SYP at the IPG Autumn Conference 2016

Posted on October 17, 2016 in Uncategorized

A few weeks ago, SYP member Jess Ballance of Daunt Books, Dodo Ink won our free ticket to the Independent Publishers Guild’s Autumn Conference. Here she shares her thoughts on the day and the state of independent publishing. 

As a bookseller and manager of an independent bookshop I am used to looking at the publishing industry from a somewhat different vantage point to the majority of delegates at this year’s IPG Autumn Conference. The night before the event I scrolled through the list of delegates on my phone: there were a few names I recognised but a whole load more I didn’t, and I arrived at the doors of the Royal Society of Medicine with a mixture of excitement and nervous anticipation.

In my day-to-day working life, I take the greatest pleasure in recommending the best titles to each of my customers—and for me, some of the books standing out most in the past few years have emerged from independent presses. Thanks in part to their smaller size, independent publishers can be agile and adaptable in a rapidly shifting marketplace, experimenting with new publishing methods, taking risks on emerging genres and reinvigorating neglected backlists. My outside work as an associate editor for an independent press grants me a slightly hybrid status that is alive to the ambition, drive and risk of the independent publishing sector, not to mention the hard work. Perhaps it is the passion that it takes to start an independent press in the first place, or the ability to specialise and thoroughly explore certain genres and styles of writing, or the enviable ability to adapt and evolve. Whatever it is, independent presses are on the rise.

In his keynote Conference speech, Rohan Silva said he envied independent publishers, but added that they had to stay creative in order to survive. Based on the wealth of success stories that followed over the course of the day, from Head of Zeus to Profile Books and Nosy Crow to Barrington Stoke, I am not surprised by Silva’s remarks. The smaller print runs of independent presses allow for a greater degree of investment in the titles: the content is firmly at the core of their success. Given this emphasis on commissioning and the growing strength of the independent publishing scene in the UK, it is no great shock that three of the six titles shortlisted for this year’s Man Booker Prize came from independent publishers. Their innovation extends far beyond business models to commissioning decisions, publicity campaigns and building communities of readers.

Innovation and diversity were significant undercurrents at the Conference. Nicholas Lovell, the day’s final speaker, tapped into both in a talk about how we might go about building better businesses, looking at ‘validated learning’ versus a more rigid corporate method. Lovell said that truly agile businesses continually ask questions of their data; learn how they operate and how the market is reacting to them; and adapt and reconfigure accordingly. Surrounded by publishing professionals, all specialists in their particular corners of independent publishing, I felt this was true. The Conference and its many breakout sessions showed us how far we have come, helped us take stock of where we currently stand, and made us alive to the many exciting directions that independent publishing might grow in.

Collaboration is key. So said the IPG’s president Jonathan Harris in his remarks to close the Conference. There is a great synergy between independent bookshops and independent publishers, with new enterprises like Burley Fisher Books showcasing titles from independent presses in particular, while fluidly designed and dynamic spaces like Rohan Silva’s Libreria encourage organic leaps of imagination between genres and disciplines. The variety of independent publishers attending this year’s Conference—academic and trade, big and small—and the great discussions sparked during breakouts and tea breaks, confirmed for me the core of what publishing has always been about: sharing knowledge. Be that through print or over a pint as the Conference drew to a close.