At the IPA Africa Seminar in Lagos in 2018 it was reported that the African book market was worth $1 billion. Not a staggering amount, but enough to raise eyebrows among many in the global publishing industry who believed Africa was a publishing backwater not worthy of their attention. This June comes the second IPA Read More …
When StreetLib launched The New Publishing Standard in September 2017 we made clear the function of the journal was to stimulate debate about the much-neglected global book markets. It was not a StreetLib promotional tool, and not a vehicle to advocate digital at the expense of traditional formats. But occasionally StreetLib becomes part of the Read More …
Europe’s biggest consumer-facing book fair will be taking place in the El Retiro park in Madrid from May 31 through June 16. Anyone wanting to participate as an exhibitor will need to complete registration by noon on 11 February. The Dominican Republic will be guest of honour at the 78th Madrid Book Fair. In 2018 the Read More …
If you need to know what’s happening in Brazil’s publishing industry, PublishNews is the place to go. A daily briefing of the top stories in Brazilian publishing, in my inbox every day. What more could a global-publishing obsessive want? Well, since you ask, a similar daily bulletin for the other global markets of the world. Read More …
Here’s a summary of TNPS posts from the past seven days. Book reading down slightly in New Zealand. More than half read NZ authors Storytel Brazil 2019 launch whispers grows louder Spanish book market valued at minimum $2.7 billion. Paperback and ebook sales both rising Côte d’Ivoire: francophone Africa publishing insights Is Amazon preparing a Read More …
A fall in the sale of textbooks in Spain led to a slowdown in growth of the mainstream Spanish book market in 2017, coming in with an estimated price tag of 2.318 billion euros. By mainstream I mean that parts of the Spanish book market – for example, sales from self-publishers and small presses – Read More …
In a modern world where, supposedly, no-one reads books anymore because we are all bingeing on Netflix, perhaps we should not be so surprised that the BBC, once the bastion of fact-checked reporting and reliable perspectives, doesn’t take as much notice of the global publishing industry as it might. But it is still disappointing that Read More …
The big American and British book and comic events get plenty of coverage elsewhere, so aren’t usually a staple of The New Publishing Standard, but the San Diego Comic Con warrants a mention here on two counts. First, and rather surprisingly, is that the San Diego event with its regular 130,000 visitors is being touted Read More …
The global publishing market has never been more exciting, and every day myriad publishing stories cross my screen that I’d love to develop here at TNPS, but there simply isn’t time. They do make the TNPS twitter feed. Follow TNPS on twitter here: @thenewpubstd. But twitter is an ephemeral beast. Blink and you miss it. Read More …
We’re just a few days away from the Seoul International Book Fair, which kicks off in South Korea June 20-24, in a five day event expected to draw a crowd of 300,000. Add that to the 700,000 attending Bookfest Malaysia and we’re already looking at our first million booklovers attending literary fairs and festivals this Read More …
Storytel has confirmed its plans to launch in Latin America, with Mexico first in line. As revealed here on TNPS a month ago, Storytel has been talking with publishers across Latin America – Storytel’s Latin American ambitions. Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Colombia for 2019? and in an unusual move for Storytel it has made a Read More …
Although we have had significant European book fairs already this year, it is in May that things really step up a gear, as winter is laid to rest, spring has sprung and thoughts turn to a summer of books. May started with the Thessalonika fair in Greece (85,000 visitors) and the Tanpinar festival in Turkey, Read More …
As we all know, there are three big book events every year – the London Book Fair, the New York Book Expo, and the Frankfurt Book Fair. And if we stretch the imagination a little we can count a few other big book fairs – Guadalajara and Bologna, for example, and lately Shanghai and Beijing Read More …
With the Storytel Spain launch in 2017 it was really just a matter of time before Jonas Tellander’s attention turned to Latin America. Now it seems that time is upon us. With Iceland and UAE launched already this year, Turkey imminent, and Italy and Bulgaria both lined up, the promised five new Storytel countries for Read More …
Hard on the heels of Storytel’s Q1 results comes news that rival operator Bookbeat saw a 130% revenue growth in Q1 2017. This after a 280% increase in revenue in 2017. Bookbeat, the digital arm of Sweden’s Bonnier, still draws most of its revenue from Sweden, but reported profitability in both Sweden and Finland. Said Read More …
Storytel is always full of surprises, whether it’s beating Amazon’s Audible to India, teaming up with telcos in Poland, or preparing to launch in Italy. Last year Storytel launched in Spain, and to start the new year the company is running a series of adverts on Spanish TV to draw attention to its service. You Read More …
