As our industry becomes increasingly hybrid – ever more digital, yet still significantly paper-based – the necessity to innovate is a growing problem for publishers. With revenues squeezed by falling prices and decreasing margins, innovation becomes more vital than ever: if we are to survive, publishers need to find new methods of working, new types of product, and new ways of reaching our audiences. Read more »

One of the advantages of switching from general trade publishing to SMT is that I get to see a whole new side of the publishing world. One of the areas that has caught my specific interest is students. This is, I feel, one of the more interesting groups for publishers to target: they are young, tech savvy, not rich yet and very engaged online. Read more »

If the headline writers are to be believed then we are an industry on our last legs, struggling against an inevitable demise but that isn’t what I see – I see the buds of innovation and creativity starting to bloom and I for one can’t wait to discover and help shape what they grow into. Read more »

We’re pleased to announce our second annual Innovation Workshop with The Bookseller. Read more »

 This month has seen the launch of an app which is entrpreneural in nature and innovative in concept. Read more »

Companies like Apple have been dazzling users with fresh innovations for years.  Publishers have enjoyed riding their coattails into the App-mosphere for some time as well.  But what we haven’t been as clever at is emulating their ability to innovate ourselves, particularly in the field of Education Publishing. Read more »

We have had an amazing number of entries to our innovation awards - 218 in total. The most entries were in the best app category with 76. We decided to break this category into the 3 sub-categories of children's, adult and reference/non-trade. Delighted to announce the shortlists across all categories are:

Best adult app shortlist

Top 100 Albums, Amber Books

The Para Fitness Guide, Osprey Publishing

The Power of Six Booktrack Edition, Booktrack Read more »

These are the things I remember from #fiw11:

Ken Follet's book, Fall of Giants, has been given a 3D audio soundtrack. This is clever because sound is a sense input into the brain and reading is cognitive, so the brain can do both and not explode. Also, it works.

And... Read more »

This video gives a great round-up of our November FutureBook conference. The conference showed how well collaborations can work between developers, authors and publishers.

Today, we have launched our Innovation Workshop in collaboration with The Literary Platform, which looks at this from a different angle. The workshop will explore innovation across the book trade and showcase developers. This workshop is aimed at those who understand what we try today may very quickly be adopted. Read more »

I am excited to announce that entry is now open for FutureBook's 'digital innovation' awards. The first of their kind to recognise how the trade is embracing the future with new products, new ways of working, and new strategies. It is a very exciting time in the industry. Read more »