News Archive

Applications are invited for the position of General Manager – Publishing in the Publishing Department at Penguin Group (NZ).

This senior role is responsible for the overall management, planning and shaping of the New Zealand Publishing list. In addition, this role will be responsible for researching and commissioning a range of new commercial adult lifestyle/non-fiction books and other media for Penguin NZ’s publishing programme, both illustrated and non-illustrated.

You will have a solid background in commissioning within a publishing or a related field, ideally with a specialty in lifestyle or non-fiction mediums as well as strong editorial skills and have proven experience as an exceptional team leader.   To be successful in this role, you will be a strategic thinker with commercial acumen, have an excellent record of developing strong working relationships and be a skilled networker.

This position will appeal to someone who enjoys being part of a senior management team, has both the expertise and a real passion for the book trade, and is stimulated by motivating a team to achieve their targets.

To register your interest in applying or to receive a copy of the job description for this position, please contact:

Yvette Mackay
Human Resources Manager
Pearson New Zealand
yvette.mackay@pearsonnz.co.nz

Please send your confidential letter of application and resume before 5pm, Monday 2 August 2010.
 

Penguin Group (NZ) is seeking to appoint a talented and successful Publisher to join the Publishing Team.
The role of Publisher will be responsible for researching and commissioning a range of new commercial adult lifestyle books for Penguin NZ’s publishing programme, taking each book through the in-house approval stage from idea to acquisition.

To be successful in this role you will need to have a solid background in publishing or a related field, ideally with a specialty in lifestyle or non-fiction books, as well as strong editorial skills. You will have an excellent record of developing healthy working relationships and be a skilled networker. Your creativity and design abilities are outstanding, as is your capacity to persuade and influence. An effective level of pragmatism and commercial awareness mixed with the ability to get things done will be vital to the end result.

To register your interest in applying or to receive a copy of the job description for this position, please contact:

Yvette Mackay
Human Resources Manager
Pearson New Zealand
yvette.mackay@pearsonnz.co.nz

Please send your confidential letter of application and resume before 5pm, Monday 2 August 2010.

We are pleased to announce that this year the premier award for the best book has been renamed the Gerard Reid Award for Best Book, sponsored by Nielsen. This is a fitting recognition of the major and lasting contribution Gerard made to book publishing, design and production in New Zealand. Book design is an area of publishing that Gerard and his wife Mary Egan championed, first with their company Egan Reid and latterly at Pindar NZ.

After discussion with PANZ, Nielsen BookData , the sponsor of the Best Book Award,  readily agreed to the name change and their continuing sponsorship. Ka Meechan, Managing Director, Asia Pacific for Nielsen BookData, says they are especially proud to be the sponsors for the inaugural Gerard Reid Best Book Award.

Nielsen BookData has a strong and active presence in New Zealand, and is committed to supporting the local publishing and bookselling industry.

Nielsen BookData provides comprehensive, enriched and timely bibliographic data worldwide to booksellers, libraries and publishers in 100 countries around the world. While Nielsen BookScan provides the world’s only continuous book retail monitoring service in the UK, Ireland, US, Australia, South Africa, Italy, Denmark, Spain and New Zealand.

After 25 years with Penguin New Zealand, Geoff Walker, Publishing Director, has announced that he will leave and move on to pursue other opportunities.

Geoff joined the company in 1985 and basically built the local publishing list from scratch. Under his direction and guidance our New Zealand local list grew to become one of the most acclaimed and respected in this country, winning pretty much every major award for outstanding fiction and non-fiction. It is due to Geoff that we include such notable authors in our stable as Patricia Grace, Lloyd Jones, Maurice Gee, Michael King and many others.

Geoff will leave Penguin at the end of 2010 and will be key in helping to set up the department to continue after his departure.

“Though we are sad to see Geoff go he is certainly leaving us in good shape. In 2009 we achieved record sales for our local publishing list and are well set up to continue this trend with the best team of publishing folk in the business.

I would like to thank Geoff for his amazing contribution over the years and to acknowledge his true professionalism and dependability, in good times and tough times. It is indeed the end of an era.”  MD, Margaret Thompson

“I’ve very mixed feelings in making this decision because working with Penguin authors and their books have been the happiest times of my professional life. It’s been an incredible thrill to be associated with some of New Zealand’s best writers. But it’s time for me to change direction and try something new – and perhaps do a little less of it than a busy publishing life usually permits.

I won’t be retiring in any sense, just moving on from the corporate publishing life and doing a few things that interest me. I still plan to be around the publishing world. In the meantime, I won’t be leaving until towards the end of the year, so the transition will be a gradual one. The Penguin New Zealand publishing programme remains in extremely good heart and that’s very important to me.

I want to thank all the wonderful authors I’ve worked with. It’s been a joy to be your publisher.”  Geoff Walker

NEW ZEALAND BOOK MONTH MOVES TO MARCH TO REACH EVEN MORE KIWI READERS

New Zealand Book Month (NZBM) will take place each March from 2011 to better fit with the book industry’s annual calendar and to build a broader reach for the campaign. New Zealand Book Month has previously been held in October.

“We have taken the decision to move in order to ensure that New Zealand Book Month is sustainable for the future”, says Nikki Crowther, Project Director.

“In addition, October will be a poor choice in 2011 due to the Rugby World Cup, so we have planned a viable, long-term change now. If we are to build New Zealand Book Month into a significant celebration of books and reading, and one that all Kiwis are aware of, we need a strong and clear 3-year plan around a fixed date.”

After several months of consultation and planning, March has been identified as the optimum month that as many organisations as possible can support – including publishers, booksellers, librarians and schools, said Ms Crowther.

“The change of date to March is really exciting”, says Hamish Wright, of Wrights’ Booksellers in Cambridge. “It’s a great time for booksellers to reach out to both new and existing customers,  and for readers to get enthusiastic about books after the frenzy of Christmas, summer holidays and back to school.”

Last year, NZBM involved more than 300 events, from Stewart Island to Kaitaia, and reached an estimated 25,000 Kiwis in a month-long celebration of books and reading. Events were organised via a network of committed volunteer “activists”, and included Hairy Maclary look-alikes in Christchurch, Kate De Goldi on a fire engine in Auckland, a Murder Mystery Club in Hastings and Dr Glam in Invercargill to name just a few.

In March 2011 New Zealand Book Month will involve a wider celebration of books, reading and literacy. NZBM aims to harness the passion and commitment from its base of “activists” but also to reach out to new, lapsed and infrequent readers as well.

New Zealand Book Month will celebrate the power of reading – all books – to change and enrich our lives. Within that broader message New Zealand Book Month will continue to champion New Zealand writers, and at even more significant levels than ever before.

Crowther highlighted in particular its funding support from Creative New Zealand: “We are especially grateful for the support of Creative New Zealand. With its help we plan to double the number of author events this year – supporting Kiwi authors in reaching new audiences, and as a result introducing more potential readers right across the country to the rich variety and voice that New Zealand writers represent. Thanks to Creative New Zealand, March 2011 continues and builds on the passionate celebration of Kiwi authors that last year involved.”

“With its changes, New Zealand Book Month has the opportunity to address literacy issues in a unique and real way, with a broad and inclusive message for all Kiwis.  It’s a message that publishers feel strongly about and that’s why we endorse and fiscally support New Zealand Book Month,” says Kevin Chapman, Managing Director and Publisher, Hachette New Zealand.

“Last year, 19% of the books purchased in New Zealand were published in New Zealand. That’s a great result, but we’d like to give the people who bought the other 81% a chance to hear and learn about the immense range and quality of New Zealand writing and writers.  Going forward New Zealand Book Month wants Kiwis to leap in and immerse themselves in the rivers of brilliant stories available here, past and present.  We are committed to the idea that books change lives.” says Mary Robbins, Chair of New Zealand Book Month.

Three talented young book designers have been shortlisted for this year’s Awa Press Young Designer of the Year Award, a major feature of the PANZ Book Design Awards. This prestigious award recognises emerging talent in the field of book design.

Designers Sarah Healey, Kalee Jackson and Keely O’Shannessy make up this year’s outstanding shortlist.

“The industry is in exciting hands,” said the judges for the 2010 award, Dexter Fry and Katy Yiakmis.

Impressed with the standard of emerging book designers, the judges described this year’s entrants as “courageous and passionate” for “finding themselves a place in a small and particular market”.

Designers under 35 years of age present a portfolio of book designs to be considered for the award. These are judged on artistic merit, innovation of form and appropriateness to the intended market. The judges particularly look for consistent design across a whole portfolio, which all three shortlisted designers demonstrated.

Sarah Healey is a freelance designer based in Auckland. She enjoys presenting information in an “accessible and visually exciting way”, often using innovative typography. Healey is particularly experienced in the area of children’s publishing, and last year one of her designs was highly commended in the PANZ Book Design Awards Best Children’s Book category.

Kalee Jackson is in-house designer for the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth. Her work is in designing books to accompany exhibitions for artists such as Francis Upritchard and Len Lye. Jackson experiments with bold colour use and packaging techniques.

Keely O’Shannessy is a freelance graphic designer, also based in Auckland. She has previously worked as a multimedia designer and video artist. In 2006 she began freelance design work and fell in love with designing books. Since then, publishing work has become increasingly central to her practice.

Judges Fry and Yiakmis have a wealth of design experience between them, and their achievements have both been recognised in previous years’ PANZ Book Design Awards. They are perfectly placed to make what will undoubtedly be a difficult decision.

The winner of the Awa Press Young Designer of the Year Award will be announced at the Publisher’s Association of New Zealand Book Design Awards ceremony in Auckland on 22 July.

David Glover, Chief Executive of Learning Media Limited, the leading New Zealand-owned educational services company, has been elected a director of the Board of the US-based Association of Educational Publishers (AEP).  He is the first non-American to sit on the board of this prestigious association, which includes senior executives of large international publishers such as McGraw-Hill and Scholastic Inc.

“I was invited to put my name up for election, because AEP wanted an international perspective and because Learning Media is well-known and respected in the United States as a quality publisher,” said David Glover.

"Many North Americans regard New Zealand as having the best literacy educators and educational resources in the world.  Learning Media has been in the US market for over ten years and has a strong reputation both for its products and the contract publishing services we provide to companies such as McGraw-Hill.  We earned $NZ5 million in overseas revenues in the last financial year."

The Association of Educational Publishers is a non-profit professional organisation for educational publishers and content developers, supported by nearly 400 print and digital publishers of all sizes and in all media. AEP facilitates communication among key interest groups such as educators, policy makers, educational foundations and associations, business and the education media.

David Glover will attend his first Board meeting in early June in Washington DC, at the same attending AEP’s Content in Context Conference, which will explore what’s working, not working and needed when it comes to using digital resources and technology in the classroom.

Alison Brook is to join HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand taking up the newly created local Head of Publishing role, reporting to Managing Director Tony Fisk.

Alison Brook joins HarperCollins from Penguin Books New Zealand, where she was Publisher Non Fiction.  In her new role at Harper Collins, Alison will be responsible for developing strategies that will continue the growth of HarperCollins New Zealand publishing. Together with the other members of the HarperCollins publishing team, she will work with existing HarperCollins’ authors, such as the perennial bestsellers, parenting expert Nigel Latta and social justice commentator Celia Lashlie, in the further development of their publishing careers.  She will oversee HarperCollins’ publishing programmes with organisations such as the New Zealand Olympics Committee and the SPCA, and develop exciting new opportunities with other organizations.  In addition, Alison will bring on board new authors and publishing projects, and work closely with the company’s international offices to enhance opportunities for international distribution and foreign rights sales for HarperCollins New Zealand authors. 

‘HarperCollins Publishers has experienced strong growth in local publishing across fiction, children’s and non-fiction titles over the past few years,’ said Tony Fisk, ‘but, we see further significant opportunities in nurturing brand authors and developing ongoing publishing strategies for new talent.  Alison will bring her enormously valuable commercial publishing experience in non-fiction publishing to this new role, and will contribute significantly to future growth of the company and its continuing commitment to the New Zealand bookselling industry.’

 ‘I’m very excited at the prospects of working with the HarperCollins team, both at local and international levels,’ says Ms Brook.  ‘I’m also looking forward to developing some exciting new projects with existing authors on the list, and, in time, to developing new authors and publishing connections.’

Alison Brook begins her new role with HarperCollins on Monday, 12 July.

Copyright Licensing Ltd (CLL)  announces the appointment of Paula Browning as CLL's new Chief Executive Officer. Paula will take up the position on 14 June 2010. Announcing the appointment, CLL's Chairman Chris Else said he was delighted.

"Paula has held senior roles in the commercial, education and sport sectors that have included strategic communications, contract management, community engagement, finance and advocacy. I am very confident that Paula's mix of skills and experience will make a strong contribution to CLL’s success both in its current role and in new directions.”

Paula is currently the Business Manager at Sport Auckland where she has recently led the establishment of the Auckland Sports Reference Group and worked with the Auckland Transition Agency in the development of the new Auckland local government structure.

Paula takes over the role from Kathy Moore who has moved on after 15 years at CLL.

The CLL Board and Staff are looking forward to working with Paula as the organisation moves to embrace the opportunities offered by the new digital age.

The first of what we hope will be several workshops for experienced non-fiction editors was held on 11 May in Auckland. It was a great opportunity for in-house and freelance editors to discuss major and minor editorial issues, under the expert guidance and direction of convenor Paula Wagemaker. Here’s a small sample of responses to the first workshop:

I was quick enough off the draw to secure my place as one of the 12 editors accepted into PANZ’s recent advanced non-fiction editing workshop. The one-day course brought together a mixture of in-house and freelance editors, all of whom had completed an editing assignment prior to the event. The well-facilitated discussions were based around these assignments, but quickly grew into broad, lively and illuminating debates on all aspects of editing (including whether editors can subtly control the population through the judicious editing of books!). Thanks Paula and Linda for the opportunity.

Odessa Owens, Te Papa Press

This week I was one of 12 or so participants in the PANZ Advanced Non-Fiction Editing Workshop run by Paula Wagemaker and Linda Cassells. This one-day workshop proved an invaluable experience, content-editing skills being such that, unless you have a constant mentor, it takes a lot of time and experience to build them up.

In advance of the course all participants were sent a sample piece of a non-fiction manuscript (there were three separate texts in all). We were asked to complete two tasks before the class: first, to undertake an initial assessment of the text we had been given, suggesting what treatment we thought it needed, then later an actual content edit of the text. This proved a clever approach because, amongst other things, it perfectly illustrated the gap which can occur between your first reactions to a text, and what you see when you actually drill down into it.

The size of the group at the workshop was ideal, and we were able to bounce ideas off each other, laugh at each other’s rather pathetic editor-type jokes, and compare experiences, all the while supported by sound and considered advice from Paula, which took the form of mentoring rather than any sort of lecture. To someone still in the early stages of editing I found that many of the traps and puzzles of editing were addressed and discussed — all in all, a very positive experience.

Antoinette Sturny, HarperCollins

If are interested in participating in future workshops of this kind, please contact PANZ councillor Linda Cassells (linda@calico.net.nz).