Paul Abbassi, 'Data Guy', to deliver keynote at FutureBook Live 2019

Paul Abbassi, formerly known as “Data Guy”, is the second keynote speaker to be announced for FutureBook Live 2019, The Bookseller’s annual publishing conference. Following Waterstones m.d. James Daunt, Abbassi will present a data-led analysis of the online and digital book consumer market.

Abbassi is the founder and chief executive of Bookstat, which provides real-time, comprehensive title-level sales tracking and in-depth analytics covering the online and digital book consumer market. Bookstat’s daily title-level data encompasses e-book, audiobook, and online print book sales from traditional publishers, non-traditional publishers and self-publishers.

Between 2014 and 2017, Abbassi was also the pseudonymous co-founder of the AuthorEarnings site "Data Guy", applying the same technology-driven approach to dissecting Amazon Kindle sales, Apple iBooks sales, and B&N Nook sales, and giving the industry visibility for the very first time into the hundreds of millions of consumer digital book purchases going unreported in traditional metrics.

Abbassi will reveal his insights into both the US and UK digital markets in a morning keynote, followed by a deep-dive into the audiobook sector. He will also be available for questions and one-to-one meetings at the conference.

Philip Jones, editor of The Bookseller, said: "Abbassi is one the few people who understands the digital content marketplace; he has for a long time challenged conventional thinking about the size, make-up and growth of the e-book market, offering insights into why indie authors, Amazon Publishing, and digital-only presses are able to grow their sales in areas that are largely hidden from view, and often written off by mainstream publishers. If James Daunt can lift the hood on the physical bookselling business, then Abbassi holds the key to the engine that is powering so much digital-only publishing. Together, they will make compelling and complementary keynotes."

Prior to Bookstat, Abbassi spent 15 years as a C-level tech executive in the US videogame industry, where he spearheaded for large videogame publishers the rollout of real-time, technology-enabled tracking of competitive mobile-videogame sales worth tens of billions of unreported dollars per year, sold through the opaque Apple & Google online videogame app stores.

Now in its tenth year, FutureBook Live will be held on Monday 25th November, 155 Bishopsgate, London. This year's programme will be the most ambitious and far-reaching so far, with executives from Pearson, Hachette, Waterstones, Bonnier, Springer Nature, Faber, Booker, the BBC, Penguin Random House, Blackwell, and Lonely Planet, already confirmed as speakers.

A limited number of tickets are now available to buy at Early Bird rates until 11th October. There is also a 3 for 2 offer available on standard tickets.

The coveted FutureBook Awards are now open for submissions, including BookTech Company of the Year, Podcast of the Year, and the FutureBook Person of the Year, who will once again deliver the closing keynote.

For writers, there is also an opportunity to submit to the audio originals competition, launched earlier this month.

As well as attending the conference, for the first time delegates can apply to attend a Day of Code, training event hosted by Consonance on 22nd November. Only 40 places are up for grabs, so book early to avoid disappointment.