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Frankfurt 2010: The Agency Briefcase
What will the American agents be pushing in the rights tent? Among this year's offerings are Martin Amis's "most ferocious antihero," Nelson Mandela's journals, John Grisham's latest Confession, David Bowie's stuff, Jon Stewart's guide to Earth (and Earthlings), and Ken Follett's Giants.
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Change Is Good: PW Talks to Andrew Savikas
After a successful inaugural session at last year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, O’Reilly Media’s Tools of Change conference will return with a bigger show at the 2010 fair. Among the featured speakers are Jeff Jarvis, Buzzmachine.com blogger and author of What Would Google Do?; media theorist Douglas Rushkoff, author of Life, Inc.; and Richard Nash, founder of the digital startup Cursor.
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Russian Book Market Revs Up
Attending the Moscow Book Fair 20 years after a first visit to the U.S.S.R., then as publisher of PW and as part of a U.S. Information Agency delegation, is a world away from my prior experience. Then, the ideas of advertising, promoting, and marketing a book were alien concepts, and creating a commercial book itself was an impossibility.
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The Moscow Book Fair in Pictures
PWxyz President George Slowik Jr. attened the Moscow Book Fair last week and sent back some pictures of the goings on at the Fair. You'll see some familiar faces (a boy wizard, for instance) and some new ones.
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Deals Continue at Beijing Fair
The International Hall continues to be a hub of activity on day three of the Beijing Book Fair. While large houses such as HarperCollins, Hachette, Penguin, Pearson, McGraw-Hill, Cengage, and Macmillan are going about solidifying their presence with more deals, the medium, small, and independent presses are gathering new insights on the Chinese book market and carving out their own piece of the pie.
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Beijing Fair Stays Upbeat on Day Two
The positive mood evident on the first day of the Beijing Book Fair carried over into day two. After the initial shock of seeing (or hearing about) the collapsed Wolter Kluwers booth, everybody got back into the business of selling books and establishing new partnerships.
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'Frankfurt Fair Dealer' Will Roll at 2010 Event
Publishers Weekly is teaming up with BookBrunch, the U.K.’s online book trade news and information service, to publish three print dailies at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair. The two combined to publish two editions of the Frankfurt Fair Dealer at the 2009 event and this year coverage will be expanded to cover the first three days, Wednesday through Friday. As at Frankfurt last autumn and in London this spring, the dailies will offer a lively and authoritative mix of news, features and think-pieces.
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Attendance Up at Hong Kong Fair
The Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) this week said 920,000 people, both from the trade and the public, visited the 2010 Hong Kong Book Fair from, held July 21 to July 27, a 2% rise over 2009 attendance, as well as a record 510 exhibitors from 22 countries.
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A Record for the Tokyo Book Fair, But Not for E-books
This year's Tokyo International Book Fair set a new record at 1,000 exhibitors welcoming over 80,000 visitors to the Tokyo Big Sight convention center for the 17th convention held July 8 to 11. The growth was due to the first EDIX (Educational IT Solutions Expo), which joined the fair for its first three days.
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Modest Growth at Canadian Booksellers Association Event
The Canadian Booksellers Association's National Conference held in Toronto from May 28 to 30 expanded upon its first effort at creating a national industry event last year following the closure of BookExpo Canada. But its growth was modest and it remains an intimate gathering.
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Second Canadian Booksellers Association Event Set for May 28-30
The Canadian Booksellers Association's second annual national conference set for May 28 to 30 promises to be bigger than the organization's first effort to create a successor to BookExpo Canada last year. Increased publisher participation may be the clearest sign of growth. Last year, only seven publishers set up display tables with Penguin Group (Canada) as the sole multinational participating, although others provided financial support through the Canadian Publishers Council. This year, however, there will be twice as many publishers exhibiting, including the Literary Press group representing multiple independent publishers as well as HarperCollins Canada, Simon & Schuster Canada, and Penguin Group (Canada).
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AFCC: New Festival Highlights Children's Content from Asia
The inaugural Asian Festival of Children's Content www.afcc.com.sg came to a close on May 9. More than 600 authors, illustrators, publishers, retailers, distributors, rights agencies and media professionals converged at The Arts House in Singapore to listen to 70 speakers from 15 countries including the US, UK, Canada, France, New Zealand and Australia discuss materials for children and how Asian content can get greater attention internationally.
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LBF Offers 'Thank You' Package
With questions swirling about what, if anything, Reed Exhibitions would offer attendees and exhibitors who were unable to make it to last week's London Book Fair, the show's organizer issued a letter answering that question.
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Going Digital: Two LBF Panels
The Westminster Room at the London Book Fair proved to be a study in contrasts on the first morning of the fair this past Monday. Two consecutive conferences discussed issues pivotal to the future of the publishing industry as it wrestles with—and readjusts to the effects of—technology. The conferences showcased a stark difference in the way the old guard and the new guard of children's book publishing could engage with the evolving possibilities online.
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Steve Rubin Signs British Producer to Two-Book Deal
While the elusive "big book" may be even more elusive at this year's London Book Fair with so many American agents unable to attend, deals are still happening. Macmillan's Steve Rubin just closed a major two-book deal, his first big fiction acquisition since he arrived at Holt, buying David Snodin's Iago and Gnoeril.
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BEA Next Stop for LBF (Non) Attendees
With the London Book Fair concluded, the attention of many American publishing industry members is shifting from worries on how to get to the fair to what can be done to compensate for lost meetings and appointments. Adding to BEA and using some new tech tools are some of the plans.
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LBF Digital Conference: It's All About the Smartphones
Hype about the iPad was refreshingly absent from the London Book Fair Digital Conference on Sunday (18 April), well attended in spite of the inevitable, volcanic ash-induced absences. Instead, there was a good deal of attention on iPhones and other smartphones.
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LBF Does Go On...Volcano and All
Despite the huge monkey wrench the suddenly active Icelandic volcano put in many Americans' (and some Europeans') plans to attend the London Book Fair, spirits among both attendees and those who stayed behind were relatively high. As many in the industry noted, while doing business face-to-face is optimal, work can be done remotely. And, of course, London isn't just about what the Americans brings to the fair.
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British Authors Also Grounded Because of Volcano
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London Book Fair: Americans MIA
With flights being canceled in droves because of the volcanic ash cloud hanging over Europe, many American publishers and agents will not be able to make it to the London Book Fair, which will nevertheless go forward.