Book Publishing in Small Markets

Mija Kovac came to class wearing two hats. One as digital strategist and publisher at the Mladinska knjiga Group, the other as the chairman of the Department of Information Science at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He gave us a well rounded insight into book publishing in small markets like his native Slovenia, where 16% of all books sold are in the English language. Slovenia he said, is the perfect example of an average nation in the EU reflective of average patterns in everything but reading habits (higher than average). 

By Dr. Miha Kovac

Problems in the Slovenian book market include the universal ones of competitive retailers and rise of ebooks, the decay of brick and mortar, apps over illustrated books, and the uncertain future of the library. More local problems that he pointed to included the fast growth of reading in English and competition from USA and UK retailers and small markets having not enough resources for R and D and investments in digital infrastructure. 

However, people are buying 3 times more electronically, and the threat is not so much to protect copyright as it must to protect the buyer, he suggested. The MKG owns over 57 bookstores with about 454 employees, ploughing back a turnover of over 25.5 million Euros each year, closer to a third of the Slovenian market. The company (conglomerate) enjoys strong warehousing and distribution services, and publishes on a principle of low print runs with a high number of reprints, a functional successful mechanism in a small market like Slovenia where good content is sought, regardless of the price (despite the absence of a Net Book Agreement). Though there is a high penetration of English language ebooks in Slovenia, there is no data to support the increased circulation in the years. In fact, it is his dream to create metadata crawlers that effectively tag information about books and publishers, as a book's metadata influences best what we buy as it algorithmically makes some appear more often than others.


 'Ebooks are changing the landscape even in those countries which pretend they don't have an ebook market.' 

Problems faced in the Slovenian book market include competition from ebooks and etailers, breakdown of brick and mortar, apps as competitors to illustrated books, and the uncertain future of libraries. 'Ebooks are changing the landscape even in those countries which pretend they don't have an ebook market,' he opined. Will libraries exist in a climate where books are being sold for about 1-2 Euros? And if libraries and brick and mortar bookstores disappear, the entire book will disappear from the urban landscape altogether, even as book organisations increasingly latch on to technology companies. Ebooks and apps should be treated as a spin off enterprise, and when combined with more European Union and local funding, could make better headway. Whether Apps and ereading are a distraction or an accelerator to the educational experience, remains a much debated topic. For the future, as information continues to digitise, he offers that publishers should have more links with technology companies and universities, and learn from other branches in the industry.    

He talked about the importance of the appearance and semantic web of the author in times where certain authors may sell well only within a certain cultural context, and remain unnoticed in others. And, Amazon is evil not just because it is killing the book market, but because it lacks a genuine interest in dealing books, 'all it wants is more customers', he reflected, embodying the emotion of a true blue publisher. 

Dr. Kovac's ongoing two day talk is a power-prelude to the weekend's much anticipated Book History and Book Cultures Conferences at University of Stirling. 

Watch this space for more. 

Publishing Scotland Conference 2012

Edinburgh, 27 February, 2012 - As part of the group from Stirling International Center for Publishing and Communication, I attended my first business conference in Scotland at the Royal College of Physicians, which was also the first time that Publishing Scotland opened its doors to publishing Students, thus bringing down the average age of the conference-attendee by a couple of decades at least, joked a member. The CEO Marion Sinclair's welcome address made it clear at the outset that 'the walls had been breached', and disintermediation was a clear concern for the present and future. Subsequent speakers' presentations were filled with running metaphors of marriage (wedding cake, pre nuptials, divorce etc.), but there was moderate positive feeling in the air for *what was to come* with book buying, book selling, and book publishing. 

With my classmates images courtsey Publishing Scotland
Photographer: Sandy Young

With Printers' Exhibits during lunchtime
Photographer: Sandy Young

I particularly enjoyed the keyote address by Mr. Alan Clements, Director of content, STV who mentioned the lack of communication between Scottish book publishers and producers resulting in the lack of quality local ideas to improve Scottish programming at STV as he analysed the pressing trend to homogenize Scottish identity in the sea of mainstream English programming and future gazed into what lay ahead for media and the culture. Steve Bohme from Book Marketing Limited enchanted everyone with his allusions to confetti in explaining the key retail market trends and increasing relationship between book buyers, book sellers and book publishers. The talk by David Walters of Nielsen further addressed the overall decline in all genres in the Scottish book market in 2011. Jon Reed, offered his social media marketing expertise, even if he came down as a bit of a repetition from the slides of our regular classroom sessions (his miles-wide internet presence to thank!), as he waned on about harnessing our social media impact in the usual ways. There was an immensely uplifting talk about Metadata,  a panel that brought together leaders of small publishing enterprises showcasing the very small scale (size) of Scottish publishing. Representation from the Society of Authors brought to the fore nightmare stories about agents and publishers and the surge of hope that e-publishing brought for authors. An interesting segment by two Edinburgh and Glasgow libraries' direction of/partnership with cultural festivals, and their ambitions of a library imprint, emphasized their growing importance in the publishing value chain, offering much fodder for thought as well. 

All in all, a very insightful daylong session, that as some argued, begged for some London perspective also. The panel discussion on Apps, entrepreneurship and the new Scottish publishing was useful, but a lot more could have been talked about the digital format of the book. 

A Saltire Appointment

One of India's gameshow millionaires spent his first million, in search of a masters degree in Scotland! This was revealed to me by Cabinet Secretary of Education and Lifelong learning in the Scottish Parliament His Honorable Mike Russell, in an elegant gathering of internationally diverse Commonwealth, Saltire and Chevening Scholars. An alum of University of Edinburgh, Mr. Russell asked what my postgraduate degree was about in Stirling, and I said an MLitt in publishing studies, at which he smacked his lips, saying "perfect!" adding that he had written seven books and that he had several more in the pipeline! The stately National Museum of Scotland, was home again to its annual ceremony commemorating diversity in education on its run up to St. Andrew's Day.

Cabinet Secretary of Education and Lifelong Learning: How do you address an 'Hon'ble MP'?

Others from different universities were intrigued about my subject being publishing studies as opposed to publishing itself, at which I offered that my course was tailored around the trends and topics within publishing that involved not just publishers but also agents, book historians,  gameshow publishers,  social media scientists/artistes, book e-tailers among several other niches. 

Patrick, PhD in Sports Psychology, on the prowl for parliamentarians

Universities, like corporate houses, are integral to society, and look for huge markets like India and Africa to recruit from. In the US, efforts are usually invested at getting/targeting any or all kinds of students, be they undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral or diploma students. But here in Scotland, I noticed a focused  effort to attract the post-graduate international student, someone who is far more capable of enhancing UK's post industrial economy with their professional skills and expertise, than nubile freshmen in cold water. This works both ways, undergraduates find greater undergraduate study-abroad opportunities in the USA, Canada and Australia, and feel more assured of post study work permits in these countries as compared to the UK which recently repealed its post study work permit program for international students (non-EU nationals). 

India and Malaysia are active hubs for recruitment for Scottish Universities and Mr. Russell himself had returned from his trips to both countries the last month. Students I met were mostly from China, Africa Canada and India. An all-male contingent of Chevening scholars were accompanied by members of the British Council. Commonwealth scholars, hailed mostly from Canada.

University officials were a friendly lot to chat up with,  them, in the habit of recruiting students on a constant basis through conversations. We were bid bye with a lot of cheers and good wishes for Hogmanay, not New Years eve, as we were reminded! I returned home the proud owner of a lovely Saltire key ring.

Visit Scotland: Gearing up for times ahead