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INTRODUCTION 

Writing the FutureBook 

New venue, new speakers and new points of discussion: 

Philip Jones reveals the changes to this year’s FutureBook Conference 

This year’s fifth anniversary FutureBook Conference 

brings together more than 50 speakers from 

across the media world for a day of reckoning, 

realisation and revivification. It will, to borrow from a 

famous beer advert, refresh the parts other digital and 

publishing events do not reach. 

It is the boldest conference The Bookseller has ever 

put on, spanning three different streams and taking in 

everything from mobile to audio, from the future of the 

academic book to how Twitter can be the bedrock of a 

successful book campaign. The conference boasts new 

speakers as illustrious as Jane Friedman, former chief 

executive of HarperCollins worldwide and now founder 

and c.e.o. of Open Road Integrated Media; Penguin 

Random House’s editorial director of audio Caroline 

Raphael; and bestselling author Simon Scarrow. 

We have taken a fresh approach to the event this year, 

putting the sessions in the hands of expert chairs from 

within the sector who can help guide the participants 

and steer the debates. There are 12 chairs in total, eight 

of them women (for more on them, see pp08–09). 

I’m also pleased to reveal that for the first time we have 

an overall chair for FutureBook 2015: Sandeep Mahal, 

until recently director of BBC arts and digital project The 

Space. Sandeep brings with her immense experience of 

publishing, the wider arts and digital media. She has a 

deep knowledge of publishing and enthusiasm for what 

you do (Sandeep shares her vision for the conference 

on p08). She is already working with us, helping to 

shape the event so that it is both publishing-savvy and 

outwardly focused. More announcements along these 

lines are to come, along with a special (and remarkable) 

fifth keynote. Stay tuned. 

I am incredibly proud of the programme this year, but 

it did not come solely from me. I have, over the past six 

months, spoken to many people from within and outside 

of publishing, and have tailored the event around current 

obsessions, fascinations and challenges. It combines the 

best of indigenous publishing thinking, with perspectives 

from those coming at this from the outside. This being 

the fifth anniversary of the first FutureBook Conference, 

we have also brought back past speakers, such as Stephen 

Page and Charlie Redmayne, to examine what they have 

learned during this period of rapid change. Page will 

pose the following question in his keynote: “Have trade 

publishers travelled far enough in search of the new?” 

The answer will surprise many of you. 

THE NEW PUBLISHING 

In Springer Nature’s Annette Thomas we have a firsttime 

speaker coming to us at a pivotal moment in that 

business’ evolution; and Pottermore’s Susan Jurevics 

is an executive who is starting to make her mark both 

on Pottermore and on how we think about the wider 

content business (for more on these keynotes, see p07). 

This year, we have introduced dedicated sessions 

examining the “new publishing” from Quarto’s printon-demand-driven 

This is Your Cookbook initiative to 

Visual Editions’ collaboration with Google Creative Lab. 

In addition, the BookTech Showcase, curated by tech and 

culture journalist Molly Flatt (see p12), will put delegates 

and disruptors together so that we can understand the 

new disruption early—and so that these innovators can 

better understand us, too. 

Of course, the FutureBook Conference is a reflection 

of the industry—it is the book trade’s digital platform. 

As such, it is important that the event is well supported. 

This year we have more speakers than ever before, 

across a broader programme at the end of a week that 

begins with our new event, Author Day (see p15), and 

culminates in the prestigious FutureBook Awards (see 

pp30–31). We also have double the number of sponsor 

partners this year. I am grateful to all of these speakers 

and sponsors, and in particular the Firsty Group, which 

rather appropriately is the sponsor of the all-important 

post-show drinks. 

FutureBook works when the room is bursting—full of 

people, ideas and connections. Let’s make it so. × 

CONTENTS 

On the Move summarises 

five key findings from this 

year’s Digital Census. 

p04–05 

Keynotes’ Key Points sums 

up this year’s quartet of 

keynote speakers. 

p07 

The View from the Chairs 

meets those hosting the 

discussions at FutureBook. 

p08–09 

Start it Up says that 

incubating an internal 

start-up is vital. 

p11 

BookTech Showcase 

meets the firms which will 

pitch for a new award. 

p12 

The Author Avalanche 

looks at what Author Day 

will offer writers. 

p15 

The FutureBook 

Programme breaks down 

the day’s talks and events. 

p16–17 

Lessons for a Start-Up 

are divulged by 

September Publishing. 

p19–20 

Breaking the Page has 

Peter Meyers explain how 

he will run his workshop. 

p23 

What Should a Book Be? 

ask the co-founders of 

Visual Editions. 

p24 

Who’s Who profiles the 

people who will be on 

stage on 4th December. 

p27–29 

The FutureBook Awards 

shortlists in full, across 

11 different categories. 

p30–31 

03

DIGITAL CENSUS 2015 

On the move 

More reading on smartphones, sizeable digital sales growth 

despite talk of a slowdown and deep divisions on pivotal 

publishing issues—these are among the headlines of this year’s 

Digital Census. Tom Holman picks the five biggest talking points 

Mobile overtakes 

tablets and dedicated 

e-readers as the 

device of choice 

1 

The shift to reading on phones 

is perhaps the most significant 

finding. Last year’s Digital 

Census found that for the first 

time more people were reading 

on iPads than Kindles, but now 

more than two in five (44.6%) 

respondents say they commonly 

read on a mobile phone, surpassing 

both of the other devices. 

Why the shift? The advance 

of smartphone technology, 

especially around screen size 

and resolution, is one reason. 

Another is the diminishing 

appeal of dedicated e-readers, 

with more and more people 

opting to carry a single, multiuse 

device instead. 

But while the Kindle’s appeal 

may be slipping, Amazon’s 

popularity is decidedly not. 

It remains overwhelmingly 

the most common source of 

e-book purchases, with more 

than three-quarters (77.1%) 

of census respondents saying 

they regularly buy e-books from 

the online giant. Other e-book 

retailers, such as Apple’s iBookstore 

(11.8%), Kobo (6.4%), 

Google Play (6.1%) and Waterstones 

(5.7%), remain tiny by 

comparison. 

Digital sales are still 

growing, but they are 

also slowing 

2 

For publishers, the year’s narrative 

has been the apparent 

slowing of e-book sales and the 

return to growth of print books. 

But the census has figures to 

dispute the theory that interest 

in digital content has peaked. 

More than two-thirds (68.2%) 

of publishers say digital formats 

04 

now account for more than 10% 

of their total sales, up from half 

(50.0%) last year. And for more 

than two in five (41.1%) publishers, 

digital formats now form 

more than 20% of their sales. 

Publishers anticipate more 

digital sales growth. More than 

a third (37.7%) think digital 

formats will account for between 

21% and 50% of their sales by 

the end of 2020, while a further 

fifth (21.1%) think they will 

contribute more than half. As 

one publisher says: “It’s part of 

the natural ebb and flow of innovation—e-books 

will continue to 

grow and evolve.” 

Another theme of 2015 

for publishers has been the 

retrenchment on apps and the 

rise of other multimedia content. 

The percentage of publishers 

producing apps has fallen, 

from 50.8% in last year’s census 

to 46.2%, while those producing 

audio content has gone the 

other way, from 39.3% to 47.5%. 

Publishers have found that digital 

technology makes producing 

and delivering audio much more 

straightforward, but many are 

concluding that apps are not 

worth the candle. 

Self-love levels 

recede as many indie 

authors report lower 

satisfaction levels 

3 

Change is a constant among 

authors as well as publishers, 

and the eye-catching trend in the 

census is a cooling of enthusiasm 

for self-publishing. On a scale of 

one to 10, authors who publish 

their own books rated their satisfaction 

at 6.7—a point higher 

than traditionally published 

authors (5.7), but down on last 

year’s rating of 7.1. More authors 

are realising they will not make 

their fortune in self-publishing.

DIGITAL CENSUS 2015 

DIGITAL CENSUS: FURTHER READING 

) 

Publishers 

Which of these 

business models 

do you think will 

become most viable 

in the future for 

digital book content? 

Subscription (37%) 

E-book and print book bundling (27%) 

Republication of out of print titles via POD or digital (14%) 

Rental (12%) 

Content licensing (9%) 

; 

Publishers 

What percentage of your sales are in 

digital format? 

32% 

; 

Publishers 

What percentage of your sales do you forecast will 

be in digital format by the end of 2020? 

38% 

27% 

28% 

25% 

21% 

13% 

16% 

0 to 10% 11 to 20% 21 to 50% 50% or more 

0 to 10% 11 to 20% 21 to 50% 50% or more 

Half (50.9%) of those responding 

have sold fewer than 1,000 

e-books so far, and only one in 

eight (12.4%) has sold more than 

50,000. For many, the realities of 

self-publishing are hitting home. 

Publishing remains 

very much divided on 

matters digital 

Amid so much digital change 

for publishers and authors, the 

census reveals opinions are split 

on many issues. 

The first is pricing. Around 

two-thirds of all respondents 

think e-books should sell for 

either a slight discount (35.8%) 

or a significant discount (29.4%) 

from their print equivalents— 

but nearly a quarter think they 

should cost around the same 

as either the r.r.p. (7.7%) or the 

“street” price (15.5%) of the print 

edition. But discounting risks a 

race to the bottom, and 52.5% of 

respondents worry that e-books 

are now being sold too cheaply. 

“Low e-book prices communicate 

to customers that the value 

of a book is in how it is made, 

not what it contains,” says one 

publisher respondent. 

Second is e-book royalties; 

roughly half (48.6%) of respondents 

think e-book royalty rates 

should be the same as print, 

but many think they should be 

higher (34.7%) or lower (13.9%); 

the rest (2.8%) favour some 

other mechanism. 

Third is the agency model. 

Given three options, just under 

half (45.1%) think this is a smart 

move that will keep value in 

the market; more than a third 

(38.2%) think it is something 

publishers may regret but had no 

choice over; and the rest (16.7%) 

consider it a disaster. 

Finally, Digital Rights Management. 

Two in five (42.7%) 

respondents think publishers 

should remove DRM from their 

e-books, but 30% think they 

should not. The rest (27.2%) 

are unsure. 

. . . And the majority 

believe publishers 

remain unprepared 

for what is coming 

4 5 

05 

The Digital Census also uncovers 

alarm at the ever-rising 

dominance of web-based giants, 

including Amazon at the expense 

of bricks-and-mortar retailers, 

and Google at the expense of 

libraries and publishers. Some 

are anxious that publishers are 

still not doing enough to adapt 

to change, by under-investing 

in innovation and training in 

particular. Almost half (49.7%) 

think the sector is not prepared 

for the next stage of the digital 

revolution; the rest think it is 

(14.6%) or don’t know (35.7%). 

“We are so far behind the curve 

when it comes to technology,” 

admits one publisher. 

But there are many reasons to 

be optimistic too. For one thing, 

two-thirds (66.9%) of respondents 

think rising digital sales will 

grow the overall books market 

rather than shrink it. And despite 

concerns that consumers now 

have so many more distractions, 

nearly half (48.4%) say they read 

more since they started buying 

e-books, with very few (7.7%) 

reading less. 

On balance, within this poll of 

the industry at least, the future 

looks bright. More than half 

(51.4%) are optimistic about 

the prospects of reading and 

learning for coming generations, 

and only a small fraction (5.7%) 

pessimistic, with the rest somewhere 

in between. Whether on 

paper or in pixels, the appetite to 

read is not diminishing. ×

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the keynotes 

The four keynoters 

FutureBook celebrates its fifth birthday by inviting 

back a trio of its most popular keynote speakers to 

date, in addition to a first-timer fresh from a mega 

merger. Philip Jones profiles the quartet 

S 

tephen page has tranformed Faber, 

using the digital opportunities offered 

by the new world to evolve one of 

the UK’s most steadfast indie presses into 

one of the most innovative. Its early apps, 

such as The Waste Land (with Touchpress) 

set a standard that few could match, while 

websites such as Drama Online (with 

Bloomsbury) and e-book distributor Faber 

Factory showed how digital could be used to 

underpin new business opportunities. 

Page now has a different challenge: how to 

run these two different businesses together, 

without one distracting from the other. A 

restructure, and the appointment of Mitzi 

Angel as Faber publisher, suggests a shift 

in emphasis. Yet Page’s talk, which will ask 

whether publishing went far enough in 

search of “the new”, will show that he is no 

less convinced of the importance of driving 

digital change as he once was. If anything, 

he is more determined than ever. × 

Susan jurevics is leading a quiet 

revolution at Pottermore, the website 

launched in 2012 to extend the Harry 

Potter series online—at least, quiet by 

Potter standards. Jurevics joined Pottermore 

in 2013, and set about discovering who the 

core audience was; what they wanted from 

the site; and how they wanted it delivered. 

In relaunching as a mobile-first experience, 

removing the gaming elements and opening 

up the site to search engines, she is responding 

to what she discovered. In no longer 

requiring registration or “sorting”, Jurevics 

is broadening its reach and making it attractive 

to other Potter merchandisers. 

Jurevics is promising more wizarding 

changes in the run-up to the conference, 

which she will delve into from the podium. 

Earlier this month, enhanced iBook editions 

of the Harry Potter books were launched for 

the first time, prompting Apple’s Tim Cook 

to tweet: “A magical day for readers!” × 

Charlie redmayne is a FutureBook 

veteran: he spoke in 2012 after 

launching Pottermore (see above) and 

in 2013 shortly after his tenure as c.e.o. of 

HarperCollins UK began. He has always been 

a strong supporter of the event, saying “it 

is important that we continue to explore 

the future of our industry—what is happening 

and what is coming down the line. 

FutureBook has consistently been one of the 

platforms that does it best.” 

This year Redmayne is giving the closing 

keynote, delivering his manifesto for the 

future of the book business. He will also 

reflect on a five-year transformation of the 

publishing sector, during which he has been 

a pivotal and proactive force. 

Under him HarperCollins UK has become 

one of the most innovative of the big 

publishers in the digital space, inking 

subscription deals and expanding territorially 

through the acquisition of Harlequin. × 

Annette thomas is a first-time 

speaker at FutureBook, and takes 

the stage at a pivotal moment in the 

formation of Springer Nature and the 

evolution of the STM and academic sectors. 

A scientist by training, Thomas turned 

publisher and served as chief executive of 

Macmillan Science & Education. Now chief 

scientific officer of the enlarged Springer 

Nature, she is to spearhead new product 

development at the group. 

Thomas will use the talk to reflect on the 

background forces that led to the megamerger, 

as well as the changes to the marketplace 

for professional content, particularly 

the spread of Open Access publishing. 

Thomas is also in a unque position to talk 

about the role of women both in science 

and publishing. She was, for a period, the 

last remaining female c.e.o. of one of the big 

publishers, and remains one of the sector’s 

stand-out senior publishing executives. × 

07

MEET THE HOSTS 

What we want 

to discuss 

For the first time, this year’s FutureBook Conference 

will have a dedicated commère. Sandeep Mahal 

introduces herself, and quizzes 10 panel chairs 

How important is it 

that the book business 

continues to focus on 

the digital future? 

SANDEEP 

MAHAL 

I 

am delighted to have been asked to 

chair this year’s FutureBook Conference, 

and look forward to working with the 

team to curate a line-up of impressive speakers 

who will help us all to learn more about 

where the industry is heading and give us 

ideas to share, challenge and build on. 

I come to FutureBook with a background 

in libraries, arts, audience and partnership 

development, grounded in a lifelong 

passion for reading: like many, I grew up 

spending many afternoons in dusty libraries, 

immersed in books. 

That same love of reading and stories 

continues today, so when Philip Jones 

invited me to chair FutureBook, I was both 

thrilled and honoured, not least because I 

have recently been spending my time helping 

artists to innovate, encouraging them 

to create new forms of stories and art that 

bring audiences and content closer together 

against a rapidly evolving landscape, and 

this is something we also do in the world 

of books. 

Until recently, I was director of The Space, 

a commissioning agency established by the 

BBC and Arts Council England to support 

greater digital access to the arts. There was 

truly no greater privilege than encouraging 

artists to experiment in taking advantage of 

the different possibilities offered by digital 

media and technologies, and to support 

artists trying out new ideas—even if they 

were not immediately embraced. 

I learnt something new every day; about 

commissioning, prototyping, iteration, 

and some of those wild whirlwind digital 

projects have been the very best experiences 

for me. The creativity of those artists and 

the importance of pushing boundaries is a 

subject I will return to in a future article, not 

least to highlight the wonderful things that 

happen when creativity meets technology. 

Working at The Space brought home to 

me something we all know but rarely say: 

no matter what the sector, we are all on the 

same journey. We are all exploring some 

big themes: production, distribution, sales, 

marketing; the changing role of curator, 

producer, publisher, [insert your job title 

here]; the importance of data-driven editorial 

and marketing, D2C, brand development, 

mobile internet and the constancy of 

change itself. 

LET’S GET INSPIRED 

It’s a thrill to spend time with the individuals 

pushing our world forward. I get inspired 

by creative, ambitious people who take on 

massively challenging, sometimes impossible 

tasks—they are the sort of people who 

usually have disruptive mindsets. So I am 

looking forward to hearing the four keynote 

addresses from Susan Jurevics, Stephen 

Page, Charlie Redmayne and Annette 

Thomas, each of them a visionary, each with 

a slightly different vision that is sure to 

inspire our own thinking. 

My role is to be a transparent facilitator— 

a commère—so that the people on the 

stage and those in the audience can make 

a connection. It’s a good title that requires 

me to stand aside and let the conversation 

between speaker and audience flow, without 

adding my own ideas . . . something that 

my friends will acknowledge does not come 

naturally to me! 

Between now and 4th December, I will be 

providing regular updates on the programme 

and sharing insights about believing in 

unfamiliar, innovative or strange ideas, 

about trusting your instincts, holding your 

nerve and making history. I look forward 

to seeing you at FutureBook, and to sharing 

the excitement I will feel at meeting and 

introducing this year’s speakers. × 

08 

What are the key 

digital challenges 

facing the trade? 

What are you hoping 

to get out of FutureBook 

this year? 

How important is it 

that the book business 

continues to focus on 

the digital future? 

What are the key 

digital challenges 

facing the trade? 

What are you hoping 

to get out of FutureBook 

this year?

PORTER 

ANDERSON 

TOM 

BONNICK 

JO 

ELLIS 

MOLLY 

FLATT 

It must continue to focus on the 

digital future because that’s all 

there is. Even print is evolving 

into a creature of digital, as 

POD becomes the obvious 

answer to warehouses full of 

unsold books, but beyond such 

obvious elements, there simply 

is nothing that digital doesn’t 

impinge on going forward. 

The industry is digital, which 

doesn’t mean that it has gotten 

“to the other side”, but simply 

that the distributional engines 

of the world ahead are all—and 

rightly—digital. 

The “Wall of Content” is the 

challenge—simply the sheer 

amount. Think of how many 

more books were out this year 

on Super Thursday. What does 

a reader make of 503 titles 

dumped into a bookstore on 

a single day? How can anyone 

comprehend all this content? 

The most important thing—for 

trade publishing, at least— 

is that we don’t become 

complacent. Firstly, because 

we should be thinking 

about digital in terms of the 

opportunities it offers, rather 

than in terms of the threat 

it represents. And secondly, 

because “digital” does not 

equal “e-books”. There is so 

much for us to consider within 

the catch-all term “digital” 

beyond the most simple 

commodity product. 

For the children’s industry, 

establishing a market. Digital 

still represents a negligible 

percentage of sales . . . I don’t 

think it’s great if we entirely 

ignore the possibilities of digital 

publishing for kids just because 

there aren’t many commercially 

viable product forms yet. 

In one word, very. While digital 

technologies are woven into, 

and increasingly underpin, 

every aspect of the industry 

supply chain, nothing stands 

still. The pace of digital and 

technological development 

continues to accelerate and 

it is crucial that we, as an 

industry, come together to 

debate and to be challenged 

and inspired by industry 

colleagues and, perhaps more 

importantly, by people and 

organisations from outside of 

the sector. 

The concentration of power in 

the hands of one very powerful 

player; the challenge of 

monetising writing beyond the 

e-book; how to create value 

and stand out in an age of 

entertainment abundance. 

There is no such thing as “the 

digital future”. There is just 

the future, and digital is an 

inevitable part of that. The 

divisions we make between 

the digital and physical will 

increasingly blur and dissolve, 

so the book business—like 

all businesses—has to focus 

on evolving to suit how we 

will read, write, buy and 

communicate in a hybrid world 

where digital is not digital, it’s 

just a seamless part of the way 

we live. 

For publishers, resisting the 

urge to be entirely consumerled. 

For retailers, creating a 

seamless on/offline discovery 

and purchasing process. 

For writers, combining the 

investment and mentoring of 

traditional publishing with a 

self-driven start-up mentality. 

From its roots 

in digital, I’m 

hoping to witness 

the FutureBook 

Conference 

embracing new 

developments in 

print publishing, 

as it finds new 

formats, routes to 

market and a new 

consumer profile 

—Lisa Edwards 

I’m interested in hearing 

how the industry regards 

the centricity of the creator: 

the author. 

New ideas (and old ideas 

challenged), new people . . . 

and new books! 

What I would love is for 

something to completely 

surprise me; to make me think 

“this changes everything”. 

I hope that speakers and 

audience will open my 

horizons to unexpected 

new opportunities. 

ALISON 

JONES 

SARA 

LLOYD 

PETER 

MEYERS 

RICHARD 

MOLLET 

SAMANTHA 

RAYNER 

We are cheerfully multichannel: 

print, e-book, app, e-learning, 

online database . . . I don’t 

think getting hung up on 

print versus digital is helpful. 

Obviously, as most people 

increasingly access most of the 

content they consume digitally, 

it’s vital for publishers to be 

taking an active creative role 

developing that space. That 

doesn’t have to happen at the 

expense of print—there is still 

space for innovation there and 

print books can complement 

online content brilliantly. 

The digital future is less 

clear than it has ever been. 

That makes it all the more 

imperative that we focus on 

what it will mean for authors 

and readers and the space in 

between them. The rise (and 

potentially fall) of the e-book 

as we know it is the least 

interesting thing we have to 

consider; future opportunities 

and threats will no doubt be 

digital, and they will come from 

leftfield. We would be wise to 

keep our eyes firmly peeled 

and fixed on the horizon. 

It is an existential imperative 

. . . not to mention a 

once-in-a-lifetime opportunity 

to shape the future of 

books. Print is not going 

away. But the new materials, 

connection points and creative 

possibilities are just too rich to 

forgo experimentation. 

It is not just important, it is 

essential, not only for the 

future of digital products and 

services, but the digital supply 

chain and infrastructure. 

As consumers of books become 

more connected via a global 

online network of readers 

and texts, the digital realm 

will continue to develop as a 

key context for “the three Ds”: 

Dissemination, Discoverability 

and Discussion. But the 

digital future does not just 

mean e-books. “The three D” 

environment also holds huge 

creative opportunities for 

supporting new print books, 

too. 

The ubiquity of content and the 

scarcity of attention. Books have 

traditionally been the place 

for in-depth engagement and 

it’s hard for a reader to sustain 

that level of engagement on a 

multifunction device. On the flip 

side, those conditions create 

other opportunities. 

The key challenge is that the 

Next Big Thing is no longer in 

focus; the lens has shattered 

and we don’t know where it 

might come from. Digital gives 

anyone, anywhere, the capacity 

to innovate and the drive to 

innovate orientates around 

consumer benefit. 

Figuring out direct to 

consumer; identifying true 

consumer pain points; 

working with authors who 

can innovate creatively on 

the digital canvas. 

Competitiveness in the e-book 

retail sector; the ongoing need 

to attract digital skills into the 

workforce; ensuring continued 

strong relationships with 

authors. 

Connectivity, both in ensuring 

that new platforms and 

business models can be 

sustainable, preservable and 

usable, and in collaborating 

with different communities of 

practice to develop effective 

and creative outputs for now 

and for the future. 

I always come away from 

FutureBook energised and 

inspired by the can-do approach 

of the trade’s key figures. 

I would like to learn something 

new, be challenged, take away 

at least three new contacts— 

and I’d like to have some fun. 

Meeting and learning from 

those who are helping invent 

the book of the future! 

Fresh strategic insights and a 

sneak preview of the latest 

product innovations. 

New ideas, new perspectives 

and seeing the collaborative 

spirit at the heart of the book 

business in action! 

09

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START IT UP 

: 

The mentality of start-ups based 

around east London’s Silicon 

Roundabout has been tapped into 

by various businesses to great effect 

Up 

and 

away 

Fluxx senior 

consultant Tom 

Whitwell believes 

publishers are 

well placed to 

benefit from 

the start-up 

mentality 

How do they make it look so easy? 

Every day, the Silicon Valley website 

Product Hunt lists dozens of new 

launches; music services, desktop robotic 

factories, payment systems for Indian 

shopkeepers. 

Invariably, they are spawned by start-ups: 

bright young things with world-changing 

ideas and sticker-covered laptops. Most fail, 

but a few (like Product Hunt itself) will earn 

multimillion dollar valuations in a matter 

of months. In 2015, publishers should feel 

under threat from start-ups. Publishers are in 

the business of selling distraction, so any new 

distraction (a chat app, a game, a video on 

your phone while riding the bus) is a threat. 

When customers move faster than companies, 

business models can evaporate shockingly 

fast. When was the last time you saw a 

Blockbuster shop on a high street, or bought 

35mm film? 

The best way to counter this existential 

threat might be to learn from start-ups, and 

to build start-ups within traditional publishers. 

But established publishers are in a 

remarkable position to benefit from innovation. 

They have resources, connections, backcatalogues 

and customers that a start-up 

could only dream of. 

Innovation for publishers shouldn’t be 

about new e-book formats, or new ways to 

re-sell old books under new covers. It should 

be about rethinking what it means to be a 

publisher, about building new businesses 

from their relationships with readers and 

with authors. 

In other sectors, companies such as Lloyds 

Bank, Time Inc., MasterCard and John Lewis 

have built start-ups inside their businesses 

11 

to answer these kind of questions. When 

British Gas wanted to start selling smart 

thermostats, it went head to head with Nest, 

a Silicon Valley start-up founded by ex-Apple 

engineers who were selling a beautiful, intelligent 

thermostat. 

After a difficult in-house pre-launch, British 

Gas set up what was essentially a start-up 

called Connected Homes, with an office in 

Soho, well away from its Staines HQ. Eighty 

per cent of the staff were new, hired from 

outside the utilities industry. But 20% were 

British Gas insiders who understood the 

unique resources of the mothership—its 

network of 11,000 installers serving (deep 

breath) 6.8 million paying customers. That 

combination is crucial. Too close, and 

you risk recycling the same old ideas. Too 

remote, and you lose all the power of the big 

company. With 200,000 installations so far, 

British Gas took on Nest and won (at least in 

the UK). 

SUPER SIZE 

The combination of start-up energy and 

big-company resources creates a kind of 

super start-up. But the hardest thing is 

getting started. Building an island of fast, 

lean culture inside a big company isn’t easy. 

It requires a senior backer who can act as 

a catalyst, providing the support and the 

political cover for the super start-up team. 

That group must be able to make mistakes 

and deliver unexpected solutions without 

fearing for their jobs. 

The start-up will need a brief, one that’s 

tight enough to give them focus but loose 

enough to let them follow the customers’ 

needs—wherever they lead. An internal 

start-up is not a unit for building a specific 

product. It is a new business, one that draws 

on the unique resources of the mothership. 

It seems counterintuitive, but the real 

power of the start-up is discipline. With 

no money and little time to waste, successful 

start-ups are forced to focus on what is 

important, to understand the 

customer’s needs and hustle 

to grab their attention. They 

can’t afford to be self-indulgent 

or ponderous, sentimental or 

egotistic (they will have plenty of 

time for that later). 

In 2015, publishers should 

think like super start-ups, and 

aim to revolutionise their industry 

from within. 

Otherwise somebody else 

might well do it for them. × 

Tom Whitwell will take 

part in the closing 

panel at FutureBook 

2015, “Publishing 

Through a Looking 

Glass: A View from the 

Outside”, alongside 

Kings Road Publishing’s 

Perminder Mann, 

Enders analyst Douglas 

McCabe, and Penguin 

Random House Audio 

editorial director 

Caroline Raphael.

BOOKTECH SHOWCASE 

. . . And then there 

were seven eight 

Molly Flatt introduces the book tech companies which will pitch to a 

prestigious panel in a new strand of the FutureBook Conference 

A 

scottish start-up using binaural recording, 3d audio 

software and immersive sound design to redefine the 

audiobook. A team of seasoned digital entrepreneurs 

from Cologne on a mission to revolutionise storytelling for 

mobile. A Manchester-born app employing behavioural science 

and gaming mechanics to take writers from the big idea to the 

final draft. A Canadian production company crowdfunding a 

series of interactive children’s books that dissolve the boundaries 

between digital and the real world. 

The Owl Field, oolipo, Write Track and Together Tales 

represent just half of the shortlist for this year’s inaugural 

BookTech Award, and their range and ambition is both reassuring 

and energising in a climate where complaints that the 

publishing industry is failing to innovate are as common as 

bitter Amazon takedowns. 

In fact, we found it so hard to whittle down 31 submissions 

to seven finalists that we ended up with eight. Completing 

the showcase are: Ooovre, a platform designed to make it easy 

for readers to buy from local booksellers; Reedsy, a budding 

marketplace for publishing professionals; Gojimo, an examquiz 

app that has already become the UK’s most popular revision 

tools; and Shulph, an “omnichannel reading experience 

company” that promises to have (finally) found an elegant 

solution to bundling e-books and print. 

A BROAD CHURCH 

As we explained when launching the award, the term “book 

tech” invites seriously broad interpretation, so the judging 

criteria were always going to be eclectic. As a result, some 

submissions, such as The Owl Field and oolipo, won a place in 

the shortlist for their exciting original technology, while others 

(Reedsy and Shulph) impressed by applying existing tech to a 

lingering problem or opportunity in a new way. 

In turn, Write Track and Gojimo demonstrate an admirable 

talent for tailoring tech to the behaviours of a particular audience, 

while Ooovre and Together Tales perhaps presage 

the future by blurring the divide between our digital and 

physical worlds. 

Traits that they all share, however, are freshness in their 

creativity, clarity in their vision and sophistication in their 

approach. Perhaps the most exciting attribute of compiling the 

BookTech shortlist was the number of entrants we had never 

heard of before. Some, like Reedsy and Gojimo, are already 

starting to make waves, but the majority are in early funding 

or even pre-funding stage, and have yet to hit the public radar. 

Considering that the long-term aim for BookTech 

is to give publishing professionals a head-start 

on disruption coming their way—while also 

hopefully inspiring them to take some bold 

imaginative leaps of their own—it represents 

an encouraging start. 

FEVER PITCH 

Whether any of our finalists will fulfil their 

promise, of course, is another story. That is why 

we will subject them to a vigorous grilling at the 

FutureBook Conference, with questions coming 

from a prestigious panel of experts—Unbound 

c.e.o. and co-founder Dan Kieran; group director 

of consumer and digital development at Penguin 

Random House UK, Hannah Telfer; and one of 

London’s most influential tech venture capitalists, 

Eileen Burbidge—as well as our assembled 

industry audience. The eventual winner will have to 

demonstrate commercial nous and a viable plan for 

growth, not just a crowd-pleasing concept. 

In the meantime, we have already begun 

running a weekly series of interviews with the finalists on 

FutureBook.net. So keep an eye out for the articles and tweet 

us your thoughts using the #BookTech hashtag. × 

The BookTech 

Showcase 

(#BookTech) is a 

new element of 

the FutureBook 

Conference. Hosted 

by tech and culture 

journalist Molly Flatt, 

the session invites 

eight book tech 

companies to take 

part in a live pitch-off 

to a panel of industry 

and tech experts. A 

live judging process 

will determine 

the winners of the 

bronze, silver and 

gold FutureBook 

Awards. The overall 

winner will be named 

The FutureBook 

BookTech Company of 

the Year 2015. 

Gojimo is a free 

revision app that 

provides users 

with GCSE and 

A-Level revision 

content, as 

well as SAT, 13+ 

Common Entrance 

and 11+ Common 

oolipo “reimagines 

fiction for digital”, 

founder Ryan 

David Mullins says. 

“We’re creating 

a new kind of 

platform that will 

give [users] an 

experience native 

ooovre is a 

click-and-collect 

service that lets 

readers order 

books online 

from their local 

booksellers. 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 

exam help. 

to their device.” 

Reedsy helps 

authors find and 

collaborate with a 

refined selection 

of handpicked 

freelance 

professionals. 

12 

Shulph synchs 

users’ physical 

and digital 

bookshelves, in 

the hope that they 

will never again 

have to choose 

between a print or 

a digital copy of a 

book. 

The Owl Field’s 

3D audio dramas 

place users at 

the center of 

the story in an 

immersive, virtual 

world. 

Together Tales 

builds stories 

around children; 

users can help 

create treasure 

hunts, digital clues 

and true-to-life 

coincidences that 

bring the story 

to life. 

Write Track helps 

people develop 

a writing habit 

using productivity 

tools, goal-setting 

and tracking 

technologies 

to reward 

achievement.

By finding, filtering, shaping, 

curating, certifying, editing, 

promoting, disseminating 

and rewarding ideas, a 

scholarly publisher helps 

convert them into cultural 

products that enable their 

transmission from the minds of 

writers and editors into the 

minds of readers. 

Ziyad Marar, Global Publishing Director 

sagepub.co.uk

AUTHOR DAY 

a v 

In the path of an 

a 

Porter Anderson introduces the aims of the inaugural Author Day, 

which takes place on Monday 30th November in London 

Truth be told, the conference we are 

calling Author Day might be subtitled 

“Snowmakers in Time of Avalanche”. 

Publishing’s output has far exceeded a figure 

we can accurately gauge, but the readership 

has not. If everyone who wants to write a 

book is to have a hope of being read, we absolutely 

must cultivate more readers. And since 

almost everyone wants to write a book—and 

everyone lcan now publish one, too—the 

time has come for the people of publishing to 

stop, sit together, and begin to understand 

what’s happening to the creative corps. 

That is why we need Author Day. That is 

why it’s not a typical conference. That is also 

a 

why it’s not just for authors. The publishing 

industry will not find its way, ultimately, 

through this avalanche of contemporary 

content if it cannot create for authors the 

best possible conditions for success. 

That is what Author Day is about. It is for 

all authors—trade, indie, hybrid, winged, 

ambidextrous and the garden-variety—and 

it is for all who work in publishing with and 

around them. If you care about authors 

today, consider coming. 

Our day is divided into two parts . . . 

Morning: The State of the Author 

We will hear from the leadership of the two great organisations of authors today, 

the Alliance of Independent Authors (Orna Ross) and the Society of Authors 

(Nicola Solomon); from authors (Kamila Shamsie, Jane Steen, Dave Morris); 

educators (Faber Academy’s Ian K Ellard, Bath Spa University’s Kate Pullinger); 

a crowdfunding publisher (Unbound’s Dan Kieran with John-Paul Flintoff); 

an author-survey veteran (Harry Bingham); a publishing technologist (Emma 

Barnes); and literary agents (Sheil Land’s Piers Blofeld, Curtis Brown’s Sheila 

Crowley, Lownie Agency’s Andrew Lownie)—all by way of putting together not a 

definitive idea of the state of “the” author, but to get as many angles on pertinent 

issues as possible. 

You will notice that the speakers are not all authors. This is essential. Authors, 

particularly in the digital age, talk with each other all the time. They, and we, 

need to hear from others, as well. There is no contest here about who is “right” 

and who is “wrong”. There is a need to get a range of viewpoints. 

Afternoon: What We Can Do 

In a couple of important discussions—entitled “What 

Authors Can Do: Allied Interests” and “What Publishing 

Can Do: Industry Interests”—we will look for some of 

the contexts in which authors are working today, from 

issues of diversity and fairness to dilemmas of marketing 

support and audience. 

In “Allied Interests”, we will hear from illustrator 

and author Sarah McIntyre, author Jonathan Emmett, 

author and editor Nikesh Shukla, translator Louise 

Rogers Lalaurie, and The Bookseller’s Cathy Rentzenbrink. 

In “Industry Interests” we will hear from Pan 

Macmillan’s Sara Lloyd and Naomi Bacon, Canelo’s Nick 

Barreto, consultant Katie Roden, Midas PR’s Daniel 

Freeman and Unbound’s Dan Kieran. 

n 

c 

I feel compelled to warn you that even among all these articulate voices, none of us will feel that 

every important point was made. There is too much for us to handle in a week, let alone in a day. 

But that is where another key component comes in to help . . . 

Comment Capture 

Throughout the day, delegates 

will be asked to send us—via 

an email address and/or Twitter 

handle, as well as even on 

paper (yes, you 

can pass notes)— 

their brainstorms, 

proposals, dumb 

thoughts, bright 

ideas, observations, 

criticisms, hallelujahs 

and concerns. 

(Charge up your 

Author Day takes 

place on Monday 

30th November at 

30 Euston Square, 

London. 

For more information 

and tickets, visit 

TheBookseller.com/ 

AuthorDay 

mobile!) With the kind support 

of TheWritingPlatform.com, 

those messages will be captured 

so that at the end of the day, we 

can know about them, see them, 

discuss them. 

My colleagues at 

The Bookseller will 

be listening, as I 

will, for the trends, 

throughlines and 

contours of this big 

debate. And from 

that, we will work 

15 

towards a statement to be delivered 

at FutureBook, Europe’s 

largest publishing industry 

conference, when it convenes on 

Friday 4th December. 

What is this statement going 

to say? You will tell us. That’s 

the fun of it. I ask you to come 

prepared to participate. We 

need active thinking, heavy use 

of our capture desk, perhaps a 

willingness to stand and speak 

if you feel inclined to do so. 

Bring a sense of humour. Bring 

all the patience you can muster 

on a Monday. We will ask you 

to listen to things you disagree 

hwith—but we will also ask your 

opinion. We want your best 

thoughts and your sportsmanship 

and your commitment 

to moving past rancour and 

mistrust towards dialogue and 

camaraderie. 

It’s time to put aside the 

animosities, the ehype and the 

drama. It’s time for Authors to 

have their Day. ×

Friday 4th December 

The Mermaid Theatre, London 

For tickets and information visit 

thebookseller.com/futurebook/2015 

THE AUDITORIUM 

09.10 

Introduction 

commere Sandeep Mahal 

FUTUREBOOK 2015 

THE PROGRAMME 

09.15 

10.30 

10.50 

12.10 

13.00 

13.50 

14.50 

15.40 

16.00 

17.00 

Annette Thomas 

Springer Nature 

Morten Strunge 

Mofibo 

Judith Curr 

S&S 

Maureen Scott 

Ether Books 

Dave Anderson 

Kobo 

Stephen Page 

Faber & Faber 

Sarah McConville 

Harvard Business Review 

Opening keynotes 

tea/coffee break 

Closing keynote 

Charlie Redmayne 

HarperCollins UK 

Susan Jurevics 

Pottermore 

Face out: strategies that work and why 

Robert Caskie 

PFD/Ipso Books 

chair Alison Jones 

Asi Sharabi 

Lost.myName 

Writing the future: author-centric publishing 

Anna Jean Hughes 

The Pigeonhole 

chair Porter Anderson 

Hannah MacDonald 

September Publishing 

On the move: how mobile changes everything 

Gareth Cuddy 

Vearsa 

chair Anna Rafferty 

George Burgess 

Gojimo 

Kieron Smith 

Blackwell’s 

Fourth Keynote 

To be confirmed 

Jane Friedman 

Open Road Media 

Simon Scarrow 

Author 

James Luscombe 

Pan Macmillan 

Who’s afraid of the e-book plateau? Understanding the new consumer 

Caroline Raphael 

PRH Audio 

Douglas McCabe 

Enders 

room change 

lunch break 

room change 

chair Sara Lloyd 


Publishing through a looking glass: a view from the outside 

chair Richard Mollet 

Tom Whitwell 

Fluxx 

Jo Henry 

Nielsen Book 

Perminder Mann 

Kings Road Publishing 

17.20 

The FutureBook Awards

Please note that the 

programme of events 

listed here is subject 

to change before 4th 

December. Any changes 

to the schedule or 

speakers will be 

incorporated into a 

new programme, which 

will be circulated to 

delegates on the day. 

NEWGATE 


The new publishing: content unbound (Part One) 

chair Lisa Edwards 

10.30 

10.50 

THE RIVER ROOM 

Emily 

Labram 

HarperCollins 

Cameron 

Drew 

BookTrack 

Tom Hall 

LonelyPlanet 

room change 

Mark Searle 

Quarto 

C Mahey- 

Morgan 

Own It! 

Julia Wilde 

Agatha 

Christie Ltd. 

The new publishing: content unbound (Part Two) 

12.10 

chair Tom Bonnick 

Ian Metcalfe 

Hodder Faith 

Anna Gerber & 

Britt Iverson 

Visual Editions 

Laurence Howell 

Audible 

Kiren Shoman 

SAGE 

lunch break 

13.00 

The new publishing: the academic book of the future 

13.50 

chair Sam Rayner 

Richard Fisher 

Formerly of CUP 

Suzanne Kavanagh 

ALPSP 

Lara Speicher 

UCL Press 

Anthony Cond 

Liverpool Uni... Press 

room change 

Breaking the page: interactive discussion 

14.50 

BookTech showcase: the pitches 

led by Peter Meyers 

chair Molly Flatt 

Author Meyers will lead an interactive discussion on what it is possible to achieve 

with a book, with panelists from previous presentations. For more information, see p23. 


The social room: using Twitter and audio for books 

chair Jo Ellis 

15.40 

16.00 

Eight companies will pitch for five minutes; to find out 

about the shortlistees, see p12. 


BookTech showcase: 

interrogation and live judging 

Georgina Moore 

Headline 

Abi Fenton 

HarperCollins 

Hannah Telfer 

PRH UK 

Dan Kieran 

Unbound 

Eileen Burbidge 

Passion Capital 

room change 

room change

Creating immersive and 

dynamic app solutions for 

key educational publishers 

SHORTLISTED 

Shortlisted for 

‘Best Children’s 

Digital Book’ 

FutureBook Award 

2015 

READ-ALOUD, 

LISTEN & RECORD 

TRACK ACTIVITY 

IN LMS 

SYNC NOTES 

& HIGHLIGHTS 

HTML 

ACTIVITIES 

YUDU CLIENTS INCLUDE: 

enquiries@yudu.com | www.yudu.com | 0870 760 9258

EIGHT STEPS TO 

PUBLISHING SUCCESS 

Lessons for start-ups 

A year on from its launch, September Publishing has 

published four non-fiction titles, sold nearly 10,000 books 

and commissioned new titles well into 2018. Founder Hannah 

MacDonald offers eight essential learnings from its first year 

Sometimes it’s hard to tell a 

good instinct from a personal 

obsession. 

We started out with a mantra of quality, 

change and collaboration, and key to this 

was a desire to draw up a new contract that 

reflected reality. I became obsessed with 

this. Law outfit Maier Blackburn was hired 

for its experience with authors and estates 

(there is nothing like death to highlight the 

financial complications in life). Early on, as 

I waxed lyrical about a contract only two 

pages long that broke with history and cut to 

the chase, firm partner Cathleen Blackburn 

asked whether I would like to spend my time 

publishing good books or trying to persuade 

people to accept a weird-looking contract. 

So we compromised. A traditional-looking 

format, its terms constructed with the Society 

of Authors’ input, but with clauses and 

language that emphasised author involvement. 

We have pushed further on expectations 

of our authors to sell, market and selfpublicise. 

In exchange, we have raised the 

upper royalty escalations. Our authors work 

hard, so success should be better shared. 

1 2 

The instincts that were the 

clearest and simplest have 

worked the best. 

We wanted a stable of authors with whom 

we could actually work collaboratively to sell 

books continuously. Hence our authors tend 

to have a voice outside of the pages—and 

aren’t afraid to use it. 

Social media only works for certain 

authors and readers. For us it has been about 

commissioning people who can teach, talk or 

reach into known communities. For one of 

our authors (Mark Thomas) it is about gigs 

and tweets; for others it’s about Etsy; for 

another it’s about art workshops; for someone 

else it’s about an international network 

of geologists. But for some it is still about 

the impactful review or author endorsement. 

Ruthless prioritisation early 

on during a project saves time 

and money. 

3 

Before making decisions I now ask myself: 

“Is it any more likely to result in an engaged 

reader?” If not, I have learnt to shelve it. 

19 

Just because something extra can be done, it 

doesn’t mean it should be. 

It takes a huge number of man-hours to 

genuinely deliver something new within the 

technical restrictions of e-books and where 

we have tinkered, it hasn’t always helped. 

Yet we wanted to innovate digitally, to find 

new ways to take beautifully published 

digital material to market. However, I have 

found that apps cost more and are harder 

to sell than they were four years ago, and 

the limitations of e-books still make it 

complicated to render some of our illustrated 

books even pleasant to read. We are 

in discussions about working out of the 

book—and the box. For us, when technical 

innovation comes, it will be about finding a 

new channel, i.e. a different container and 

platform, through which to market and sell 

long-form writing. 

For instance, I still want to find a way to 

use NFC (near field communication) technology 

better. However, at September we are 

just as interested in innovating in the way we 

communicate with readers and in reconsidering 

when we do it (author Charlotte Cole’s 

post on our Facebook page about her )

EIGHT STEPS TO 

PUBLISHING SUCCESS 

experience copyediting a new book got more 

shares and Twitter traction than any of our 

other posts this month). 

Cashflow is everything for a 

small business. But it can also 

be critical for authors. 

We wanted to be economic: free of unnecessary 

costs so we could publish in response 

to quality and our publishing instincts— 

not forced to double, then triple, our title 

count just to feed overheads taken on before 

we could justify them. We have managed 

much—a whole launch list created from the 

same sum I once spent on a single corporate 

brainstorming weekend. We have enjoyed 

much support from freelances and suppliers 

who have charged us considerately, in 

order to support a new independent. And I 

am embarrassed to admit I even took public 

transport at Frankfurt for the first time last 

year. (An anecdotal straw poll has, however, 

reassured me that I was far from alone in 

such past extravagance.) 

We also wanted to reconsider the royalty 

statement and calendar, and this is indeed 

under way. My discussions with authors and 

agents have been as much about how to pay 

as what to pay. Flexibility is a negotiating 

point for us. We have just agreed our first 

deal, with the intention of paying royalties 

more than twice a year. I would like this to 

become standard. We have also sought advice 

from agents on how to design and structure 

our new royalty statements. 

Don’t be sidetracked into trying 

to give your company the attributes 

you wish you had. 

I also wanted a catalogue that was so cool 

it was like a hipster zine that would be 

displayed on the counters of independent 

bookshops and passed among friends . . . 

This was a stupid idea. I take full responsibility. 

Where the time to do it was to come 

from—or the coolness—I have no idea. 

The independent publishing 

community is thrifty, thriving 

and supportive. 

4 

5 

6 

Turnaround Publishing Services has opened 

up new markets and vistas for us. But even 

on an ordinary day, remote working poses 

challenges. Not everyone’s confidence and 

morale can stick it and regular interaction 

is essential. Luckily, my four September 

colleagues also work remotely. They are 

less likely to be stuck in a meeting and more 

likely to be available for a chat than most 

office-bound publishers. Also, there has been 

a real shift in affordable workspaces so there 

are options for the future there too. 

Working alone is a challenge. 

(It’s not ideal in times of crisis 

or bereavement, either.) 

In The Shift: The Future of Work is Already 

Here, Lynda Gratton writes of the essentials 

of the modern workplace. Alongside the 

skills required to work and manage remotely, 

she places huge emphasis on the importance 

of a support network, a posse of entrenched 

professional friends who will unquestioningly 

turn their minds and energy to help 

wherever it is needed. 

We have benefited from supporters from 

the beginning—agents willing to experiment 

and advise, printers prepared to extend 

terms, freelance editors keen to see the list 

work, old colleagues happy to give creative 

feedback. But when I found myself caught 

in three months of critical familial hospital 

visits and illnesses, I needed more: a close 

team to take over projects as well as a wider 

posse to offer support . . . and lug boxes 

around at launch parties. 

A good intern is transformative; 

take the time to plan, prepare 

and develop such talent. 

We have tried to be good employers to the 

wider freelance community, but what I have 

been struck by is how much we have needed 

and benefited from the raw energy, cultural 

and technological perspectives, and sheer 

willingness of a couple of recent graduates. 

While we cannot pay much, we try to give 

them an interesting stay and a proper sense 

of how their work and projects fit into the 

larger process and industry as a whole. 

If there is a theme, it’s that the people we 

work with—authors, colleagues, freelances, 

Turnaround, co-publishers in large print or 

US editions—are September’s most precious 

commodity. To publish better than the rest, 

to give an author’s most precious commodity 

(their book) the best chance, we need 

terrific people. So we would love to hear from 

anyone who is interested in working with us, 

from freelance editors to marketeers, from 

interns to commissioning editors in other 

areas. Get in touch by emailing info@septemberpublishing.org. 

× 

20 

7 

8 

SEPTEMBER’S ISSUES 

Barefoot at the Lake 

Bruce Fogle 

Fogle’s memoir 

provides an escape 

route into the sunny 

semi-wilderness of 

a lakeside summer 

cottage in 1950s 

Canada and an 

account of one 

particular summer when his eyes 

were opened to the complexities of 

girls, adults and the natural world. 

The Perfect Stranger 

P J Kavanagh 

First published 

in the 1960s and 

now reissued and 

repackaged, this 

comic portrait of a 

soldier, a poet and 

a man in love was 

described by author 

David Nicholls as: ‘A wise, sad, 

wonderfully written memoir that’s 

ripe for rediscovery.’ 

One Hundred Acts of 

Minor Dissent 

Mark Thomas 

Comedian 

Thomas has been 

campaigning 

for nearly three 

decades: One 

Hundred Acts of 

Minor Dissent is his account of a 

year spent living provocatively— 

from successful campaigns against 

multinationals to protests against 

local park planners, from arts and 

crafts using porn magazines to 

raising cinema workers’ wages. 

Ways to Walk in 

London 

Alice Stevenson 

Deliberate, 

mindful walking 

is how Stevenson, 

an established 

illustrator and artist, 

navigates London and survives 

its challenges. In Ways to Walk 

in London she writes about and 

illustrates moments of beauty 

and urbanity, contemplation 

and revelation, finding hidden 

doorways, decorated arches and 

meaningful manhole covers across 

the city.

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BREAKING THE PAGE 

Think about the book of the future. The possibilities are 

endless . . . and tempting. We can add video, multiple narrative 

paths and in-book commentary. My own fantasies revolve 

around the touchable terrain of content you browse visually. It’s the 

reader’s version of synaesthesia. 

But all these enhancements will fizzle if they don’t address the 

pain points of large numbers of readers. If we don’t focus on readers’ 

needs, our flashiest design innovations will suffer the same fate as 

most digital book design experiments to date: neat, but no thanks. So, 

what kinds of problems are book lovers up against today? How about: 

) Information triage. Everyone whose “to read” list is too long 

needs help sorting through options and increasing their consumption 

velocity. 

) Recall and reuse. The value in most great books lies in how we 

deploy their insights after we have read them. How can we equip 

books to better help with this task? 

) Immersion. To ward off distraction. To focus in a sustained way 

on what is meaningful. That blissful communion between book 

lover and book is something that many readers are fighting to 

regain in their information-cluttered day. 

) Delight. That highly subjective but distinctly recognisable feeling 

you get when the author casts a spell that puts a smile on your face. 

The chance to use digital technology to assist—and entertain— 

readers is real. The challenge is figuring out how to do so in the 

service of authors and their audience. Put another way: just because 

you can, doesn’t mean you should. 

The workshop I will be leading at this year’s FutureBook Conference is a guided tour across this kind of reader-centric design thinking. 

My goal is to help attendees reframe their approach to e-book 

content design. In 2015, everyone knows how to make a fairly satisfying 

digital replica of a print book. The newer, more pressing challenge 

is to figure out what comes next. 

I will use two main questions to guide what I hope will be a highly 

participatory discussion: What do readers need? What can be done 

today? We will then apply the group’s collective wisdom to some of 

the most fertile opportunities for innovation: 

) Markets and channels. What new audiences and outlets are 

available to digitally savvy publishers? 

) Merchandising. How can books be showcased in new and enticing 

ways? 

) Product design. How can the innards of the book itself change to 

accommodate readers’ new media consumption habits? 

Breaking 

the Page 

Peter Meyers, who will lead a 

participatory workshop at this year’s 

FutureBook Conference, argues that 

e-books’ enhancement should be 

implemented only where appropriate 

The title of the workshop, “Breaking the Page”, suggests the kind 

of “blank canvas” thinking required to imagine big changes to the 

book. To use an old cliché: to make an omelette, you need to break a 

few eggs. 

My hope is for us to have some brainstorming fun thinking about 

how to break the book apart—without losing sight of the people who 

most need our care and attention in these wildly changing times: the 

readers. After all, they are the ones we are trying to get to buy these 

new kinds of books. × 

23 

Meyers will be running “Breaking the Page”, an interactive 

workshop, at FutureBook 2015. His book, Breaking the Page: 

Transforming Books and the Reading Experience, is out now

WHAT SHOULD 

A BOOK BE? 

If you could make any 

kind of 

a digital 

book, 

what 

would it 

be? How 

would it 

behave? 

What 

story 

would you 

tell? 

Anna Gerber and Britt 

Iverson, co-founders 

of Visual Editions, put 

forward the case for 

digital-native narratives 

Imagine you could make any kind of digital book. So long as you 

could read it on your phone. So long as it was a story you could 

actually read, not something you would watch. Would this digital-native 

story of yours connect your reader to where they are in the 

world? Would the story change as you travelled around the city? Would 

it sense how hot or cold you felt? Or how calm or stressed you are? Or 

would it simply remind you that you have five minutes to go before you 

reach the end of your story? 

These are just some of the ideas, areas, possibilities we have been 

dreaming up over the last 10 months, together with Google Creative 

Lab, as we have been looking at the world of digital books, e-books, 

enhanced e-books and books as PDFs. It’s part of what we have been 

thinking about when asking ourselves what would happen if we 

tapped into some of the magical, dynamic qualities of the internet and 

used them to make a different kind of digital literary experience on 

our mobile devices. We started to think about—and we know we aren’t 

alone here—how so many other digital cultural experiences seem to be 

exploding into new formats, new ideas, new possibilities, such as what 

is been happening with virtual reality, film, music, not to mention the 

poor cultural cousin: gaming. And, quite simply, it has made us think: 

if literature has always powered the imagination, why should books be 

left behind these other digital cultural experiences? 

If we think of the book as a cultural, physical object, can we also 

continue to inspire fresh conventions around how we think of books 

and bookishness in the age of the Millennials? How can we create new 

reading experiences on digital devices, and what kinds of stories can 

we read in this way? 

THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE 

The result for us is Editions At Play, an experiment in creating books 

that cannot be printed, books that are written and designed to be read 

on your phone. We’ve invited some great writers to work with programmers, 

developers and designers to create new formats of non-linear, 

dynamic literature in a bid to bring the possibilities of digital technology 

together with a love of literature and reading in a way that is more open 

than an app, and digitally native in a way a shareable PDF cannot be. 

We like to think of Editions At Play as a place for book lovers, tech 

geeks and design freaks. A collaboration between Visual Editions and 

Google Creative Lab, Editions At Play will launch this December with 

four titles: a book that travels by Reif Larsen; a book that takes sides by 

Joe Dunthorne and poet Sam Riviere; a book that’s unstable by début 

writer Alan Trotter (all via Visual Editions); and a new book that keeps 

unfolding, by publishing partners Penguin Random House and Londonbased 

independent record label Lex Records. Each of the titles uses 

existing web technology, lives on its own URL and is designed to be read 

on Android and iOS browsers. They are a mix of engaging, funny and sad 

stories that, we hope, readers will find surprising and delightful. 

Alongside the making of these delightful launch titles, and as part of 

our website, we have also been asking literary lovers, tech 

geeks and design freaks this: if you could make any kind of 

digital book, what would it be? And we would like to ask 

you. If you could do anything. It could be highly realistic. 

Or highly improbable. How would this digital book of yours 

behave? What story would it tell? And what could it do that 

a physical book couldn’t possibly do? × 

24 

Gerber and Iversen will 

take part in a session 

at FutureBook based 

on “the new publishing”. 

Email your ideas 

to hello@ 

editionsatplay.com

SPEAKERS: WHO’S WHO 

Taking to the stage 

With a roster of more than 50 experts from a multitude of 

sectors across the trade, and three dedicated streams running 

simultaneously, FutureBook 2015 mixes familiar faces with 

many new voices. These are their own stories . . . 

Dave Anderson is 

vice-president of 

merchandising and 

publisher relations at 

Kobo. He is responsible 

for publisher operations and 

publisher analytics globally, as well as 

merchandising and publisher relations 

for English-language territories. 

Porter Anderson is a 

journalist and consultant 

specialising in book 

publishing and its 

digital disruption. He is 

an associate editor of FutureBook; 

programmed the Master Class events 

at the Frankfurt Book Fair’s inaugural 

Business Club in 2014; and his 

consultancy is a media partner with the 

London Book Fair. 

Tom Bonnick is Nosy Crow’s 

business development 

manager and commissioning 

editor. He works on all of the 

company’s digital publishing, 

and commissions fiction for Nosy Crow’s 

list. In 2015, he was named Young 

Independent Publisher of the Year at the 

IPG Independent Publishing Awards, and 

a Bookseller Rising Star. 

Eileen Burbidge is a 

partner at Passion Capital, 

London’s leading early-stage 

technology venture capital 

investment firm. She is a 

member of the Prime Minister’s Business 

Advisory Board, FinTech envoy for HM 

Treasury and a frequent commentator for 

the likes of Bloomberg TV, Sky News and 

the BBC. Eileen was named as one of the 

12 Most Influential People in Tech by the 

Telegraph in 2014. 

George Burgess is the 

founder and c.e.o. of Gojimo, 

an exam-preparation mobile 

app for students. Labelled 

one of Britain’s Most Exciting 

Young Entrepreneurs by Forbes, George is 

23 years old; he founded Gojimo when he 

was just 17. 

Robert Caskie is chief 

operating officer at Peters, 

Fraser & Dunlop and the 

founder of Ipso Books. 

Previously he was an agent 

at MacFarlane Chard Associates and Capel 

& Land. Before becoming a literary agent, 

Robert lived in New York and in 1994 he 

was part of the team that founded the 

original Euphorium restaurant and bakery 

in Islington, north London. 

Anthony Cond is 

managing director of 

Liverpool University Press, 

which was named The 

Bookseller Industry Awards’ 

Independent Academic, Educational and 

Professional Publisher of the Year 2015. 

He is also a director of the Association 

of Learned and Professional Society 

Publishers and an honorary fellow in 

the School of the Arts at the University 

of Liverpool. 

Gareth Cuddy is the founder 

and c.e.o. of Vearsa, an 

award-winning enterprise 

software company that looks 

to solve publishers’ most 

pressing issues. He is also one of the 

trade’s foremost experts on e-books and 

the digital publishing scene. Originally 

from Galway, Ireland, Gareth splits his 

time between Cork and New York. 

Judith Curr is president 

and publisher of the Atria 

Publishing Group, a division 

of Simon & Schuster. She 

oversees the editorial, 

publishing and marketing activities of 

the group’s imprints. Judith also teaches 

a semester-long course at New York 

University called “From Writer to Reader: 

An Introduction to Book Publishing”. 

Cameron Drew is a veteran 

of the publishing industry 

and ground floor member 

of Kobo, with extensive 

experience in online 

retail and B2B e-commerce publishing. 

His responsibilities include content 

acquisition, growing new and existing 

business models, contract negotiation, 

international expansion and hunting 

down strategic partnerships. 

Lisa Edwards has worked 

for nearly 20 years across 

both children’s and adult 

publishing. While publishing 

and commercial director 

at Scholastic UK, she headed the 

publishing and licensing activity around 

Horrible Histories, Tom Gates and The 

Hunger Games. She is currently interim 

publishing director at Templar Publishing, 

and a consultant in brand management, 

list strategy and editorial training. 

Jo Ellis joined consultancy 

The Literary Platform 

in 2012. She works with 

its clients on business 

development and 

organisational change, content strategy 

and partnership building. Previously she 

was marketing director at Faber, where 

she played a key role in making it one 

of the world’s most vibrant and 

forward-thinking publishing companies. 

Abi Fenton is audio 

editor at HarperCollins. A 

Bookseller Rising Star in 

2015, Abi works closely 

with authors to produce 

audiobooks across HarperCollins’ 

fiction and non-fiction lists, as well as 

helping to shape HarperAudio’s strategy. 

HarperAudio seeks out the best narration 

and production talent to match its list 

of authors in order to create innovative, 

award-winning audio content. 

Richard Fisher stepped 

down as managing director 

of academic publishing at 

CUP at the end of 2014, 

and currently works in a 

non-executive capacity for a number of 

publishing organisations. In January 2015, 

he became the academic correspondent 

of the Independent Publishers Guild. 

As an author, he writes about the history 

of sport. 

27 

Molly Flatt is a tech and 

culture journalist and 

consultant who specialises 

in the intersection between 

the digital and the real in 

business, publishing and culture. She 

writes regularly for the likes of the BBC, 

the Guardian and The Bookseller, and 

has eight years’ experience of training 

companies such as Skype, Adobe and 

GoPro on how to be social without being 

a drone. 

Overleaf there are many more 

speakers who will be taking to 

the stage at Europe’s largest 

digital publishing conference 

on 4th December 

)

speakers: who’s who 

Jane Friedman is the 

co-founder and c.e.o. of 

Open Road Integrated 

Media, a digital publisher 

and multimedia content 

company. She was previously president 

and c.e.o. of HarperCollins and executive 

vice-president at Random House and 

Knopf Publishing Group. She has been 

named as one of Fortune magazine’s Most 

Powerful Women Entrepreneurs. 

Anna Gerber and Britt 

Iverson co-founded 

Visual Editions, a list 

that focuses on books 

as cultural objects, 

building digital literary 

landscapes and creating events that are 

all, in some way, about making 

great-looking stories. 

Tom Hall is editorial director 

at Lonely Planet. He is 

a contributor to dozens 

of Lonely Planet titles, 

including its annual Best 

in Travel publication and Lonely Planet 

Traveller magazine. He also writes for 

the Guardian and Independent and is a 

regular commentator covering travel on 

CNN, BBC News, Sky News and many other 

broadcasters globally. 

Jo Henry leads the Nielsen 

Book Research (NBR) service, 

which it recently acquired 

from Bowker. NBR monitors 

the US and UK book markets 

through Books & Consumers, the premier 

resource for understanding book 

consumers and their buying behaviour. 

Laurence Howell has 

been director of content 

at Audible since July 2011, 

with responsibility for 

merchandising, production 

and editorial content. He has been 

passionately involved in all areas of the 

audiobook and book industry during 

his career, which has encompassed key 

positions at Waterstones, W H Smith, 

Book Club Associates and Amazon. 

Anna Jean Hughes has 

worked in publishing for 

more than a decade. There 

was a brief fling with the 

Erotic Review, a minor 

assignation with Condé Nast, and a 

long and complicated relationship with 

Random House. She then set up digital 

publisher The Pigeonhole—even though 

she is actually rather disgusted by 

pigeons—and was named a Bookseller 

Rising Star in 2015. 

Alison Jones is a business 

and executive coach, 

content consultant and 

publisher. After a 23-year 

career in trade and scholarly 

publishing, she set up Alison Jones 

Business Services and the Practical 

Inspiration Publishing imprint in 2014. 

She is a publishing partner for businesses 

and organisations and provides coaching, 

consultancy and training services to a 

number of publishers. 

Susan Jurevics is the 

chief executive officer of 

Pottermore, the awardwinning 

digital commerce 

and community experience 

built around J K Rowling’s Harry Potter 

stories. Before Pottermore, Susan worked 

for the Sony Corporation of America, 

where she pioneered its cross-company, 

entertainment marketing function. 

Suzanne Kavanagh has 

overall responsibility for 

the Association of Learned 

and Professional Society 

Publishers (ALPSP) profile, 

brand and communications, and 

works with its team to drive member 

satisfaction and growth. Collaborative 

industry-wide initiatives are a particular 

passion of Suzanne’s, with Academic 

Book Week featuring prominently on her 

list of favourite projects. 

Dan Kieran is the c.e.o. 

and co-founder of 

award-winning publishing 

platform Unbound. He is 

also the author of 10 books, 

including The Idle Traveller, and is a 

travel writer contributing to the likes 

of the Guardian, the Times and Die Zeit 

in Germany. 

Emily Labram, HarperCollins’ 

product manager, helps to 

turn books into thoughtfully 

designed products that 

adapt its authors’ content to 

meet users’ real needs. Emily managed 

and launched an app iteration of 

George R R Martin’s Game of Thrones 

series, which is shortlisted in the Digital 

Book of the Year category at this year’s 

Futurebook Awards (see pp30–31). 

Sara Lloyd leads Pan 

Macmillan’s digital strategy 

and associated business 

model, channel, workflow 

and product innovation, 

and as well as the people and skills 

changes that accompany this. She 

is also responsible for the group’s 

communications teams and strategy, 

covering marketing, publicity and 

corporate communications. 

James Luscombe has 

worked in digital marketing 

for over 10 years; the last 

four of which have been 

spent at Pan Macmillan, 

where he is marketing technology 

director. He previously worked for 

several digital marketing agencies on 

everything from mobile content to web 

development, with clients including 

Bauer Media, Dennis Publishing, Reckitt 

Benckiser and Winkreative. 

Hannah MacDonald 

launched September 

Publishing in 2014. 

Its non-fiction imprint 

publishes writers, artists, 

poets and comedians. The company’s 

story is one of economy, small lists, 

dedicated teams, active authors and 

long-term marketing. Hannah is a novelist 

herself and a Betty Trask Award winner. 

Sandeep Mahal was director 

of The Space, responsible 

for encouraging artists 

to further their artistic 

engagement with digital 

technology. A librarian by training, 

she has worked in public libraries and 

was formerly programme manager for 

partnerships at The Reading Agency. A 

Bookseller Rising Star in 2012, Sandeep 

was awarded a fellowship from the Clore 

Cultural Leadership Programme in 2013. 

Crystal Mahey-Morgan left 

Penguin Random House in 

October 2014 to set up Own 

It!, a storytelling lifestyle 

brand covering books, music, 

fashion and film. She is also a director 

at Zed Books. She has contributed to the 

Guardian and The Face magazine on a 

freelance basis and held the position of 

marketing manager for the Raindance 

Film Festival. 

Perminder Mann is 

managing director of Kings 

Road Publishing, a division 

of Bonnier Publishing. She 

started her career at Pan 

Macmillan and Transworld before working 

for international independent publishers. 

She spent four years outside the book 

business, working in the toy industry, but 

was lured back into publishing by her 

love of books. 

Douglas McCabe is a leading 

expert on print and digital 

publishing. He analyses 

supplier strategies and 

forecasts consumption, 

revenue and advertising. He is a 

former director of online advertising 

portal Fish4, and was director of sales 

development and market insights at the 

HMV Group. Douglas holds a degree from 

Stirling University. 

Sarah McConville is vicepresident 

of marketing for 


Group and publisher of 


Press. In her role as publisher, Sarah 

leads the commercial side, as well as 

print and digital product development. 

Before joining the company, McConville 

was publicity director at MIT Press. 

Ian Metcalfe is director 

of publishing at Hodder 

Faith, managing 

departments, building 

key author relationships 

and ensuring the NIV Bible remains 

the leading translation in the UK. Ian 

has vast experience publishing Bibles 

and Christian titles, including across 

reference, music and liturgy. Prior to this, 

he was editorial director of Collins Bibles. 

28

SPEAKERS: WHO’S WHO 

Peter Meyers is a content 

strategist and reader 

advocate. He has advised 

many companies on digital 

content strategies, including 

HarperCollins and Penguin. Author of 

Breaking the Page: Transforming Books & 

the Reading Experience, he is a frequent 

contributor to the New York Times, the 

Wall Street Journal, Wired, Salon and the 

Village Voice. 

Richard Mollet is chief 

executive of the UK 

Publishers Association. He 

is responsible for leading 

political engagement 

with government and parliament at a 

national and EU level, and representing 

the publishing sector in the media. He is 

also tasked with co-ordinating the work 

of the PA in its main areas of activity,, 

including promoting reading for pleasure, 

workforce development and anti-piracy. 

Georgina Moore is 

communications director for 

Headline and Tinder Press, 

and runs the press office at 

Headline. She won the 2015 

PPC Award for Second Edition Paperback 

for her campaign for The Lemon Grove 

by Helen Walsh, and was also highly 

commended for the same campaign in 

The Bookseller Industry Awards’ Publicity 

Campaign of the Year category in 2015. 

Stephen Page’s career 

began in bookselling. In 

1994 he joined Fourth 

Estate, and became 

managing director in 2000. 

In 2001 he joined Faber & Faber as chief 

executive officer. He is interested in the 

issue of independence in the industry 

and the effects of technology on libraries, 

authors and publishing. In 2012 he was 

named as FutureBook’s Most Inspiring 

Digital Publishing Person. 

Anna Rafferty oversees 

the creation of product 

and content for Pottermore 

on its digital and physical 

platforms, overseeing 

creative, product, editorial and 

technology teams. Previously, she was 

m.d., digital at Penguin Books. Anna is on 

the BAFTA Children’s and Young Games 

Designer Steering Committees and is a 

Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. 

Caroline Raphael is editorial 

director of audio at Penguin 

Random House UK. She 

is a former BBC Radio 4 

commissioning editor. She 

now leads a team of audio experts in 

shaping Penguin Random House UK’s 

ambitious audio growth strategy; and 

working with authors, performance and 

production talent to commission and 

publish tomorrow’s bestsellers. 

Samantha Rayner is the 

principal investigator on the 

Arts & Humanities Research 

Council/British Library 

Academic Book of the Future 

Project, as well as chair of the Association 

for Publishing Education. She is the 

director for the Centre for Publishing 

at UCL, having previously worked as a 

bookseller, teacher and research and 

development manager. 

Charlie Redmayne is 

c.e.o. of HarperCollins 

UK, overseeing all areas 

of the business—both 

publishing and operational— 

and is responsible for defining 

and implementing the strategy for 

HarperCollins UK. In 2015 he led the UK 

business during unprecedented global 

expansion for HarperCollins Publishers. 

Simon Scarrow is one of 

the UK’s leading historical 

fiction authors. His Eagles 

series first hit bookshops in 

2000 and Simon continues 

to write one new adult Roman novel 

each year. Simon has many other literary 

projects in hand, and his Roman soldier 

heroes were transformed into a Brothers 

in Blood gaming app. 

Maureen Scott is the 

c.e.o. of social commerce 

publishing platform Ether 

Books. Her career is defined 

by mobile; Maureen ran one 

of the world’s first mobile developer 

programmes for Silicon Valley mobile 

pioneer Openwave and, as such, has 

a deep understanding of the global 

mobile landscape and the technology 

that is driving consumer behaviour 

on smartphones. 

Mark Searle is a publisher 

for Quintet and RotoVision, 

two coedition publishing 

divisions of The Quarto 

Group. In 2015 Mark 

co-founded This is Your Cookbook, an 

innovative new personalised cookbook 

business using Quarto assets. 

Asi Sharabi is the 

co-founder of Lost My Name. 

He started the company 

as a DIY project with some 

friends, yet it changed from 

being a labour of love into a funded 

tech and storytelling start-up with 

the ambition of making millions of 

children around the world curious, 

clever and kind. 

Kiren Shoman is executive 

director of editorial at SAGE, 

where she has worked since 

1995. Kiren has played an 

instrumental role in building 

both traditional and digital platforms 

for content dissemination. As strategic 

lead for SAGE’s book market, Kiren is 

instrumental in new product innovations 

within print and digital publishing, and 

content development within emerging 

digital streams. 

Kieron Smith, digital 

director at Blackwell’s, is 

a professional bookseller 

with more than 19 years’ 

trade experience, most of 

which is in the online sphere. Kieron 

has worked for W H Smith, Ottakar’s 

and Bertelsmann, and spent three years 

outside the publishing industry running 

GAME.co.uk. 

Lara Speicher is publishing 

manager of the recently 

re-established UCL 

Press, an Open Access 

publisher issuing scholarly 

monographs, textbooks, edited 

collections, books about UCL’s museums 

and collections, academic journals and 

journals for students in both digital and 

print forms. Prior to joining UCL in 2013, 

Lara worked as commissioning editor at 

British Library Publishing. 

Morten Strunge is c.e.o. 

and founder of e-book and 

audiobook subscription 

service Mofibo. Mofibo is 

a pay-per-book model to 

the publisher but a flat-rate monthly 

subscription service to its users. The 

company attracts 15,000 new users per 

month and looks to attract new 

readers by partnering with media and 

telecoms outfits. 

Hannah Telfer is group 

director, consumer and 

digital development 

at Penguin Random 

House, responsible for 

consumer insight, group marketing, 

audience development, digital product 

development and the group’s audio 

business, and works closely with 

Penguin Random House’s publishing and 

marketing teams. 

Annette Thomas was 

appointed chief scientific 

officer of Springer Nature 

in May 2015, following the 

merger between the majority 

of Macmillan Science & Education and 

Springer Science+Business Media. 

Previously she was c.e.o. of Macmillan 

Science & Education, responsible for its 

global portfolio of science, scholarly and 

education business. 

29 

Tom Whitwell is a senior 

consultant at Londonbased 

innovation agency 

Fluxx. He works with global 

companies—from banks to 

comics, from insurance groups to startups— 

to help them grow and launch new 

products. Before working at Fluxx, he was 

head of digital for the Times, introducing 

its groundbreaking paywall model and 

hugely popular iPad app. 

Julia Wilde is the director of 

business development and 

marketing for Agatha Christie 

Limited (ACL). Primarily 

her role encompasses the 

exploitation of all of Christie’s books, 

short stories and plays across publishing, 

digital production, merchandise and live 

events, as well as leading on brand and 

digital strategy. Prior to her appointment 

at ACL, Julia ran the digital and marketing 

team at Four Colman Getty.

THE FUTUREBOOK 

AWARDS SHORTLISTS 

Celebrating 

excellence 

The FutureBook Awards recognise the publishers and initiatives 

that are pushing the envelope when it comes to innovation. 

Philip Jones summarises this year’s shortlistees 

1 

3 

4 

2 

Eight book tech companies, 15 

digital books, 10 marketing/publicity 

campaigns, seven platforms and 

15 individuals from within the book business 

will go head to head for the coveted 

FutureBook Awards. The shortlists display 

excellence and innovation, with the winners 

announced at the end of the FutureBook 

Conference on 4th December. 

Pottermore c.e.o. Susan Jurevics and 

Quarto c.e.o. Marcus Leaver 1 have been nominated 

in the Digital Leader category alongside 

Penguin Random House’s Hannah Telfer; 

Whitefox founder John Bond; Angela Tribelli, 

HarperCollins chief marketing officer; and 

Asi Sharabi, founder of Lost My Name. 

A new award that recognises digital 

achievers within the business shortlists 

Anna Jean Hughes, co-founder and editorial 

director of The Pigeonhole; Crystal Mahey- 

Morgan, founder of OwnIt!; Matt Haslum, 

consumer marketing director, Faber; Anna 

Lewis, founder, Valobox; David Eagle, digital 

services and IT manager at NBN International; 

Laura Cremer 2 , digital manager, 

Octopus; Emily Labram, product manager, 

HarperCollins; Emma Barnes, founder/c.e.o. 

of Bibliocloud; and George Burgess, founder 

and c.e.o. of Gojimo. 

30 

MARKET FORCES 

Campaigns shortlisted in the Marketing/ 

Publicity category include HarperCollins 

for Scrabble Week, a social media push used 

to promote its Scrabble titles; Canongate’s 

promotion for Nick Cave’s title The Sick Bag 

Song; and Bloomsbury’s Harry Potter Book 

Night 3 initiative. 

In the Platform of the Year category PRH’s 

PelicanBooks.com will slug it out with sister 

company DKfindout!; as well as FaberMembers.com; 

writers’ platform MacGuffin; 

Quarto’s personalised cookbook site This Is 

Your Cookbook; the Oxford Learner’s Bookshelf 

4 ; and the offline initiative HarperCollins 

BookLab at the Seaport Culture District. 

In the best digital books categories 

Hachette, Nosy Crow and Blink Publishing— 

with apps for screen personalities Professor 

Green and Alfie Deyes 5 —make up the rump 

of the shortlists, with Faber’s Arcadia app 6 

and HarperCollins’ A Game of Thrones also 

listed, alongside Complex Books’ SESAME 

Recipe Manager 7 . 

In the separate BookTech category eight 

companies have been shortlisted, including 

familiar names such as Gojimo and Reedsy, 

alongside more nascent innovations from 

Oolipo, Ooovre and Shulph (see p12). 

LISTEN UP! 

Audiobooks are also to be included in the 

FutureBook Awards for the first time. The 

audio awards, run in association 

with audiobook business 

Audible, recognise the growing 

importance of audio in publishers’ 

businesses, as well as their 

transition to the digital format. 

Three awards will be handed out, 

for Best Frontlist Fiction Audiobook; 

Best Frontlist Non-Fiction 

Audiobook, and Best Backlist 

Audiobook. Shortlists include 

Audible’s own new dramatisation 

of Rudyard Kipling’s The 

Jungle Book: The Mowgli Stories, 

Pan Macmillan’s Poldark, as told 

by Oliver Hembrough, and Hodder’s The 

Churchill Factor, written by Boris Johnson 

and narrated by Simon Shepherd. 

Overall, the shortlists reflect the sector: 

imaginative, bold and, at times, ingenious. 

The pleasure this year has been scratching 

beneath the surface of digital publishing, and 

uncovering a hive of activity that underlines 

just how this business is changed and changing 

from root to branch. × 

Judges for the FutureBook Awards 

include author Peter Meyers; 

Sandeep Mahal, former director of 

The Space; Lisa Edwards, consultant 

at Redwood Tree Publishing; and 

journalist and apps specialist 

Stuart Dredge. 

The eight BookTech finalists will 

take part in a live pitch-off at the 

FutureBook Conference in front of 

a panel of three judges. For more 

information about the award’s 

shortlistees, see p12. 

7 

6 

5

THE FUTUREBOOK 

AWARDS SHORTLISTS 

Best Adult Digital Book Best Children’s Digital Book Best Reference Digital Book 

A Game of Thrones: Get into the Books 

HarperCollins 

Arcadia by Iain Pears 

Faber & Faber/Touchpress 

Calmeleon iPad and iPhone app 

Octopus/Papertrell 

The Pointless Book 2 app 

Blink Publishing 

LUCKY—Professor Green 

Blink Publishing 

Snow White 

Nosy Crow 

Clunk in Space—Oxford Read and Imagine Level 1 

OUP 

Good Night Books 

YUDU 

Tate Kids Draw and Play 

Tate Publishing/Aimer Media 

Axel Scheffler’s Flip Flap Jungle 

Nosy Crow 

Ella’s Kitchen First Foods iPad app 

Octopus/Papertrell 

Think Like Churchill 

Hodder & Stoughton/Touchpress 

Essentials of Nursing Practice 

SAGE 

SESAME Recipe Manager 

Complex Books 

In the Shadow of Things 

VIKA Books 

Digital Achiever 

of the Year 

sponsored by 

The Frankfurt Book Fair 

Emma Barnes 

Founder, Bibliocloud 

George Burgess 

Founder, Gojimo 

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This is Your Cookbook 

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