Michael Bhaskar

Visiting Research Academic

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Personal Profile

 

Canelo Co-founder and Publishing Director

 

Oxford and London Jan 2015 - Present 

 

  • Started a new digital publisher from scratch with limited funds
  • Eight books published in the first six months, many more under contract including big name authors; publishing systems, contracts and relationships in place
  • Extensive launch coverage
  • Ambitious long term business plan

 

Author and Speaker

2005 - Present

  • Curation: The Power of Selection in a World of Too Much popular business and big think title coming from Little Brown in 2016. Explores the wide and unexpected use of the concept curation
  • The Content Machine: Towards A Theory of Publishing from the Printing Press to the Digital Network (Anthem Press 2013). Ground breaking study of publishing over the course of its history with the ideas of filtering, framing and amplification at its heart
  • Journalism and sundry writing: regular writing at numerous publications including The Bookseller, The Guardian and Book Brunch
  • Speaking: delivered over 70 talks in the past four years alone in the UK and abroad

Profile Books Digital Publishing Director

London Jan 2010 – Jan 2015

  • Grew digital revenues from close to zero to seven figures
  • Board level digital strategy, P&L responsibility and commercial role including M&A work; created a state of the art digital publishing and licensing programme with a DAD, comprehensive retail coverage and quality control in several months
  • Initiated and delivered innovative, profitable projects with some of the world’s biggest brands and organisations including The Economist, the New Scientist, the Wellcome Trust and National Trust; commissioned and edited big name prestigious authors;
  • Group level digital marketing, project management and business development; integration of digital into every aspect of the company from new websites to systems, production to publicity
  • Founder and series editor Ideas in Profile
  • Developed key business relationships with Big Tech, start ups, service providers, retailers, authors, creatives and developers
  • Strong industry profile; British Council Young Creative Entrepreneur, Bookseller Rising Star and Frankfurt Book Fair Fellow

Pan Macmillan Digital Editor

London Jun 2007- Dec 2009

  • Devising, commissioning and project managing a comprehensive ebook programme and workflow. Ebook programme the most profitable in the UK at launch; staff management
  • Digital product producer managing key internal and external contacts, staff and systems with responsibility for budgeting, scheduling, commissioning and distributing online materials; liaison for all major ebooks retailers
  • Conceptualising and managing profitable digital projects including a number of world firsts
  • Cross platform development of new content models and systems; experience of audio and video; expanded digital marketing role

Rogers, Coleridge and White Ltd., (Literary Agents) Agents Assistant

London Aug 2005- Apr 2006 / Oct 2006- May 2007

  • Arranged, negotiated, drafted and processed contracts/agreements with publishers, writers and the media; helped manage an extensive client list
  • Subsidiary duties: copyright permissions, constructing a media database, copyediting, catalogue writing, assessing unsolicited manuscripts, handling submissions 

The Daily Telegraph, Arts and Books

London 2006

Triple A Consortium, (MG Rover takeover bid), Researcher

Oxford 2005

Other Relevant Experience

  • Digital Publishing Start up List curator: industry standard reference for digital publishing startups
  • Quikqr.com Co-founder: (Personal project London Nov 08 - 2013) Formulated and project managed a new start up focused on QR codes with +25k unique users a month. Sold Apr 2013 for a five figure sum
  • Mort Reports: (London Oct 06- Jun 07): Freelance copy editing
  • Student Media Services Ltd: (Cambridge Jun 03-Aug 04): Copywriter and business development
  • Miru Worldwide Ltd: (Norwich Part time): Researcher, copywriter
  • Dotthe Co-founder: (Norwich 99-05) popular discussion forum website

Education

Oxford 2002-2005

  • Degree: St. Edmund Hall, University of Oxford: M.A. (Oxon) 2.1 in English Language and Literature. Distinction in Moderations exams; University Gibbs Prize in English; elected a Scholar of St. Edmund Hall; two First class dissertations

Norwich 1994-2002

  • A-levels: Hewett School: English (A), History (A) and Philosophy (A); Norfolk Scholar

Skills

  • Proficient with Windows, Mac OS and Linux OS; Basecamp and Visio software;  understanding of web programming languages (xhtml, XML, CSS, Javascript etc); design and user experience technologies and methods; WordPress and other CMS systems; SEO techniques and PPC campaigns on Google, Facebook and Twitter
  • Professional qualifications in web publishing and project management methodologies
  • Conversational German; certificate from the Akademie für Fremdsprachen Berlin (09/06)
  • Comfortable working abroad or in flexible environments; full clean driving licence

Interests

  • Writing for numerous websites, journals and other publications; building and working on websites
  • Sport: squash, real tennis, swimming, scuba diving
  • World travel
  • Reading, current affairs, music, theatre, food

Author of The Content Machine and Curation

Canelo Co-founder and Publishing Director

Oxford and London Jan 2015 - Present 

  • Started a new digital publisher from scratch with limited funds
  • Eight books published in the first six months, many more under contract including big name authors; publishing systems, contracts and relationships in place
  • Extensive launch coverage
  • Ambitious long term business plan