The Small Press Network (SPN) has announced the full program for its 2019 Independent Publishing Conference, which will run at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne from 21–23 November. It will feature 80 speakers in 36 different sessions, as well as two book launches and the presentation of the Most Underrated Book Award.
This year’s trade day on 22 November will feature sessions on diverse children’s books, reviewing, funding, copyright, legal deposit and lending rights, festivals, publishing business models, as well as an ‘ask me anything’ session with Wheeler Centre staff and a session on the career pathways of recent graduates from publishing postgraduate courses. The trade day will also include a Nielsen BookScan update, a session on the current research by Macquarie University examining the international rights sales and export of Australian books over the last 10 years, and a ‘state of the industry’ panel, featuring guests from industry trade bodies the Australian Publishers Association, the Australian Booksellers Association, the Australian Society of Authors, and the Australian Library and Information Association.
Author Toni Jordan will deliver the trade day keynote on her experiences of being edited and published, dealing with publicity and promotions, and having her work adapted and translated. The keynote will be followed by a Q&A with former bookseller Mary Dalmau.
The fundamentals day on 23 November will feature a keynote by publishing consultant Malcolm Neil on the changing markets in Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia, alongside sessions on publishing timelines, how to write a marketing plan, rights and royalties, bookshops and events, metadata and marketing, cover design, audiobooks, website and social media, publishing platforms, publishing Indigenous stories, and getting books into libraries and schools.
The industry research day will feature a keynote by Claire Squires from Scotland’s Stirling Centre for International Publishing, as well as sessions on digital and virtual sites of publishing, popular fiction and physical and material sites of book culture.
SPN general manager Tim Coronel noted that SPN received ‘extra sponsorship late in the day from the City of Melbourne and Aboriginal Studies Press’, in addition to the support of the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund and industry sponsors Thorpe-Bowker, IngramSpark, Ligare, the ABA and Readings. ‘This ensures we have sufficient revenue to offer our speakers proper payment and to put on Australia’s biggest professional development event for the book trade,’ said Coronel.
‘Organising an event of this scale is a massive undertaking, and I have to thank my conference co-ordinator Jessica Harvie and her associate producers Bridget Black and Vidisha Srinivasan for all their hard work to date: there’s plenty more to come! The support and advice of SPN’s board is also very much appreciated.’
To view the program for each day and book tickets, visit the SPN website.