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Apply now for the Frankfurt Book Fair Fellowship Programme 2016

Application deadline is 30 April 2016

Exchanging experiences, professionalising the industry, making publishing more international – with the Frankfurt Book Fair Fellowship Programme, the Frankfurt Book Fair has made these three goals its mission. This October the renowned programme of the Frankfurt Book Fair is entering its 19th year: Since 1998, it has been promoting the transfer of knowledge and networking between international publishers, editors, agents and rights professionals. Applications for the programme may be submitted from now, and the deadline is 30 April 2016.

This year’s Frankfurt Book Fair Fellowship Programme will take place from 9 to 23 October 2016. By visiting publishing houses and bookstores in Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin, participants will gain first-hand insights into the German book industry. In the course of their stay, which encompasses participation in the Frankfurt Book Fair (19-23 October 2016), they will receive information about 16 exciting book markets, attend matchmaking events and have the opportunity to expand their networks.

The Frankfurt Book Fair Fellowship Programme was first launched to mark the 50th anniversary of the Frankfurt Book Fair. To date, over 300 participants from 55 countries have benefited long term from the programme. Annual meetings of former Frankfurt Fellows at the Frankfurt Book Fair and abroad ensure lively exchanges and lasting contacts.

Candidates for the Frankfurt Book Fair Fellowship Programme should demonstrate the following qualifications: several years’ experience in publishing, good English-language skills and basic knowledge of German (recommended).

The application form and additional information relevant for applying to the Frankfurt Fellowship Programme 2016 is available online at www.book-fair.com/fellows

Entries for the 2016 PANZ Book Design Awards and the PANZ Young Designer of the Year Award are now open.

PANZ Book Design Awards
Entries for the PANZ Book Design Awards are open to any New Zealand book, including educational, children’s, general fiction and non-fiction. The design work must be undertaken locally, but typesetting, printing and filmwork may be done overseas. Books must be published between 1 January and 31 December of the previous year. Designers must be New Zealand citizens or have been residents for at least three years at the closing date for entries and currently live in New Zealand.

PANZ Young Designer of the Year Award
To be eligible for this award, designers must be under 35 years of age as at 31 December of the previous year, New Zealand citizens by birth or residents for at least three years prior to 31 December of the previous year and must currently live in New Zealand.

Full details and how to enter click here

Kevin Chapman, Director of Upstart Press comments:

Last week I went to a lecture at Auckland University. It was given by a noted American lawyer and academic, Professor Kenneth Crews, and was ostensibly about copyright and library exceptions in NZ.

Copyright and the prospect of creep in the exceptions area should be a concern for every NZ author and publisher. The lecture started out like Copyright 101, and was designed for its audience. Apart from myself, Sam Elworthy, and Jackie Dennis from NZSA, the audience appeared to be largely librarians and academics, so a fertile ground for anti-copyright sentiment. And that is what Prof. Crews gave them. In a reasoned and mild-mannered way, pretty much every statement had an underlying message – “rights-holders are out to deny you access”. Every so often he would make a statement that seemed even-handed, such as talking about balance, but would then push back to his default position. Apparently balance is a difficult and problematic concept.

As well as minimising the value of copyright, Prof. Crews had another agenda. He said that he was not here to push a particular view, but he then delivered the hardest sell for “fair use” that I have seen so far in NZ. Fair use might well suit a litigious society like the U.S., but there is a reason why it has not been universally accepted. And he did not mention that of 188 members of the World Intellectual Property Organisation, only four have fair use.

However, in this room it appeared a panacea for all ills. When the questions began, the tilt really showed, and I couldn’t stop myself at one point. A questioner, in reference to the Marrakesh Treaty, asked why people would object to exceptions for the visually impaired. Prof. Crews gave a little riff on how movie companies argued that nobody but them should apply closed-captioning to their movies, and publishers said that they should be the ones who produced braille and daisy-wheel editions, but that they didn’t. I challenged him, pointing out that publisher objections had centered around lack of controls over who could make copies and distribute them. He accepted the point. So then I asked him if he had any comment on the PWC report that said that educational authors’ income and educational publishing had been decimated (common usage meaning, not the literal one) by education exceptions in Canada. He talked about academics not minding losing that income as they did it as part of their job.

I write this because this attack on authors and publishers livelihood is widespread, and insidious. This is a man who consults with WIPO, and met at least one minister during his visit here. The danger for the creative sector is “exception creep”, and each exception can seem harmless, especially when articulated by people who pretend to be author-friendly. All of us should be talking about this at every opportunity.

UPDATE: 30th March 2016

We are pleased to announce three further keynote speakers to the stellar line-up for the PANZ International Conference 2016.

The Conference Committee welcomes the participation of:

• Jo Lusby, Managing Director of Penguin Random House (North Asia),
• Justin Ractliffe , Managing Director: Marketing, Publicity & Australian Publishing at Hachette Australia
• and Nicky Hager, author and investigative journalist

Jo Lusby joined the company that is now Penguin Random House (North Asia) in 2005, and has established offices in Beijing, Shanghai, and Seoul. She oversees local publishing in the English, Chinese, and Korean languages, as well as the sale of imported books from the US and UK from her base in Hong Kong. A prominent member of the China’s creative business community, Jo is a regular public speaker on a range of subjects including digital transformation, brand and marketing, and regulatory issues for media companies.

Justin Ractliffe started his career in publishing at Walker Books Australia and then Random House.  Justin’s final position at RHA before coming to Hachette Australia was Head of Digital Marketing. At HA he was Sales & Marketing Director for the Hodder & Headline division before becoming Marketing & Publicity Director for Hachette Australia when it restructured in late 2013. In September 2014 he was appointed Joint Managing Director with a specific brief to manage publicity, sales and local publishing. He is the author of the children’s picture book DADS: A Field Guide and has a Masters of Marketing degree from the University of New South Wales.

Nicky Hager, based in Wellington, has written six best-selling books. He divides his time between investigative writing and freelance feature writing. He has specialized in investigating hard-to-document subjects, such as military and intelligence agencies and public relations activities and the unseen sides of politics.

PANZ is delighted to confirm the following world-class key-note speakers at the PANZ International Conference 2016 – local publishing, global thinking: 

• Diana Broccardo, Sales and Marketing Director at Profile Books
• Businessman Paul Blackwell
• Emma House, Director of Publisher Relations, The Publishers Association (UK);
• Kathy Hurley, industry consultant, US
• Briony Lewis, General Counsel, Legal, Contracts, Rights and Royalties for Penguin Random House APAC
• Kelly Morton, Head of Digital Marketing at Hachette Australia
• David O’Brien, Vice President, Schools Division, Cengage Australia.

What a line-up of national and international publishing talent!

Paul Blackwell has been involved in business in New Zealand since leaving school, and is currently a shareholder in Pak’n’Save Albany, the NZ Breakers basketball team, and P.Q. Blackwell Publishing.

Emma House runs the PA’s Boards on all aspects of publishing – Academic/STM, Education, Trade/Consumer and International. She also has responsibility for the PA anti-piracy enforcement campaigns in overseas territories and develops overseas business opportunities for UK publishers.

Kathy Hurley is the former EVP Pearson Foundation. She has over 40 years’ experience in traditional educational publishing and the Ed Tech sectors. Since retiring from Pearson Kathy has founded a global non-profit, Girls Thinking Global while continuing to consult in the Ed Tech sector.

Briony Lewis is an accomplished corporate lawyer with substantial commercial and legal experience gained within in-house and private practice environments. Her recent roles have been at the General Counsel level with extensive experience in dealing with a number of internal and external stakeholders across complex and regulated business environments.

Kelly Morton assumed her current role in 2014 and is a self-confessed Digital Nerd and Beatlemaniac.

David 0’Brien has 28 years’ experience in publishing.  He has responsibility for the strategic and business initiatives of the schools division as well as publishing and marketing and the sales functions for both primary and secondary in Australia.

The PANZ International Conference 2016 – local publishing, global thinking will be held on Thursday 30th June and Friday 1st July in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 128 Albert Street, Auckland.

REMINDER: We have secured rooms at a preferential rate for PANZ Conference delegations BUT there are a limited number of rooms available at this rate and the hotel will release the rooms if our delegates don’t require them.

Follow the link below to secure the conference rate of $195 a night for standard rooms at the Crowne Plaza hotel.

Publishers Association of New Zealand

More speakers and the programme will be confirmed in the coming weeks.

Under the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement now before a select committee, New Zealand commits to extending the term of copyright from 50 to 70 years after the death of the author. Based on a 2009 report by Henry Ergas, just released, government estimated the net cost of term extension to New Zealand to be $60m a year in increased royalties to foreign rightsholders–$21m of that for books.

To publishers, that looked like a very big number. It would double the total royalty paid on New Zealand book sales—those long-dead authors must have written some extraordinary bestsellers! PANZ investigated. PANZ’s analysis, online here and now with the Foreign Affairs and Trade Select Committee, argues that the government got it wrong. About 200 times wrong. Even accepting the methodology of the Ergas report, term extension on books will lead to about $80,000 of increased royalties to overseas rights holders. If term extension stimulates just a 0.1% increase in output from NZ publishers (experts suggest much higher), then in fact copyright term extension will be a net economic benefit to this country.

PANZ councillor Sam Elworthy, who looks after the copyright portfolio, comments: ‘Another $21m a year for authors and publishers would have been great, so it’s disappointing that it’s not true. And it’s even more disappointing that the government has been relying on such a deeply flawed analysis of the economics of copyright for years. The $60m cost figure has flown around the world: For people who want everything to be free and don’t care much for authors, publishers, and copyright, it’s another stick to beat us with. That undermines the value of copyright and the creative industries in the public mind. We call on the New Zealand government to engage in much more robust analysis of the economics of the creative industries in the future so that the value of intellectual property as a driver of New Zealand’s economic growth can be correctly quantified.’