University Press Wiki

This is the Wiki from the University Press AGM last month. You may download the presentations (including my own) on the subject of presswide databases.

Filed under: Publishing

Kogan Page

Proving that a lot of the stuff talked about independent publishing is quite frankly nonsense like this piece in the Observer last week (it takes me a week to get through all the papers!) profiling Philip Kogan.

Reminding us that the fundamentals of publishing don’t change – ‘It’s about acquiring good intellectual property and getting it to market’.

Filed under: Publishing

Heathrow – not fit for purpose

Yeah kinda knew that as someone on the receiving end of the shambolic nightmare known as Heathrow but what is being done about it ?

Anyway, this article on front of Independent today just reiterates what anyone who travels already knows.

Filed under: Airports

Onix in the UK

I occasionally get asked by Nielsen Bookdata in the UK how our UK clients are getting along with the Onix standard as they would like more of them to be submitting files to them.

As anyone who knows me or indeed reads this blog I really believe in the importance of getting complete and timely title information into the publishing supply chain. I spend a great deal of my own time and money trying to help as many (particularly smaller) publishers as I can. I give up days to help sort out their data; travel to all kinds of places to give seminars; give away free software etc etc.  I’m not sure short of actually doing it for them I can do more.

But still only a relatively small amount of publishers of ours who could generate Onix actually do so. And, as anyone who has used our products can testify we really can’t make it any easier. Simply, fill in the relevant fields and click a button that says ‘Create Onix’. I mean seriously what more can we do? By the way if you don’t believe me just go to our website and download for yourself.

So, why don’t they? And what should I say in my response to Nielsen’s latest enquiry received yesterday? Well, the truth is things have changed a little. At least now they have some inkling of what Onix actually is and a vague understanding that they should be doing it. But, further than that I couldn’t say that they have much interest.

At the moment, in the UK we have probably half a dozen or so publishers currently installing our software. Their reasons for installing range from a requirement to have a scheduling tool or somewhere to hold their rights information or more commonly simply to have all their publishing information in one place.

In short, they just don’t care enough to put it to the top of their list of priorities.

So what can change this? I assume that Nielsen; Bowker et al are keen on this because it will in the longer term make their life easier and save them some money in re keying and other costs. If this is the case (i.e that there is some tangible benefit for them) then there should be some clearly identifiable gain for the publisher. Nowhere on the Nielsen; BIC or e4books websites are what the publishers get out of all the hassle of sorting out sometimes 20 years of conflicting title information clearly articulated. And since both Nielsen and Bowker still accept title information in just about any form (ranging from photocopied AIs to Excel spreadsheets) why bother going through the nightmare of trying to conform?

Both these organisations have thus far failed to produce clear documentation about what they actually want or even to publicise the documentation they do have. I spoke to four UK publishers yesterday on this very issue and they didn’t even know Nielsen had a Word document containing their criteria.

So, the leap for publishers is from providing photocopied AIs stuffed in an envelope to producing an XML document with many times the number of fields they would normally provide and on top of that sometimes formatted and using terminology that is quite frankly alien to their business. And even if they do manage to do this and submit a file they get a list of feedback which generally serves to confuse and tells them they have send a telephone number in the wrong form (eg, +44 instead of 0044). They throw their hands up in the air and try and get on with the business of getting books out of the door and vow to revisit the issue when they have more time.

What to do?

1) First of all motivate the publisher by giving them some sort of tangible benefit to which they can relate. For example, if you don’t do this your title information will enter the supply chain 3 months later than everyone else; charge them for not doing it to reflect your re keying and other costs; demonstrate the real increases in sales they could see from getting their title information into the supply chain in a more complete manner. Anyway, you get the idea. Perhaps a UK equivalent of the BISG annual ‘Making Information Pay’ event with some suitably scary stats (i.e include a cover image and you are 70% more likely to sell your book).

2) Just make it easier to understand. For all the time and money BIC have spent on this they still have no real practical help for publishers to step up to the plate. The documentation produced by us and Snowbooks for free is of more use in de mystifying the whole process. So, come on BIC produce some step by step guides; maybe some short video; even a podcast. Oh, and talk about time and costs – please.

3) Perhaps, it is just too much of a leap. So, maybe have a half way stage? A little like the excellent Booknet Canada started by first getting all the publishers to submit their title information using a basic spreadsheet with a core group of field and then worked up from there. Or maybe an Onix Lite as an interim step. Dunno, just a thought.

4) Publishers themselves must put more effort in to try and get their title information together in some electronic form and to learn a little about the standard. I realise this is hard when resource is often so scarce but this title information is having to be keyed in somewhere (eg, Quark AIs; Word documents etc etc.).

Filed under: Onix, Publishing

A long ass day

Whenever I get asked why we have so many publishers from just about every size; market sector and geographical location. I pretty much always answer ‘because we go’. And by that I mean that unlike our competitors we will speak to anyone and go anywhere. We don’t change our tone or our approach based on someone’s turnover. As far as we are concerned there is always something to be learned (regardless or not whether a publisher picks us to go with) from speaking to publishers which will better inform both our product and the service we give.

Anyway, what this does mean is sometimes some long tiring days which to be blunt I am probably a little bit too old for if truth be told.

One such day was the Friday just gone when had to get up early to catch the 7.15 am bus from Dingle to Tralee. The bus will be home for the next five hours or so!

Then from Tralee bus station I have to catch the bus to Cork.

From Cork bus station I then get a cab to Douglas Village in Cork to go and see Mercier Press which is above and behind the Paddy Powers.

I then grab some lunch in the bar a couple of doors down.

I then get a cab to the airport to check in for my flight back to London.

As I have some time to kill before my flight I decamp to the airport bar to grab some wine and to get extorted by BTOpenworld so I can catch up on my email and generally catch up.

Arrive at Stanstead at 11.50 pm and pass through security.

Making it to my hotel around midnight.

Filed under: Airports, Hotels, Publishing

If you buy one disc this month

Then cannot recommend highly enough Robert Glasper’s ‘In My Element‘. Compelling; transporting; engrossing music for anyone. I know he is trotted out anytime the question of the health of contemporary jazz is raised but that to be blunt is beside the point. Go buy it.

Filed under: Music

The remarkable Manu Chao

Great article in the Observer yesterday for anyone interested in the remarkable music and times of Manu Chao. Now there is a guy who walks it like he talks it.

Filed under: Music

Disappearing book reviews

Link to Book Critics campaign to call a halt to the trend of book reviews disappearing and/or being massively cut from newspapers.

Filed under: Publishing

Home sweet home

Shacked up at Murphy’s B&B in a gray drizzly Dingle for a day or so. Helping out one of the greatest of publishers on this or indeed any other island with their publishing information – Brandon Mount Eagle.

Filed under: Publishing

Travel as much as you can

Filed under: Hotels