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EDITORIAL
(from July 03 issue)
Should we leave breaking news stories alone?
Monthly publications run risks when they cover
news stories, as we learnt last month. The day after we printed
the June issue, complete with the cover story of renewed interest
in AOL/Time Warner Books, it was announced that the book division
was no longer for sale.
I am not the first editor to be overtaken by events and I know
it will happen again. So should we have a very different approach
to daily or weekly publications? We can, and do, run interviews
and features that are not time-sensitive, but I don’t believe
that we should ignore big stories that affect the industry and
our readers.
As part of our continued editorial development, this month sees
our first feature on ‘image libraries’. I felt it
was a neglected subject area considering how central it is to
the production of so many books and journals. I hope you find
it interesting and useful; it’s certainly the best looking
feature we’ve ever done.
Paul Thorne
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Audited
circulation for the year to 31st December 2002. Average circulation
of 5,707.
Book
People is published by Rigden Thorne
16 Chilham Way, Bromley, Kent BR2 7PR
Telephone: 08456 580068• Fax: 08456 580068
Email: paul@book-people.net
Editor:
Paul Thorne
Special features: Susan Dixon
Sub Editor: Paula Arkell
Production: Liz Bingold
Advertising Sales: David Bonner
© 2003 by Chappell Thorne. All rights reserved. No part of
this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
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NEW
PUBLISHING TECHNOLOGY EVENT FROM PIRA
Pira
International’s new event, Publishing Technology 2003, offers
an in-depth insight into the key business concerns of the publishing
community and how technology can be used to meet business needs.
Spread over two days, this event will be made up of four modules.
You can attend just one module, all four, or any combination,
enabling you to tailor your conference experience to your needs,
your time constraints and your budget. The conference is on September
24 and the venue is the London Marriott Hotel.
The modules at this year’s event are:
- Publishing strategies and business models.
Providing direction to publishers on best business practice. Topics
will include: future trends for the European publishing community;
the impact of new technology; achieving successful structural
and organisational change; digital rights management.
- Multimedia production and content management.
Addressing technology advancement and challenges involved in content
management. Topics will include: assessing content management
needs and existing technology; XML – capabilities and limitations;
the effect of XML on the workforce; capitalising on web services.
- Print production technology.
Focusing on print production and prepress issues, topics will
include: opportunities and challenges for bringing repro functions
in-house; PDF workflows; JDF vision; print buying; proofing and
colour management.
- Generating revenue from content through media platforms.
Addressing the technical and business challenges of publishing
on the internet, with focus on how publishers can exploit the
web more effectively. Topics will include: innovative business
models; understanding customer preferences; syndication; mobile
communications; advertising revenue.
Publishing Technology 2003 will provide you with the necessary
know-how to exploit new publishing technology and improve the
efficiency and profitability of your business.
Visit www.piranet.com and select Events & Training from the
menu. For details of group booking discounts please contact the
conference manager, Henrietta Fonell, e-mail: henriettaf@pira.co.uk
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INSIDE
A REFERENCE PACKAGER'S WORLD
Following
on from the Dictionary feature in the June issue, Book People
went to meet Dr Alan Isaacs, editorial consultant and science
contributor to the Collins English Dictionary, and a founding
director of Aylesbury-based reference packager Market House Books.
Dr Alan Isaacs (left) with fellow director,
Dr John Daintith
Book
People asked Dr Isaacs how Market House Books, founded some 34
years ago in 1969, (then called Laurence Urdang Dictionaries),
became involved with Collins?
Knowing that Collins were considering a totally new dictionary,
the first for over 30 years, Laurence Urdang, with the editorship
of the US Random House Dictionary to his credit, liaised with
his friend, Jan Collins, one of the then family-owned directors
of Collins, to set up a separate company to produce the new opus.
Unlike the English dictionaries then being published, the starting-point
for this new one related broadly to US college dictionaries that
traditionally contained a wealth of scientific material and colloquialisms.
Simultaneously, Dr Isaacs, whose own background was scientific
and who had already had several science-related titles published,
began his own lexicography interest with a letter to the New Scientist.
In this he indicated that the illustrious Oxford dictionaries,
icons for over 100 years, seemed to be deficient in scientific
vocabulary. Understandably, Oxford University Press reacted rather
angrily – a dispute that reached the Sunday broadsheets.
Yet, unknown then, the inclusion of both science-related and colloquial
vocabulary was to become the norm within UK dictionary publishing.
The compilation and total production of the Collins English Dictionary
took some eight years. And interestingly, computers, though without
screens at that time, already played a significant role. Today,
Market House Books, as the company became in 1980, concentrates
on the scientific and encyclopedic entries, but continues to typeset
the total dictionary as they do with all other titles produced
by themselves. Their DTP program, Corel Ventura, a database package
suited to dictionaries, works on the basis that each page has
a similar format.
Aside from the Collins dictionary, Market House is synonymous
with a range of other reference titles. One such, The Macmillan
Encyclopedia, edited by Dr Isaacs, has been another core assignment
and, after the Collins dictionary, the company’s most demanding
project. Commenced in the late 1970s and published initially in
1981, it has been regularly updated on an annual basis. Extensive
use has been made of outside specialist contributors and advisers
whose work is then subjected to intensive editing and checking
by the company’s in-house editors. Indeed, this has remained
the central approach for the regular publishers for whom the company
produce their titles.
The majority of titles have been created for the UK market but
there are some that the company package exclusively for the USA.
Capitalising on their encyclopedia and encyclopedic dictionary
specialisms, titles have been produced both for major US publishers
Facts on File, Grolier and Larousse. For this latter, the company
is currently updating a six-volume encyclopedia, first produced
by themselves in the late 1990s.
For the UK, another major project has been, and still is, a range
of encyclopedic dictionaries, part of Oxford University Press’s
well-known Oxford Paperback Reference series. These are packaged
and regularly updated on a four- to five-yearly basis. With subject-areas
largely incorporating science, medicine and business, the general
approach, as Dr Isaacs so aptly put it in relation to the Oxford
Dictionary of Law, is to “take all the nonsense out of convoluted
jargon so that the lay person can get to grips with the frequently
confusing language of the legal world”.
In other words, a straight dictionary definition is followed by
a short paragraph expanding on the use and significance of the
word. Specialist colloquialisms and “internetisms”
obviously dependent on subject are also included. Generally, there
is no barrier to any word being used except that it must have
reasonable usage in either verbal or written language.
And, significantly, definitions are created as a totally separate
entity to those in the principal Oxford general dictionaries,
Market House having a free hand in creating each title. The demands
for this series also frequently involve line drawings, all of
which are produced in-house on a computerised basis.
Despite the scientific background of both Dr Isaacs and his fellow
director, Dr John Daintith, science subjects have been married
with arts and foreign languages. An early 1990s project was yet
another foray into the world of nineteenth-century reference titles,
this having been the first edition of the Brewers 20th-century
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable that the company produced for Cassell.
Today, this specific subject area continues with a similar dictionary
for Pan Macmillan, The Macmillan Dictionary of Contemporary Phrase
and Fable. And foreign language titles, incorporating French,
German, Spanish and Italian, have concentrated on the company’s
initial expertise in dictionaries.
Produced originally for Pan Books, these were later published
across the Atlantic in the US by Barnes & Noble. Owning the
copyright as is frequently the norm with the majority of Market
House’s titles, enabled this sale of rights to another publisher.
It is an approach that is generally viable assuming another edition
might not be required by the initial publisher once this goes
out of print.
A niche has also been created for crossword enthusiasts who will
refer to the company’s special crossword dictionaries and
crossword lists regularly produced for Harry Potter publisher,
Bloomsbury.
Yet another area on which the company concentrates both for UK
and US publishers including Oxford University Press, Facts on
File, Grolier and Penguin, is a range of general and specialised
biographies. Involvement incorporates both the original compilation
and production plus a scissors-and-paste approach if and when
spin-offs for other publishers are required.
Indeed, as a packager, Market House concentrates exclusively on
the compilation and production process of each title rather than
any marketing, including jacketing, which is handled by relevant
publishers directly. Where perhaps jacket blurbs might need factual
adjustment, Market House will become involved.
A core staff of approximately 12, includes the two directors,
each of whom is responsible for specific projects. There is also
a third part-time director, Peter Sapsed, who controls the finance,
and a managing editor, Elizabeth Martin, who, with Dr Isaacs,
has been with the company since its inception. Book design is
handled in-house while ex-staff, familiar with the company’s
method of operation, might become involved with some of the copy-
and sub-editing elements.
Dr Isaacs splits his time between Aylesbury and his leafy suburban
office, close to his home, deep among the archaic boaters of Harrow
School.
From our meeting it is clear that his erstwhile colleague’s
initial contact over 30 years ago with a friend who happened to
be a director of a well-established publishing company, truly
paved the way for a list that was to become equally well established.
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SOTHEBY'S
SELECTS ROUNDTRIP
Easypress
Technologies has announced that Sotheby's, one of the world's
two largest auctioneers of fine arts, antiques and collectibles,
has selected Atomik Roundtrip as a key component of its new global
catalogue system.
Atomik Roundtrip is new XTensions software that enables full,
bi-directional XML support within QuarkXPress.
By implementing Atomik Roundtrip, Sotheby's will, for the first
time, be able to use XML as the content format for both its print
and Web catalogues. Sotheby’s produces over 300 different
catalogues every year.
A critical decision for Sotheby's was the choice of file format
they would use to deliver content from their Oracle database to
QuarkXPress for producing the print catalogue. Having considered
in particular RTF (Rich Text Format) or the option of direct database
connectivity, XML (eXtensible Markup Language) was selected as
the preferred format to meet the firm’s requirements.
With the new catalogue system replacing eight other systems in
use at Sotheby's global offices, one concern for Sotheby's was
selecting a supplier that could meet a global needs. The initial
rollout is in London and New York with Italy, France, Hong Kong,
the Netherlands and Switzerland to follow.
By providing full bi-directional XML support for QuarkXPress and
preserving XML structures within QuarkXPress documents, Atomik
Roundtrip delivers true integration for cross-media publishing.
It enables users to import XML into QuarkXPress and faithfully
re-export it. With a single click, users can update the QuarkXPress
document if the source XML file(s) change and update the source
XML file(s) if the QuarkXPress document changes. This ensures
consistency across all media, efficient reuse of content and rapid
updates of timely information..
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TECHNOLOGY
AND NEW WAREHOUSE HELP SATISFY LITTLEHAMPTON'S CUSTOMERS
“We were too busy fighting fires.” That’s
how Martin Evans, managing director at UK distributor Littlehampton
Book Services (LBS), describes what he and his staff spent most
of their time doing just four years ago. When Evans joined the
company in early 1999, LBS’s infrastructure could no longer
support the influx of business.
“LBS had become too popular,” said Evans, “and
our physical systems and technology could no longer support the
amount of transactions we had to complete.”
In order to safeguard the future of the company, LBS undertook
a multi-faceted £3.2m investment programme to be implemented
in phases, with the immediate priority the stabilisation of the
business. Under Evans’ direction, LBS’s goal was to
“rebuild the business from the ground up”.
By the end of 2002, LBS had successfully stabilised its business,
consolidated six sites into one and increased turnover from £86m
to £130m.
As the company consolidated operations to a sole 25,000sq m facility
in Durrington, West Sussex, LBS upgraded to a more sophisticated
system. In the new facility, LBS migrated to a customised Warehouse
Management system — written, tested and implemented in extremely
tight timescales and closely integrated with the existing VISTA
fulfilment and distribution system.
The result was a robust warehouse management system that efficiently
controls bulk replenishment and has picking- and conveyer-controlled
carton routing. Dexion provided the picking- and conveyer-control
systems, which were integrated to the VISTA system. The result
has been a large improvement in stock accuracy and availability,
an outcome that has far exceeded LBS’s expectations for
the system.
Another area of concern for LBS was the time and costs traditionally
involved in generating paper-based reports for their customers.
By the time the daily, weekly and monthly reports were manually
generated and sent out — a process that, at times, required
24 hours over several days — the information was no longer
up-to-date.
“The decision to implement VISTA’s Publishing Intelligence
solution was a strategic one that enabled us to provide our client
publishers with 24/7 access to their data, and more importantly,
the ability to analyse and report it in whatever format they prefer,”
explained Montgomery.
LBS’s client publishers benefited immediately from VISTA’s
Publishing Intelligence and Redwood’s Report2Web —
on a daily basis, virtually all of LBS’ distributed publishers
login via the web to track, analyse and print out reports about
their business information. Since implementing the new solutions,
LBS has gained 15 new clients.
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NEW
APPOINTMENT FOR LIGHTNING SOURCE
David Taylor has joined Lightning Source UK as business
development director, a newly created post for the rapidly expanding
company.
"It's great to have David on board with us full time,"
said Malcolm Allen, managing director, Lightning Source UK. "David
will play a crucial role in terms of promoting the benefits of
print-on-demand.
"Publishers and booksellers can benefit immensely from quality
print-on-demand programmes," he added. "Our Lightning
Source US and UK operations have just grown exponentially since
inception, and as publishers and booksellers continue to learn
of the benefits.
"David has an unrivalled network of contacts within the UK
and international book trade, great passion for the trade and
a refreshingly clear view of what we can do with on-demand print
and distribution technology that very much focuses on books and
the people who want to buy them."
David Taylor has worked in the UK book trade since 1984 and rose
from the shop floor of Blackwell's bookshop in Oxford to the board
of Blackwell's UK library supply business. At the end of 1999,
he co-founded the Nibbie-shortlisted internet bookselling company,
swotbooks.com, of which he is still non-executive chairman. He
is a past chairman of the College and University Booksellers Group,
and is currently a member of the BA Council and chairman of the
Internet Booksellers Group.
"As a bookseller with 18 years of experience, I know how
many sales are lost because we cannot get books that our customers
want.”
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DINOSAURS
TO METEORS: PEARSON LAUNCHES Pi PRESS
Educational
publisher Pearson Education has launched a new science imprint
- Pi Press. The trade science list is the latest imprint of Pearson
Technology Group (PTG), a business of Pearson Education (NYSE:
PSO). Pi Press will draw upon PTG's network of professional scientists
and educators to create compelling science books for a mass audience.
The inaugural signing on the list is a definitive and full-colour
exploration of the lives of the largest animals ever to fly -
the ‘winged dinosaurs’ of B-movie legend and paleontological
fact. PTEROSAUR: Flying Dragons of Deep Time, by David Unwin,
curator of fossils at the Humboldt Museum in Berlin, will be published
in autumn 2004.
In autumn 2003, author Fred Adams' special brand of playful brilliance
returns in OUR LIVING MULTIVERSE: A Book of Genesis in 0+7 Chapters
to be published in paperback. In addition, the most famous astronomical
reference in the world, Norton’s Star Atlas, first published
in 1910, will be revised and reissued to provide astronomy enthusiasts
with a newly redesigned update on a perennial classic. Pi Press
is expected to produce approximately 20 new titles each year.
"Pearson's solid academic and professional networks will
enable us to flourish within it," says PI Press executive
editor Stephen Morrow. "We intend to grow our market share
of highly educated readers and capture a large general readership
with an innovative, engaging, and compelling list of superb writing
on a wide range of scientific subjects." .
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PICTURE
LIBRARY FEATURE
SPOILT FOR CHOICE
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Cartoons
tailor-made for books, sensible@screaming.net |
Finding
the right image is getting easier. The range of images available
is unprecedented and finding them takes less time, thanks to the
internet and improved search engines.
It is no easy task to find the perfect image and there are now
even more ways to acquire pictures. In this feature we hear about
‘royalty free’ image providers, as well as more conventional
image licensing. Apart from the royalty issue, we are faced with
an incredible array of choice, ranging from hundreds of specialist
libraries to general libraries that seem to carry images on everything.
We start with some sound advice from James West of Alamy on how
to track down the images you need.
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CAREER
DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING
Throughout
the summer we are running a series of articles in the hard copy
of Book People. These include contributions from major training/course
providers and recruitment professionals, plus a regular column
from Suzanne Collier of bookcareers.com on career development.
Press button to see the features included in the June and July
issues.
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Book People 2003
Website developed and maintained by Rigden Thorne. info@rigdenthorne.com
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