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Travels with Tyler – London Book Fair 2017

Conferences

“Composition is not a commodity; it’s something that matters, both to the author and the reader.”

I have just returned from the London Book Fair, where I enjoyed having the opportunity to meet with Westchester Publishing Services’ current and prospective publishing partners to learn more about their editorial and production needs, and share the ways Westchester can help simplify their processes.

According to veteran attendees, the London Book Fair this year seemed more active than usual. Publishers Weekly did a thorough job covering many of the hot topics being discussed at the conference, with articles covering subjects as diverse as publishing in times of political uncertainty, to growth in the industry. In addition, The Bookseller considered the impact of the Fair’s return to the Olympia London for the first time in over a decade.

Having a prime location next to the LBF Faculty sessions on scholarly publishing ensured the Westchester stand received a steady stream of traffic, including from prospects who may have heard from Westchester in the past, and were now able to meet with us in person. We enjoyed talking to everyone who visited our booth, whether they had a scheduled appointment or happened to drop by. We socialized online as well, posting regularly to Twitter, encouraging #LBF17 attendees to stop by and meet our new mascot, Wes T. Chester. (See photo, below.) Don’t fret if you weren’t in London though, Wes is a jet-setter and will attend BEA in New York City at the end of May!

I visit the U.K whenever I can, for work and some cultural travel as well. When I pass through Heathrow to fly home, if I have a few pounds left in my pockets I make it a point to stop by W.H. Smith’s and invest in a paperback or two to enjoy on my flight. Westchester typesets books for publishers in both the U.S. and U.K., but growing up in the States I always enjoy the slightly different tactile feel and format of a British book. One of the books I happened to pick up on this trip was one I’ve read many times, but given away all my copies of over the years – The Fellowship of The Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien. It was fortuitous I chose this title, as the 2004 HarperCollins U.K. paperback edition contains an opening essay by Douglas A. Anderson about the evolution of Tolkien’s work from edition to edition. Anderson writes a compelling account about the history of events which occurred, from Tolkien’s manuscript initially being mishandled by its initial typesetter, to the variations that sprang up from U.S. and U.K. versions of the book over the years, with words being changed, entire sections being dropped, and other typesetting errors which naturally irritated Tolkien. In between writing his subsequent works, Tolkien spent a great deal of time annotating pages in existing editions for his publishers to incorporate into reprints. Reading of Tolkien’s struggles with this title after talking with publishers all week at the London Book Fair about the quality of Westchester’s work, brought into sharp focus something I’ve been saying for years:

“Composition is not a commodity; it’s something that matters, both to the author and the reader.”

I’m proud of the work that Westchester does to help Macmillan, W.W. Norton, Bloomsbury, ABC-CLIO, Springer Publishing, Harvard University Press, and dozens of other publishers present their content in a high quality and accurate way to their readers. Call me today at 203-658-6581, or email me at tyler.carey@westchesterpubsvcs.com to learn how Westchester Publishing Services can help improve your publications program.

Learn more about Westchester Publishing Services here.

By Guest Blogger Nicole Tomassi

…From the faraway town of Danbury, Connecticut, Westchester Publishing Services will attend London Book Fair, taking place March 14-16 across the pond at the Olympia Exhibition Centre.

The London Book Fair has been around nearly as long as Westchester Publishing Services, arriving on the scene when we were still in short pants.  Similar to Westchester’s trajectory, London Book Fair has grown each year in size and importance, attracting the interest of publishers large and small across the globe.  We are excited to have the ability to meet with publishers who come from around the world to attend so we can showcase the editorial and composition services we provide to accommodate their publication programs.

If you’re attending London Book Fair, we will be at Booth 7K38, so click here to make an appointment to meet with our resident Anglophile and Director of Business Development, Tyler Carey to learn more about why many of the world’s most recognized publishers have Westchester Publishing Services as their editorial and composition provider of choice. And pssst, Tyler’s a pretty decent gent so if you play your cards right, he might give you a tip on which rugby team he’s rooting for!

If you’re remaining state-side (I understand, I wasn’t able to finagle a ticket myself), be sure to follow along with us on Twitter where updates will be regularly posted throughout each day of the show.

Cheerio!

By Guest Blogger Tim Cross

I just returned from the PSP Conference in Washington, DC a couple of days ago. As someone who is continuously curious about the issues facing my colleagues and friends, I found it a good learning experience. Here are some of the highlights and takeaways from the conference.

“Is There Life After Journals?”- This was a provocative keynote topic which stimulated good discussion. The consensus was that journals will continue to be central to scholarly communication and the research lifecycle, as they serve communities while providing necessary content filtering and validity through peer review and journal brand.

“Scholarly Collaboration Networks” – Starting with the premise, that sharing is not new or radical – it’s been at the heart of scientific research for 400 years – the idea was posited that it’s in the interest of publishers to find ways to work with the SCN movement as it moves from a broad set of principles to technical “nuts and bolts.” But some publishers in the audience wondered how  the community can embrace the spirit of this without threatening the very means by which we review, edit, and produce the content to be shared.

“Lessons from Subscriptions Trends” – One opinion on the panel was that hybrid Open Access (OA) journals are not the right choice for publishers and Gold OA is not a permanent solution. In answer to an audience question about how many subscription journals have actually flipped to OA, the idea of the “Goldilocks zone” was explained. A good candidate in the zone for flipping is a journal with:

  • High Impact Factor
  • Low or stagnant revenue
  • Lots of submissions

“Dueling Data Repositories” – Data sharing is needed to promote reproducibility and advance research by building on or analyzing existing data. What are the current issues?

  • Managing research output
  • Preparing to share
  • Meeting expectations for funders, institutions, and publishers
  • Submitting to repositories
    • Mandate alignment
    • Domain appropriateness
    • Capacity and functionality
    • Stability and permanence
  • Tracking

“Pirated Content – Why do they go there?” – Who are “they” is a topic in itself. This session was an exploration of why researchers use illegal sites and what the impact of this could be on scholarly research. It’s not just disadvantaged researchers in underfunded regions who have difficulty getting access to content, but also researchers who are frustrated with the inefficiencies of accessing content at their own institutions. There was also an interesting discussion on the moral challenge of digital piracy:

  • Conflicting worldviews
  • Making knowledge more accessible is a global good
  • We have to balance human rights with intellectual property rights

The conference was a great opportunity to see my colleagues and customers, and I hope to see you at an upcoming conference. Please visit the Westchester conference calendar blog post, and contact us if you would like to schedule time to talk at a conference or via phone.