Publishers' symposium on e-books

MEDIA RELEASE COURTESY OF: APA

With escalating demand for e-books, over 400 members of the Australian publishing industry are gathering for a landmark two-city symposium to address the impact and opportunities of digital publishing.

The Digital Revolution: Publishing in the 21st Century is a one day symposium held in Melbourne (15 February) and Sydney (17 February), bringing together publishers, editors, booksellers, literary agents, libraries and key industry stakeholders.

Presented by the Australia Council for the Arts in partnership with the Australian Publishers Association (APA), this is the first time the entire Australian publishing industry is gathering to collectively focus on its digital future.

The event will feature Australian and international speakers examining questions around what is happening globally to the publishing industry in the new digital era. What opportunities are there for Australian publishers and writers through advances in digital technology? What skills will publishers need to exploit these new digital opportunities? Will e-books ultimately replace traditional print books? And what are the readers doing, and what do they want?

Symposium speakers include international industry leaders Richard Charkin from Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, responsible for its UK, USA and Germany publishing suite; and Stephen Page, CEO of Faber and Faber, with an extensive digital publishing program; and Michael Tamblyn from Kobo Inc, USA, an expert in consumer trends; as well as Australian speakers, Elizabeth Weiss from Allen & Unwin; Victoria Nash from Macmillan Group; and Susan Hawthorne from Spinifex Press.

Kathy Keele, CEO of the Australia Council, says “The trend of arts going digital is now well and truly upon the publishing industry. The release of recent e-readers such as the Kindle has inspired a lot of consumer demand for books to be available electronically, so it’s crucial that the industry now look at how it’s going to serve that demand.”

“Across all art forms the Australia Council has a leading priority to help artists find new opportunities and develop new content for digital media. We’re already working on this front with Australian writers and it’s timely to now bring together, with the APA, the publishing industry to deal with this most important issue.”

The APA’s CEO, Maree McCaskill, says, “Publishers have already embraced technology to edit, design and market digitally but now the challenge is to publish digitally. With the recent release of a number of dedicated delivery devices, we can now see the outlines of a future business model that is digital all the way to the consumer. What that means for Australian publishers and Australian authors is being worked out right now. And this symposium is a great way for all of us to sit down and share our knowledge.”