London

8 April 2014

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Digital Minds: Look beyond

Stand G470

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the book, keynotes urge

PubMatch

At last year’s Digital Minds conference, author Neil Gaiman e n c o u r a g e d publishers to “try everything”, advice that was echoed at this year’s event, as a morning of keynote speakers urged publishers to look beyond the book, writes Andrew Albanese. “I do not believe that books will ever die,” said author Anthony Horowitz in his opening keynote. “At the same time we cannot deny we are in an extraordinary transition, and it does seem to me sometimes that publishers are not grabbing the nettle because they are too afraid of getting stung.”

the lack of reading for pleasure in schools. “If you don’t start young, if you don’t consecrate readers, you will pay the price down the line,” he warned. “If I was to sound a warning for the future it is that we need to nurture our love of reading.”

ecosystems is that they deny you the book’s electronic existence,” he said, “offering readers the simulacrum of a page, piercing every letter with needles to hold them in place on the screen, and giving the companies behind them control of the ecosystem by limiting the real possibilities.”

upgrade

That fear, Horowitz noted, was understandable. He opened by comparing publishers of literary fiction to animals in danger of extinction, and ran down the signs of trouble. “Borders is gone, Barnes & Noble is not looking good, sales at US bookstores are down by 22% in five years, UK independents are in decline,” he offered. And then there was Amazon. “They really are evil bastards and I loathe them, and I fear them, and of course I use them all the time, because they are wonderful. That’s the problem.”

In his provocative closing keynote, veteran technology journalist and head of partnership development at the BBC Archives Bill Thompson urged publishers to recognize that the Internet was now the centre of the creative universe. But he sharply criticized the way the book industry was developing the ebook future, calling e-reading platforms and devices such as the Kindle “killing jars” for words.

“The point about those machines and those closed

It was time for publishers to engage technology fully, Thompson said. “We’ve had 70 years of digital, 40 years of ebooks, 30 years of the internet, 25 years of the web, 10 years of Facebook, and the iPhone is seven years old. This is not new technology. We should be horrified at how slow we are to adapt to something that has been changing the world for seven decades.” ■

Pu b M a t c h , t h e b o o k publishing and international rights database founded by Publishers Weekly and Combined Book Exhibit, is introducing a new upgrade at this year’s London Book Fair–Rights@PubMatch. Developed in co-operation with the Copyright Clearance Center, Rights@PubMatch is a transaction engine that empowers its users to buy and sell rights with a few computer clicks. The system, which is powered by CCC’s RightsLink, allows rights sellers to detail exactly which rights are available–from language to territory to format– and provides sellers with a contract to execute a complete transaction. If desired, buyers and sellers can replace the system’s standard contract with one of their own design.

Horowitz praised publishers as “undervalued” in the discussion of Digital Books, but insisted that publishers must grasp the deeper value offered by digital. “It seems to me that anything is possible,” he said of the digital landscape, “but not very much of it is being considered.”

Through Rights@PubMatch, acquiring content has never been easier: after a buyer accepts a seller’s terms, they are able to purchase the right to the book with a few simple clicks and a credit card, the collections are made and the net remittances are sent to the seller. To ensure that deals will be completely VAT/ withholding tax compliant, Rights@PubMatch engaged the international accounting firm Deloitte.