MON 04.2013
15 THE BOOKSELLER DAILY SELF-PUBLISHING, AGENCY UNDER DEBATE
AT THE LONDON BOOK FAIR TALKING POINTS INSIDE Bookseller news team
Te future of self-publishing, the new agency model and the Penguin Random House merger will be the hottest talking points at the London Book Fair, industry figures predict. Self-published authors will have a
greater voice at LBF than ever before, with agents and authors coming together for the LitFactor Pitch curated by AuthorRight, while the Alliance of Independent Authors celebrates its first birthday at the fair. Agent Luigi Bonomi said: “I think
we’re really moving into a very different world. To date it has been a reticence, a diffidence towards publishers by self- published authors, and vice versa, and
AMAZON BA BOSS: AMAZON CAN DESTROY BOOK TRADE
Amazon’s quest for industry domination is “scary” and it could have the ability to “destroy the book trade as we know it”, Booksellers Association c.e.o. Tim Godfray has said in an exclusive column for today’s Bookseller Daily (see p22). Te BA chief is due to argue his
case in the “foe” camp of “Te Great Debate—Amazon Friend of Foe?” session today at 11.30 a.m. in Conference Centre 1&2. In today’s Daily he writes: “Amazon has achieved its phenomenal growth and influence because consumers like what it does, but, in my view, if they continue to threaten large parts of the book trade, this will not only be bad for the industry, but also, in the long run, for the
author’s work and can then promote the book to targeted users . . . Scary. With such a set up, they really do have the ability to destroy the book trade as we know it.” Rob Levine, author of Free Ride
Godfray
consumer too.” Amazon owns 18 separate
companies, that cover book printing and publishing, marketplaces, audio and digital reading, Godfray writes. “So the writer goes straight to Amazon. Amazon publishes the
(Vintage) will also be speaking at the debate and said it was unquestionable that Amazon was a big vendor of books. But, he added: “I don’t know if I would call Amazon an enemy, more of an addiction. As with all addictions, what might have a positive effect in the short term doesn’t have a positive effect in the long term.” However, Waterstones founder
Tim Waterstone argued that people should “stop complaining about Amazon” and instead try to “outsmart them”.
FRIDAY BOOKINGS CLOSE 19TH APRIL
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Indie salaries on the rise Independent Publishers Guild survey
shows a spike in pay and benefits Page 3
maybe this year the Cold War between these two communities will be broken by the two sides meeting face to face, and realising they both have separate strengths and weaknesses.” Sam Copeland of Rogers, Coleridge
& White, agreed that there was no sign of self-publishing slowing down. He said: “Just this week, I have seen one successful self-published novelist get an agent, and two other agented self-published books via the Kindle White Glove programme hit the top 10 on Amazon. I don’t see any signs of self-publishing bubbles bursting at present or in the near future, not unless Amazon changes radically, and I don’t see that happening.” But a note of caution was creeping
in for some. Agent Lorella Belli said: “Now publishers have some self-
published authors in their lists, they are holding off on others as they wait to see the results. It might lead to a slowdown if they don’t perform as well as hoped.” Simon & Schuster executive director
Kerr MacRae predicted that the refining of the agency model would be a key talking point: “It will be about what that will mean for prices and the digital market. Everyone will be watching what everyone else is doing in terms of how the prices may be changing.” Meanwhile, Atlantic editor-in-chief
Ravi Mirchandani said that during a pre-LBF trip to New York the Penguin/ Random House merger came up “in conversation after conversation”. He added: “Obviously at the fair it will be hotly under discussion.”
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The Miniaturist frenzy Flurry of six-figure deals including
Picador and HC US for a début by Jessie Burton Page 2
William Boyd The LBF Author of the Day on Ian
Fleming, the art of the spy novel and why the on-screen Bond shouldn’t eclipse the literary one Pages 14-15
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