The new Toronto International Book Fair, scheduled to launch in 2014 and running November 13 through November 16, aims to give Canada a major consumer and trade book show. Craft show veteran Steven Levy is a co-director of the new event, along with Rita Davies (former head of culture for the city of Toronto) and president of Quattro Books John Calabro. They are hoping for government subsidies to help reduce booth costs for exhibitors and are conducting a search for a show programmer. Calabro tells Quill & Quire, “The one thing I heard from the independent publishers was a fear […]
Book Fairs
Kids First, and Then The Widest Offerings Yet
We have much of the programming posted now for our third annual Publishers Launch Kids conference — on Monday, January 13, one of the kickoff events to “Digital Book World Week” in New York. PL Kids starts with a big block of data — from Nielsen (with analysis by Bookigee); from the Insight Strategy Group (looking at larger kids digital media trends); and from PlayCollective (updating their analysis of children’s digital reading habits) — and moves on to cover game-based learning initiatives; the push and pull of licensing and branding; moving to a mobile strategy; an overview of successful new […]
The Everything Show
We’ll confess that this week’s exchange between MacKenzie Bezos and author Brad Stone only makes us more interested in Stone’s appearance at Digital Book World next January, as part of a block of programming focused on analyzing Amazon. This new page at the DBW conference site provides an overview of the Amazon-focused sessions, and also highlights two other “featured blocks” of new material. In response to suggestions from some of the C-level people who serve on the DBW advisory council, we’re featuring four sessions that present a structure view on “change management” (created with the help of consultant Carolyn Pittis, […]
Everything Amazon and A Lot More
There’s a lot of discussion about Amazon in the wake of Larry Kirshbaum’s departure from the publishing division in January (much of it completely wrong, as we noted Friday), and following the release earlier this month of Brad Stone’s book THE EVERYTHING STORE. January’s big fifth annual Digital Book World conference will feature a prominent morning block of presentations and discussions about Amazon on its second day. Stone will be among the presenters and analysts, with sessions including a close look at Amazon’s financials, and insights into their less-publicized inroads into library and educational markets. Those timely panels are just […]
People, Etc.
Webb Younce has joined Thomas Nelson imprint Nelson Books as associate publisher/executive editor, filling the role previously held by Bryan Norman. He and is wife are relocating to Nashville. Most recently he was at Free Press, until it was disbanded as a separate Simon & Schuster unit in 2012. At Fodor’s Travel, Arabella Bowen has been promoted to the newly created position of vp, editor in chief. Skyhorse will launch a new library-focused imprint, Carrel Books, in fall 2014, with an initial list of 20-30 titles annually in categories such as medicine/health, history, biography/memoir, and business/careers. The imprint will be overseen […]
Attendance Slides At the Still-Giant Frankfurt Book Fair
The Frankfurt Book Fair is a mammoth show by any measure, though by the organizer’s own numbers trade visits continue to decline modestly year over year. FBF officials say that 142,921 people were present during the first three trade show days, and a total of 275,342 visitors were logged over all five days (with the German public attending the final two days). Both counts are slightly below last year’s numbers, and the fair’s attendance peaked in 2008 — with just under 300,000 total visitors, and a claim of 186,240 trade visitors for the entire fair. It’s a little confusing lining […]