The Bookseller.com

1st December 2008

Emma Barnes is co-founder and managing director of Snowbooks, winner of the Independent Trade Publisher of the Year Award at the Independent Publishing Awards 2008. Emma and Rob Jones, Snowbooks’ chairman, blog daily at www.snowbooks.com/weblog.

Where the top brass speak

10.03.08

The weather in Brighton was wild; a suitably impressive backdrop to the sight that delegates at the IPG 2008 Spring Conference enjoyed late Saturday afternoon. Arranged on the stage in The Grand hotel were the leaders of the UK's book retailing industry: Gerry Johnson, David Roche, Willie Anderson, Bill Samuel, Vince Gunn and Kes Nielsen. They'd come for a question and answer session with independent publishers – a robust and rousing debate that covered issues of compliance, pricing and discounting, firm sale, returns and market share. No punches were pulled on either side, which, by the end, gave me the sense that both sides had a greater appreciation of the other's point of view. And just an hour earlier, we'd been treated to an informative and compelling update on Waterstone's consolidation centre project by Gerry Johnson himself. No middle managers sent to placate the small publishers here – we got the top brass.

Which indicates, in a way, the state of independent publishing today. We matter. We are noticed. We cannot be fobbed off. People – customers, suppliers, authors, journalists, readers – care that we exist. I got the same sense at the IPA awards later on that evening – video clips of the senior publishing figures who'd acted as judges for the awards, including Philip Blackwell, Jane Mays, Literary Editor of the Daily Mail and David Roche, showed them talking about their respect for the passion, commitment and professionalism of the independent publishers they'd judged.

We've got a real right to be proud of ourselves, too – trading conditions are tough and there are some archaic practices in the trade that make publishing without a large cash buffer (the natural state of an indie) a high-risk practice. And there's a lot to do in a successful small business: Amazon VP Chris North's excellent opening speech noted that independent publishers must be supply chain black belts, hedge fund managers, Hollywood film chiefs, database wizards and online marketing gurus. How fluent some independent publishers are in these varied areas is difficult to pin down: I despaired at the smattering of hands raised when one speaker asked if anyone didn't know what a blog was, and judging by the furious scribbling around me, the session on how to make a podcast was a great success, although why publishers haven't Googled this stuff a year ago is beyond me.

And I objected somewhat to having to sit through a number of adverts from IT providers, one of whom offered an online catalogue for £1,000 which seemed do to the same job as a PDF with web links in it – something we could have for free.

As ever, for me, the real value was in the gaps, over tea, in the bar, during lunch, and at dinner where independent publishers with decades of experience between them swapped notes, shared advice, and whispered gossip. Independent publishing is tough, and requires an agile mind and the most savvy commercial approach, and talking to my peers and mentors I see that in spades. Being part of the independent publishing community is a chance to share the experience of running a small business in a unique industry, and my weekend was full of opportunities to do just that.

And of course, the highlight of the event (for me, certainly, since Snowbooks won the Indie Trade Publisher award) was the Independent Publishing Award ceremony on the Saturday night. I wasn't drinking, so can report with horribly clear objectivity that most people were having a fine time of it! If we thought we'd had it good with the presence of top book retailers in the daytime, we were treated with an even greater turnout of the leading lights of the industry later on. It was a great honour to be listed amongst fine publishers such as Summersdale, Salt Publishing and Arcadia and the ultimate winners, Templar, who really deserve the heartfelt applause they received. This was a real event, a celebration of independents and independence and a brilliant knees-up to boot.