Frankfurt Book Fair 2010

Peter in the Oratia Media corner of the New Zealand collective stand at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The fair concluded on 10 October and was a really valuable event - we're certainly hoping to be there again in 2011.

Think Australia (and New Zealand)

Click here to read the article about

the Australian and New Zealand publishing market

discussed by a specialist panel

at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2010,

and reported by

Publishing Perspectives.

Flying the Flag at Frankfurt – 7 October 2010

There’s a subdued buzz in the air at Hall 8 as I write this – subdued because it’s lunchtime and those who aren’t eating are catching breath. The fair kicked off yesterday morning and for Oratia Media and our colleagues on the New Zealand collective stand it was a busy start to the five-day event, which is the world’s largest marketplace for books, media, rights and licences.

Entering the Frankfurt Book Fair

This year marks our first appearance at the fair, exhibiting our books and talking to other publishers about distribution, rights and services internationally. This year we’re pushing the authors already published in our Libro International list, along with a number of new concepts for books that we’re pitching to likely partners. Also on our stand are titles from our Rock Your Life list, and our friends at Huia Publishers and Willson Scott Publishers.

Our corner of the New Zealand stand

Today it was my turn to take the microphone, as I joined Australian colleagues Patricia Genat of ALS, Rod Martin of Era Publications, and mediator Tim Coronel of Bookseller and Publisher magazine at a well-patronised seminar: ‘Australia/New Zealand Publishing Market Overview’. Common preoccupations with slow local markets, changing export destinations and digitisation united out two markets, which also remain distinguished by the difficulty of distributing across the Tasman.

Notice for today’s seminar session

A busy schedule of meetings continues over the next three days. Tomorrow night the New Zealand stand will host drinks, at which Creative New Zealand and the Publishers Association of NZ will launch its programme of support for translation of New Zealand writing

Better go – there’s a bunch of people browsing the stand.

Peter Dowling

Graeme Hunt: Farewell to a fine author

We are very sad to share the news that Graeme Hunt, an outstanding author with whom we had a close working relationship, died suddenly at his home in Auckland on Wednesday. Graeme, who had just turned 58, had recently undergone minor heart surgery but had subsequently been feeling healthy and positive.

Graeme was an outstanding historian and journalist, a writer with rare insight into business, a publisher in his own right, a tireless supporter of New Zealand books, a generous soul and a friend to many.

He published his first books under his own imprint, Waddington Press, before I commissioned his best-selling The Rich List: Wealth and Enterprise in New Zealand, published by Reed in 2000. Subsequently he published four other works with us at Reed and one with Penguin.

Last year Waddington and Oratia Media jointly published First to Care, the 125-year history of St John in New Zealand, which received excellent reviews and has sold strongly. At the time of his death we were working on first proofs of a major agricultural history he edited, and planning further projects. He was prolific and meticulous as a writer, producing 15 books in all, while being active as a reviewer and mentor to other writers.

Graeme was always politically engaged, and was standing as an independent in the October local body elections in the Albany ward. But he never let his own views cloud his respect for healthy, democratic debate.

Our sympathies go to his wife Saluma, his first wife Jennifer, his children Robert and Ellen, and his family members.

I will be promoting Graeme’s work at the Frankfurt Book Fair in ten days’ time, and Libro International will follow up on the commitment I’d earlier made to Graeme to keep as much as possible of his work in print.

Peter Dowling

Frankfurt Book Fair 2010

Creative New Zealand has posted our profile as one of the four publishers it is supporting to exhibit at the Frankfurt Book Fair next month.

Follow this link for more information.

Te Ara: Māori Pathways of Leadership

Coming this month is our newest publication Te Ara: Māori Pathways of Leadership, a full-colour paperback that documents the trajectory of Māori leadership from first settlement of Aotearoa/New Zealand through to the challenges and opportunities of the present day.

This 32-page book is concisely written by Paul Tapsell, professor of Māori studies at the University of Otago, with Dr Merata Kawharu, director of the James Henare Māori Research Centre of the University of Auckland, and features beautiful photos by Krzysztof Pfeiffer, photographer at the Auckland War Memorial Museum and author of over 20 books.

After a general introduction to Māori history, Te Ara focuses on the stories of iwi in five regions – Hokianga, Peowhairangi (Bay of Islands) Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland), Waiariki (Rotorua-Taupo) and Murihiku (Otago-Southland).

Te Ara accompanies an exhibition that will open in Olsztyn, Poland, on 22 September, before touring in Poland and then elsewhere to Europe. The present edition contains text in three languages – Māori, English and Polish – definitely a first!

Te Ara: Māori Pathways of Leadership - ISBN 978-1-877514-12-8 - retails at $19.99

Launching The Castle in our Backyard

On the evening of 29 July an enthusiastic crowd gathered at the Cornwall Park Restaurant on One Tree Hill/Maungakiekie to launch the first 2010 title from Libro International - The Castle in our Backyard and its Maori edition, Te Pa Kaha kei to tatou Iari.

Guests were welcomed on behalf of Ngati Whatua o Orakei, the mana whenua of the mount, by Takutai Wikiriwhi, and addressed by Michael Horton, chairman of the Cornwall Park Trust Board.

Author Malcolm Paterson spoke of the vision of connecting New Zealand children with the history that surrounds them, which inspired him and his fellow members of the Sharing Our Stories group to devise this, the first in a planned series of books about historic landmarks.

The Castle in our Backyard and Te Pa Kaha kei to tatou Iari are on sale at good bookstores in New Zealand or can be ordered through our website www.oratiamedia.com

Author Malcolm Paterson and illustrator Leah Mulgrew signing books for Sharing Our Stories member Mark Spencer; Patricia Greig of Oratia Media is in the background

Representatives of Ngati Whatua o Orakei, major supporters of The Castle in our Backyard

(Below) Malcolm Paterson launching the book

Carolyn Judd of Sharing Our Stories, with Malcolm Paterson and

Peter Dowling

SHARING OUR STORIES BRINGS HISTORY TO LIFE FOR KIWI KIDS

PRESS RELEASE

Maungakiekie/One Tree Hill, AUCKLAND 29 July 2010

Awakening young readers to the wonders that surround them is the kaupapa (mission) of Sharing Our Stories, a group of committed young leaders who today release their first book in English and Te Reo editions.

The Castle in our Backyard (in English) and Te Pā Kaha kei tō tatōu Iāri (in Māori) is the first book by group member Malcolm Paterson, and is illustrated by young Karekare artist Leah Mulgrew.

Released to mark Māori Language Week/Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, the book invites young readers to enter the history of Auckland’s One Tree Hill/Maungakiekie alongside two modern-day characters.

Tui and his cousin Jennifer are too busy playing a video game to want to visit Maungakiekie – until their Nanny Marei tells them the mountain’s got giants and fortresses, just like their game.

Sharing Our Stories grew as a team project under a leadership programme of the Committee for Auckland.

“We hope that by becoming more aware of our rich history, New Zealanders will enhance their pride in our unique heritage,” said Malcolm Paterson.

The books, from Waitakere City publisher Libro International, are available at good bookstores and online.

On sale from 29 July, the books will be launched at One Tree Hill/Maungakiekie that evening.

Review copies are available NOW

Place Names of New Zealand on Radio Live

Peter's new revised edition of Place Names of New Zealand

is out this month from Penguin Books.

Peter spoke with Radio Live host Graeme Hill

about the book and how the meanings of place names

on the New Zealand landscape; click here to listen.

Place Names of New Zealand - out now

Place Names of New Zealand

A.W. Reed; revised by Peter Dowling

Published by Raupo, an imprint of Penguin Books (www.penguin.co.nz)

ISBN 8-978-0-14-320410-7 512 pages Paperback NZ$50

It’s been a privilege to edit, update and expand A.W. Reed’s Place Names of New Zealand. The new edition is just out through Raupo, the imprint that carries on what was once Reed Books.

How we call places matters deeply. The debate over whether to include an ‘h’ in the official spelling of ‘Wanganui’, which raged as I was revising this work between 2008 and 2010, was merely the latest example of what store people set by place names. Times don’t appear to have changed this sentiment. In 1844, residents protested vehemently against the giving of the name Petre to the town that was renamed Wanganui as a result.

A.W. Reed, who died in 1979, was an outstanding publisher who had a feel for what matters in popular culture, and he recognised the need to start recording origin and meaning of place names before the knowledge was lost. His Place Names of New Zealand, published in 1975, became the standard guide to this popular field, and he published a substantial Supplement to Place Names of New Zealand shortly before his death.

The 2010 Place Names of New Zealand maintains most of Reed’s research, but in a slimmed down, ready-reference structure. Onto that foundation I’ve built on as much new information as could be reliably sourced within the available time – adding definitions for some 1500 new names, new details for existing entries, and latest versions of official names. All up the new edition has origin and meanings for over 10,000 place names.

What excites me about place names is how directly they mediate between us and our land, our past and our language, keeping alive experiences and people long vanished from our memories. There are names that mark lovers, murderers, cannibal feasts, failures, puns and friendships; names that tie places to nature alongside those that honour eminences who never had anything to do with the place; names that have been misspelled but where any change is deeply opposed.

Arthur’s Pass, for example, retains its apostrophe only because residents protested violently at government efforts to remove it (Hawke’s Bay is the only other New Zealand place name officially to retain the apostrophe). It could have been worse for residents of the Pass – in Southland the Ruhtra Creek was meant to honour a surveyor by the name of Arthur, but ended up being recorded backwards!

I hope that readers can gain as much from Place Names of New Zealand as it gave me in putting it together.

Peter Dowling - peter@oratiamedia.com

Frankfurt Book Fair 2010 – We’ll Be There

We’ve had some great news – Creative New Zealand has awarded us one of four grants to assist with exhibition and travel costs for the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Frankfurt is to books what Cannes is to film, the one indispensable site for the industry to meet each year.

Taking place from 6 –10 October, the fair is billed as ‘the most important marketplace for books, media, rights and licences worldwide’ – attended by over 7,300 exhibitors from 100 countries, around 300,000 visitors and over 10,000 journalists.

Applicants for the funding were assessed by a panel from Creative New Zealand, the New Zealand Book Council and the Publishers Association of New Zealand (PANZ).

Alongside Oratia Media/Libro International, Auckland University Press, Calico Publishing and Gecko Press received grants, and we'll all be sharing space on the New Zealand stand at the show.

Being at Frankfurt is crucial to advancing Libro’s international profile, building on our presence at the Turin Book Fair in May.

Along with backlist titles, we will be showing new publications like Joe Te Kani Pere’s Wiremu Pere and Paola Della Valle’s From Silence to Voice: The Maori in New Zealand Literature, while promoting co-editions including the landmark volume Marae from Paul Tapsell and Maori Maps.

A big thank you to Creative New Zealand and PANZ for their support as we take New Zealand books to the world.

Praise for Graeme Hunt books

Good reviews continue to flow for Graeme Hunt's First to Care, which Libro International published last October.

Also included in this reviews page link from Massey University is Glyn Harper on Graeme's book By Skill and Spirit, a history of the Auckland Officer's Club, which Oratia Media is distributing in New Zealand on behalf of Waddington Press.

For more information on these titles go to www.oratiamedia.com/books.html

Monsters, tribes and a castle in the backyard

While children are glued to screens playing generic games of fictional heroes and villains, right around them is a history that is filled with real stories relating directly to who they are and where they live.

That was the realisation that drove Malcolm Paterson and his fellow alumni of the Committee for Auckland’s Young Leaders programme to create Sharing Our Stories, a series of picture books that bring to life the landscape of the city for readers in the 8–12 age group.

Over the past year, our books editor Carolyn Lagahetau has worked closely with Malcolm, illustrator Leah Mulgrew and the other Sharing Our Stories team to bring the first book to publication.

The Castle in our Backyard follows cousins Tui and Jennifer as they discover the castle near their place – Maungkiekie or One Tree Hill, in its day home to the goddess of fire, a Māori fortress, Chinese gardens, and the estate of Sir John Logan Campbell. It’s an engaging story that manages to include plenty of information and activities for kids on this voyage of discovery.

A first book for all involved, The Castle in our Backyard is also one those increasing rarities these days, a book published simultaneously in English and Māori. Te Pā Kaha kei tō tatōu Iāri, the Māori edition, will be launched along with the English at the end of July to coincide with Maori Language Week.

The Castle in our Backyard (978-1-877514-05-0)

Te Pā Kaha kei tō tatōu Iāri (978-1-877514-10-4)

Malcolm Paterson, illustrated by Leah Mulgrew

Published by Libro International, July 2010

Price: $19.99

284 x 208 mm portrait, PB, 32 pp, colour

For orders, contact our distributors:

Publishers Distribution Limited

Attn: Customer Services

Tel: 09 828 2999 Fax: 09 828 2399

E: orders@pubdist.co.nz

From the Turin International Book Fair

The Salone Internazione del Libro Torino is Italy’s major book fair, held at the Lingotto Fiere in Turin for five days every May.

Attended by over 300,000 book lovers, with exhibits from Italian publishers large and small, a packed programme of writer presentations, a special kids’ pavilion and live broadcasts from Rai TV and radio – it makes for an amazing hive of cultural activity.

Taking place alongside the Salone was the International Book Forum, the business side of the fair, which brought together over 800 professionals to talk book, film and broadcast rights. Oratia Media took its table there to pursue our objectives of taking New Zealand authors to the world and developing Libro International’s presence in Italy.

Although there was a healthy showing of Indian publishers – India being this year’s guest country – we were certainly the only publisher from anywhere further east.

It’s always hard to quantify immediately how much business will come out of a trade fair. All the same, after more than 20 meetings, lots of useful encounters and hours spent browsing stands, I’m confident that we have some exciting opportunities.

A few initial take-outs:

- A lot of curiosity about New Zealand but few immediate prospects for books linked to South Pacific culture in Europe

- Openness to dealing with writers in areas that are less region specific, particularly children’s books, education, business and biography

- A flat or contracting book market is afflicting everyone, particularly the UK, US and Spain …

- … but not India, where economic growth and valuation of literacy is stoking demand for printed matter, with a readiness to take risks

- Ebooks? Not a lot in the Italian market just yet, though Giunti announced at the fair it would soon start selling the first ebook in Italy with an online catalogue of 400 titles to follow.

- Per capita book sales in Italy are creeping up again. They say Italians don’t read much, but judging from the crush at many of the stalls, it would seem fairer to say that those who do read, read a lot.

- Goodwill: the relatively small size of the IBF made it easy to rub shoulders and make acquaintances, and the food and wine was outstanding. In Turin there is such a thing as a free lunch!

It’ll be worth being back next year.

http://www.ibf.it

http://www.salonelibro.it/

From the International Book Forum organisers:

Si è chiusa la nona edizione dell'IBF. Appuntamento al 2011, dal 12 al 14 maggio

L'edizione 2010 dell’Ibf – International Book Forum, la business area del Salone Internazionale del Libro dedicata allo scambio di diritti editoriali e audiovisivi per la traduzione e l’adattamento, registra un nuovo record di presenze. Oltre 800, di cui 120 invitati in collaborazione con l'Istituto nazionale per il Commercio Estero (ICE), gli operatori professionali provenienti da oltre 30 paesi (ad esempio Argentina, Brasile, Canada, Egitto, Germania, Messico, Romania, Russia, Stati Uniti, Svezia) tra agenti letterari, responsabili dei diritti, produttori e scout editoriali per il cinema, la televisione e il multimediale che, infatti, hanno animato durante i tre giorni (da giovedì 13 a sabato 15 maggio) i 200 tavolini allestiti presso il Centro Congressi del Lingotto, quartier generale delle operazioni b2b del Salone Internazionale del Libro di Torino, per un totale di oltre 7500 incontri (1500 in più rispetto al 2009).

Bonds of Blood and Memory

New Zealand serviceman gave their lives to help liberate Italy from Nazi occupation in World War 2. One town in Tuscany has made a special effort to remember that fact.

For decades after Tavarnelle Val di Pesa was liberated in August 1944, locals believed their liberators were Americans. It was only due to the efforts of former Tavarnelle mayor Stefano Fusi and his New Zealand wife Jill Gabriel that the true story came to be told – that soldiers from the 2^nd New Zealand Division, and specifically from the 28^th Maori Battalion, had been the troops to force the German retreat.

Marking Liberation Day in Tavarnelle

Last year the story of that liberation came to be told in a fine book published by Editore NTE, I Giorni della Liberazione: Le truppe neozelandesi da San Donato all porte di Firenze. The book collects contributions from New Zealand and Italian historians and testimonies of those who lived through those days of death and destruction.

At the invitation of Stefano and Jill, we attended the ceremonies to mark Liberation Day in Tavarnelle on 25 April — the date of Anzac Day in New Zealand and Australia. The coincidence of dates doesn’t seem so much by chance when you are there, such is the feeling of fraternity between our nations and people. A few days later, we were privileged to visit the current exhibition of photographs relating to the liberation at the beautiful Palazzo Medici Riccardi in the heart of Florence.

Libro International is committed to working with Stefano, Jill and NTE to make I Giorni della Liberazione available in English in 2011.

‘Questo volume è il frutto felice di un bel rapporto di amicizia e fratellanza … Un’amicizia che è solo l’ultimo episodio di un rapporto speciale che si è stabilito fra i nostri Comuni, i nostri territorio, con la Nuova Zelanda.’

‘This volume is the happy fruit of a positive relationship based on friendship and fraternity… A friendship that is merely the latest episode in a special relationship that has been established between our territory and New Zealand.’

- Stefano Fusi, from the introduction to I Giorni della Liberazione

At the Eighth Army … Various exhibition in Florence, left to right: Stefano Fusi, Florence provincial councillor; Jill Gabriel, one of the book’s translators; Fabrizio Nucci, publisher, Editore NTE; Peter Dowling of Libro International; Tavernelle mayor Sestilio Dirindelli; Gianna Magnani and Angela Mori of Tavernelle council, who also worked on the book.

http://www.gonews.it/articolo_54064_programma-celebrazioni-aprile.html

ORATIA MEDIA & BLOOMING TWIG BOOKS INK PUBLISHING & DISTRIBUTION DEAL

AUCKLAND & NEW YORK

23 APRIL 2010

INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS Oratia Media Ltd of Auckland, New Zealand and Blooming Twig Books of New York, USA, today signed a cooperation agreement that will greatly expand their respective reach and publishing capacity.

With immediate effect, Oratia Media will represent titles from Blooming Twig Books in New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific. Blooming Twig Books will represent titles from Oratia’s Libro International and Rock Your Life lists in the USA and Canada.

Both companies are to promote each other’s titles and will manage printing and distribution through print-on-demand and offset printing arrangements.

Oratia Media managing director Peter Dowling and Blooming Twig Books operating manager Kent Gustavson welcomed the announcement.

“Blooming Twig Books is an innovative young publisher that has many synergies with our publishing, with us both committed to children’s books, self-help and general non-fiction,” Dowling said.

“Having guaranteed North American distribution is a major plus for our authors and we look forward to working with Kent to maximise sales in bookstores as well as through Amazon and other online retailers, and to taking Blooming Twig Books’ titles to market Down Under.”

Gustavson anticipates great interest for the Oratia Media titles in the American market: “I am excited to have the chance to work with the diverse front and backlist that Oratia Media has to offer, and we are looking forward to reaching a new market in New Zealand and Australia.”

First releases in the Australasian market for Blooming Twig will be Dr John Molidor’s brilliant take on inter-generational mix-ups, Psycho Generations: How Each Generation Drives the Other Crazy and What You Can Do About It; and Jennifer Powers’ Oh Shift!, a hilarious guide to handling change in a rapidly changing world.

Blooming Twig will start with Libro International’s outrageous TV tie-in Outrageous Fortune: The West Family Guide and Tim Tipene’s classic junior novel Kura Toa, to be followed by the first two titles from the Rock Your Life series, Damian Milo’s Recession-Proof Your Life and Mike Handcock’s What if you were God?

ABOUT ORATIA MEDIA – www.oratiamedia.com • http:// librointernational.blogspot.com

Oratia Media is a publishing and communications services company with bases in Auckland, New Zealand and Brescia, Italy. Its book division, Libro International, publishes quality children’s, history, Maori studies, business and general nonfiction titles, and it is launching a comprehensive self-help series this year in association with Rock Your Life.

ABOUT BLOOMING TWIG BOOKS - www.bloomingtwigbooks.com • Blooming Twig Books is a publishing company located in New York, specialising in creative new titles in several genres, including motivation, business, psychology, children’s, history and general nonfiction.

For further information contact:

Kent Gustavson

Blooming Twig Books, PO Box 4668 #66675, New York, NY 10163-4668, USA

Tel: +1 866 389 4668 Email: kent@bloomingtwigbooks.com

Peter Dowling

Oratia Media, 783 West Coast Road, Oratia, Auckland 0604, NZ

& Via A. de Gasperi 2B, 25047 Darfo Boario (BS), Italy

Tel: +64 27 6148993 / +39 345 0936547 Email: peter@oratiamedia.com

–

Not the London Book Fair

Europe is still reeling from the closure of airspace caused by the ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull. My heart goes out to the hundreds of thousands of travellers around the globe stranded by the suspension of flights.

In a sense it was fortunate not to be able to get off the ground in the first place. I was booked to fly to the UK on Saturday to attend this week’s London International Book Fair, but by that stage no flights were going anywhere in Europe, and the impact on the fair itself was evident. It’s been a quiet few days at the fair’s Earl’s Court venue.

Instead of face-to-face meetings, then, it’s back to emails and phone conferences – today several phone link-ups with people I would have met in London, talking rights and co-editions. Among the books we’re representing or publishing under Libro International, there is good interest in Marguerite Laing’s biography of the great psychologist R.D.Laing, Tim Tipene’s Warrior Kids manual, and Nick Theobald’s Instant! phrase book series (expanding to French, German, Italian and Spanish).

Like most publishers, it’s now about being thankful for technology and looking ahead. With a table in the book forum at next month’s Salone Internazionale del Libro in Turin next month we’ve got some good meetings planned, and then can think ahead to the major book fair of the year, Frankfurt, in October.

Cheers,

Peter

Not so bad to be on the ground when it’s a sunny day in the Val Camonica

From Silence to Voice in Turin

The impressive Mole Antonelliana, architectural symbol of Turin

I’ve just returned from an invigorating visit to Turin, where our author Paola Della Valle is based.

Paola finished her doctorate on the history of Maori literature at the Università degli Studi di Torino in 2007, and has now transformed that into a book for a school and university readership. Due out from Libro International in October, From Silence to Voice (ISBN 978-1-877514-11-1) will be the first book-length history to look at representations of Maori, and the emergence of Maori writers, in New Zealand.

Turin is a cultured city of porticoes, elegant cafés and bookstores. From 13–17 May it plays host to the annual Salone Internazionale del Libro di Torino (http://www.salonelibro.it/ ) – Italy’s largest book fair, open to both book professionals and the general public.

After this first taste of the city, we’ve committed to being back for the book fair. It will provide an unequalled opportunity to talk books with publishers, agents, booksellers and authors from all over Italy as well as international visitors (India is this year’s feature country).

So there’ll be more news from Turin next month.

Ciao

Peter

Author Paola Della Valle on home ground

Putting the Libro back into Europe

The view from our window, Boario Terme, Valcamonica

For the next four months Libro International is working from the beautiful Italian town of Darfo Boario, north-east of Milan.

Having a firm base in New Zealand, it’s now time to ground the other arm of our Kiwi-Italian company where it belongs. After all, our name comes from the Italian word for ‘book’.

For 2010 we have two firmed-up releases with a distinctive ‘Kiwitalian’ flavour – a pioneering history of Maori literature by Torino-based writer Paola della Valle, and a celebration of grappa being produced in collaboration with Distilleria Bottega, one of Italy’s greatest grappa distilleries.

We’ll be at the London Book Fair from 19–21 April, taking NZ and Italian authors to the world, and will work to build the Italian business once back in the beautiful Val Camonica.

Ciao

Peter & Alessandra

Italy mobiles:

Peter - 345 0936547

Alessandra - 345 0929872

Running man, rock drawing, Capo di Ponte, Valcamonica