Thursday, 24^th May 2012 (London)

Guest of Honour: Richard Mollet, Chief Executive, The Publishers Association

This seminar will offer a timely opportunity to consider the current and future challenges posed by structural change in the publishing industry emanating from the increased popularity of the eBook, declining sales of physical books and the rise of supermarket retailing. Timed to follow the consultation on Public Lending Rights from library loans and the coming changes to copyright law following the Hargreaves Review, it will address emerging issues concerning the future of book revenues in an already pressured market.

Delegates will assess future trends in book retailing, with planned sessions exploring the maturing eBook market, the growth of the tablet and mobile internet, and how they will affect the future of the eReader. The agenda includes discussion of the effect of reduced sales on publishers and authors, as well as high street, independent and online booksellers, and the future role of the book shop as retailers choose new, diverse models for book promotion, discounting and improving customer experience.

For more details or to book click here.

This week on the site, we were Revisiting elearning in the Web 2.0 age with Anna Faherty, and Felice Howden asked What Game Is Anobii Playing? Meanwhile, the London Literature Festival announces 2012 line-up, and Century buys rights to Wool, inevitable sheep jokes.

Elsewhere on the  web, it appears that Amazon aims to launch front-lit Kindle in July and Amazon launches CreateSpace in Europe.

As Pottermore adds Kobo as a Harry Potter e-book partner, and apparently Moglue Makes It Dead Simple For Anyone To Create And Publish Interactive Ebooks, there’s A Humorous Yet Truthful Look at Publishing, and The Book Designer is asking: Are You Trying to Create an “Impossible” Book?

And then there’s the big questions: Paper Book vs. Digital Book – Who reads which, where and why?

Finally, it appears that In E-Reader Age of Writer’s Cramp, a Book a Year Is Slacking.

Line-up announcements have been made and tickets have gone on sale for this year’s London Literature Festival, happening at the Southbank Centre from 3-12 July. Amongst the big names making appearances in those ten days are Michael Morpurgo (whose Q&A will almost certainly consist entirely of variations on the question ‘so what’s Steven Spielberg really like?’), John Pilger, Will Self, Andy Kershaw, Siri Hustvedt, Clive Stafford Smith, Noo Saro-Wiwa, Stella Duffy, Mark Haddon and Andy Stanton.

A decade or more ago, elearning was heralded by many as the panacea to organisational training needs. The reality? It didn’t live up to the hype. Elearning was too often just a bunch of files uploaded to a website or learning management system; unhappy eye-strained learners read reams of text on screen. Today technology has moved on, and elearning can finally deliver what most learners really want: personalised, interactive, social and mobile learning experiences. So, for anyone who still thinks elearning is dull, disappointing or dead in the water, here are eight tips to debunk your views.

Fed up with self-publishing success stories yet? Waiting for the straw that breaks the camel’s back and sends everyone scurrying back to tried and tested means of publishing? Well tough noogies, because it looks like that ain’t happening any time soon, with The Bookseller bringing news of the latest DIY bidding battle. Century has beaten out four other contenders for the rights to Hugh Howey’s Amazon bestseller Wool, a post-apocalyptic epic initially published in five parts beginning last summer. Not that Amazon reviews necessarily mean anything, but the flurry of four and five star raves for the book might help explain why, despite no marketing push from anyone but Howey himself, Wool is currently sitting in the top 50 paid downloads for Kindle, and has already been downloaded over 140,000 times worldwide.

If, like me, you spend a lot of time on the internet (like… y’know… enough to clock when adverts change on the same web pages) you will probably have noticed the intense ramping up of aNobii activity across all digital channels recently. In the past two months, their online advertising reached the level of intense saturation usually reserved for dating websites – displaying as gates on pirated videos before you watch them, weird sidebar ad placement on forums, promoted tweets, heaps of whacky Pinterest boards… and so on.

So given the company launched in 2006, why now?

On the site this week, we asked Do Publishers Expect Authors To Market Themselves? There was also the chance to Win a great new novel by asking the author a question!

While in the news, Virago to release ‘coming of age’ collection aimed at young women, Maya Angelou completists and ‘I don’t set out to make children happy’: RIP Maurice Sendak.

Elsewhere around the web, Are publishers waking up from their dream about apps? It seems this may be true for magazines, at least if you agree with these reasons Why Publishers Don’t Like Apps.

But as for books, there were some interesting thoughts this week from Nick Harkaway on the Evolution of Books, an outline of The Future Of Books In 7 Easy Steps, and Seth Godin revealed what he thinks is The real threat to (big time) book publishing.

On the digital front, here’s The complete guide to iBooks: from reading to selling, though it seems that iPad E-Reading Market Share Stagnates as Tablet E-Reading Rises, and a handy Infographic: Are eBook Readers Reading More?

Meanwhile, according to Smashwords CEO Mark Coker: Indie Authors Need to Become Great Publishers, while also knowing all about The Business of Writing Books.

And finally, why not Meet The 16-Year-Old Book Reviewer.

That he was in his 84th year doesn’t soften the blow of Maurice Sendak’s death of complications from a stroke earlier this week. The beloved author and artist of Where The Wild Things Are and In The Night Kitchen remained productive until the end, publishing Bumble-Ardy, his 18th book, a mere eight months ago.