Colloquium 2019: it blew our minds!
Excellent presentations!
15 speakers, 8 countries represented, and a publishing industry in full boil.
The future of the publishing industry
The Colloquium The Future of Publishing of 2019 ended with resounding success, fulfilling the most important objective of our organization: to bring together the professionals of the publishing industry in Spanish and Portuguese (all presentations can be downloaded here: https://entreditores.net/presentaciones-speakers-coloquio-2019/) for two intense days of updating and reflection on the transformation of the book industry.
Argentine publishers isolated themselves from the economic and political context of the country for a moment, and in a learning bubble they received a high amount of content, such that they could barely follow on their notebooks. The Spanish consultant Antonio Martínopened the Colloquium with a novel idea: “What if a bestseller from now on is no longer the one that appears in the famous general lists of the publishing market, but the one that manages to sell to 100% of their niche, however specific it may be?”
The Colloquium in images
The Talks
Antonio Martín
Katey Townshend
David Sánchez
María Osorio y María Fernanda Maquieira
Alberto Achar
Gustavo Lembert
Pablo Dittborn
Michele Cobb
Joaquín Gil Paricio y Ricardo Menoyo
Speakers
Antonio Martín
PublishNews, Spain
Co-founder of PublishNews the cross-platform news market of the book industry in Spanish. Bachelor of Hispanic Philology at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He founded Cálamo & Cran in 1996, a publishing services and professional training company. Antonio is also one of the founders of the Unión de Correctores (Spain).
Katey Townshend
Wattpad, Canada
As the Marketing Manager for Wattpad Studios, Katey Townshend leads the marketing initiatives for Wattpad Studios’ Film, TV and book adaptations. Over the last nine years, she has worked in marketing roles across multiple industries, including book publishing, news media, finance, and now technology.
David Sánchez
24symbols, Spain
One of the founders of 24symbols pioneering platform in digital reading by subscription. He is a Telecommunications Engineer from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Alberto is in charge of the Sales and Content division of 24symbols. He is also an associate professor at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.
Alberto Achar
Librerías Gandhi, Mexico
Merketing Director of Librerías Gandhi, he has more than 20 years experience in marketing in the book industry. Graduated from the University Anáhuac del Valle de México, in 2005 he was named a "Monster of Marketing" by the business magazine Expansión. In 2014 he received the Kotler Prize for Marketing.
Gustavo Lembert
TAGlivros, Brazil
Entrepreneur graduated in Business Administration and Management. He founded TAG - Literary Experiences at his 24 years in the corridors of a Brazilian university. TAG started as a startup and today has two labels TAG Curaduría and TAG Inéditos, they have almost 50 thousand subscribers.
Pablo Dittborn
La copa rota, Chile
One of the founders and General Manager of La Copa Rota, he has held the same position for 20 years at The Clinic, a satirical weekly magazine. He also served as General Director of several international publishing houses (Javier Vergara, Ediciones B, Penguin Random House) with special focus on the political edition.
Michele Cobb
Audio Publishers Association, USA
Michele has served on the Audio Publishers Association (APA) board since 2001, as a director and officer, and is currently Executive Director. Her presentation will share the panorama of the audiobook market with complete and updated data, in the United States and globally. She is a partner at Forte Business Consulting, which provides services for the publishing industry.
María Osorio
Babel Libros, Colombia
Founder of Babel in 2001, a project that reproduces in a small space the book chain: distributor, specialized library, library and publisher. Babel received the BOP award at the Bologna Book Fair in 2017 and María received the Tribute to Merit Editorial from FIL Guadalajara.
Patricia Kolesnicov
Clarín, Argentina
Editor of the cultural section of Clarín newspaper, she studied Literature (Universidad de Buenos Aires). As a journalist, she wrote for the magazines Sex-Humor, Vivir, El Porteño and Latido, for the newspaper El Cronista and different cultural newspaper supplements, Biografía de mi cáncer, her first book, was published in 2002.
María Fernanda Maquieira
Santillana, Argentina
Since 1997 she has been in charge of the area children and young people books in Santillana, where she published around seven hundred titles of the most outstanding authors of the genre. She has a degree in Literature and is a faculty member of the Universidad de Buenos Aires, she also has a Master's Degree in Publishing (Universidad de Salamanca, Spain).
Ricardo Menoyo
Docuprint, Argentina
Vice President and co-founder of Docuprint, company with more than 40 years of experience in technology, printing and supply chain in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Colombia, Mexico and United States. Pioneer in POD, develops new technological projects for publishers.
Carlo Carrenho
Publishnews, Sweden
Vice President and co-founder of Docuprint, company with more than 40 years of experience in technology, printing and supply chain in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Colombia, Mexico and United States. Pioneer in POD, develops new technological projects for publishers.
Joaquín Gil Paricio
Librerías Cúspide, Argentina
General Manager of Librerías Cúspide, a chain of bookstores of general interest since the 90s. It currently has 37 branches in Argentina, including an e-commerce. Joaquín is also Protreasurer of Cámara Argentina de Publicaciones and Counselor of Fundación El Libro.
Valeria Morán
Mercado Libre, Argentina
Corporate Manager of the Entretainment and Books categories in Mercado Libre. She has worked at the company for more than 7 years. Valeria has a degree in Psychology from Universidad de Buenos Aires and a Máster's Degree in Marketing and Communication from Universidad de San Andrés.
Daniela Drucaroff
Mercado Libre, Argentina
Corporate Supervisor of the Entertainment and Books categories in Mercado Libre. She worked in market research for the last 5 years and she has a degree in Marketing from Universidad de la Empresa.
Program day 1
13.00 - 14.00 • Registration and Networking Coffee
14.00 - 14.10 • Welcome speech: Minister Hernán Lombardi and Trini Vergara
14.10 - 14.50 • What should editors learn urgently?
Antonio Martín (Spain)
Transition and changes in the production and selling processes: the possible path between updating or re-founding a publishing house.
Antonio Martín, expert in training editors, will give an overview of all that we can do to use digital technologies as editors and we are not yet doing. The keys are training and information. From improving the inside processes with tactics to face the change with an adaptable and resistant team; Feasibility strategies for a profitable balance; the liquid edition: hand-made or machine-made; how to manage sales and rights with multiple digital contents; product acquisition, retrieval and catalog expansion; the revolution in logistics and social media impact through digital marketing.
14.50 - 15.30 • Wattpad and the global sensation among authors.
Katey Townshend (Canada)
Wattpad is the biggest digital literary platform in the world. Over 70 million readers and writers, 30 languages. All the information of this phenomenon, which has already opened it’s publishing department.
In this session, Katey Townshend, Marketing Manager for Wattpad Studios will explore how new technologies -such as machine learning- are creating new opportunities to discover new voices in storytelling. Looking at Wattpad’s own Story DNA machine learning technology, this session will highlight the opportunities for publishers to diversify their slates while uncovering exciting new writers. The session will examine real-life case studies from Wattpad and trends from Spanish-speaking regions, showcasing recently-discovered voices that the company has identified among the millions on the platform.
15.30 - 16.10 • Networking Coffee Break
16.10 - 16.50 • 24symbols: What is the subscription business model today?
David Sánchez (Spain)
From Spain to the whole world: they were pioneers, the first subscription reading platform in digital formats. David, co-founder, will share their vision about subscription business models and new technologies that will revamp our industry.
24symbols was born in 2011, pioneers from Spain to the whole world. David, one of the 4 founders, will share in the Colloquium what they have learned in these 8 fast years, how they see their business model today, how it has been installed among readers, what works best and why. In addition, he will dedicate time to the keys of the digital revolution: how to generate engagement with readers, the future of making money in reading platforms, the importance of adapt our business models and techniques to extract more value from the reader behavior, and its application to the publishing sector.
16.50 - 17.30 • The edition of children's books: stop the myths.
María Osorio (Colombia) and María Fernanda Maquieira (Argentina). An interview with Patricia Kolesnicov (Argentina).
An unprejudiced dialogue about women in the children’s edition, public purchases, international children’s catalogs, future small readers, among others.
Two Latin American editors specialized in children’s literature, two countries, two cultures, and two long-standing experiences, although very different: María Osorio, from Colombia, with her personal project of wide projection, and María Fernanda Maquieira, from Argentina, with high responsibilities within one of the largest Spanish-speaking publishing groups. An open debate, moderated by the journalist Patricia Kolesnikov, they will put into question some myths: the struggle for public procurement, the catalogs that seek to be international, the role of women in the publishing industry, and the future of children readers.
17.30 - 18.20 • Librerías Gandhi, the 10 years that changed its history.
Alberto Achar (México)
The «everything is possible» marketing plan that made Gandhi the key player for the publishers that sell in Mexico.
Alberto Achar is the head of the marketing division of Gandhi, the main chain of bookstores in Mexico, and a key for all publishers who need an international presence. His conference will give us the possibility to understand how we can generate great changes and obtain positive results for our companies, being creative without the need to make huge economic investments. A look at how Librerías Gandhi became the leader of its market, applying a risky strategic marketing plan.
Program day 2
8.30 - 9.10 • Networking Coffee
9.10 - 09.50 • TAGlivros: Unboxing happiness.
Gustavo Lembert (Brazil)
Reinventing the book club: focus on the reading experience. TAG case: from our first difficulties to over 50 thousand subscribers.
Gustavo Lembert, only 26 years old, has achieved a huge success in Brazil with an innovative concept of something as old as the Book Clubs. The proposal to the readers is a subscription to a monthly box, with two alternatives: TAG where he selects the books («curatorship») and Inéditos which launch a new branch to the business as publishers («unpublished»). How did TAG reach 50,000 subscribers in an unstable economy, an industry in crisis, and an increasingly competitive world? In his presentation, he will explain how they began, what difficulties they had, how they were overcome, and what are the keys to this unprecedented event in a non favorable context.
10.50 - 10.35 • The big players in Latin America - their role and fate.
Pablo Dittborn (Chile)
The evolution of the spanish publishing market: from the converging in big publishing houses to the emerging indies and the self-published: lessons and opportunities, with strategy focus for the editors of the future.
Pablo Dittborn has a long career in global publishing, from Javier Vergara Editor and Ediciones B, in Argentina and Chile, to Penguin Random House Chile, and also in independent and local projects, such as The Clinic or La Copa Rota. In his presentation, Pablo will go over the evolution of the publishing market, the process of concentration in large groups, with its criticisms and achievements, the emergence of independent and self-published. Demystifying each one of these currents, to find the way of survival and coexistence, in which the opportunities of some do not annul those of others.
10.35 - 11.10 • Networking Coffee Break
11.10 - 11.50 • Audiobooks: an global update of the reading and buying trends.
Michele Cobb (USA)
Updated and complete information of the audiobook market, the digital format that is growing the most in the English language (more than two digits per year in the US), and an opportunity for the spanish -publishers.
The audiobooks in the US have grown two-digit percentages in the last 6 years and the trend continues. They are already an unmissable opportunity for North American publishers and many Europeans, and the phenomenon is becoming globalized with speed. Michele Cobb will present the panorama of the audiobook market with complete and updated data: what factors push this growth, who is listening, how are reading habits changing, what devices contribute to this expansion, what happens in emerging markets… In our country this landing is imminent, which is why this conference is of the maximum interest.
11.50 - 12.30 • Libraries and printing houses: their future.
Joaquín Gil Paricio (Argentina) y Ricardo Menoyo (Argentina). An interview with Carlo Carrenho (Sweden).
We all see the giant transformation of the bookstores, through which publishers have been selling their books for more than two centuries. The arrival of e-commerce had a strong impact, however bookshops continue to play an important role. Should they be transformed, how, when, why? On the other hand, the printing companies are also breaking the paradigm of large print runs for the first time, and their role is changing. How can they collaborate with publishers with digital printing? And at a distance? Are the small and immediate runs the solution? And the costs affordable? Carlo Carrenho, one of the most experienced media professionals in the industry, will be in charge of this double interview and will open the debate to what has not yet been answered.
12.30 - 13.20 • Mercado libre and the books sales.
Valeria Morán and Daniela Drucaroff (Argentina)
The largest e-commerce platform in Latin America presents their data about book sales, strategies that work, their vision for the publishing segment and business opportunities.
Today Mercado Libre is the largest e-commerce platform in Latin America. The editors have always concentrated our efforts on the creation of our catalogs, and we have organized the logistics and sale of our books through our classic channels: bookstores and distributors that also come to bookstores. But things have changed, and there is no publisher who does not already have his own shopping cart on his website, and almost all in ML. Is it because Mercado Libre makes the selling process easier? What data can ML give us from his own experience with books? Do they consider themselves the Amazon of Latin America? What is their vision of the future?
12.20 - 13.30 • Closing speech: Trini Vergara
Colloquium The Future of Publishing
New formats and new business models
July 4 and 5 from 8 to 13 at the CCK, Buenos Aires
New formats and new business models is the main subject in the third edition of the Colloquium The Future of Publishing. During two intense mornings, we will be able to attend the presentation of 14 professionals from Mexico, Canada, Spain, Brazil, the United States, Chile, Colombia and Argentina. The protagonists of the most innovative trends will be present to talk about what we all want to know: audiobooks, subscription models, self-publishing on massive and global platforms, e-commerce, management of reader data, different online payments methods in the network and new key aspects of the book industry.
We believe that as publishers we must connect more and more between us, crossing latitudes, continents and cultures. Our similarities surpass our differences, and the best teachers we our colleagues. In an era of digital transformation we need to be up to date and prioritize continuous learning as our passport to the future. Welcome to the Colloquium 2019!
Trini Vergara
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