FBF: Self-publishing and subscriptions dominate

As publishers across the world gear up for next month’s Frankfurt Book Fair (8th–10th October), direct-to-consumer issues are dominating discussions. Subscription services (see right) and self-publishing are set to be two of the biggest FBF buzz topics, with indie authors looking towards Europe—and Germany in particular—as the next self-publishing boom territories. Meanwhile, Brazil, Eastern Europe and Turkey have been earmarked as hot rights territories for the traditional market (see below).

Reflecting the increased interest, FBF has beefed up its self-publishing offer considerably for 2014. This year it is running two days of self-publishing events in English—alongside a five-day self-publishing programme in German—for the first time. Both schemes are being run as part of a direct bid to focus on the potential of self-publishing in Germany to authors based in the US and UK, and to highlight the boom in self-publishing to the German industry.

Michelle Turnbach, FBF English-language world sales manager, said: “Self-publishing is really starting to build in Germany and the idea was to extend our offer to show to the rest of the world that the German publishing market is an important one, and to emphasise to the German publishing industry how big it is going to be: Germany’s self-publishing scene is on the rise.”

Author services company Authoright is running a series of self-publishing events at FBF for the first time, after running a similar programme at the 2013 London Book Fair. Hayley Radford, Authoright’s co-founder and director of marketing, said: “Germany is a very interesting market, in part due to its media landscape but also due to its solid self-publishing setup.”

Indie author and entrepreneur Joanna Penn concurred: “The ripples of self-publishing success in the US and UK are starting to spread out to other markets and around the world. Germany has a very passionate reading public and authors are really noticing the potential there. We’re seeing self-publishing starting to become mainstream there, and it is important that FBF is providing for that shift.”

Both Radford and Penn agreed that as self-publishing builds momentum in Europe, other key publishing markets will follow suit.  “We see big numbers of authors coming to Authoright from South Africa and Australia in particular,” Radford explained. “I think that there are writing and reading trends emerging from China which, if combined with publishing options in the West, could be very interesting indeed.”

Penn agreed: “When it comes to looking for new income streams aside from Germany, key areas include strong markets such as China, Brazil and the Middle East, places where iBooks, Amazon and Kobo will be able to develop. We have to think more and more about the markets that are going to offer the most potential—that is the same for traditionally published authors as it is for indies.”

However, Mark Lefebvre, Kobo director of self-publishing and author relations, said he was surprised that France and Germany were not further along with regards to self-publishing, “given the relative strength of those markets. But I see huge growth potential in India and Italy, both in the sales of English-language titles and native languages. We are also showing really strong growth in the Netherlands, Israel and Spain.”

He added: “Self-publishing is a big part of publishing revenue right now, and trade fairs are reflecting that more and more. We have seen a greater acceptance of self-publishing and I think it will just continue to rise. We’re mainstream now.”
 

Subscription services set for Frankfurt

E-book subscription services will be scrambling for the catalogues of European publishers at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

It is believed that Amazon will quietly launch its potentially disruptive Kindle Unlimited subscription service to European customers at the fair, using it as an opportunity to make a play for publishers’ inventories with most so far having rejected Amazon’s terms.

Kindle Unlimited enables users to read an unlimited number of e-books on their Kindle for $9.99 a month, from a selection of 600,000 e-books, including large numbers of self-published titles alongside books from Bloomsbury and Scholastic US.

Meanwhile, German-based start up Blloon—a free e-book subscription service (see picture below) founded by Thomas Leliveld, c.e.o. of e-reader company Txtr—is also expected to open its UK subscription platform in time for the fair. The service has already launched in beta format in the UK, with a strong list of titles from independent publishers including Profile, Canongate, Faber, Lonely Planet and Guardian Shorts. Blloon plans to move into the US and Germany following its UK launch.

Blloon targets casual readers by inviting consumers to read 1,000 pages for free through its website or app. It then gives them the choice of inviting a friend or upgrading to a premium membership, priced at £3.99 a month. “For the casual reader and the vast majority of people, this is more than enough,” said Hannah Russell, head of user engagement and content for Blloon UK.

The Bookseller has also learnt that Bookmate—which launched in Russia in 2010 and now has 1.5 million users in the country—will also be signing up English-language publishers at the fair. Bookmate, winner of the Publishing for Digital Minds Innovation Award at the 2014 London Book Fair, was founded in 2010 by British entrepreneur Simon Dunlop and Russian computer expert Alexei Ostroukhov. The platform has an inventory of 40,000 titles from more than 300 publishers, and it recently raised $3m in funding from Russian retail giant Ulmart to roll out the service to other countries.

However, despite the melee of new subscription services vying to tie up content deals with publishers, The Bookseller has been told by senior sources that it is unlikely the platforms will be awash with major publishers’ titles, with many yet to be convinced by the model and some still concerned it will contribute to the continuing devaluing of books.
In the UK, HarperCollins has agreed a deal with rental service Scribd, with 3,500 HC backlist titles put live this summer. Earlier this year, Simon & Schuster agreed a global deal with both Scribd and rival subscription service Oyster.

Bonnier UK c.e.o. Richard Johnson also recently told The Bookseller there was a “strong possibility” Bonnier titles would appear on Kindle Unlimited when it launches in Europe. “All the new stuff coming in is fantastic for the industry. It is going to open up everyone’s minds,” he said. “The problem with the book industry is it is so traditional. People are scared to run it as a business and make a profit. In our group we love all that. Any different way of getting books to readers, we welcome.”


FBF takes on Bologna

For the first time this year, Frankfurt’s Fellowship Programme will be focused exclusively on industry professionals working in children’s and YA publishing. The fair has also expanded the parameters of those who can apply in order to include digital staff, such as product managers and developers, as well as traditional roles in editorial, rights and agenting.

There will be five countries represented in 2014’s Fellowship for the first time: Belgium, Lebanon, the Philippines, Serbia and Thailand. Erica Finkel above, a Frankfurt Fellow and assistant editor at Little, Brown US’ children’s imprints Amulet Books and Abrams Books for Young Readers, said: “I’m looking forward to finding what books children love to read around the world. And, of course, hopefully finding a book or two to bring back to my list in the US.”

For more on this year’s FBF, look out for The Bookseller’s dedicated supplement in the 26th September issue.