Thursday, October 08, 2009

Publishing Forum at SWF

Publisher Philip Tatham is helping to organise the Publishing Forum at the Singapore Writers Festival, and sent me a copy of the programme. (Price: $120* (single-day pass) / $200* (two-day pass) / $30 (per panel) *includes refreshments and lunch.)
Venue : Blue Room

I shall be attending and plan to blog the event. Anyone joining me? :
DAY ONE / Wed 28th October 2009

Beyond Print (part one) Bookshops RIP: an introduction to new distribution models and how this will affect authors and the trade

9.30am –10.30am

Bookshops are being marginalized and online retailers are becoming more important. Traditional book distributors will have a shrinking role; trade book publishers will see their roles changing, and many will disappear. Online marketing will become more important. Authors will benefit, in theory, by having fewer barriers to publish and readers should benefit from more choice, but may be faced by decreasing standards of quality. How will this affect authors and the trade in Singapore and beyond?

10.30am – 11am Tea Break

Beyond Print (part two) Online Publicity: making the most of the digital age
11am ¬–12pm
Do you Tweet? Social media is now larger in terms of digital volume than email. How should authors make the most of blogs, personal websites, Twitter, Facebook and other social media products to promote their books? Who foots the bill, author or publisher?

Publishers Lunch: face-to-face meetings with Singapore publishers during the lunch break

12pm – 1.30pm

Singapore’s fiction and creative nonfiction publishing houses will be showcasing their titles and will make the publisher and/or an editorial representative available to answer questions from writers and designers.

Hands off my Manuscript: do publishers add value to authors' manuscripts?

1.30pm – 2.30pm

A discussion on the current and future role of the publisher in the publishing process and how they add value to manuscripts in terms of editing, design, as a literary filter, in shaping a canon of Singapore literature. Why don’t authors just self publish books?

Copyright and the Killer Contract: what authors and freelance designers need to know about copyright and author contracts

2.30pm – 3.30pm

A look at the most important clauses in author contracts, especially with regard to copyright issues and the emergence of new media.

3.30pm – 4pm Tea Break

The Starving Poet: do Singapore poets and literary authors make money?

4pm –5.00pm

How do literary authors and poets survive? How do they publish their works? Do they make money? Do all literary authors have day jobs and do they need to make money from their writing? What is the role of funding agencies? Will new media and the removal of barriers to publishing help literary authors and the literary scene?

DAY TWO / Thurs 29th October 2009

The Art of Biography: how to write a biography in Singapore

9.30am – 10.30am

How do biographers blend objective and subjective elements? What are the challenges biographers in Singapore face relating to sources, interpretation, organization and writing style? What sources are available in Singapore such as correspondence, diaries, the press, legal sources and memoirs, what are the legal issues involved?

10.30am – 11am Tea Break

We Eat Durian: localizing content for children's books

11am – 12pm

The kid's trade book market is still dominated by books from overseas. How can Singaporean authors produce competitive titles with local content? Do the books need local content? Is local content for kid's books a door-opener to overseas markets or a hindrance?

Publishers Lunch: face-to-face meetings with Singapore publishers during the lunch break

12pm –1.30pm

Singapore’s fiction and creative nonfiction publishing houses will be showcasing their titles and will make the publisher and/or an editorial representative available to answer questions from writers and designers.

Read ASEAN: A comparison of consumer book-buying habits and trends within ASEAN

1.30pm – 2.30pm

How do book-buying habits compare across different markets in the region? Do readers in ASEAN consume books in native languages or foreign publications? Do inter-ASEAN translations play an important role?

Lost in Translation: the process of literary translation

2.30pm – 3.30pm

What genres work well for translation? Where are the literary translators? How do publishers and authors control the quality of literary translations?

3.30pm – 4pm Tea Break

Selling our Heritage: the business of publishing and selling literary translations

4.00pm – 5.00pm

How do authors and publishers market and sell translation rights? Many smaller non-English-speaking European countries have national funds available to foreign publishers to translate their works, should this be encouraged in Singapore? How do we market literary translations within ASEAN?

Marysia Juszczaklewicz, Creative Work Limited (Hong Kong)
Peter Schoppert, McKinsey (S’pore)
Erik Hartmann, Google (S’pore)
Marianne Bohr, Senior VP, National Book Network (USA)
Peter Gordon, Paddyfield.com and The Asian Review of Books (HK)
Grant S. Clark, author (S’pore)
Triena Ong, President, Singapore Book Publishers Association (S’pore)
Lee Jin Pyn, author (S’pore)
Chua Hong Koon, Armour Publishing (S’pore)
Paul Wee, CLASS (S’pore)
Kelvin Lee, Diretor, Samuel Seow Law Corporation (S’pore)
Kirpal Singh, A/P Literature SMU (S’pore)
Shirley Hew, Exec Director, Straits Times Press (S’pore)
Kevin Tan, biographer (S’pore)
Ann Blainey, award-winning biographer (Australia)
Shamini Flint, author (S’pore)
Emily Lim, author (S’pore)
Adeline Foo, author (S’pore)
Richard Lord, author and editor (USA now S’pore)
Edda de Silva, biography educator (Malaysia)
Vasin Permsup, VP, PUBAT (Thailand)
Goh Eck Kheng, Publisher, Landmark (S’pore)
Cyril Wong, author (S’pore)
Rasiah Halil, author (S’pore)
Mabel Lee, translator and publisher (Australia)
Helena Hong Gao, Asst Prof, NTU (S’pore)

5 comments:

Alice said...

Hi Sharon, I'd love to join you but unfortunately I couldn't take leave off work. I was at the Arts House last month for the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition.

I can't wait to read about it from your blog when you attend it!

Ellen Whyte said...

I'd like to sign up for the second day. Will email you.

Tunku Halim said...

Sharon - I may go! How do you get hold of tickets?

bibliobibuli said...

it would be so nice to have you there! you need to book via the swf website. the ticketing info is here.

Borneo Expat Writer said...

End of the semester, final exams. Teaching keeps getting in the way of good events -- finding it weary. My work load had doubled in the last two years all because we had to cut our teaching hours from four to two to Unimas, and too make up the hours, we have to teach twice as many classes. It's not the hours teaching, its the number of papers to mark, and come end of the semester -- burnout! This semester, I got 186 students.

This too shall pass...My three-year contract ends on April Fool's Day, and I'm rewriting a novel title A Season For Fools. There's a connection here, and I'm doing what I can to connect those dots...

On the plus side, I do have a new book hitting the bookstores this week, Tropical Affairs: Episodes of Expat's Life in Malaysia, a collection of creative nonfiction.
So to all those who are writing and launching books, keep focusing on your goals, and don't let obstacles like marking papers get too much in the way.

Speaking of which, I need to do another batch and then move on to more of my own stuff. Thanks for the break, Sharon!