CAMPUS: Publishing Futures in the Global Marketplace: Keynote speech

I spent Saturday attending CAMPUS’s Publishing Futures in the Global Marketplace conference at Ruskin College, Cambridge, which was full of interesting opinions and views on developments in the publishing industry (I’ve summarised the Keynote speech below, and will elaborate on the other talks in a separate post). CAMPUS has recently been established to represent the publishing industry located in and around Cambridge, similar to OPUS in Oxford. Cambridge University Press (CUP) and the new MA Publishing Course at Ruskin are spearheading the society, and I personally wish them well. Although there are less corporate publishing houses in Cambridge than in other cities, there are a number of SME publishers in the east of England and it is important they have the opportunity to network, learn from each other and establish a voice for their region. As Dr Samantha Rayner (course director) told me:

' This year has been an extraordinarily fast-paced one for the new MA in Publishing at Anglia Ruskin. Thanks to a strong, enthusiastic first cohort of students, and tremendous pro-active support from local publishers, the course has generated some very promising future industry contributors, as well as helping to launch the Cambridge Publishing Society (CAMPUS). This Society, sponsored and managed by a consortium of members representing the vibrant mix of professions in the local area, is already making strides in pulling together a programme of informative, collaborative, and social events to help showcase the richness of publishing activity there is around Cambridge. The future is looking extremely buoyant and I am thrilled that our students have so many opportunities open to them – Cambridge has a truly exciting mix of publishing ventures, so they can benefit from observing the industry from all sorts of angles, from the hand-worked craftsmanship of special editions to the cutting edge of digital developments – it’s all here!'

The Keynote speech was delivered by Michael Holdsworth, former Managing Director of CUP, entitled ‘Confronting a Brave New Digital World’. Holdsworth began with the frog test analogy (a frog placed in a pan of cold water which is then placed over heat and warmed up until boiling will never jump out), and said publishers have acted like this with the rise of the internet. He discussed the various ways in which the internet has come to pervade our lives, with Google, Apple and Amazon now the new big three publishers on the world stage. With these companies coming to dominate the industry, Holdsworth insisted, ‘it is not the strongest that survives, but the most adaptable’.

Adaptability became the theme of his speech. He outlined how most of the publishers of the 20th century published in one format, with trade publishers having to meet the widest market and the lowest common denominator:

‘Publishing then was very horizontal. They were eager to sell any book to anybody, all in hardback, with production values that will probably never be surpassed. The internet is the polar opposite. It is flexible, agile, dynamic. It is most successful when it is vertical. It fosters niche groups, empowers readers and consumers. It is the wisdom of crowds. The book as a static entity is looking very stodgy indeed. Academic publishers have been quick to get in on niche markets. Trade publishers have not been as quick but have been nimble to get on board the e-world.’

This point about academic publishing being ahead of the field in electronic publishing is often overlooked. Gordon Graham, publisher at Butterworths, was involved in the instigation of Lexus Nexus over 30 years ago. I think it’s important to bear in mind that around 70% of all books sold are academic/educational, and the electronic channel is the major route to market (ScienceDirect, InformaWorld, Wilyinterscience to name just a few).

‘Word of mouth is now word of mouse. What is the point of a book without a conversation or feedback? Writing and book publishing can be solitary activities. Readers have always wanted to give feedback and have conversations about content. Blogging, Facebook, Youtube are all easy formats. Free of the ties of paper, ink, and printers we dip into the internet. We buy, we sell, we live online.’

Holdsworth believes ubiquitous online access will become the norm, as Google and Amazon urge the industry on. He predicted Google Editions will offer online access, possibly via an Amazon upgrade and bundle service: they might provide online access for free if the consumer purchases the book.

‘In terms of E-book growth, year on year this is 25 percent. Are we almost there? Maybe. Apple just may be the second mouse to the cheese.’

Holdsworth then considered other aspects of the digital future: how digital immigrants have focussed too much on the device (‘All that matters is that it is connected. Many Readers will fail as eventually they will become as inflexible as printed paper’); the role of authorship and editors and how many will agree to have their content trampled upon by electronic bells and whistles; the fact that creative challenges of creating, rendering, and monitoring all need to be addressed; and the rise and rise of e-learning. Students want greater online content, and so do universities (online courses are considerable revenue streams).

There is clearly still a vital role for publishers to play in the digital future, but Holdsworth believes the industry's approach has to change: 'There is a wrong culture ,with publishers thinking they are the centre of the universe and bypassing booksellers. As a US general was quoted: "If you don't like change. You'll like irrelevance even less." The world as we know it is gone.'

Review: Inside Book Publishing, 4th edition, Giles Clark and Angus Philips

In the past two decades Inside Book Publishing has established itself as a mainstay adoption on publishing courses throughout the UK and abroad. The text's genesis lies within the history of the Society of Young Publishers: in the early 1980s the SYP asked Clark to research and write a guidebook 'for the benefit of its members, to give an overview of publishing and the careers available'. Now in its 4th edition it has stayed true to this original aim: with added benefits of currency, the insight of expert contributors' and coverage of those issues which have so dominated the agenda of the industry since the turn of the millenium.

Clark and new co-author Angus Philips officially launched the 4th edition in the grand Italianate surroundings of Headington Hill Hall. Giles began by describing his entry to publishing via family connections and an early apprenticeship ('I was born into publishing'), and elaborated on the involvement of the SYP and, vitally, Gordon Graham's role in preventing the work from going unpublished. Now founder and Editor Emeritus of LOGOS, Graham (an honorary member of the SYP) at the time was President of The Publishers Association and Chief Executive of Butterworths; he facilitated Clark's introduction to Dag Smith of the Book House Training Centre. As Clark said to me:

'It would have been wildly optimistic to predict that the book planned by the SYP, meeting in the board room of Michael Joseph in Bedford Square, would still be growing in size and sales in the next century, that another generation of upcoming publishers would be trained by it.'

Clark hinted he was a somewhat tired author as the book entered its 3rd edition; he was especially grateful for Angus Philips' invigorating him and the book, and for introducing such valuable pedagogy into the text. Angus thanked the publisher for allowing him the luxury he had always denied his authors as an editor: the selection of a typeface!

Philips' influence, as Director of the Oxford International Publishing Centre at Oxford Brookes, is evident throughout the book. A variety of effective learning tools and pedagogy have been incorporated. The 'Expert' boxes are a welcome addition for putting each chapter content into an industry context: from Kevin Fitzgerald regarding the Copyright Licensing Agency, Christoph Chesher on ebooks from a sales perspective, Sue Freestone on working with authors, to Eric de Bellaigue on how publishing companies are valued, added learning value is to be gained throughout the new edition with the inclusion of such professional analysis.

The 'Focus' boxes are similarly beneficial and serve as a concentrated, intertextual aside to topics or terms mentioned within each chapter. For me, the beauty of these is that they include such subjects as the Net Book Agreement, the Rise and Collapse of Multimedia Publishing and the Research Assessment Exercise; although topics unfamiliar to today's young publisher, I believe it is important to appreciate the context in which our predecessors worked and made their decisions, and the effect these have had on today's business landscape.

The 'Skills' boxes serve as the HR officer: this is where the reader can locate details of the prerequisite personal/professional skills necessary for each division. These are certainly a useful indicator to the character of the day to day working culture in Commissioning, Editorial, Production, Design, Picture Research, Marketing, Sales, International Sales and Rights. The reader may find an indication of where their own future career paths will take them.

No matter your age/experience within publishing Inside Book Publishing makes for a pleasant reading experience. Throughout, the book is reader friendly and such sections as the Glossary, directory of organisations, networking opportunities, sources, web resources and training courses are an invaluable orientation for the reader. It is well pitched at the dedicated beginner, and liberally illustrated with book covers, page proofs, workflows, tables, halftones and figures. The companion website, however, is a somewhat sparse and underused utility (http://www.insidebookpublishing.com/), but it is worth mentioning here that there is a forthcoming online course being developed in association with the Publishing Training Centre.

For those entering this culturally and intellectually rewarding industry this 4th edition should prove to be as useful an investment in a professional capacity as it is in an academic one.