the line, I now dislike Google immensely, for simultaneously downgrading the search rankings for all of Authortrek's subsidiary pages overnight with no explanation.  They're also incredibly difficult to contact.  I succeeded on contacting them and complaining about this on a previous occasion, and the ranking of my subsidiary pages were restored for 6 months.  However, I am tired of having to go through this process, tired of Google effectively denying passing visitors to my site, tired of feeling powerless at Google's expense, so tired that I am now letting the site run down, especially since I never got enough revenue through my Google ads.  These Google ads are also not what they're cracked up to be - if I search for the amateur author 'Peter Reiling' on my site, I don't expect to see adverts for 'Garden Railings', but this is what Google delivers to me.  I got so fed up with Google a few years ago that I wrote a poem about them, which neatly expresses my feelings about the company:

To Canoodle Google

I loved you to bits
When you first started
Giving me a hit.

With every beholden click,
I gave you a golden tick.

I didn’t know who you were at first
But you came through
When the bubble burst.
And soon everyone on Earth
Knew who you were.

You rode through the surf
And you gave birth
To many pages of worth.

But now everything seems to be worse.
Going public seems to have been a curse.
It was you who said, honey,
That you could make money
Without being evil.
Do you even care
About Tiananmen Square?

I gave up everything for you,
And now you treat me like poo.
I never thought I’d see the day
When you’d make me pay
To be the number one on your list.

You make me regret
That we had ever kissed.

You used to be my best mate,
We even went on several dates.
But now my love is late,
And has turned into hate.

You look at me with baby eyes,
But now I see they’re full of lies.
You bend down for a kiss
But I no longer wish
To canoodle Google.

Kevin Mahoney is the SYP Web Content Editor, and the author of the novel, A Fame of Two Halves, which fortunately does not contain any of his poetry.

SYP Web Content Editor Kevin Mahoney has just had his debut novel published, which Joanne Harris, of Chocolat fame, has described as "a tremendous first novel - wry, funny and clever. I hope it's the first of many".  You can read the synopsis and an extract from A Fame of Two Halves below.

Buy the paperback edition of A Fame of Two Halves from Amazon.co.uk (only £6.99 if you choose the Super Saver Delivery option).  Or, you can buy the e-book edition for only £2.99 from Kevin's literary website, Authortrek.com. 

A Fame of Two Halves synopsis

For Elliot Gold, manager of the Duxford Ducks football team, life seems to be going from bad to worse.  His job and his marriage both face imminent demise.  He pins all his hopes on winning one last match.
  But Elliot Gold is not a lucky man…
  Drowning his sorrows with his parents in Malta, Elliot is suddenly offered a chance to resurrect his football career with a team he renames ‘The Maltese Falcons’.  With the inspirational music of Spandau Ballet racing through his veins, Elliot attempts to reinvent himself.  Will he woo the lovely Silvia?  Can he save his parents’ marriage as their union also heads for the rocks?  Will he ever win again?

An Extract from A Fame of Two Halves

Elliot Gold stared at Doctor Tell's ceiling.  He was used to the sight.  He saw the Gucci doctor once a week, and told him all his woes.  Elliot had tried to persuade the team to join him in a group session, but neither they nor Doctor Tell had agreed to it.  Doctor Tell had a reason why, but just wouldn't tell.  That was probably where it all began to go wrong, Elliot thought.  Prior to that had been his revelation to a journalist from The Sun that he had learnt all his training skills from Duxford State Circus when he was a lad.  Until that moment, Elliot’s timing, his ability to read the game and life itself had been perfect.    Elliot had held the complete respect of the team.  No one had ever questioned him before that.  Not long after, with his confidence in his own abilities low, Elliot had sunk to introducing the long ball into Duxford’s game.
  If truth should be told, as it should be in Doctor Tell's office, Elliot had only devised the tactic because he had heard that all first team players at Wimbledon regularly saw a psychoanalyst (and what better club to emulate than one which had come from nowhere?).  So, Elliot had decided that Duxford United could do with some of the same mind quackery.  He would have tried anything to have healed their confidence, and what better way than to confide their woes to a pro? 
  It never had occurred to him that the real reason why Wimbledon players went to see the men in white coats was that they were all nutters. 
  Doctor Tell's ceiling was fascinating.  To the casual observer, the black and white blobs on each tile merged into a meaningless jumble, but to Elliot, they signified something far different.  One of them had a semicircle of black with a curved swirl of ebony in the middle.  It was obvious to anybody but a referee, Elliot reasoned, that this was Graeme Souness.  To his left was a lanky and quite unpronounceable piece of soot - Kenny Dalglish.  Another had a wispy effect - definitely the late Bob Paisley.  And the one with the bold black strokes?  Shankly.  Frankly, it had to be Shankly.
  He should never have listened to that man.  What was his name now?  That man he had met in the Duck and Cower?  Mister Chadwick - that was it.  One might well have taken advice from Mister Spud.  And fancy ever trying to emulate Wimbledon, Liverpool's bogey team.  No wonder Liverpool's majestic crowned heads stared balefully down at him from the ceiling.
  "How are we today?" the impeccably dressed Doctor Tell asked.
  "Oh, fine," Elliot lied. 
  There was something about this room that reminded Elliot of the confessional: it was the bars on the window.  Whenever a priest asked if he had sinned, Elliot had seen fit to invent a whole litany of crimes, falling just short of mass murder and littering.  He hadn't wanted to disappoint the priest, since he could never remember them anyway, they were so numerous.  But you just had to say something in that situation.  Okay, so lying, and thus committing another sin, was not an ideal solution, but saying you hadn't sinned at all was positively sinful in Elliot's eyes, even if you hadn't.  Still, he had only been a practising Catholic till the age of ten, and then he'd only gone to confession with his class.  That was when you proved how hard you were by how long you took to do your penance.
  "How's your schizophrenia coming along?" Elliot asked.
  "Very droll," the Doctor commented, although it was at least the thousandth occasion with which he had encountered the remark. "You know, Mr Elliot, the one danger of psychoanalysis is that the patient and the therapist will swap places.  In your case, however, I believe we are quite safe."
  "Well, I certainly keep you in business, Doc.  I'm your best customer."
  This was a slight fib on Elliot's part.  He was, in fact, Doctor Tell's worst client.  Doctor Tell resisted imparting this news to his client in case it made him depressed.  He didn't want Elliot to get any worse.
  It was hardly fair, Elliot reasoned to himself (thus making Doctor Tell redundant).    Thank God he hadn't heeded Chadwick's other advice though: to hire a ballet dancer.  Elliot couldn't see a weak little lass running through their SAS fitness regime, let alone lead it.  But then again, Elliot had come to maturity in the late seventies, when no one had heard of a feminist movement, apart from the defenders at Arsenal.
  "I believe we were talking about your recurring dream last time..." the Doctor began when he got tired of watching Elliot's eyes dart about the ceiling.  Doctor Tell's mother had always told him to be suspicious of men whose eyebrows met, and it was in this way that Elliot became prime suspect on the many occasions when Duxford’s homicide squad had been forced to consult the good doctor.
  Elliot leaned back in the couch.
  "Well, now,” Elliot said, even although he wasn't.  Otherwise he could have gone home. "I'm in a garden."
  "What kind of garden?"
  "I dunno.  It's not a very green garden."
  "And why is that?"
  "It's summer.  It's too hot to be green.  There's hardly a blade of grass.  The earth is so scorched."
  "Is this an English Summer?" Doctor Tell asked incredulously (having been brought up at a time when there was no talk of global warming).
  "No, it's abroad."
  "What country?"
  "I don't know," Elliot lied.  He could never actually remember his dreams, but he did have some quite vivid memories.  One that especially shone in his mind was that of a childhood holiday in Malta.  It was the first time that he had ever been abroad.  Ah, he could remember it as if it was the day before yesterday, perhaps even last week.  The sun had seemed so bright there, and the people so pleasant.  It was a million miles away from England on a wet May morning. 
  Elliot liked to think of his childhood.  He had been a happy child.  Life had been so uncomplicated then.  There were times when he wished he could return to that state, to have no worries in the world...  To see the world beneath from a small womblike shell in the sky, just as that bloke did in 2001: A Space Odyssey… Perhaps that would be what old age would be like, having brunch in a Georgian palace with good acoustics. 
  "It was somewhere in the Mediterranean," Elliot continued.  He liked the name - Middle Earth.  To him, it seemed solid, firm, and Tolkien.
  "What are you doing?"
  "I am sitting on the ground.  It is warm, reassuring.  There is a little brick wall running along the path.  At the bottom, in a crack, is an ants nest."
  "What are these ants doing?"
  "They are scurrying along the ground.  They are carrying tiny leaves.  I put my finger in their way.  The ants just walk around.  I squash some."
  "You kill the ants?"
  "Yes.  There are very many of them.  They are like the ones in our self catering apartment."
  "Is the apartment infested?"
  "No, they just marched up and down one bit of wall.  They are living in their own world, totally unaffected by my presence.  It was a beautiful sight - a moving wall."
  "Where are you now?"  Doctor Tell prompted after a slight pause.
  "I am in the garden again.  I squash some ants."
  "What kind of ants are these?"
  "They are worker ants.  As soon as I kill some, bigger ants arrive on the scene."
  "What are these new ants like?"
  "They have pincers on their head.  They attack my finger by pinching it.  Little ants hang off my fingers with their pincers."
  "Does their bite hurt?"
  "No, the pincers are too small."
  "What do you do now?" Doctor Tell enquired.
  "I retaliate."
  "You kill more of the ants?"
  "Yes."
  "Please continue."
  "Soon there are very many bodies on the ground."
  "How do you feel?"
  "I am enjoying it.  Pretending to be a great warrior."
  Doctor Tell clicked his fingers.  It was his method of signifying some kind of closure.  It stemmed from his days as a stage hypnotist, from the time when he had very nearly been disbarred from the Mind Benders Association.
  Elliot sat up and teetered on the edge of the couch.  He found it very comforting to swing his legs in his posture, but Doctor Tell wasn't about to give him a big push.  He left his real swinging for the weekend.
  "So, what was that all about?" Elliot asked brightly.
  "You tell me."
  "No, you Tell, me Elliot."
  "Your humour will be the death of me, Mr Gold," said Doctor Tell as sternly as he could. "Well?"
  "I haven't the foggiest," Elliot said uneasily.  He hated psychoanalysing himself; it made a mockery of paying Doctor Tell.
  "Is it not possible that you feel yourself surrounded by enemies, and that you wish to strike back in some way?"
  "What enemies?  I don't have any enemies," Elliot said worriedly.  But hadn't he seen someone walk past his house with a bazooka the other day?
  "Perhaps ‘enemies’ is the wrong word.  Your critics, shall we say?  Is it not true to say that your have more than your fair share of critics in the professional and amateur press?"
  "Amateur press?" asked a mystified Elliot.
  Doctor Tell waved a copy of The Sucks in the air.
  "Ah, the fanzine," Elliot said as the light slowly dawned. "What does it say?"
  "You mean you haven't read it?"
  "I write the weekly programmes.  What do I need to read that for?  I mean, I pick the teams and all that, so presumably I know what I am doing."
  "Well, according to this rag, you don't."
  "What!" cried an outraged Elliot. "Let me see that!"
  "Are you sure?  Some of it is quite virulent," Doctor Tell warned as the fanzine was snatched from his grasp.
  "’Elliot Gold, you should be sold!  Always believing you’re indestructible. Well I’ve got news for you, mate’" Elliot read. "They can't sell me, I'm the manager!  And why are all the pages stuck together?"
  "Amateur press," Doctor Tell reiterated as he prised the fanzine from Elliot's grasp.  It was his professional opinion that Elliot shouldn't see all those old photos of his wife.  Especially not the nude ones.
  "I don't care what they have to say!  I'll show them!" Elliot said furiously as he stormed out of the room in a way he’d last done when he was twelve.  He’d been seeing Doctor Tell for a very long time.
  Doctor Tell leant back and formed his hands into a steeple.  He was highly skilled at metamorphosis.
  "An excellent analysis," he muttered evilly to himself, which only bearded Machiavellian men in good suits can really pull off.

A Fame of Two Halves is a Print on Demand book, generated by Lightning Source.  Click here to read Kevin's recent article about the SYP Study Tour to Lightning Source.  The paperback edition of A Fame of Two Halves was published by YouWriteOn.com, in association with Legend Press.  Click here to read an article about the founding of Legend Press that Tom Chalmers wrote for the SYP.  SYP members can also read Kevin's account of how the book was published in the next edition of InPrint.

To contact Kevin, please email him at editor@authortrek.com rather than the form below.  Click here to go to the SYP homepage.

A slight technical hitch meant that I was late for the Publishing Career Development workshop.  Unfortunately, the doorway to Malet Place, where the workshop was held, could only be opened by a key card, or by somebody standing inside it.  The marshal inside the doorway just before this workshop happened to be me, and regrettably, the person who was supposed to be covering me arrived late.  Still, such minor crises will always happen at any conference.  I just hope the speakers did not think I was too rude – I was not texting throughout the workshop, but writing my notes into my mobile phone pda (from which I’d just been reading an e-book edition of A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man – all very Web 2.0!)

Nicholas Jones, Managing Director of Strathmore Publishing, began the session, saying that all people working in publishing have to be a marketer to enthuse their sales directors.  He then went on to say that it’s useful to know what kind of roles that you prefer to play on a team, mentioning Dr. Meredith Belbin’s Team Role Theory.  Nicholas related that Nielsen has transformed the bestseller list, as it's now so accurate, and that the value of books sold is going up and up.  However, one of the most important aspects of career development is keeping an eye on what’s currently happening.  For instance, many of our customers now derive from the new iPod generation, and are accustomed to devices that do many things.  Nicholas stated that there are about 40,000 titles that make up iTunes sales (which is much the same number as you can find in a traditional high street bookshop). So, all the money's still in the head, not the long tail.   According to The Register, Chris Anderson’s Long Tail theory, which suggests that businesses will sell less of blockbusters in the future and more of less well-known items, is seriously flawed.  However, to counter this, Mark Thwaite, Managing Editor of The Book Depository, stated in the conference’s opening session that his company are finding the long tail to be very profitable indeed.  Nicholas continued on his theme by stating that just as bands are now making money from touring and playing gigs, so authors are making more money from the literary festivals circuit.  He then went onto discuss the concept of Disintermediation – i.e. “cutting out the middle man”, which could have disturbing implications for publishers, as we are the middle men that could seemingly be dispensed with in this new Web 2.0 world.  However, publishers add value, and are very good at communicating with their audience.  New technologies such as Print on Demand mean that there are now more than 100,000 titles published a year, whereas it used to be more like 30,000.  There is also the example of audiobooks, which have been transformed by digital downloads (so much more convenient than messing around with 20 audio cassettes while trying to listen to an unabridged book).  Giles Clark, author of Inside Book Publishing, then stated that only half a dozen European publishers control the mass market. Now, the tendency is to licence content, which is a move from a product-based model to a service one.  And unlike other careers you could choose, you can get more responsibility in publishing early on, although usually with much lower pay.
  Suzanne Collier, Business Manager of Bookcareers.com, has given careers advice for the last 20 years, and so she also proved to be an ideal speaker on the issue of career development.  Suzanne stated that publishing's main aim is to make money. Publishing is now in the most exciting phase ever with digital, and asked the delegates to question themselves - how will they cope?   One of the most important things you can do is to improve your publishing skills.  If you want to work in editorial, make friends with the editorial department. She also advised delegates to keep an eye on current affairs, so that they would have ideas for future books. You mustn’t be shy in pushing yourself forward at work, to volunteer.  It’s also always worthwhile seeing if you can come to an arrangement with your employer for them to pay for your training.  You must also invest in yourself, to improve your computer skills, speed-reading, and business sense.  If you want a promotion, it’s always a good idea to read your company's business plan, to see where they are expanding.  At the end of the day, when you’re seeking to advance, what you are doing is marketing, and the product is you.  If you're not getting any interviews, then it’s probably down to your CV, so make sure that you have someone else check it over for you. Most of all, though, publishers want enthusiastic employees.
  So, although I missed the beginning of this workshop, I did get a great deal out of it.  One of the delegates I spoke to told me that some of the other workshops did not tie in very well with the theme of the conference (Publishing 2.0: The Reader Revolution), however I am glad to report that the Publishing Career Development workshop most definitely did.

SYP members can buy Giles Clark's Inside Book Publishing for a discount - click here for more details.

Kevin Mahoney

10 years of Amazon.co.uk ‡ Amazon's labour relations ‡ Amazon's relationship with publishers

Ten years ago, I was working in Ottakars in Slough.  I had just finished my Masters degree, but was still uncertain as to what to do next as a career.  However, I was certain that I did not want to work in bookshop management.  And then something miraculous happened: Amazon.co.uk opened up in my hometown.
    It seemed like an ideal fit for me, as I was very much into the Internet, and had recently created my own website.  Amazon also started out selling solely books, so my bookshop experience would no doubt come in very handy.  I came through the rigorous interview process and was offered a job.  Being quite a loyal person, I decided to stay on at Ottakars over the Christmas period, and joined Amazon immediately after (so I only participated in 6 of the legendary Amazon Christmases).  When I arrived, they weren’t quite sure what to do with me, as they’d forgotten that I was due to start work that day!  My heart sank as I was asked to come back the next day at 5am to work in the Receive department. Fortunately, I was just as quickly bumped up into the Special Receive department, as I was told by one manager that I was probably the only one of the new recruits “who’d seen a book before” (this manager is now working as the CEO and founder of The Book Depository).
    My family were rather sceptical about my new job, especially it involved that new-fangled Internet thingy.  They were also quite doubtful that I would make any money from one of the perks of the job, the Amazon stock options.  Most of all, they, like many people at the time, were dubious that enough people would trust an online store with their credit cards (the same people now are probably saying that they will never read an e-book, but the success of Amazon shows that such attitudes do change over time).
    So, I was there at Amazon in the days when managers were fazed about the task ahead of them, unsure of how they were ever going to fill up that warehouse in Bestobell Road, Slough.  Then again, Amazon was quick to adopt new markets, such as DVDs, and was able to successfully jump on the Harry Potter bandwagon with the release of The Prisoner of Azkaban.  Being at Amazon had its ups and downs, but I very much subscribed to the dream of “work hard, have fun, and make history”, especially as my first degree was partly in History.  I remember popping out at work to witness a solar eclipse, but what was happening in the warehouse could equally be seen as being amazing, as Amazon became one of the fastest growing businesses ever, and in a whole new sphere to boot.
    Although, I did have one big frustration in those early days, in that Amazon wouldn’t say boo to a ghost.  Publishers regarded Amazon warily, not sure what to make of this new initiative, and were slow to make deals.  Which meant that we were very reliant on wholesalers such as Gardners.  One of Amazon’s most significant maxims was the importance of the customer: they had to come first.  Unfortunately, this could sometimes conflict with the terms and conditions of our suppliers.  I remember the Special Receive team being called into a meeting with a Gardners rep, who was visibly very angry with us, as we kept returning special receive books as damaged.  He waved around one particular book at us, which had a boot print on the inside cover, and accused us of having kicked it around the warehouse.  We weren’t allowed to protest in this extraordinary meeting, but I felt particularly aggrieved as I had been the one to take the book out of its Gardners’ tote, footprint and all, and had damaged it out as I was pretty sure that there was another copy of this fairly new book out there sans-footprint.  Nevertheless, the Gardners rep had a point: we were sending back too many special receive books, but the manner in which he made his point was wrong.  Yet he could afford to be aggressive with us, because Amazon as a whole was dependent on Gardners at the time.
    Amazon did actually fill the Bestobell Road warehouse fairly quickly, so in the Summer of 1999, all associates were called into an “All hands” meeting to be informed that the company was opening a new distribution centre in Milton Keynes.  We were invited to come along, and no doubt many like me were persuaded by the generous relocation package.  I continued to prosper in my Amazon career: having been promoted to tier two while in Slough, I became a recipient of the Amazonian Award in May 2000 (a trophy in the form of one of Amazon’s infamous “doordesks”), and eventually became a Customer Service Liaison.  And although Amazon still wasn’t making any money, it looked as though it had survived the bursting of the Internet bubble.
    On September 11th 2001, all associates were called into another All Hands meeting, to be told that two planes had been flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.  Since Amazon was an American company, we were told to be more vigilant, and although one of the plane hijackers had been trained at nearby Cranfield, the distribution centre was fortunately only subject to hoax bomb threats over the next few years.

Click here to read more about Amazon's labour relations during this time

Georgina Baillie, the young woman at the centre of the controversy surrounding the lewd remarks left by Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand on Andrew Sach’s answer machine, has now called on the BBC to reinstate both their stars, saying that their punishment was “out of proportion”.  Unfortunately for both Ross and Brand, Baillie has chosen a very bad day for disseminating such good news, as unfortunately, that little local election thingy across the pond has hogged up all the headlines, unlike the days when Baillie had previously called for their heads.  Whether you like Jonathan Ross or not, you may have some sympathy with him, especially when you consider the fact that John Cleese regularly verbally, physically, and racially abused Andrew Sachs all the time in the seventies, and nobody ever complained.
    The most unfortunate part of the affair (especially if you’re a book publicist) is that Friday Night with Jonathan Ross has now been taken off the air in the run-up to Christmas, the most important part of the year for promoting those book-type things that we all love.  A Bit of Fry and Laurie once declared that the most important part of comedy is timing, and Jonathan Ross’s timing here was diabolical.  Unless, of course, he was aiming for a good bit of ironical, black comedy.  As you may not know, Jonathan Ross has a book out at the moment, the rather aptly titled Why Do I Say These Things? (although I suspect the paperback edition – if there is one – might have an expletive added to it, along with “the”).  At first, the cynic in me suspected that this whole Sachs scandal was a publicity stunt to promote Ross’s book.  If so, it’s one that’s backfired magnificently, as The Bookseller reported today that sales of both Ross’s and Brand’s books have fallen dramatically in the wake of the controversy.  No doubt Ross is wishing that the little chimp on the cover had held onto his mouth a bit more firmly. Yet, I suspect that Ross’s real sin was to have made an ass of himself during these current inclement times.  Ross’s £6 million a year salary was controversial enough during the boom years, so it’s clear that it wouldn’t be tolerated for long at the start of what some commentators believe could be the worst recession for generations.
    So, Ross and Russell have now, inappropriately enough, damaged their ‘brand’ names for who knows how long.  The only winner appears to have been the burlesque dancer Georgina Baillie, who may one day get a book deal out of it.  However, let’s hope that no other book sales will have been damaged in the meantime in the publicity void left by the suspension of Jonathan Ross’s shows.

Kevin Mahoney

The Lightning Source Study Tour started bright and early on the morning of October 1st. About 25 people turned up, a very good response to the SYP's first Study Tour for many years.  The attendees came from a variety of publishers and backgrounds. There was a small editorial coterie from Springer, who were eager to learn more about Lightning Source, a company with whom they do much business. Ashley Lodge, HarperCollins' Corporate Responsibility Manager and Chair of the Publishers' Green Network, was there to learn more about Print-on-Demand's green credentials.  Suzanne Collier from Bookcareers.com, was another of the luminaries present.  I, for one, was looking forward to returning to Milton Keynes, where I lived for many years while working for Amazon. Indeed, I was delighted when we passed my former place of employ, Amazon's Marston Gate Distribution centre. I texted one of my ex-colleagues, and told them that I was on a Study Tour to Lightning Source, whereupon I was informed that Marston Gate was now doing Print-on-Demand. Perhaps Lightning Source had a competitor in their midst? However, I soon concluded that Amazon's POD¹ facility was more likely to be aimed at self-publishing authors, rather than publishers. 
We were warmly greeted upon our arrival at Lightning Source, and after we had been refreshed by coffee and biscuits, Commercial Director Suzanne Wilson-Higgins gave a presentation about the key facets of Print-on-Demand (see copy of her PowerPoint talk below). Suzanne went onto explain that Lightning Source operates on a business to business model, and and that they discourage approaches from self-published authors, referring them instead to publishing services companies such as Authorhouse, who are also based in Milton Keynes. Tim Davies from Authorhouse then went onto talk about the phenomenon of self-publishing, which has increased exponentially in the US (see a copy of his PowerPoint presentation below).
Next, we were lead on a tour of the Lightning Source warehouse, which was every bit as chilly as I remembered Marston Gate to be. Much of the warehouse was empty, indicative of Lightning Source's confidence in their ability to win new orders and to expand their business. We saw several state-of-the-art printers in action, fed by massive bales of paper. The paper  was then subjected to several chemical processes to ensure best quality. However, much of the procedures involved manual handling by well-trained staff rather than being wholly dependent on the mechanisation that we had imagined to exist prior to the tour. I was interested to see that Lightning Source was fulfilling orders to Amazon at Marston Gate, confirming my impression that Amazon's own POD process is aimed more at self-publishers rather than Lightning Source's business to business approach². This point was then reinforced by Lightning Source's Managing Director David Taylor, after we had then been treated to an excellent lunch. David was most amusing as he ruminated on the differences between Lightning Source's bases in Nashville and Milton Keynes, as he rounded up a very enjoyable day.

1). ”POD” - acronym for “Print-on-Demand”
2). However, as I've just read on the thetill.co.uk, Amazon.co.uk's POD service has clients such as Faber & Faber, John Wiley, Cambridge University Press, and HarperCollins - you read it on the InPrint Online first!

Kevin Mahoney

The SYP/JFL Digital Skills Evening started with an ironic delay, as when we tested the technical equipment, we discovered that the only laptop at hand wouldn't fire up Nicholas Blake's presentation.  It would not be the last time during the evening when SYP Chair Jon Slack had to show off his own digital skills as he laboured to get the recalcitrant laptop to fire up.  Having spent enough time in front of my own PC for the day, I wandered back out to the excellent nibbles and drinks laid on by the evening’s co-hosts, JFL. The temporary absence of a more traditional technology (a corkscrew), did not delay my consumption of a splendid glass of wine.
  Ros Kindersley, JFL’s Managing Director, was the first speaker, and began by saying that two years ago, JFL were beginning to be approached by publishers asking them to fill new "digital" vacancies.  Since these skill sets were so new, Ros and her team were wondering about how best to go about filling these jobs. She began by relating the well-known detrimental effects that digital had on the music industry, before discussing the birth of the e-book. Of all publishing departments, Production seems to be particularly affected, with new mediums such as CD-Rom or downloads to deal with. SEO* skills and a basic knowledge of html seem to be the main requirements for this new digital environment. She concluded that recruiters are looking for candidates that have the imagination to make best use of this digital world; along with the responsibility to monitor content they create, such as online forums.
  Chris Meade, Director of the Institute for the Future of the Book, said that those who are creating digital media are disappointed by the e-book, whose format is still quite conventional. Where does Publishing fit in this digital world? Isn't something new going to emerge, to take Publishing’s place? Chris then quoted Bob Stein’s counter argument: “far from becoming obsolete, publishers and editors in the networked era have a crucial role to play. The editor of the future is increasingly a producer, a role that includes signing up projects and overseeing all elements of production and distribution, and that of course includes building and nurturing communities of various demographics, size, and shape. Successful publishers will build brands around curatorial and community building know-how AND be really good at designing and developing the robust technical infrastructures that underlie a complex range of user experiences” (from Bob Stein’s Unified Theory of Publishing). Chris doesn't think that traditional publishers are in the best place to deal with this world, and said that folk such as the organisers of the Small Wonder Short Story festival are more equipped to deal with digital, as they are accomplished at online networking. Writers think they can now dispense with agents, but they still need to call on marketing and editing skills. Chris Meade concurred with Ros when he said, “the digital future is there for people who can think afresh”. He continued to say that books of the future should be more engaged with their audience, but also that e-books need to be more focused, and not attempt to cover everything, a la Wikipedia.
  Nicholas Blake, (the Editorial Manager of Picador and Digital), started by saying that editors don't need new skills, but they do need new knowledge. Nicholas joined the industry a couple of years before the web was developed. So, despite seeing a lot of changes in the industry, he said that the editorial processes are the same as they were twenty years ago. Macmillan are publishing their e-books with the same quality of attention as their paper cousins. Nicholas said that although e-books seem to be cheaper than traditional products, they could often be more expensive, as they involve a lot of additional work that is not immediately apparent to the reader. Yet Macmillan would be appearing to do things right, as their digital products are the second most popular on the new Waterstones e-book store.
  We then had a mini technical breakdown, as the laptop went to sleep again, although it did soon revive with Jon’s help. Nicholas showed us an e-book with an index, and said that it cost could 20 cents per link according to some pricing models; sometimes the extra cost is built in, as with Picador's current converter. Some e-books are better designed than others, which Nicholas revealed by showing off examples of the good and the bad. Nicholas went on to say that you don't need to know html, you just think more carefully about how your content will look in its new format. He then gave us some examples of ebook layouts, starting with Doctor Who (Pocket Essentials - click here for screenshot), which has a "clear layout, helpful bookmarks, italic and bold all converted successfully; but the index is not hyperlinked so is useless".  Nicholas moved onto an edition of A Passage to India (pub. Rosetta Books - click here for screenshot): "no sign of any thought. Meaningless emblem to go with the chapter heading, every paragraph is full out, no italics for book titles, basic typesetting mistakes".
  Then the projector started playing up! Nicholas continued by advising that you have to pay attention to the metadata to provide a good reading experience. The Sony Reader has a whole set of fields that the editor can enter, but Nicholas warned against making elementary mistakes, such as stating that the Irish author John Banville is writing in British English, as this simple error may prevent readers from finding the book in the e-store.  So as long as you’re good at filling in forms, you should do fine.
  Then the floor was thrown open to questions. An audience member asked Chris what he thought of Amazon's relations with say, small publishers. Chris said that such publishers have other avenues to explore online, to avoid being trapped in unfavourable and possibly monopolistic terms.
  Ros then went on to reassure everyone by saying that the publishing experience is more important than having these new technical skills. People with more technical skills are being brought into Publishing from other industries, especially with regards to Marketing, rather than Editorial, but a lot of such digital work is outsourced. Ros observed people in Publishing are more or less training themselves, by participating in online social networks etc. Nicholas was asked if it was possible to transfer illustrated content to e-books, to which he said yes, but you have to adapt it to maximise your content. A member of the audience then pointed out that there is a lot of help online, which started off a lively debate in the audience.  Chris contributed by saying that most of the recruiters placing ads won't necessarily know much about these new technical skills, and that there is possible room for negotiating with employers if you don’t have all the technical skills requested in a job advertisement. Another audience member pointed out that the SEO practices recognised by Google involve quite simple editorial skills (although Google is perhaps a tad more monopolistic than even Amazon, methinks, but that’s a much bigger debate). 
  This is the only time that I’ve seen a debate break out on the floor of an SYP event, and I think this is probably because we are all of us feeling our way into this new digital world.  With some many new avenues to explore, we can only really find the way to our goals with the help of others.  Which, appropriately enough, is all very Web 2.0.

*SEO = “Search Engine Optimisation”, i.e. the art of getting your website ranked higher than your competitors’.

Click here to read Nicholas Blake's notes for his talk.

Kevin Mahoney

Hitting the bank more often than a Wall Street trader, the piratical punters of the SYP ambled, nay slumped, up the Cherwell in search of distant lands.

 In the time it took to consume hearty portions of their grog rations the cartographers on board duly noted the discovery of the Marston Ferry Road; an occurrence so grandiose in magnitude that the band of swarthy, moustachioed men and women banked purposefully to admire this natural beauty amongst the rolling hills and meadows.

 Avast, the Jolly Roger was raised! Camaraderie swelled amongst the fleet, joyous at the arrival of their destination without loss of limb or life. The booty from previous expeditions to supermarkets was shared out according to want and need and, when each was satiated, the journey home commenced.

 The wind was favourable as experienced hands punted and paddled home in half the time. Crowds gathered. Ropes were thrown landward. Boats moored. The party commenced. Quiche, olives, pastries and Pimms. Pirate songs could be heard on the air in surrounding townships before the sun began to set and the pirate punters became publishers again.

• Preparation of the magazine – Kiddlington
• Typesetting – India
• Printing and distribution (hard copies) – UK
• Online hosting – US
• Ecological footprint (the physical space needed to support enough plants to produce the energy needed to make the product)

The Marlborough Room was packed tighter than the Northern Line at rush hour for the ‘Getting Ahead in UK Publishing’ seminar. Alison Baverstock (Chair) kicked off with a bit of a general knowledge quiz. Unfortunately not one person in the room was able to answer why the date was a special one. Apparently it was the anniversary of the titanic film, I mean disaster. Alison is a senior lecturer on the Publishing MA course at Kingston University. She began her career in publishing before moving into the realms of education and writing. Her first book, How to Market Books is now in its fourth edition and is often referred to as the ‘bible of book marketing’. Alison launched her brand new title, How to Get a Job in Publishing at the end of the seminar.

Planning was the first topic touched on in the context of publishing. In other industries, such as finance and the public sector, a considerable amount of time and money is spent on career planning; management training, for example. It was also highlighted that skills gained in publishing, especially in the smaller independents, are varied and transferable. So if you embark on a lowly-paid career in publishing, fear not, you won't be left with no other options if you decide to take your career in a different direction. Options such as literary consultancies, charities and libraries were cited here. Publishing is essentially entrepreneurial, consistently producing a product to match contemporary needs.

(l to r) Iain Stevenson, Ros Kindersley, Jeremy Trevathan

Iain Stevenson opened with a charming anecdote reflecting the sheer overwhelming feeling of awe at events such as the London Book Fair. Iain is Professor of Publishing at University College London (UCL). Iain began his career in 1977 as Publisher for earth sciences, moving to head up Macmillan Reference Books in 1985. He then jointly founded pioneer environmental publisher Belhaven Press, and acquired and ran Leicester University Press concurrently. In 1997, Iain joined the newly privatized Stationery Office as Publishing Director, and has been involved in publishing education since 1999.

Iain explained that education in publishing was a fairly new phenomena, since just over 20 years ago Oxford Brookes University opened their doors to the first MAs in publishing. Iain concurred with Alison's previous observation concerning the lack of career planning in publishing, and that at least for now, this is something people working within the industry will have to take into their own hands.

Iain submitted that there were three golden rules about 'getting into publishing': First, flexibility. You have to be flexible in publishing, in attitude and skills, and this will make you valuable. A lot of people who start off in say, sales and marketing, might later transfer to the editorial department, or move over to rights management.

Second, developing a sense of professionalism. Publishing is an extremely complex business, that's right, a BUSINESS. A business in which profitability is important, and as such you might develop skills in accounts, or better still, you might learn these skills now in preparation for when they are suddenly needed. Familiarise yourself with balance sheets and costings, know what an ISBN is (you don't need to remember what it stands for, but you need to grasp the concept of how they work and why they exist). Develop a suite of professional skills and continue to build on them. The basic skills such as those mentioned above will always be needed, but publishing is an ever-evolving industry filled with intuition and risk, and the best way to sell books and to promote good writing among authors can change over time too.

The third rule to keep in mind when approaching a career in publishing, Iain advised, is to develop a network. Socialise; introduce yourself to people working in publishing, get involved with book clubs and societies like the SYP. This is especially important if you were interested in becoming a literary agent, knowing who does what and for who, and being familiar with commissioning editors’ favoured styles and subjects is absolutely vital.

Ros Kindersley, Managing Director of JFL Search & Selection, began her career as a publicist for Quartet Books before joining the Arts Council for a year. She approached JFL for a new publishing job and was instead offered a job as a recruitment consultant by Judy Farquaharson. Following Judy’s retirement, Ros now runs the company, and with the support of her team recruits for all mainstream publishers and a broad range of organisations including charities, NGOs and major corporates.

Ros was an english literature graduate in the 80s, and perceived the art of publishing through rose tinted glasses and was shocked to find that although different from many industries in countless ways, ultimately publishing is a business, it has to make money, sell books. Ros dispelled the myth that 20-odd years ago, the majority of people in publishing had a private income. Although she admits that the poor wage at least played a part in her decision to leave her career in publishing to go into business with JFL, Ros says she realised that the aspects of publishing she most enjoyed were still prevalent in this job: like-minded people, the thrill of the chase and negotiating.

Ros went on to share her professional recruitment wisdom, touching on key areas like work experience (it's invaluable - if you can afford to do it, do it, if you can't afford to do it, and you're sick of rejection letters staring at you when you walk through the door every evening, use your annual leave). Network; go to book clubs and events, join the SYP or uni groups that are publishing related. Develop skills (depending on what area of publishing you want to get into, these skills will differ, but as asserted earlier, the more flexible you can make yourself the better). Ensure that your CV is immaculate; ask a friend to proofread it, and highlight your achievements and your unique selling points. If you get to interview stage, always follow up with a 'thank you email'.

Jeremy Trevathan, Publishing Director at Macmillan, anchored the meeting. He reinforced what Iain stated earlier about the kind of person you need to be to get on in publishing. Personality goes a long way (as John Travolta once said); intuition and emotion are key factors in the business of publishing, factors that it’s generally advised to put aside in most business contexts. You need to be adaptable, curious and adventurous. You need to be bold enough to submit ideas that are close to your heart, and have the resilience to take the criticism that may follow. You need to be stimulated by having too much to do, and the stamina to cope with it.

Jeremy also reinforced the idea that once you have your foot in the door, there's room to maneuver in publishing. He spent a decade in the production department, before taking a demotion to move into the realm of rights for a further 10 years. He then decided that he'd like to give editorial a try, and 8 years in he's happy there, for now.

A career in publishing can be extremely flexible. It's easier than a lot of jobs to gain part-time employment, and once you have experience and contacts you can freelance pretty easily. Who you know, and who you're on friendly terms with, can mean a lot. It's a sociable job, so if you don't like socialising, you should probably steer clear of editorial and marketing.

Q and A [but really just A because I can't recall the Q]

· Publishing MAs have a severe shortfall of places compared to the number of applicants, so if you're serious about applying, treat it like a job application.

· If you're thinking about getting a nice well-paid job and then moving across to the joys of publishing, it IS possible, but it'll be easier to deal with the shocking salary expectations earlier rather than later.

· You should expect to spend between 6 and 18 months in a low-level position, and that's if you're assertive.

· It's ok to have a glitch (glitch noun informal 1 a sudden malfunction or irregularity of equipment, 2 an unexpected setback in a plan) on your CV, as long as it's nicely cushioned by some impressive work experience and longevity. Just frame it in positive terms of what you've learned from the experience.

· Don't fear your annual appraisal, use it your advantage! Tell your employers why you are an indispensible member of staff and what you have brought to the company. You have to make your own chances and take the initiative in this business.

· It's useful to know digital techniques, but only learn them if you're willing to use them.

· If you are applying for a job in London and you live outside the capital, it might be an idea to use a friend or relative's address when applying for jobs.

Melanie Wilson

Thursday 13th March 2008 saw the launch of the Goldfish online journal at the Swedenborg Institute in London. When I first heard about it, I naturally assumed that it had something to do with the credit card company, so I wasn’t quite sure why I’d been told about it. But it only took a few minutes’ research online to find out that Goldfish is actually an online repository for compositions from the MA in Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Since I run my own literary website in my spare time (Authortrek.com), I am always on the lookout for talented new writers, so I quickly decided that I must attend the launch night. I’d previously been to the Swedenborg Institute for the launch of Legend Press’s second short story anthology, Seven Days. It’s a great place to hold a launch, being well lit with veerings towards neo-classical design that make any reading look classy. Looking at the name badges in the reception area, I was very impressed to see that a variety of literary agents and publishing bods would be attending. I’m naturally quite shy and find it difficult to approach people at such events until after I’ve had a few sips of wine, but there were a few ‘meeters and greeters’ there, such as Amy Sackville, who soon put me at my ease and told me more about the event.

Then it was down to business, as eight writers from the course read from their work. Amy Sackville read an intriguing excerpt from her yet untitled novel about the Artic. Ben Holden had everyone gripped with Mynatour, a poem about a man transformed into a starling. Patrick Hudson revelled in his rich literary voice as he read from his novel, Everybody is the Star of Their Own Movie. There were some extracts from the Life Writing students, which, although they were read well, I wasn’t quite so interested in, as my main focus will always be fiction. Although I’m fairly well-read, this is the first time that I had contact with Life Writing per se, and I couldn’t really see the application for it, aside for some probable cathartic release for the author (all the Life Writing extracts were far too humorous to be considered as Misery Lit!).

Just as I thinking about leaving, Roxanne Bibizadeh discerned my intent and intercepted me. Many writers are self-effacing and too shy to promote their work, so it was refreshing to see so many new authors such as Roxanne ready and willing to endorse their writing, and this self-belief must obviously derive from the tutors at Goldsmiths. Roxanne told me that the extract she had read out was a short story about the widow of a suicide bomber – which surprised me, as I had evidently missed these details. However, the great benefit of attending a website launch was that I could check out her excellent story The Bride of Death online, and not feel so stupid after all when I discovered that the most salient parts of her story had not been in her extract.
All in all, it was a great night. Indeed, I was in the presence of one author when an agent came up to her to congratulate her on her work and to ask her for a submission. That was, after all, the whole purpose of the night. Everyone was having so much fun that hardly anyone wanted to leave for the pub! I also made some great contacts on the night, and will be undoubtedly watching the progress of some of these great writers in the future.

Kevin Mahoney, with photos by Isha Marquez

Sarah Jones reports from the first Speaker Meeting of 2008

Alison Baverstock’s first book How to Market Books, is often referred to as the 'bible of marketing' so we were grateful to her for leading the marketing workshop at the SYP conference. She began by raising the point that it is hard to make the word ethical make sense in this context – is ethical marketing an oxymoron? In many ways perhaps it is – in the world of marketing where departments spend huge sums of money where the benefits or effects are not easily quantifiable.

However Alison argued that in today’s climate where younger generations are growing up increasingly ethically aware, which will in turn lead to a new band of consumers who are more demanding on businesses, no department will be left unaffected.

Alison urged us, as young publishers to take responsibility for this change. She touched on the issue of author treatment, and being respectful and paying fair amounts for work. She also urged us to be discriminating about the kind of books that we actually publish. For example, don’t we have a moral duty to provide quality goods, and to not make assumptions about consumers? (She used the opposite example of the influx of ‘ghost-written’ celebrity biographies that are currently saturating the market and are often pulped after poor sales).

Finally she made the point that in marketing there is often a trade-off between being environmentally friendly and getting the job done. Sometimes an email just won’t suffice so posting flyers is important. What about the waste of paper from the books that don’t sell? The carbon footprint of flying across the world to attend conferences?

Obviously things won’t change overnight but if young publishers can even make the smallest changes to respect authors, respect consumers and respect the environment then the world of publishing will be better for it.

by Kate Hind

In the literary agent workshop, Pat White gave a fascinating insight into the role of a literary agent and their place in the publishing industry today. Entering publishing as a secretary for Simon and Schuster in the late 1950's, Pat moved into their rights department before moving to London where she remains to this day as a director of Rogers, Coleridge and White Ltd looking after the children and illustrated list.

White began the workshop by asking delegates what they thought the role of a literary agent was before giving her own definition - a gatekeeper between author and publisher who is somewhat of a solicitor and a nanny for the author, delivering both good and bad news. Therefore, excellent communication skills are key for any literary agent.

These people skills are paramount, especially when it comes to talking authors through exactly what has been offered in a deal. In doing this, it is important for any agent to establish why a publisher has offered the deal they have although in her experience she has not always found publishers forthcoming with this information.

As well as being a good communicator, White believes that an agent has to have a broad spectrum of knowledge and needs to know aspects of the industry like production and publicity. In agenting, however, people often become specialists and Pat believes that to be an agent one must develop their own sense of taste.

Backing her own tastes is one of the things White loves most about being an agent but told delegates that an agent is basically a sales person with no editorial input and this is why the author-editor relationship is vital as editors spend less and less time on books.
White was also keen to dispel the image of the literary agent as a money-grabbing mercenary, highlighting that often the highest deal offered to an author is not necessarily the right deal and other factors must be taken into account.

In this respect, she described her frustration at the trend for handing out large, unearned advances to authors as when these are not justified and sales do not meet expectations, subsequent smaller advances can greatly damage the author's happiness and an unhappy author is an agent's worst nightmare.

Overall, this workshop gave those in attendance an interesting glimpse of an agent's life and increased their understanding of this oft-misunderstood role.

By Tommy Douglas

Leander Reeves began an interesting and entertaining magazine publishing workshop by telling delegates that success in the magazine business was very much dependant on the type of personality each individual possesses. 

With a decade's experience working in the magazine publishing industry and now lecturer in the subject at Oxford Brookes University, Reeves expertise was evident as she gave those in attendance a rundown of magazine publishing today. 

The industry was in good health, she said, highlighting the fact that the majority of British adults still buy a magazine on a regular basis, especially women and those in key demographic areas. These magazines are read on average by 4 people and for 54 minutes each. 

As such, magazines perform several functions for their readers; offering a shared society, sense of belonging whilst also representing a form of tension release. 

To flourish in this industry, Leander told delegates that certain basic skills are required including planning, writing, production, design and the ability to market and promote. 

Therefore, for anyone wishing to enter magazine planning she urged them to see their career like a game of chess, viewing each position or development experience as a move towards a desired goal. 

The best preparation, Reeves suggested, is to develop a personal website and utilise this to build experience as when it comes to looking for employment, magazines look not just for qualifications but proof of what an individual can actually do. 

This is the reason, she insists, that gaining skills in Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, QuarkXpress and Dreamweaver are essential for anyone entering the world of magazine publishing so they can cope with the broad spectrum of work this involves. 

Overall, Leander Reeves presented a highly entertaining and informative workshop that provided many valuable insights into magazine publishing whilst giving delegates a clear idea of the requirements for entry into this industry.

By Tommy Douglas

The SYP Committee arrived recently at London's Trendy Bar Red on Beak Street in style as the wine flowed and various young publishers got talking to existing members of the Committee - with a view to perhaps taking the roles that will be vacated in January.  Angie Solomon from the Committee was the organiser, and by all accounts, much fun was had by all.  Newshound, of course, remains doggedly impartial.

See what I did there?

NH