Former Blue Peter presenter and children’s author Konnie Huq led a delegation to 11 Downing Street today to hand-in a letter signed by 90 MPs calling for VAT on digital books to be scrapped, alongside representatives from leading literacy and accessibility charities. This comes as children’s laureate Cressida Cowell pledges her support for the campaign.…
The first ever cohort of Publishing Assistant apprentices have started their year-long programme of work and training this week. All under the age of 25 and from diverse backgrounds, the apprentices will be working for some of the biggest publishers in the country. LDN Apprenticeships are delighted to be delivering the first ever Publishing Assistant…
The Publishers Association has today released its five key industry priorities, following the announcement that a General Election will be held on 12th December. The UK Publishing Manifesto has been shared with all political parties ahead of the election and outlines what UK publishing needs from a new government to ensure the industry’s continued success. …
Submissions for the 2019 Parliamentary Book Awards are now closed. Publishers are invited to nominate books and authors for this year’s awards under the following categories: Best Memoir or Biography by a Parliamentarian Best Non-Biographical Book by a Parliamentarian Best Political Book by a non-Parliamentarian Booksellers will then be invited to select a shortlist in…
An urgent programme of work to support the publishing industry with the core legal and logistical challenges of a No Deal Brexit has been convened by the Publishers Association, with a free industry-wide event being held on Thursday 10th October at the Barbican Centre in London. The Brexit Forum for Publishers will focus on three core…
Dan Conway is Director of External Affairs at the Publishers Association. Today, the Publishers Association is marking the publication of Quality Control: Reading, publishing and the modern attention economy, a report by cross-party think-tank Demos. We supported Demos in its work looking at how the digital reading and content environments impact readers of the future.…
Claire Culliford was interested in going to China, but as an author, it didn’t make sense for her to exhibit. She contacted our international book fairs manager Gloria Bailey and, with Gloria’s help, was able to travel to Shanghai Children’s Book Fair. Gloria helped her secure funding for travel from the Department of International Trade’s Export…
Demos report Quality Control finds that the majority of UK adults (59%) believe social media content should be edited by moderators (based on a nationally representative poll of 2,000 adults in the UK). The public thinks moderation would most help combat disinformation or ‘fake news’ (48%), followed by self-harm or suicide (41%) and terrorism (35%).…
From crime to cookery, politics to picture books, there’s something for everyone. The Publishers Association are delighted to present its 2019 Summer Recess Reading List for Parliamentarians. All the following titles have been nominated by a selection of our members, including big and small publishing houses across the country, as their recommended reading for the…
Supadu builds websites and online shops for publishers of all sizes, worldwide. They work with university presses, trade publishers, academic and educational publishers. Supadu is offering Publishers Association members an offer of a £500 gift voucher which can be used against any of their products or services. Our first question – can you tell us…
UK publishing industry income was £6bn in 2018, with digital growth in some areas offsetting print decreases in others, according to new figures released today by the Publishers Association. Overall, there was a 3% increase in digital sales income (to £2.6bn) and a 5% drop in physical sales (to £3.4bn). Global exports remain crucial to…
Illustrator and author Nicola Kent has been awarded the inaugural Independent Booksellers’ Best New Illustrator Award, which celebrates new talent in children’s illustration, as voted for by independent booksellers across the country. As part of her prize, Nicola has designed the cover for The Best New Kids Books 2019, an annual supplement published in The…
The Publishing Assistant apprenticeship standard, the first of its kind to cater specifically to the publishing industry, is now available to employers. Confirmed publishers who will be taking on Publishing Assistant apprentices in the first cohort, starting in September 2019, include: Bloomsbury, Cambridge University Press, DK, Pearson, Penguin Random House and Springer Nature. The training…
Convenience is key for audiobook listeners as the format becomes a ready alternative to print, according to Kantar. The survey by Kantar, commissioned by the PA, has investigated the reading habits of UK book buyers. These findings have been released for Love Audio Week, the third annual celebration of audiobooks, which takes place from 10th…
Founded in 1949, the Society of Young Publishers is a volunteer-run organisation that supports junior and aspiring publishing professionals across the UK and Ireland. We caught up with them for a quick chat. Let’s start with an easy one – what exactly is the Society of Young Publishers? The SYP is a volunteer-run organisation that…
We travelled to Manchester with the bks agency for a full day conference on how to get a job in publishing with the Northern Fiction Alliance. The packed programme included special guest speakers from across publishing who offer their top tip for publishing job-seekers in this short video.
Wednesday 22nd May 2019. An interview with Peter Phillips, President of the Publishers Association and Chief Executive of Cambridge University Press. What do you hope to achieve as President? In talking to a wide range of publishers about the Publishers Association before I took up my post, three priorities emerged consistently. People wanted us to…
This week is Mental Health Awareness Week. According to the Mental Health Foundation, 1 in 7 people experiences mental health problems in the workplace with women twice as likely to suffer from mental health problems as men (20% vs 11%). In the publishing industry, mental illness is the most common form of disability or impairment…