Publishing at the London Book Fair

The Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies (OICPS) once again had a stand at the London Book Fair in April, following the success of last year’s attendance. It was an excellent opportunity to meet many of our alumni who were working with their own companies at the fair, as well as many of our publishing contacts in the UK and international industries. Current students were greatly in evidence, wearing OICPS T-shirts and distributing leaflets and brochures for our forthcoming Digital Publishing series of courses. Two students helped out at the stand for the Independent Publishers Guild. We were busy throughout the Fair and, for example, hosted two well-attended seminars on children’s publishing. Sheila Lambie and Claire Squires wrote articles for the trade journal Publishing News to coincide with the seminars.

The first seminar on children’s publishing centred on the Arab World, the theme of this year’s fair. Sheila Lambie chaired the session and the speakers were: Dr Naif Al-Mutawa, CEO of Teshkeel and creator of ‘The 99’, Kuwait; Joanna El-Mir, Samir Publishing, Lebanon; Jane Hodges, Jerboa Books, United Arab Emirates; Shereen Kredieh, Asala Publishing & Distribution, Lebanon; and Ruba Totah, Publishing unit, Tamer Institute for Community Education, Palestine.

The second seminar covered the broader theme of children’s publishing around the world. Chaired by Angus Phillips, the speakers were: Laura Atkins, Specialist and consultant in Children's literature; Eirin Hagen, Founder and Manager of the first independent literary agency in Norway; Anja Mundt, Head of Rights and Licensing, Patmos Verlag Gmbh (and an alumna of the MA in Publishing at Oxford Brookes); and Claire Squires, Programme leader of the MA in Publishing, Oxford Brookes.

A range of staff from the Centre also helped to staff The Bookseller’s Careers Centre, advising a wide range of visitors on their careers options in publishing. To read online the guide handed out to visitors at the Careers Centre, please visit the Bookseller website.

A gallery of pictures is also available from this event.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 19 May 2008 around 12pm

Filed Under #Publishing | #European Publishing