By Edward Nawotka, Editor-in-chief
I’m delighted that this is Publishing Perspectives’ third year publishing show dailies at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Looking back on the past three years, you can see just how much has changed in publishing, and how much remains the same. Some of the topics that made headlines years ago—e-books, e-readers, territoriality, rights—are still top of the agenda; but several new buzzwords and concepts have also emerged: transmedia, gamification, social media marketing, and book discovery are just a few of them—all of which will be part of the conversation at today’s Tools of Change conference.
Metadata is another one of those words that you’ll be hearing often during this year’s Fair. A few years ago metadata was familiar only to specialists; today it is essential to everyone’s career. Publishing Perspectives is hosting a half-day conference “Metadata Perspectives” on Thursday. If you want to learn more about this all-important topic, you can register for the conference at http://bit.ly/metaconf.
Three years ago, all eyes were on China; today, the publishing world is talking about Brazil. It should come as no surprise then that Brazil is the featured country at today’s International Rights Directors Meeting.
Once again Publishing Perspectives is ahead of the curve: earlier this year we formed a partnership with PublishNews, the leading publishing trade magazine in Brazil, to offer PublishNewsBrazil.com—a news site and newsletter exclusively on this booming market.
Could Latin America be the next global hot spot? We think so. Spanish is, after all, the third most widely spoken language on the planet after Chinese and English. It’s reason why we just launched Spanish World Book News in collaboration with Fundación El Libro in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This original news services will offer you in-depth coverage of Spanish-language publishing from across the Americas and Spain. Everyone is cordially invited to our launch event at the Sparks Stage, Hall 8.0, N988 at 4 p.m on Friday.
Finally, it’s stating the obvious to point out that children’s and YA publishing remains one of the brightest spots in the global publishing marketplace, both in print and, increasingly, digital. It’s only fitting that there’s an entire conference track devoted to the subject: today’s Publishers Launch “Children’s Books Go Digital.”
We, too, are enthusiastic about the innovation going on in children’s publishing and have recently launched Publishing Perspectives Children’s Books, a dedicated email covering the top children’s news stories from around the world.
So, whatever your business, we have an edition of Publishing Perspectives that can help provide you with up-to-date news and information from around the world. Subscribe at www.publishingperspectives.com or follow on Twitter (@pubperspectives), Facebook or LinkedIn.
The Frankfurt Book Fair may only come around once per year, but Publishing Perspectives is with you the whole year through.
Here’s wishing you a great and successful Fair!