News Archive

Dear Members,

I’d have liked to commence the first ‘President’s file’ of 2011 wishing you all a positive start to the year after what had hopefully been for the most of you a pleasant holiday period. However as we all now know, 2011 has delivered the nation a very sad event that has touched us all. I would like to again extend our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those who lost loved ones during the quake. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with you.

To our members in the Christchurch region we know these are trying times. I’ve been heartened to see the multitude of offers being made by people from the publishing community. Whether it be an offer for some holiday accommodation or something as simple as someone to talk to, I know how keen people are to offer help.

Beyond the very personal tragedy of Christchurch has been the industry concern around the fortunes and future of RedGroup Retail. Having been placed into voluntary administration in February, we are all anxiously awaiting news and information that will inform us of what the future holds for this very important channel partner. I hope you are all keeping informed and following the information provided by the administrators closely. If PANZ is in a position to provide information that is useful to members we will certainly disseminate this accordingly.

New Zealand Book Month has now commenced. I attended a wonderful opening to New Zealand Book Month held at St Mathews in the City. A fine time was had by all and a very entertaining debate was held. It was a welcome reminder of what is so positive about our industry bringing together authors, publishers and sponsors. The ‘Books Change Lives’ national promotion is an outstanding and clear message that reminds all New Zealanders of the tremendously positive impact that books have.

Finally I would like to mention the Frankfurt Country of Honour 2012 initiative. By the time this newsletter is posted many of you may have attended meetings with our guests from Germany and learnt more of this exciting opportunity for New Zealand. Your council is unanimously in favour of New Zealand securing this opportunity. The benefits to the publishing community and the wider creative communities of New Zealand are palpable. I hope to be able to report soon that the green light is given to this proposal. It will be a massive undertaking but the opportunity to highlight New Zealand on the world stage is too great to miss. Fingers crossed everyone!

I wish you all a wonderful New Zealand Book Month.

Adrian Keane

President

Jenny Haworth of Wily Publications reports on her expereince at the forum.

It was a new initiative for PANZ – a forum introducing many aspects of New Zealand publishing to both younger and newer members of the industry. We met at the Villa Maria winery looking out over the vineyards; it was a setting to stimulate the imagination. For many of us it was a chance to re-evaluate our role in publishing as well to learn about the dramatic changes that are affecting the industry. As Tony Fisk of HarperCollins said: “Never since the time of Gutenburg has publishing faced more dynamic changes than at present.”

The idea was to take the participants through publishing a book, from the development of an idea to a realistic concept, supported by figures, which could be pitched to a publishing committee. Vital to this process was to learn how to prepare a proper budget: one which contained sufficient profit margin when all overheads were costed in to keep the publisher afloat and able to produce more books. Both Nicola Legat (Random House) and Sam Elworthy (AUP) deftly presented this process.

Then it was over to us to take the guidelines and to develop a concept of our own. This we were to pitch to a high-powered publishing committee on the Saturday.

The participants were divided into five groups and not surprisingly three of them chose to focus their presentation on a book about Bob Parker. Generally the aim of each of these proposals was to bring to life his character and story so people who did not know Bob would get a better understanding of the man at the forefront of the Christchurch earthquake. The idea was also to uncover his vision for the Christchurch of the future.

But there were other good ideas. One of them was book on the illustrators who illuminate children’s books.

Most of us spent a busy lunchtime working on our proposals.

After lunch we heard about the realities of the market place from Ka Meechan (Nielsen); about executing a sales plan from Melanie Laville-Moore (Allen and Unwin) and maximising marketing and publicity opportunities from Sandra Lees and Raewyn Davies (Penguin). They gave us valuable information to add to our sales pitch for the Saturday presentation.

The last speaker, Paula Browning, discussed CLL and its role in digital publishing in New Zealand.

We broke at five and relaxed over a wine at Villa Maria. Then we retired to the Holiday Inn at Airport Oaks to spend the night. This was an important aspect of the conference because it gave a chance to network with others in the industry and to make friends.  We were a diverse group and many had very interesting stories and comments.

Next morning, when not worrying over our presentations we heard from Adrian Keane (Pearson) about the difficulties and the potential of educational publishing and from Joan Mackenzie about bookselling in New Zealand and the emergence of the Paper Plus chain as a major book retailer.

Then it was our turn to make our presentations – a nerve wracking event. We each had 10 minutes to make our pitch to a panel of experts. The templates had to be presented as a power point. All were very professional and it was one of the books about Bob Parker that won.

Its value was as a practical demonstration which made us focus on the how of publishing and forced us to consider the guidelines and advice that we had been given.

The whole event was exceptionally well organised. All the main speakers gave wonderful presentations and their use of power point and handouts meant that we all left with valuable notes. But the initiative also brought us together as a group and helped us to established links with one another.

An excellent in depth event, for which Anne de Lautour and Melanie Laville-Moore are to be thanked for organising.

For the first time, NZ was represented at the Taipei International Book Exhibition held for six days in February. Attendance was organised late last year when Carla van Zon, Manager of Creative NZ International visited Taiwan and met with organisers of the book fair. The delegation comprised Robyn Bargh from Huia Publishers, Anne de Lautour from PANZ, Julia Marshall from Gecko Press, Sarah Ropata, Creative NZ International Adviser and was supported and funded by the organisers of TIBE and Creative NZ International.  Our Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade (MFAT) sponsored Gavin Bishop to attend as an author and illustrator as the focus was children’s books.

Anne de Lautour reports “Our purpose was to gain an overall picture of the potential of TIBE as a rights selling opportunity for NZ publishers. From the moment we arrived, the organisers promoted our attendance and providing introductions to key publishers and agents. We met also with various media including Publishers Weekly and radio who were interested in, and knowledgeable about, our writers.  We presented two seminars speaking about our market, our publishing and the new translation programme and an excellent translator made this possible. MFAT ensured that Gavin’s schedule was full visiting schools and addressing children’s literature experts.

The new NZ ambassador in Taipei, Stephen Paynter held a reception for TIBE board members and main publishers and agents to meet us which was invaluable for networking and understanding more about about the business of publishing in Taiwan.”

If you are interested in learning more or attending TIBE in 2012 please contact anne@publishers.org.nz

Below – NZ delegates with Stephen Paynter NZ Ambassador to Taipei

A bid to have Australian insolvency practitioners Ferrier Hodgson replaced as the administrators of Whitcoulls and Borders gained little traction at the first New Zealand creditors’ meeting this week.

In a show of hands no creditors except the New Zealand Customs Service, which proposed the plan, voted in favour of it.

The booksellers’ parent company REDgroup Retail Pty was placed in voluntary administration by its directors on February 17, and Ferrier Hodgson appointed on both sides of the Tasman to handle the process.

Preferential creditor Customs wanted Ferrier Hodgson dropped and local firm Waterstone Insolvency appointed as the administrators of the Kiwi operations.

Waterstone principal Damien Grant told the meeting that almost half of the A$44 million owed to unsecured creditors was due to New Zealand-based organisations and individuals. “We have a disproportionate level of the unsecured debt in New Zealand.”

Private equity firm Pacific Equity Partners which owns REDgroup had given the company secured loans of A$113 million, accounting for most of the company’s A$170 million in liabilities.

That meant PEP, which put the company into voluntary administration, was entitled to get paid ahead of any of the preferential or unsecured creditors.

 “We would be negotiating very hard with PEP in terms of doing a deal in respect of New Zealand,” Grant said.
But getting their head around the voluntary administration regime itself appeared to be enough for bewildered creditors at the Ellerslie Event Centre on Tuesday.

The gathering was surprisingly subdued, with virtually no comment from the floor.

Voluntary administration (VA) is not new in Australia but was only introduced into New Zealand in 2007.

The aim of it is to rehabilitate companies rather than put them into receivership or liquidation, and to offer a more orderly wind-up of firms that are not viable. One of the intentions is to provide higher returns to creditors.

However the regime has produced mixed results in this country so far.

REDgroup is the first transtasman VA and the largest to date in New Zealand, and its progress is being watched closely by the insolvency fraternity. The Australian and New Zealand rules are similar but not identical. For instance, In Australia preferential and unsecured creditors can be treat the same; in New Zealand preferential creditors must be accorded preferential status, meaning they are usually paid before unsecured creditors.

By Maria Slade

BNZ/PANZ Lifetime Achievement Award (the only one awarded) Ray Richards, a publisher for many years and now literary agent, notched up 90 years on February 1 this year.

If we all had his energy, enthusiasm and hard working brain the country’s financial problems could be solved. If Ray is still working 25 years on from today’s pension receiving age, then surely superannuation need not be paid to anyone under 80!

Ray was tough stuff from an early age. At 14 years 11 months and 12 years old respectively, Ray and his brother Sim took the train to Auckland and rode their bikes back to home in Wellington. “They were different days then – molestation hadn’t been invented, roads were gravel not bitumen and bikes didn’t have gears!”

At Cambridge Ray got mail asking him to accept an offer of employment at AH & AW Reed Publishing. AH Reed knew of Ray and recommended him to AW for the position. “So it was helter skelter back to Wellington.”

Getting the job meant Ray didn’t have to go back to school, and we’re talking depression years here.

Ray did his bit in the Fleet Air Arm to win the war and came back to Reeds’ to find AW wanted to follow his uncle’s example and become an author. So Ray’s progression from production and magazine manager to becoming an editor, then taking over the company’s book division was warp speed (though that probably hadn’t been invented then.)

That was only the beginning of a lifetime in books with some amazing milestones on the way – less than five years after fighting Japanese forces he was forging business deals with Kyoto in Japan to print New Zealand books in full colour.

An amazing life with so many highlights… and deals still in the pipeline not ready to be revealed just yet.

Luckily, Linda Cassells recorded several hours of Ray talking about his career in books for the History of New Zealand Publishing Oral History Archive. Some historian should write a bio – but not right now, there are more chapters to come.

Congratulations Ray!

NEWS RELEASE: Thursday 27 January 2011

High-profile, award-winning judges selected for prestigious New Zealand Post Book Awards 2011

The five members of this year’s judging panel, charged with identifying the country’s best books published in 2010, bring with them wide-ranging talents and celebrated literary nous.

Judging panel convenor and Te Reo Māori Advisor,Paul Diamond, a past judge of the New Zealand Post Book Awards, is a broadcaster, writer and historian. He is joined by writer, educationalist and broadcaster, Charmaine Pountney; former mayor, ad man, environmentalist and lobbyist,Bob Harvey QSO; award-winningauthor and broadcaster,Emily Perkins; and acclaimed poet and editor,Michael Harlow.

Booksellers NZ Chief Executive Officer, Lincoln Gould, is thrilled with the eclectic and wide-ranging talents of the judges appointed to select the best of New Zealand fiction, poetry and non-fiction published in 2010.

“The judges were selected by the Awards Management Committee, for the rich scope and diversity of their skills, which they will bring to bear on the judging process. Their differing work and life experiences encapsulate knowledge in a wide variety of subject areas, and their collective decades of reading covers off some extraordinary literary terrain. I expect their differing perspectives will lead to some robust debate as they make their selections.”

Convenor Paul Diamond says the New Zealand Post Book Awards promote excellence in, and provide recognition for, the best books published annually in New Zealand. “It’s an opportunity to celebrate the stunning books published in this country and all the elements that make a book—text of course, but also things like design and illustrations.

“Being part of the judging team for last year’s awards was a wonderful experience – I learned a lot from my fellow judges.  It’s an honour to be convening this year’s panel, and I’m looking forward to working with and learning from another stellar team.”

The four categories in the New Zealand Post Book Awards are: Poetry, Fiction, Illustrated Non-fiction and General Non-fiction. There will be 16 finalist books in total (three finalists in the Fiction and Poetry categories and five in the Illustrated Non-fiction and General Non-fiction categories).

The overall New Zealand Post Book of the Year Award winner will receive $15,000. Winners of the four Category Awards will each receive $10,000; the Māori Language Award $10,000; the People’s Choice Award $5,000; and the winners of the three New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA) Best First Book Awards will receive $2,500.

The judges will read more than 150 submitted books published in 2010 before selecting the finalists and ultimately, the winners.

The New Zealand Post Book Awards 2011 finalists will be announced on Wednesday 1 June 2011.On that day, winners of the Māori Language Award and three NZSA Best First Book Awards for Fiction, Poetry and Non-fiction will also be announced.

The winners will be announced at an Awards Ceremony to be held in Wellington on Wednesday 27 July 2011.

New Zealand Post Group’s sponsorship of the New Zealand Book Awards is symbolic of their strong and active support of the country’s literature.  It forms part of a wider portfolio of partnerships aimed at supporting New Zealanders, and the growth of New Zealand, by lifting levels of literacy and education. As sponsor of the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards for 15 years, their sponsorship highlights the company’s commitment to promoting literary excellence. Working closely with Booksellers NZ, New Zealand Post and other dedicated segments of the community, their mandate is to actively encourage New Zealanders to read and enjoy books.

The New Zealand Post Book Awards 2011 are also funded by Creative New Zealand.  The Awards are managed by Booksellers NZ and supported by the New Zealand Society of Authors and Book Tokens (NZ) Ltd

New Zealand Book Month is pleased to confirm that it will be printing and distributing 4 million $5 book vouchers for March 2011, thanks to generous sponsorship from book printing specialist Printlink – part of Blue Star NZ. This sponsorship covers the total print run and paper supply, and is fundamental to the “Books Change Lives” campaign going ahead.

Nikki Crowther, Project Director, says:  “The teams at Printlink and Blue Star NZ have been very supportive of what we are looking to achieve with New Zealand Book Month this year. As a well-established, and yet highly pro-active book printer, Printlink is keen to work with us, with publishers and with booksellers to deliver powerful campaigns to encourage book sales in New Zealand.”

Printlink is a long-established printing company with a diverse range of private and public sector clients. With a number of award-winning publishers amongst its client base, it is able to handle both large and small-scale runs to a diverse range of specifications. It offers extensive in-house production capacity across a range of technologies and services – from pre-press, including page layout and design services, through to offset and digital printing, extensive binding capabilities and mailing and distribution services. Printlink is part of the trans-Tasman Blue Star Group, which is made up of established, industry-leading operations across print manufacturing, print management, mailing and logistics.

Harper Collins MD Tony Fisk, one of three publishers on the Book Trade Liaison Committee, has assumed the chair of the organisation from Booksellers NZ’s Hamish Wright. The chair will alternate between a bookseller and a publisher member from year to year. The other publishers on the committee are PANZ Councillors, Melanie Laville-Moore and Kevin Chapman.

Amongst a number of other issues the group has focused on, BTLC has worked with NZ Book Month in the set up of this year’s bold initiative, the distribution of four million $5 discount vouchers to be used in participating bookshops towards the purchase of any book selling for $10 or more. 

“The promotion will result in a significant increase in book sales right around the country in the traditionally quiet month of March,” Fisk says. “I believe this campaign is the most exciting initiative undertaken by the industry in a very long time and would urge all booksellers and publishers to give it their complete support. All of the larger players in the industry, both publishers and booksellers, are 100% behind it which will ensure a high retail profile for the whole month.”

“Christmas for Harper Collins started off well with big sales of books in October and November,” says Tony Fisk. “But I did feel there was a level of cautiousness in retailer ordering.

“The market was a bit softer in December than expected, but we ended up overall for the three months. The books we wanted to do well delivered, especially the Whineray bio by Bob Howitt and the motorsport title Croz: Larrikin Biker. Quake continued to sell – and in fact it still is this month.”

AUP’s Sam Elworthy is delighted to report that they ended their financial year on December 31 “ahead of predictions on sales and ahead on profits”. Titles that did the business for AUP over Christmas were Blue Smoke, Chris Bourke’s title on popular music 1918- 64, Julia Gatley’s Group Architects and Crisis by Alan Bollard with Sarah Gaitanos

“Because the situation mid-year looked pretty crappy, we were pleasantly surprised,” says Elworthy.

Kevin Chapman at Hachette summed up their Christmas as “OK. Not good, not bad. December started well and then just stopped.” He interpreted this as an attempt by retailers, a few titles notwithstanding, to try and sell existing stock. Hachette’s own hot titles included Keith Richards’ autobiography Life, Murray Ball’s cartoon collection The Wisdom of Dog, The Wheels on the Bus in its new local version and Maeve Binchy’s Minding Frankie. Overall, Hachette’s Christmas was “unspectacular, average”.

Random House’s Karen Ferns rated their trading over the period “A reasonable Christmas. It was erratic and not as we expected, but we ended up with a good outcome for the year as a whole.” Cookbooks were again strong for Random – Jo Seagar’s It’s Easier than You Think, Speight’s Southern Man Cookbook followed by MasterChef NZ were the bigger sellers among NZ books, and Go Fish, first published in 2009, “fired again.” Nigella Lawson’s Kitchen was the lead international non fiction title, she said.

“In international fiction the titles to mention are Lee Child’s second book for the year, Worth Dying For published in September and selling on strongly.John Grisham’sThe Confession and Jilly Cooper’s new racy saga Jump! were next in line.

“Overall it was a solid rather than spectacular Christmas for Random, with lots of books and authors performing respectably but few spiking beyond expectations,” concludes Karen Ferns.

“It was a challenging Christmas for Allen & Unwin with sales slightly behind on the previous year,” reports Melanie Laville-Moore. “Fiction was particularly tough and we were very grateful to have had the contribution from the Millennium Trilogy to buoy this part of the list up for us.

“On the positive side, we had some great successes with individual titles. In particular, Wendyl Nissen’s Home Companion proved to be an overall crowd-pleaser and sold strongly through all channels which was very pleasing to see.”

Penguin NZ’s Christmas season sales were “patchy” says Siobhan Clare, general manager, sales. “We had some stand out successes overall with our titles, but it was a challenging Christmas,” she says.

All Blacks Don’t Cryby John Kirwan was one of the stand outs, and equally Lloyd Jones’ Hand Me Down World was the fiction best seller. “Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals was the cook book of note, with retailers commenting that he had returned to his former glory! Stephen Fry’s The Fry Chronicles exceeded expectations and we were pleased with Dawn French’s A Tiny Bit Marvellous.

“2010 was the year of Wimpy Kid for Penguin – it was flying out the door, and the final Vampire Academy title did well. A revised hardback-with-CD version of A Pukeko in a Ponga Tree was well received as was the board format of Slinky Malinki’s Christmas Crackers.”

Creative New Zealand has announced the first recipients of funding as part of the new scheme supporting the translation of New Zealand literature into foreign languages.

Joy Cowley’s junior fiction Friends: Snake & Lizard will be translated into Norwegian by Oslo-based publishing house Cappelen Damm and Alison Wong’s As the Earth turns Silver will be translated into Spanish by Madrid-based publisher, Ediciones Siruela.

The scheme was developed following research by the New Zealand Book Council which found that the leading international models for promoting a country’s literature focused on a translation grant scheme.

Administered by the Publishers Association of New Zealand (PANZ) the scheme contributes up to 50 percent of the translation cost per title, to a maximum $5000. Launched at the Frankfurt Book Fair last October, the scheme will be extended to the Asian market at next month’s Taipei International Book Fair.

International Publishers can apply online at www.publishers.org.nz. Application deadlines for 2011 are 1 February, 1 May, 1 August and 1 November. Further information at: http://www.creativenz.govt.nz/international/new_zealand_literature

Creative New Zealand has announced the first recipients of funding as part of the new scheme supporting the translation of New Zealand literature into foreign languages.

Joy Cowley’s junior fiction Friends: Snake & Lizard will be translated into Norwegian by Oslo-based publishing house Cappelen Damm and Alison Wong’s As the Earth turns Silver will be translated into Spanish by Madrid-based publisher, Ediciones Siruela.

The scheme was developed following research by the New Zealand Book Council which found that the leading international models for promoting a country’s literature focused on a translation grant scheme.

Administered by the Publishers Association of New Zealand (PANZ) the scheme contributes up to 50 percent of the translation cost per title, to a maximum $5000. Launched at the Frankfurt Book Fair last October, the scheme will be extended to the Asian market at next month’s Taipei International Book Fair.

International Publishers can apply online at www.publishers.org.nz. Application deadlines for 2011 are 1 February, 1 May, 1 August and 1 November.

Further information at: http://www.creativenz.govt.nz/international/new_zealand_literature