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Frankfurt 09
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Written by David Taylor
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Wednesday, 28 October 2009 06:47 |
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David Taylor reflects on the means and benefits of "keeping books alive" It’s been a good year for print-on-demand (PoD) and one that has seen the model of supply become even further entrenched in the supply chain for the physical book. The numbers involved continue to stagger. At Lightning Source we are now printing over 1.5m books a month across three production facilities – in LaVergne, Tennessee; Allentown Pennsylvania; and Milton Keynes in the UK, with an average print run of a little over one-and-a-half copies. Most recently, our library of titles available in a POD format passed the one million mark. Title growth is accelerating. Not only are books being kept alive and in print where the old model of book printing would have consigned them to the limbo of out-of-stock, or "reprint under consideration"; many new titles are starting to see the light of day as a POD edition rather than transitioning to it once the initial demand upon publication has been fulfilled. Print-on-demand is moving out of its long tail home and further up the life cycle of the book. There is little doubt that the global downturn has been good news for the PoD model. |
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Frankfurt 09
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Written by Kathy Rooney
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Tuesday, 27 October 2009 09:57 |
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Kathy Rooney, Head of Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing, reports from Dohar
In Doha, capital of Qatar, one of the world’s smallest but richest countries, a small bookshop stands in a 1950s-style strip mall on the road from the skyscrapers of Doha’s West Bay to the monumental buildings of Education City in the middle of the desert. School materials and a few dictionaries lie higgledy-piggledy on dusty shelves upstairs. Not long ago this would have been a typical bookshop in the Gulf or even in Egypt and Lebanon, the traditional publishing centres of the Middle East.
Things are changing. In Dubai’s malls, Borders, Magrudy’s, Jashanmal and Kinokuniya trade alongside global fashion brands. Virgin offers books in English and Arabic alongside DVDs, electronics and T-shirts. Saudi-based Jarir has stores across Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. |
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Frankfurt 09
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Written by Steve Bohme
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Friday, 23 October 2009 09:40 |
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BML Research Director Steve Bohme highlights the similarities and differences between book buyers in the US and the UK According to George Bernard Shaw (or George Bernard Shaw, depending on which side of the Atlantic you reside) “England and America are two countries separated by a common language”. This is also an apt description of the two largest English language book markets in the world, according to a recent report from BML and Bowker which finds much in common – but also many points of difference – in the book buying habits of consumers in Britain and in the US.
The report, A Special Relationship? A comparison of consumer book buying habits and trends in the United States and Great Britain, is the first to set down, side-by-side, an analysis of which types of books are bought, by which types of buyers, and from which types of sources, on either side of the Atlantic. |
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Frankfurt 09
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Written by Duncan Calow, Alan Williams and Andrew Deutsch
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Wednesday, 21 October 2009 09:23 |
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Industry lawyers on both sides of the Atlantic consider the options The UK Duncan Calow and Alan Williams: DLA Piper, London London is still considered the libel capital of the world. Accordingly, and despite the weather, it attracts more than its fair share of libel tourists: those people in search of what they perceive to be a claimant-friendly jurisdiction to bring a defamation action against a publisher. (From time to time other cities can look attractive to those on such an excursion. For example, colleagues in Paris often warn us of the ways in which French law can be pro-claimant, and one of the leading Internet libel cases was brought in Australia – where perhaps food and climate might be better respectively?) The essence of our libel law is that a person is entitled to his or her reputation and that can only be taken away on precise terms. The onus is effectively on the defendant not the claimant to prove their case. Unlike the US, there is no "public figure" defence. |
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Frankfurt 09
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Written by Tim Coronel
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Tuesday, 20 October 2009 09:27 |
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The Australian book trade is no closer to a resolution on the crucial issue of whether or not copyright legislation will be changed to allow parallel imports, writes Tim Coronel Whether or not to allow parallel importation has been a perpetual question for the book trade in Australia. After various models were tried and discarded over the years, 1991 saw amendments to the Copyright Act that established the "30-day rule" (and associated 7- and 90-day rules, which apply to resupplying if a title goes out of stock). Under these rules an Australian publisher that has obtained rights for an overseas-originated title has 30 days from the date of first English-language publication to release its edition into the Australian market and by doing so to secure exclusive rights, preventing booksellers from importing a competing edition - even if it’s cheaper. The Australian book industry has grown strongly in the years since 1991. Other than a small slump in 2000–2001, following the introduction of the 10% Goods and Services Tax (GST), both publishers and book retailers have seen consistent growth year-on-year to the point that the trade now has annual turnover estimated at A$2 billion (approx euro1.2 billion/£1.1 billion/US$1.75 billion). |
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