Monday, October 11, 2010

Publishing for Authors – the whole picture

A NZ SOCIETY OF AUTHORS PRESENTATION

29th October 2010
9am to 5pm
Jubilee Building, 545 Parnell Road, Parnell, Auckland

We are particularly honoured to have as our guest presenter, Mark Coker from Smashwords who is in New Zealand for a limited time. Thanks to Martin Taylor for arranging this workshop.
Cost $65 for NZSA Members and $80 for non-members including GST

0900 to 1030
Mark Coker, Smashwords
Past and present of ebooks, what's driving growth; the opportunity ebooks represent for NZ authors/publishers to reach a world market; a practical "how to" overview of ebook formatting, production, publishing, pricing, distribution and marketing; how the ebooks and the rise of independent publishing will tranform the future of the publishing industry; what are the risks and opportunities presented by this disruptive, rapid transformation?

1045 to 1200
Camille Lowe, Pindar NZ Ltd
There are no shortcuts to making a good book. Whatever the output, digital or hardcopy, the production process is much the same. Camille will demystify the book production process by providing a clear breakdown of each stage and how production relates to the publishing trade. Her discussion will not only include what to consider before deciding to produce and sell a book, and how to prepare and deliver a manuscript, but she will also explain the role of project management, internal and cover design, copy-editing, typesetting, proofreading and corrections, print management, freight and warehousing, and the production of XML and ePubs.

1230 to 1400
Steve Messenger - Astra Print
The mantra for the new publishing world is; Easy to publish; Easy to discover; Easy to fulfill. The system is called “printernet” the underlying concept is one of a global fulfillment network for short run books. This eliminates the risks and costs around inventory, and the storage shipping and time costs around shipping to the world from a central distribution point. If the old model was ‘print then distribute’ the new model is ‘distribute then print”. This works not only for overseas books being sold in New Zealand, but is also a route for New Zealand books sold overseas.

1400 to 1530
Lorraine Steele and Sarah Gumbley
Lorraine’s presentation will take you through the necessary steps to get a book publicised by the conventional media - TV, radio and press. She will cover target market, unique selling points/angles, quality of interview, press release writing and distribution, timing, competition, and how to deliver what the media want.

Sarah will be discussing issues that authors are facing in getting their books out to the market and will offer some simple tools for authors who want to promote themselves. She will cover how authors can approach the media, and also how to utilise web technologies. This will include a guide for those unfamiliar with how to build websites, or implementing social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter.

1545 to 1700
Susan Holmes, Book Reps Distribution

Morning and afternoon tea will be provided. Lunch is not provided.
Limited to 110 places. For reservations email office@nzauthors.org.nz or call (09) 379 4801

Please make cheques payable to The New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN NZ Inc.)
Or pay by direct credit to BNZ 020112 0045385 00

About our Presenters

Mark Coker, Founder, CEO and Chief Author Advocate
Mark Coker is the founder of Smashwords (http://www.smashwords.com/), an ebook publishing and distribution platform serving independent authors and publishers around the world. Smashwords has gained international attention for its simple but radical idea: Provide a free service that enables any author or publisher, anywhere in the world, to publish their ebook in minutes, making it available for sampling, sale and distribution to a worldwide audience via major online ebook retailers and mobile smartphone platforms. To date, Smashwords has helped nearly 10,000 authors publish over 21,000 ebook titles. Mark is a contributing blogger to the Huffington Post's books section, where he blogs about ebooks and the future of publishing. Smashwords is based in Los Gatos, California.

Camille Lowe, Operations Manager and Senior Project Manager, Pindar NZ Ltd
Camille Lowe is Operations Manager at Pindar, New Zealand’s most successful publishing services company. She has been project managing book production since 2007, and has considerable experience in both academic and general publishing.

Steve Messenger, CEO, Astra Print
According to Steve, the wheels of his journey from high school dropout to senior management were oiled by grim determination, a huge amount of trying (and often failing) and a MBA from Victoria University.
Steve’s entrée to the business world came after years of working as a top chef in New Zealand and the UK before working as a sales rep in the bedding industry and ended up owning a chain of stores across the North Island. But following a downturn in the bedding market, he found himself entering the print business as Chief Executive of the Astra Print Group at a time when rapid technological change and the proliferation of the internet has meant printers have to reinvent themselves or die.

Lorraine Steele
Lorraine has been in the entertainment industry all her working life. After 10 years distributing and publicising New Zealand movies, she followed her passion for books and moved to HarperCollins Publishers NZ where she worked for 10 years as Publicity Manager. After leaving she set up her own PR company, and has a wide-ranging client base which includes established publishers and self-published authors.

Sarah Gumbley
After working in a variety of roles at LexisNexis, a multinational legal publisher, Sarah now works as an independent consultant and publicist and is currently promoting the winner of the 2010 New Zealand Publishing Prize. Passionate about the book industry, Sarah also reviews books for various magazines and websites both in New Zealand and overseas.

Susan Holmes, Bookreps NZ Ltd
Susan Holmes has been in the book trade for many years, initially as a sales rep for Hodder & Stoughton and Reed Publishing. In 1990 she and her husband Mike Hill branched out on their own and set up Presentations Ltd – a solely commission based selling agency. In 1997 they changed the name to Bookreps NZ Ltd, which is now a thriving importer and distributor representing some 20 overseas publishers of books, calendars and diaries, based in Birkenhead, Auckland. Susan works closely with our overseas publishers while overseeing the requirements of our two leading book groups, Whitcoulls and the Paper Plus Group.

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