You may not be able to pronounce “Eyjafjallajokull” but publishing people planning to fly to London for the annual book fair that starts April 20th are undoubtedly saying “%##@#&$%$” in light of the closure of Heathrow Airport because of ash hurled into the European atmosphere by the aforesaid Eyjafjallajokull. That happens to be the name of the volcano in Iceland that erupted with a vengeance, compromising air travel all over the continent.  The resulting cancellations are rebounding to flights in the US.  Publishers and agents packing for their flight to London may have to hang their clothes back in the closet if atmospheric conditions don’t clear up soon.

Details here.

RC

“Don’t Fight the Things You Can’t Change or Control.” That was one of the “koans” gleaned from Sunday’s digital publishing in America seminar by Publishers Lunch founder Michael Cader (in his role of intrepid correspondent attending the London Book Fair). And there is no better way to characterize the Kübler-Rossian way that the British have handled publishing industry changes blowing from America.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross formulated the five states of death and dying, and whether it be hard-soft deals or e-books, the Brits have greeted American innovations with Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. Reading reports from London, I’m not sure how much acceptance is to be found toward the juggernaut of digital publishing that rolls inexorably toward the UK. The English want to keep their industry neat and tidy, but another Cader koan applies: “Paradigmatic Transitions Are Not Orderly.”

RC

One of the programs presented at the London Book Fair was a panel on e-books attended by the heads of such illustrious British publishers as Random House Group, Hachette Livre UK, HarperCollins, and Penguin Group. The host, BBC News Media Correspondent Torin Douglas, asked what he called “The $64,000 question”: Where’s the money in ebooks?

When it comes to digital technology the sun always seems to rise last on the British Empire. The same question was raised in the US over a decade ago and settled five years later as e-book sales began a rocket-boosted double-digit assent that has not remotely begun to level off. Indeed, January 2009 e-book sales jumped an astounding 173.6% over the same month of 2008 – while England slept.

The very title of Douglas’s panel tells us what time zone the Brits occupy. “The $64,000 Question” was a television quiz show introduced over fifty years ago. Though the size of the jackpot was unprecedented in that postwar age, it is dwarfed by those paid today. Hello? We’re up to “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” We’re also up to more than $50 million in e-book sales annually. So, the real $64,000 question for our friends across the Pond is, What part of Money in E-Books don’t you understand?

RC