London Book Fair: A melange of literary world!

The London Book Fair 2015 is all set to open its doors to the publishing fraternity across the world. With a host of conferences and literary events, the fair is poised to celebrate the world of books and beyond.

The 44th London Book Fair (LBF) will be held from April 14-16, 2015 at Olympia, London. LBF is an unmissable event in world publishing which takes place every Spring. It sees the publishing industry and allied creative industries gather in London, the world’s premier publishing and cultural capital, to explore innovations shaping the publishing world of the future. The show will take place in LBF’s new home – the renovated (£20 m extensive development) London Olympia, with its improved transport links and facilities. The new venue is an architectural gem and a brilliant modern conference centre in West London.

World renowned cookery writer Mary Berry CBE LBF’s Guest of Honour to open the 2015 edition

Much-loved cookery writer, acclaimed television presenter and national treasure, Mary Berry is to officially open The London Book Fair (LBF) on April 14. Mary Berry, whose books have sold over six million copies worldwide, will welcome international delegates to LBF’s Opening Ceremony. Mary Berry’s publishing career has spanned 45 years, with over 80 books to her name. Dorling Kindersley (DK) alone has sold over 3.5 million copies worldwide of Mary Berry titles across an impressive range of territories, with her books being translated into over 10 languages.

Mary Berry said, “I am thrilled to be invited to The London Book Fair as a Guest of Honour. I’m very much looking forward to opening this important event. Having been involved in the book industry for over 45 years, I’m looking forward to seeing the new ideas and publications on display at this year’s Fair.’’

While, Jacks Thomas, director of The London Book Fair, added, “What better way to celebrate The London Book Fair’s move to a much-loved and world-renowned new home than to have this 44th book fair opened by one of Britain’s most esteemed authors; the Mary Berry brand extends way beyond both books and Britain. It is an absolute delight and honour to welcome Mary to the book fair.”

Mexico- Market focus…

Mexico is the market focus country this year. Mexico’s publishing industry is dynamic with a book market worth US$830 million at last count and sales growth of over 13 percent since 2010. Mexico has the 13th largest economy in the world and it is becoming the dominant force in Spanishlanguage publishing, including hosting the world’s largest Spanish-language book fair, the Guadalajara International Book Fair.

Combined with a rich literary tradition and government investment into the educational and cultural sectors, the conditions are perfect for an intellectually-stimulating and business-focused programme.

Market Focus Cultural Programme will bring the best in contemporary Mexican writing and publishing to the UK, giving audiences a rare opportunity to meet and interact with both established and emerging Mexican writers.

Envision the future of publishing at Publishing For Digital Minds

The London Book Fair, in association with the Publishers Association, has confirmed a raft of new speakers for the Publishing for Digital Minds Conference (pDMC), including leading publishers and content professionals from Gleam Futures, Mashable, Lonely Planet and Cambridge University Press. The latest additions to pDMC will see the conference take an in-depth look the trends that are defining the future of publishing in 2015 and beyond.

Taking place from 9.00 am on April 13 at Olympia, pDMC – which is sponsored by the Copyright Clearance Center – will welcome leaders in fields as diverse as social content and educational publishing along with pioneers of new business models, all eager to share their experience with an audience of global publishers.

Dom Smales, founder of social talent agency Gleam Futures, has played an instrumental role in turning UK YouTubers into international stars and, in the cases of Zoella and Alfie Deyes, best-selling authors. He will join pDMC in a special in conversation-with session with conference co-chair Sam Missingham.

The theme of how the world of books can work with and alongside social content producers will continue with the panel ‘Marketing; Tech; Social’, which welcomes Blathnaid Healy, UK editor of Mashable.

Another special session at Publishing for Digital Minds will see one of the technology world’s keenest brains dissect one of the biggest actors in the book market. Charles Arthur, journalist and former technology editor of The Guardian, will present an independent analysis of Amazon, looking at the strengths and weaknesses of ‘The Everything Store’.

Daniel Houghton, CEO of Lonely Planet will join the session ‘What does an Effective Content Strategy look like?’ to present a case study of how the travel publishing giant is expanding its brand across multiple platforms. This session will be chaired by Faber & Faber’s consumer marketing director Matt Haslum.

The fast developing realm of businesses experimenting with new publishing models will also be explored in ‘Branching Out’, an event curated by independent consultant Alison Jones. While, the ‘Lessons to be learned’ panel, pDMC will focus on the huge opportunities for publishers and content professionals in the education market.

Orna O’Brien, conferences manager, The London Book Fair, commented, “As social media increasingly becomes the channel through which content is created, discovered and distributed, it’s no surprise that publishers are keen to use it to its full potential. We’re thrilled to be able to welcome a range of speakers to this year’s conference who can share their experience with publishers, and look forward to it being the most informative and imaginative edition yet.”

Matchmaking across the media in first ‘Creative Industries Day’

LBF has also announced a series of new partnerships and initiatives designed to open up new rights opportunities at the fair and nurture new conversations and collaborations between publishers and other media professionals. The first ‘Creative Industries Day’ will take place on April 16 and will see LBF welcome a host of visitors, speakers and delegations drawn from the worlds of film, interactive, games and app developers, as well as publishers of comics and graphic novels. These creative industries professionals will share their expertise on how intellectual property can be extended into new areas of the media. Publishing and aligned Creative Industries opportunities at the Fair will include: – The Children’s Media Conference (CMC) Rights Exchange: LBF will host the second edition of the CMC Rights Exchange, publishers with multimedia developers and producers that will run throughout the day on Thursday 16 April in Olympia.

The first CMC Rights Exchange took place in November 2014 to great success, itself a spin-off of the well-established annual Children’s Media Conference in Sheffield in July, which brings together professionals from children’s media across all formats including TV, interactive media, games, licensing, toys, radio, books and magazines. Brand Licensing and LIMA: For the second year there will be a brand licensing lounge and exhibiting presence alongside Brand Licensing Magazines Total Licensing and Guide to Licensing World. LIMA, the ‘international’ trade association for the Brand Licensing industry, will once again be curating a programme of seminars around the opportunities across brand licensing and publishing.

Film & TV Producers Delegation (in partnership with Boudica Films): Working in partnership with award-winning independent finance and production company Boudica films, LBF will welcome a delegation of film and TV producers to the fair. Gaming @ LBF in partnership with UKIE: LBF’s gaming pavilion will return to the fair for the second year, again in association with UKIE. This year the pavilion is twice the size.

Graphic Novel s @ LBF in partnership with Sequential: LBF has partnered with the iPad graphic novel app SEQUENTIAL to provide, for the first time, a dedicated area for one of the fastest growing areas of trade publishing – comics and graphic novels. The new pavilion will provide a home at the Fair for exciting international comics and graphic novel content and rights available for licensing and translation through a bespoke app designed by SEQUENTIAL. This will be supported by a series of seminars featuring key speakers from the world of comic.

BAFTA Rocliffe: LBF has also renewed its association with the BAFTA Rocliffe New Writing Forum through a competition aimed at supporting emerging screenwriting talent for children’s media, which culminates in a trip to MIPJUNIOR for one finalist. To celebrate this, LBF will be welcoming film and television writers into the Fair for events and seminars. The Social Network: YouTubers, Vlogger and Bloggers: This year, following the popularity of Booktubers within the Insights Programme, The London Book Fair will welcome stars of new media in the form of the inaugural Social Network for vloggers and bloggers across all spheres.

This follows a year in which the stars of YouTube also became stars of publishing – cementing the key role that vloggers play as a rich seam of content across children’s and adult publishing while also celebrating the influence of bloggers. The lounge will provide space for these essential content creators to film content, blog about their experience of LBF and network with the publishing industry and one another.

Jacks Thomas, added, “The publishing industry proves itself again and again to be flexible and intent on taking every advantage of creative approaches to content. With the enabling short cuts of digital advances, the opportunities to exploit IP and to discover the full potential of content – whether coming from books or being adapted into books from other media – is immense. Both books as a medium and London as a creative industries hub make this Creative Industries Day at The London Book Fair an obvious aspect of the evolution of the book fair which reflects the energy and appetite for opportunity which characterise publishing.”

What Works?

Everyone concerned with education is trying to improve the result, but what combination of policy, pedagogy, content and technology works best? There is no single best answer of course, and every country is different, but the evidence from international surveys, wide-scale projects and practical experience is increasingly compelling. The third edition of What Works? will take place on the final day of LBF 2015 in association with The Publishers Association.

Introduction to rights

This ever-popular half day conference will be sponsored by Copyright Clearance Center (CCC). Aimed at those new to the rights business, it offers the skills and knowledge needed to make the most of every rights opportunity vital in this ever-changing publishing and content creation environment.

Literary festival forum

New for 2015 is the Literary Festival Forum, a half-day FREE conference on everything to do with the organisation behind literary festivals.

Research and Scholarly Forum

The London Book Fair (LBF), The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) and The Publishers Association (The PA) will launch a brand new Scholarly and Research forum at LBF – The Research & Scholarly Publishing Forum, a half day programme of four individual sessions facilitated by Toby Green, head of publishing at OECD and Alicia Wise, director of access and policy at Elsevier. The Forum will be sponsored by Publishers Communication Group, a division of Publishing Technology. At a time of unprecedented change in academic and scholarly publishing, when the internet has dissolved physical supply chains, and the process of disseminating research is more global than ever, different national approaches to funding, assessment and open access are creating new friction points in this global process – which is in turn affecting researchers, their institutions and publishers.

Indian exhibitors @ LBF ‘15 Indian publishers will include Aadarsh Pvt. Ltd (1G19) , All About Book Publishing (3C10), Angel Publishing House Pvt. Ltd (1D52), Apple Publishing International (1F30), AppleTree (1G41), Art Factory (1D51), BJain Publishers Pvt. Ltd (1F11), CBS Publishers & Distributors Pvt Ltd (7B16), Dera Sacha Sauda ( ), Dreamland Publications (1E11), Focus Medica India Pvt Ltd (7J05), Future Books (1F10 and 1F10a), Laxmi Publications (P) Ltd (1B30a), Lotus Publishers (3D80), MLBD Books International (6G37a), Motilal Banarsidass (6G37b), shared with Motilal (UK) Books of India, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt Ltd.(7J20), Niyogi Books (2A90), Nova Publications & Printers Pvt Ltd (7K34), S. Chand International (1F31), Om Books International (1C20), PHI Learning Private Ltd (7K25), Quixot Multimedia Pvt Ltd (1D22), Random Publications (1B30b), Roli Books (2D80), S.Chand & Company Pvt Ltd (1F31a), Scientific International Pvt Ltd (7B09), Sheth Publishing House (1E29), Sterling Publishers Pvt Ltd (6F90), Sunrise Publishers (1B30), Vikas Publishing House Pvt Ltd (1F31b), Vishv Books (1E21), Wilco (1F39), and Xact Studio (1F34) While, few book printers and pre-media solution providers include Ajanta Offset & Packagings Ltd, Alka Books Centre (1F14), Edit One International (1G51), Exeter Premedia Services (3B64), GVK Informatics Private Limited (3D90), HTC Global Services(India) Private Ltd (3B58), Hurix Systems Private Limited (3B56), International Print-O-Pac Limited (7H44), Sofia Book World (1F10b), Manipal Technologies Ltd (3C20), MPS Limited (7H50), Multivista Global Ltd (7H36) Nutech Photolithographers (7K45B), Nutech Print Services (7K45A), Parksons Graphics (7H38), Replika Press Pvt Ltd (7H41), Repro India Ltd (7H55), Thomson Press (India) Limited (7J38) and Transcend Creative Services (3A19) will also present their offerings at the show.

London Book Fair International Excellence Awards – Three Indian publishers also to compete

LBF will announce the London Book Fair International Excellence Awards, organised in partnership with The Publishers Association. The Awards will take place on April 14, 2014, at Olympia Conference Centre, at 6.00 pm.

The twelfth annual Lifetime Achievement Award: in International Publishing will be awarded to Peter Usborne, founder and managing director of Usborne Publishing. Peter Usborne set up Usborne Publishing in 1973 and has made it one of the most successful children’s publishers in the world. With over 50 years of publishing experience, his contribution to the publishing world has been both broad and influential. He began his illustrious career in London, when Peter, as a trainee advertising executive, started Private Eye in his lunch hour. He moved to BPC Publishing in 1968 where he rose from chairman’s assistant to publishing director, before launching Usborne in 1972.

Three Indian publishers to compete: Last year Tara Books triumphed at LBF International Excellence Awards. This year, Duckbill Books will compete in the same category – International Trade Children’s – against Clavis Publishing (Belgium) and Fondo de Cultura Economica (Mexico) This is a real credit to Indian children’s publishing. Could it be a clean sweep for India?

Rupa & Co has also been shortlisted for International Adult Trade Publisher, against Fraktura from Croatia and People’s Literature Publishing House (China) while Aadarsh, the Indian creators of Purple Turtle, the popular franchise of books, apps and YouTube videos are up against Minecraft in battle of the IP giants!

The shortlisted nominees in all categories:

• The International Literary Agent Award Anna Soler-Pont, Pontas Literary & Film Agency (Spain); Nicole Witt, Literarische Agentur Mertin Inh. (Germany); Pierre Astier, Astier-Pecher Agency (France); Tom Colchie, Thomas Colchie Agency (US)
• The Award for Best Use of IP across Multiple Media Platforms: Aadarsh Pvt. Ltd (India); Mojang (Sweden);
• The International Literary Translation Initiative Award; Asymptote Journal (Taiwan); Dutch Foundation of Literature (Netherlands); Paper Republic (China)
• The International Academic and Professional Publisher Award: IOP Publishing (UK); Sage Publications (US); Princeton University Press (US)
• The International Education Initiatives Award: Book Aid International (UK); Library for All (US); Via Afrika (South Africa)
• The International Educational Learning Resources Award: Caramel Tree (US); C.J. Fallon (Ireland); Uigeverij Van In (Belgium)
• The Bookseller International Adult Trade Publisher Award: Fraktura (Croatia); People’s Literature Publishing House (China); Rupa & Co. (India)
• International Trade Children’s and Young Adult Publisher Award: Clavis Publishing (Belgium); Duckbill Books (India); Fondo de Cultura Economica (Mexico)
• The Publishers Association Copyright Protection Award: FILCOLS (Philippines); IPCC (China); Nigerian Publishers Association (Nigeria)
• Mexico Market Focus Outstanding Contribution Award: Adam Freudenheim, Pushkin Press (UK); Daniel Hahn, Director of the British Centre for Literary Translation (UK); Pam Dix, IBBY UK (UK)
• The Market Focus Achievement Award China National Import and Export (Group) Corporation (China); Dorling Kindersley China (China); Sharjah International Book Fair (UAE)
• Accessible Books Consortium Award for Accessible Publishing – Initiative BooXtream, a division of Icontact (Netherlands); Libri Italiani Accessibili (Italy); Syndicat national de l’edition (France); Young Power in Social Action, YPSA (Bangladesh)
• Accessible Books Consortium Award for Accessible Publishing – Publisher Cambridge University Press (UK); Elsevier Science Direct (Netherlands); HarperCollins (US); Sage Publishing (UK)
• The Publishers Weekly International Book Industry Technology Supplier Award BooXtream (Netherlands); Copyright Clearance Center (US); China National Publications Import and Export (Group) Corporation (China); De Marque (Canada)
• The Publishing for Digital Minds Innovation Award Gojimo (UK); Join Book Club (UK); Rook Labs (UK); Snapplify (South Africa); The Pigeonhole (UK).