The Bookseller.com

12th October 2008

« Headlines

Charkin: low profits a digital hurdle

18.06.08 Joel Rickett

The low profits made by trade publishers represent a major hurdle to digital innovation, according to Bloomsbury executive director Richard Charkin. At a "Question Time"-style debate to mark the 25th anniversary of the Copyright Licensing Agency, Charkin outlined the barriers which were preventing trade houses from following legal and STM publishers into the digital era. "Reed spent $100m developing ScienceDirect, but most general publishers are not very profitable," he said. Other factors include a lack of full control of copyrights ("Elsevier didn't have to ring up every author and ask for permissions"), territorial rights restrictions, and reluctant customers ("booksellers don't really get it and don't want it to happen").

Personal enthusiams were also vital, he added: "[In STM] the authors really understood technology and wanted to spread their knowledge. And the people who work in those companies are enthusiasts about technology. General book publishers have to get off their backsides and learn about digital."

Also at the CLA seminar, which was held at London’s City Hall, Guardian head of editorial development Neil McIntosh defended the role of the publisher. Despite all the hype about Radiohead’s direct release of their last album, he said, "most [rock] bands still aspire to be signed by a record label. Publishers provide guidance, marketing support, and perks."

But literary agent Meg Davis of MBA sounded a note of caution about author income in the digital era: "Authors aren't getting any richer. Things are being spread ever more thinly. As soon as a new right is invented writers start to lose money."

The panel agreed that the notion of an "iPod moment" for books was overstated, with handheld ebook reading devices a long way from challenging the benefits of the printed book. "We have a relationship with our books—they define us, we feel lost without them," said author and former Tory MP Gyles Brandreth. "Books remain sensual, portable, practical, affordable... they are fundamentally human."

Joel Rickett Home digitisation Charkin Charkin