"Crossing Boundaries: Expanding Your Publishing Opportunities" - report
Posted on
Alexandria—
The BA Media Department organized a workshop entitled "Crossing Boundaries: Expanding Your Publishing Opportunities", attended by international publishers and representatives of publishing houses from all over the world. Participants met with Dirk Koehler, Publisher of the World Bank, Washington, D.C., and Laura Fillmore, President, Open Book Systems, Emerson College and George Washington University.
In his opening speech, Dr. Khaled Azab, Director of Media Department, presented challenges and boundaries facing publishing in the Arab world. He added that there are only 600 publishing houses in the Arab world, 40% of which are Egyptian, and that Egypt, Jordon, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia represent 57% of the publishing process in the region. He explained that religious and academic books take over the majority of the publishing process in the Arab world. Finally, he emphasized the problem of lack of pocket books and the necessity of supporting this kind of books through different marketing strategies, referring to the deterioration of reading habits in Arab countries.
The workshop's first day included several sessions and discussions, where participants presented facts and data about book publishing, the problems and boundaries facing the publishing process, and the tools and skills needed to make such excursions successful.
The workshop included a demonstration of the “Espresso Book Machine” in the
Library, the BA's latest digital experience, the second experience of its kind worldwide following that of the USA, and first in the Middle East and the Arab world. The machine saves thousands of books in a digital format and retrieves it upon the purchaser's order in less that 10 minutes to be printed, and bounded.
Dirk Koehler chaired the second session, where he referred to the electronic publishing and how the always- on connectivity to the web changed customer expectations and driven new products and services. He also spoke about the author's rights in the e-world.
The workshop first day was concluded by a discussion on how to change the publisher/ reader relationship, and how to redefine the role of libraries, booksellers, and others in the distribution chain. Speakers discussed how can publishers benefit from the internet and new services provided by the web.
At the outset of the second day, participants discussed key principles of marketing and explored ways to apply essential strategies, and explained how marketing and sales are actually two very different functions. Laura Fillmore discussed the process of transferring an original manuscript to a marketable book. She explained the basic five elements of marketing: product, price, propaganda, and distribution. She defined the nature of the marketing specialists' work, which is based on studying the market and responding to customers' requirements and finally meeting such requirements through the product.
Talking about promotion, Koehler explained that marketing is not limited to promotion through mass media, but it includes thorough studies of the marketplace. Promotion in e-publishing depends basically on attracting customers to the website of a certain publishing house or a certain book, and how to guarantee other hits to the same website.
Koehler discussed partnerships and licensing, he added that publishing allows partnerships in different fields, including: writing, editing, printing design, marketing, distribution, in addition to partnership with e-publishing institutions.
The workshop was concluded by an open discussion, where participants recommended different solution for publishing challenges and boundaries.