October 14th, 2009

As everyone who’s here knows, the Frankfurt Book Fair is the world’s largest fair for the buying and selling of rights and licenses of books and other media. Indeed, that’s what most of the several thousands of people milling around the fais halls, hustling from meeting to meeting, are doing through the week. The assumption is that they know exactly what they’re doing. Wrong. At least that’s what the packed event ‘All Right(s): An Introduction to buying and selling rights for beginners’ suggests to me.

Micha Ramm of Ravensburger Verlag

Also touched upon in this crash-course is that a foreign rights person isn’t just a foreign rights person. He or she has got to have their hands in several pies. It’s important to know something about book production, have basic legal knowledge for contractual agreements, and some editorial acumen. “It also helps a lot to be a good storyteller if you’re selling rights, so you can illustrate the contents of a book,” says Micha.

There was plenty to learn for those just entering the field, such as being aware that the pricing differences in different countries will significantly alter the royalties due. Or that business should be transacted in stable currencies like the Euro or the US Dollar because of exchange rate fluctuations. As well as other useful hints like specifying a date on which advance payments should be made.

I really don’t want to come off as condescending, but surely it’s obvious that you make a hotel reservation, take along credit cards and foreign exchange, and have your books and dummies along when you’re visiting a trade fair? Towards the end of the hour-long talk I’m confused. Was it an overview of what to watch out for when selling and buying rights? Or was it some kind of supplement for common sense? Whatever it was, one thing is clear - it’s alright to start from scratch at Frankfurt.  

One of the coolest books I’ve come across so far is 12 Argentine Writers volume, which is available at the Buenos Aires Ministry of Culture stand (5.1 D976) where you can also learn about Buenos Aires as UN 2011 World Book Capital. This collection contains excerpts from twelve novels published in 2008, from a range of writers. From Josefina Delgado’s prologue:

“Although the writers selected are at different points in their careers–Luis Mey, Hector Balcarce, Raquel Robles, Marta Kapustin and Pablo Melicchio were all published for the first time in spite of their differences in age; Alicia Steimberg and Carlos Gorostiza have already published more than ten books; Oliverio Coelho, Paula Perez Alonso, Pedro Mairal and Jorge Accame have an established body of work; and Accame and Gorostiza have also written and published well-known theatrical works–they are united by a similar sensibility and approach towards writing: fiction is not just a story, although these writers do tell stories; it is also the language in which a story is told.”

In addition to this very substantial, very cool anthology, you should also check out the “Literary Buenos Aires” pamphlet which, in addition to information about all the important literary cafes, hotels, bookshops, etc., has “Literary Circuits” for Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortazar, and Roberto Arlt, providing maps of where these literary giants hung out, drank coffee, and wrote awesome books.

With Argentina being the Guest of Honor next year, this is probably the first of a few posts about one of my favorite literary cultures (and countries).

With all the focus on China this week, it was a nice change to be attending an event focussing on Romania this afternoon.  What’s happening in Romanian publishing is not widely publicised, so I was keen to pick up any facts about how it all works out there. 

‘Bookfest’ 2010 (the Romanian annual book fair) will take place for the 5th time in Bucharest in June next year and Spain will be the Guest of Honour.  ‘Bookfest’ is a project initiated by the Romanian Publishers Association, which itself was set up in 1991, and it hosts book events, concerts and film screenings.  It’s an opportunity for book lovers to get together, to engage in debate, and to meet their favourite authors.  Very similar to other international book fairs in fact.

A representative from the Romanian Publishers Association was one of the speakers, as was the editorial director and copyright manager from the Polirom Publishing House who talked about why they had come to Frankfurt this year.  One of their aims is to spread the word about Romanian culture and to talk about the opportunities available for international publishers.  The Polirom Publishing House represents 12% of the market share out in Romania and they publish a lot of different types of prose, including poetry and books by lots of young writers.  They also currently publish 18 Nobel Prize authors and they have some big names on their list, including Doris Lessing and Ernest Hemingway, which was impressive.

We also heard about The Romanian Book Centre which runs a varied programme of cultural events including workshops and something called ‘Publishing Romania’ which produces historical books, cultural albums and also magazines.  This is the first time they have been to Frankfurt and this is their first opportunity to present their authors in this way, so it’s an exciting time for them. 

In the Q&A that followed, an Italian visitor made an interesting point that there were thousands of children being brought up in Italy who had Romanian as their mother-tongue but who were gradually losing the art of using their native language.  He voiced concerns that the families didn’t seem to care that their language was dying out but he encouraged those on the panel to do something about it before it was too late, to keep these communities alive.  Distribution of Romanian books and legislation seem to be the two biggest challenges right now but maybe it’s simply a matter of encouraging someone to set up a Romanian language bookshop in some other European countries.  It sounds like there’s a market for them.

O’Reilly Media, the golden child of computer book publishing (golden, in no small part because of how much more than just publishing they truly are), co-organized a one-day prequel shindig yesterday, the “value proposition” of which was implicitly articulated by O’Reilly VP, Andrew Savikas, in his closing keynote. In describing the remarkable geographical diversity of the appeal of iPhone app versions of their “Missing Manual” series, he observed that those data would be worth keeping in mind as the audience “engaged in the Book Fair itself in the coming days”—true for that data for sure, but also very much the pitch of the organizers and one which, to their credit, they very much lived up to.

For while the traditional Tuesday flurry of agent and editor and rights director pitch meetings proceeded apace in the lobbies and nooks and crannies of the Hofs Frankfurter and Hessischer, Tools of Change Frankfurt added, for this year at least, the Radisson Blu to the roster of reasons to fly out Sunday (though both your correspondent  and fellow Messe blogger Chad Post still chose to fly out Monday night and brave Tuesday’s activities on an hour of sleep.)

I spare you all the exhaustive report on panel after panel in this post, but expect nuggets of information and perspective from the panels and talks scattered throughout my posts in the coming days. But in the Tools of Change Frankfurt spirit of offering takeaways to keep in the back of your mind in the days to come, keep an eye out for these two themes likely to recur over the course of the Fair:

Partnerships. A great deal of what publishers need to do, digital and otherwise, is going to require finding more shoulder to put to the grindstone than any publisher has to hand.  Whether it is Granta partnering with the events newsletter Flavorpill to promote a user-generated content series of short films inspired by one of their books, or O’Reilly partnering on delivering three hundred iPhone apps in nine month with the assistance of Lexcycle (now owned by Amazon), the purveyors of the Stanza reading app, publishers who want to move fast, or want to move smart (going to where someone has already got the audience together), are looking for shoulders to add to the grindstone.

Flattening. Hierarchies are out. Communication can’t be done in a one-way, broadcast fashion any more. Openness, candor is critical. This applies to marketing interaction; this applies to ebook software vendors offering APIs and doing so in the least restrictive fashion possible; this applies to the sourcing of the published content itself, although, for  the moment, the “crowdsourcing” of content is restricted largely to professional publishing.

Keep an eye out for those themes—no actual prizes for finding them, beyond your own personal satisfaction!

As part of the Education Forum taking place in Hall 4.2, there was a CEO roundtable this afternoon to discuss “Four Big Ideas that Will Change Your Business.” With representatives from Lightning Source, the British Educational Suppliers Association, Smart Technologies, and Bowker/ProQuest, this promised to be a very interesting and useful discussion.

Larry Brewster of Lightning Source opened up the meeting with a visionary talk about print on demand and how this is altering the overall business publishing model–not just for educational publishers, but for traditional ones as well.

In looking at the benefits of single-copy POD, Brewster emphasized a few key advantages, some more obvious ones (low inventory costs, smaller capital investment), and others that are a bit more subtle (one that he really beat home was the fact that having books available on single-copy POD ensures that a publisher wouldn’t miss a single sale due to a book being out-of-stock).

What was most captivating about his speech wasn’t necessarily the advantages to the publisher of having their books in a POD system, but the implications of this. For instance, the idea of “Distributed Printing” opens up a whole new world of cost-savings and instant access. His vision was that POD machines would be located throughout the country/world, in both warehouses and bookstores. This would allow publishers to transmit digital files to a plethora of locations where the physical books could actually be printed, thus destroying the traditional method of printing a bunch of copies and paying astronomical amounts to ship books across the country. (Not to mention the additional cost of having these shipped back from all points of the globe in form of returns.)

Taking this one step further, he touched briefly on end-user creation, which could really appeal to educators. Under this model, a particular educator/reader could pick-and-choose things that they want in a book and then have the POD machine print up the exact number of copies they need. Customization that’s currently impossible . . . The opportunities are very broad, especially once color POD machines are available and the cost of POD printing falls to that of traditional offset presses. And like Brewster said, “this is a model that works. It’s a just-in-time system that will continue to grow.”

The next two presentations focused a bit more on the idea of “disaggregation” in educational publishing. Ray Barker from the British Educational Suppliers Association touched on the way the British government has invested billions in Interactive Classroom Technologies, such as interactive whiteboards and now, “learning platforms.” According to Barker, all UK schools are supposed to be using a “learning platform” by 2012. Which, he admitted, might be a bit ambitious and will probably be bumped back a few years. Regardless, this is a huge opportunity for educational publishers, especially those able to figure out how to produce disaggregated content–content that is segmented and that educators can pick and choose from.

Nancy Knowlton, the CEO from Smart Technologies talked about the desire on the part of educators to get things for free. This is an issue that’s starting to impact the entire publishing industry (and will for years to come, especially with the rise of e-books), and although it sounds completely damaging at first, Knowlton suggested that there are opportunities here as well, especially for businesses that are willing to reach out to potential customers and listen to what they have to say and be willing to educate educators on the relationship between quality and a fee.

Finally, Andy Weissberg from Bowker/ProQuest talked about gaming in education and the need for there to be a stronger connection between games and the curriculum. (As an example, he talked about his two daughters coming home from school and either playing Farmville online or some “educational” games on the Leapfrog, but that neither of these activities really related to what they were covering in school.) In terms of pure opportunity, from my perspective, this seems very attractive, especially with the proliferation of iPhones and other such devices and the relative ease with which people can create apps.

I’m not terribly sure there were four big ideas presented at this roundtable, but a few of the pieces were pretty thought-provoking. To be honest though, I was really looking forward to hearing from Mike McGuinness of Scribd about “viral marketing and piracy protection.” He was advertised in the events brochure, but bailed for whatever reason. And seriously, viral marketing and piracy are two ideas that most definitely WILL change your business.

Its first day, first show. I find myself at meeting that’s part of the significantly expanded professional programme at the fair, which we’re told will focus on cross-media initiatives and the marketing of digital products. The aim of this ’business breakfast’ (participants make beelines for the food and beverages located conveniently at the entrance of Room Entente in Hall 4.C) is to provide an overview of the latest trends in the Russian Book market.

Vladimir Grigoriev and Alexander Royfe

Vladimir Grigoriev, Deputy Head of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communication, Moscow starts proceedings by tackling the subject with a sequence of statistics that flash up on a power point presentation. He’s concerned, more than anything else, with the effects of the economic crisis on Russian publishers. His compatriot Alexander Royfe, CEO of LitRes (an online library), follows this with a presentation that highlights the status of digital publishing in the country.

Vladimir says that the economic crisis has hit the industry tremendously. His educatedly estimated statistics show a consistent growth over the last several decades. The expected number of titles that will be published in 2009 is 135 million, up from 123.3 million in 2008. But the global recession has taken its toll. The turnover of Russia’s publishing industry is expected to drop to 2.8 billion USD in 2009, 20% lower than last year. Vladimir goes on to explain the vicious cycle afflicting the industry - lower demand leading to a decrease in sales, leading to non-payment, leading to a lack of fluid assets and so on.

You’d think that in post-Soviet free market Russia, there would be an increase in the diversity of voices in publishing. But the truth is that 12 major publishing houses - Eksmo, AST, and Prosveshenie are the top 3 - account for 40% of the market. Out of 5702 officially registered publishing houses only 1280 are active currently. But Vladimir remains optimistic about the resourcefulness of Russian publishing houses in tiding over hard times. The crux of their strategy is to get people to read again and various players in the industry - book sellers, distributors, and publishers - are doing their bit to aid the state’s literacy programmes.

“Mergers and acquisitions are the most talked about agenda presently. Many small companies are hoping that they will be acquired or else they’ll go out of business,” says Vladimir. “It’s not an attractive industry for big money right now.” But the loss in revenue is just half the story. Russia was once revered for its literature, producing masters of the written word like Dostevesky, Checkov, and Tolstoy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Vladmir was hard pressed to name contemporary authors who could compare and come out of their shadows (for that matter anyone would find it hard).

Through Vladimir’s talk his compatriot’s, Alexander’s, head kept sagging. Maybe he was pensively mulling over the state of affairs or else it was too early in the morning to listen to things he knows only too well. Either way it doesn’t add up. Alexander has more to feel cheerful about than most operating within the world of Russian publishing. Since Russia was the Guest of Honour at Frankfurt, back in 2003, the number of internet users in the country has grown 20 times. Russia now has an internet penetration rate of 33% (although they are concentrated in the big cities). This has meant that while the tradtional publishing industry has declined since last year, the market for digital content has grown two-fold since 2007. ”The recession has affected paper books but not e-books,” sums up Alexander.

LitRes, the company that Alexander runs, are by no means a pioneer in selling digital content, but it’s among the most successful. This is thanks to learning from the mistakes made by earlier enterprises such as publicent.ru and elkniga.ru. Rolfe believes that these ventures lost out because of rampant piracy, choosing to implement DRM, and limited payment options for consumers. LitRes, on the other hand, have enjoyed a good deal of success because of being able to deliver content across a variety of formats. They have adopted an indigenous format, Fb2 (based on XML) which can be parsed through a converter to deliver content in a variety of formats like txt, pdf, epub, mobi and others. They have the right to sell over 20,000 Russian titles in their ‘e-library’, and are now looking to source titles from foreign publishers as well.

The Penguin stand in Hall 8.0

Hall 8.0 is busy.  A quick tour round earlier on and lots of familiar faces from the UK publishing trade were seen huddled around tables, engaged in conversation, meetings well under way, even at 9.30am.  For someone like me, experiencing Frankfurt for the first time, it’s everything I expected it to be and more.  Yes, the scale of the place is daunting to begin with but after you’ve got your bearings it all makes perfect sense and the fairground is surprisingly easy to navigate round.

The Clients Lounge in Hall 8.0

The Clients Lounge in Hall 8.0 is proving a popular place for events already.  This morning there was a panel discussion entitled ‘Global Ranking’ with a panel of four speakers from around the world.  It was well-attended and as i listened from the back there were a number of interesting questions about globalisation raised by members of the audience.  It was refreshing to seeing visitors stop and want to engage in discussion.

The mood of the fair today is good i would say.  People are here because they want to do business.  Yes, times are tough and some publishers may have cut down on their numbers, but i get the impression that those who are here are very focussed.  They have an agenda, they have plenty of meetings, and they are not wasting time.  Half-hourly slots on their Blackberrys are filling up fast…

This afternoon i’m off to explore the other halls and get a taste of what other international publishers are up to.  It’s hard to think of anywhere else that you would find so many people from so many different parts of the world all congregated in one place.  I guess that’s what makes Frankfurt special.

The long term impact of being the Guest of Honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair has been demonstrated time and again. Not only does this honor result in the translation of a country’s books into a languages around the world, but it also bolsters the book industry within the country itself.

The latter half of this statement was what Vladimir Grigoriev, the Deputy Head for the Federal Agency of Press and Mass Communication (and organizer of Russia’s 2003 Guest of Honor program), focused on in his presentation this morning on “Market Trends in Russia and Digital Publishing.” Grigoriev’s figures were pretty impressive. Since 2003, the overall production of titles in Russia has more than doubled from 47,700 to over 123,000 last year, and overall book sales have followed a similar trajectory, shooting up from $1.6 billion USD in 2003 to over $3 billion last year.

It’s not all good news though. The economic collapse of 2008 hit Russia pretty hard, including the book market. Although things could change over the next couple months, experts are projecting a 20% decrease in sales (to $2.4 billion USD) for 2009. According to Grigoriev, a recent study pointed to a decrease in reading among young people, and a startling statistic that “almost 40% of the population is not buying any books.”

When asked to name a few contemporary Russian authors worth reading, Grigoriev hedged, claiming that he could name a dozen or two, but that they weren’t on the level of Chekhov, Tolstoy, or other Russian Masters. He also pointed to the nonexistence of a “promotional infrastructure” (like the German Book Office or other similar, government funded agencies around the world) as one of the main reasons for the lack of translations of Russian works into other languages.

(As a U.S. publisher specializing in literature in translation, this is a huge pet peeve of mine. Granted, I love data. Numbers. Statistics. The Book Industry as Industry. Business and Growth. But damn it, I also love literature and reading. And finding new voices. Which is what the Frankfurt Book Fair is best at. Providing interested and curious editors with lists upon lists. With more recommendations than you can ever process. This is the second year in a row I’ve attended the Russian Book Presentation, and here’s to hoping that in 2010 the event will include a booklet featuring a dozen contemporary Russian writers whose last names aren’t Sorokin or Pelevin. . . . I will make my way over the official Russian stand at some point, so hopefully I’ll be posting a cool update to this sometime soon . . .)

On the eBook side of things, Alexander Roife, the CEO of LitRes.ru, highlighted the rapid sales growth Russian eBooks are experiencing. As he admitted, Russia is probably best known for its e-piracy and distribution of free books, music, and videos, but nevertheless, best-sellers on LitRes.ru—a legal eBook retailer founded in 2007—are selling between 3,000 and 6,000 copies. Which seems almost too good to be true . . . But if it is, Russia’s book market is definitely primed for a strong recovery from last year’s economic slump.