publishingPERSPECTIVes SHOW DAILY WEDNESDAY 9 OCTOBER 2013 • FRANKFURT BOOK FAIR • NEWS & OPINION Fixed-Publishing-perspectives.pdf 1 9/26/13 1:26 PM C M Y CM MY CY CMY K Let’s Go to Work! Rights Directors Identify New Revenue Streams By Andrew Wilkins ly lower than full retail price, Bollig Yun Kyung (Yolanda) Kim, Woongjin ThinkBig - In the opening of yesterday’s In- gested that readers spent 43% more ternational Rights Directors Meet- citedtime readingfigures fromif they Onleihne could borrow that sug an ing, held on the eve of the fair, the ebook, rather than buy it. She em- Frankfurt Book Fair’s Bärbel Becker phasised the importance of having sounded a note of caution by re- lending rights clauses in contracts vealing the number of rights deals to take advantage of this emergent conducted by German publishers market. had fallen by 14% between 2011 Korea’s Woongjin Thinkbig—a company with 20,000 employees balanced by the record number of and $640 million in revenue—al- andbooks—270—published 2012. It was a figure, in she Germa said,- ready has 1,000 ebook titles in cir- ny so far from this year’s Guest of culation, according to Yolanda Kim, Honor Brazil. who highlighted two of the compa- In light of this possibly alarm- ny’s successful new digital ventures. ing news, a trio of publishers shared Its ‘English Re-start’ language their approaches to developing new series had started life as a printed revenue streams. book series, but its adaptation into Rita Bollig, Head of Bastei En- an Android app had seen 350,000 tertainment at Germany’s Bastei downloads from the Google Play Lubbe reminded delegates that “you online store. Another innovative Audience at the Rights Directors Meeting can’t tell the customer what to want” product, Story Beam—a mini pro- before describing the company’s ex- jector that allowed children to proj- periences with two ebook subscrip- ect 100 classic fairy tales onto their tion services, Skoobe and Onleihne. bedroom walls—had so far sold While both services allow par- 100,000 units. - Finally, John Wiley and Sons’ Director of Sales Development Lisa tialLisa use Nachtigall, of books Director for of Sales a fee Development, significant Nachtigall gave dramatic evidence of Digital Books, John Wiley & Sons the US company’s move away from print products towards “e-transi- tional” products, and “dynamic con- tent.” Print sales, currently around 55% of the company’s revenue, is predicted to be under 20% by the end of 2017. “The real transformation is in how we deliver content,” she re- marked. “Hashing out what’s a sale and what’s a license is starting to feel like an artificial distinction.” For information on the Arab market, see page 9 of yesterday’s special Digi- tal Intel edition of Publishing Per- spectives online. When Passion Equals Profit DAILY EDITORIAL Edward Nawotka By Edward Nawotka, Editor-in- scores of new and exciting digital ers to share their stories (Wattpad, Chief platforms, service providers, app Smashwords); sometimes it’s the developers launched who promise True story: a good friend of mine to “change” the publishing industry. community of fellow book lovers runs a digital micro-payment/pub- - difficulty(Goodreads); readers and sometimes have finding it’s the a cant lasting impact on the way peo- regularly invited to appear on stages Butple read,just a write, handful produce, have had or consumea signifi and acquiring books (yes, Amazon lishingat publishing outfit outand oftechnology the UK and con is- books. difficultywas once consumersa start-up too). have in finding ferences to talk about her “startup.” Why have so many startups What do all these ex-startups never made it beyond “beta”? It ls have in common? They rely on the years now. likely because technology, unlike the passion of people to drive their suc- She’s been talking about it for five book which has remained largely cess—be it writers, readers or con- fourth conference appearance this unchanged since the time of Guten- sumers. Publishing is still at its heart year:I finallyat what asked point her, is yourfollowing start-up her berg, is in constant evolution. all about the passionate marriage of no longer a “start-up?” She replied, The book isn’t the problem. So, books and people. “when people stop giving me money technological solution tends to work So, the next time a startup for being a start-up.” best when they address the other promises you that they are going to After all, we all know that in For the past half dozen years, key element of publishing that is change the publishing world forever, publishing, passion—on behalf of since the true advent of digital pub- also in constant evolution: people. just ask them a simple question: publishers and readers—is the only lishing and the ebook, we’ve seen Sometimes it’s the inability of writ- where does your passion lie? 2 FrankFurt 2013 • PUBLISHING PERSPECTIVES possible path to profit. Your marketplace in the Arab world! 30 April – 5 May 2014 Visit us at Stand A137 | Hall 5.0 www.adbookfair.com Organised by ADBookFair @ADIFB can be paid. Rights unenumerated STM Publishing Meets “Tarzan Economics” “We spend much more time looking isfor rights the next unprotected,” piece of content Griffin than said. in By Paula Gantz Jim Griffin, OneHouse LLC enumerating what we have.” While creating registries is of- Imploring publishers to use “Tar- ten seen as cost and risk, it can really zan” economics to swing to the new create a registry to protect property. delivered the keynote speech at the beIf we a profit create center. a regime “It isof essential registry, toit vine,International Jim Griffin Association of OneHouse of Scien LLC- makes it faster and easier to pay.” - ers annual conference at the Westin “As we swing from vine to vine, we tific,Grand Technical Hotel Frankfurt & Medical on Tuesday. Publish haveGriffin to think made more two feminine final points: than masculine. The real value comes to the edge, not to the center. The from women who understand that “Digitization’s effects come first starting relationships and maintain- fact, we see this is precisely what is ing them are much more important fringehappening. will Newredefine technologies the center. bring In than moving from one to one. Ama- you something new completely. The zon is feminine; it even remembers enabling is found in new art and your eye color. We need to cherish bringing old art back to life. We are We spend much more time looking for the next piece relationships.” hearing more new artists, unusual of content than in enumerating what we have. He also reminded the audience of STM publishers that there is a consultant to the music industry, - artists,stated. and old artists,” Griffin, a nel Me. “Everyone has his own set of rearview mirror of your time. You transitionfacts. Everyone from Channelturns to Wethe tochannel Chan you think, he warned, citing Moore’s are always once step behind. You for publishing is far more actuarial. law. Change“It is not will simply come incremental.faster than don’t know about the new media un- “It isGriffin far more predicted about that sharing the future the have lost a community megaphone. Technology will double every 18 revenue and a fair way of dividing it thatWhen they you listen give to:people Channel choice, Me. they We months, and the cost will be cut 50 He stressed that the progress in up. While we love copyright, it has use it,” he said. percent. This is what is happening tilmedia you findtechnology the next.” is almost always become ‘copy-risk.’ We lack the tech- - - about democratization, but is also nology or will to enforce it. We must lishers to seize the opportunity to tition will not be from pirates, but connected to piracy. Gutenberg was turn to actuarial models to enforce leaveFinally, the constraints Griffin implored of Gutenberg pub tofrom scientific other wayspublishing. to spend And consum compe- the most important media technolo- it.” behind. “This is the most important ers’ money.” gist to exist prior to today, according He suggested that publishers - Liberally citing Marshall McLu- establish more robust registries for nication amongst researchers is the han’s “The Media is the Message,” He noticed that the Pope was sell- workmost important,on the planet not thetoday. researchers Commu toing Griffin. indulgencies “Gutenberg through was scribes. a pirate. He person who gets paid. The transla- themselves. It is the nuclear power understand the media of your time. said, ‘why not impress it as books content.tor and the“It’s editors essential deserve to find a place the of today. You can hold a lot more in Griffin“You will warned only knowthat youit through will never the and then sell the books.’” in the registry as well so that they an open hand than in a closed fist.” Candid Facts from Amazon’s Russ Grandinetti Russ Grandinetti, VP of Kindle Content, Amazon By Carlo Carrenho, PublishNews tablished by the American and Brit- since the book was soon out of stock. ish markets. The message being: had POD been Amazon executives rarely speak in Another interesting graph in place, sales would not have been public and, when they do, chances showed the percentage of top 1,000 lost. are they will say little that is new. authors in print with at least one - But this wasn’t the case yesterday, Kindle book. The US leads the group ecutive used his last few minutes to when Russ Grandinetti, Vice Presi- at 98%, followed by the UK with promoteThe highMatchBook, profile theAmazon program ex dent for Kindle content, spoke at 95%, Germany with 89%, France that allows customers to buy digital the Publishers Launch conference.