The best super-early pricing for our seventh annual Digital Book World conference — moving from January to early March, still in NYC — expires early next week. We are continuing to clear more speakers and panels for posting, including keynoter Virginia Heffernan, who will look at how the Internet and digital technologies have changed our fundamental relationship with content. Two major themes of the new show will be transformation, and life among the digital giants. While ebook sales levels on their own have found a level for now, the larger digital transformation of our business and the companies within it continues. We’ll […]
Book Fairs
Publishing’s Biggest Educational Gathering Set for March
The first programming information for our seventh annual Digital Book World conference has been posted, and early registration is open now, with the best pricing available now through November 9. Held in New York at the Hilton Midtown, please note that after six years of conferences in January, our timing has shifted a little later and DBW 2016 will be held on March 7 – March 9. Among the already-announced keynotes, and as a theme during all of DBW 16, we’ll be highlighting transformation throughout the business. John Ingram will talk about transformational change while maintaining a core business, as what was a physical […]
Frankfurt Attendance Remains Steady
The Frankfurt Book Fair released attendance statistics that show the giant gathering remaining steady. They recorded attendance on “trade visitor days” — the first three days of the Fair — of 140,474, or about 180 visits ahead of last year. Across all five days, including the final two days when the German public attends, they charted 275,791 visits, back to 2013 levels after a dip last year. (So the press release, and dutiful write-throughs, will proclaim rising attendance — but all that really happened was a slight rebound in German visitors the last two days.) While not stated explicitly, our […]
Hachette Still Eyes Strategic Acquisitions All Over
Hachette Livre ceo Arnaud Nourry was the headliner in the annual ceo interview at the Frankfurt Book Fair on Wednesday. Nourry reiterated the position of his parent company Lagardere, which has been putting their major “allocation of cash…towards other businesses” recently but remains ready for smaller investments in publishing. “As far as medium-size, fill-in acquisitions, we are and will remain very active,” Nourry made clear. On his shopping list, “In America, we would certainly be stronger in nonfiction and that’s an area where at the time we were looking at it, Perseus was a very good fit,” and the desire to […]
The Frankfurt Book Fair Opens (Sort of)
The Frankfurt Book Fair is a show of many openings. There is the official press conference on Tuesday morning — which really is press only, and required early applications and background checks for credentials this year with high security for the keynote address from author Salman Rushdie. On Tuesday afternoon there is the opening ceremony, welcoming the international guest of honor (this year it’s Indonesia). For agents and other rights sellers the work has already begun, at the pre-rights-center-of-habit in the Frankfurter Hof hotel. And tonight, there is the unofficial first big event at the annual Hachette Book Group party, with an […]
People
Agent Linda Loewenthal is launching a new venture, The Loewenthal Company, effective October 12. Her new company is “dedicated to representing and offering authors personalized support and tools to develop their editorial visions, as well as their profiles and platforms.” She was an agent at the David Black Agency for 12 years, after 15 years as a publishing executive and editor. At Open Road, Philip Rappaport has been promoted to vice president, director of publishing partnerships. Former Oyster editorial director Kevin Nguyen confirmed on Twitter that he is now editorial director at Google Play Books. As planned since last December, Wiley chairman […]