SABA

Oxford University Press, a leading educational publisher, has a vacancy for a Provincial Manager in Kwazulu-Natal. Reporting to the National Sales Manager, the successful candidate will be responsible for planning and managing sales campaigns for the educational market, manage a team of sales consultants, and building relationships at all levels to drive sales growth.

The ideal candidate will meet the following essential criteria:

• A relevant degree and/or sales and marketing management qualification
• A proven track record in managing and growing sales

• Thorough understanding of the South African education market and schools curriculum
• Extensive field sales experience
• Excellent verbal and written communication and language skills
• Excellent interpersonal and people management skills
• Exceptional presentation and relationship-building skills
• The ability to analyze and problem-solve
• Computer literacy in MS Word, PowerPoint and Excel
• Own vehicle and code 08 driver’s license
• Willingness to travel regularly across Southern Africa

In-depth knowledge of the book trade would be advantageous.

Salary will be commensurate with experience and we offer participation in pension and medical aid schemes, a travel allowance and 20 working days’ leave.

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Please apply by sending a CV to Tracy McOwen, email tracy.mcowen@oup.com or fax (021) 596-1226. The closing date for applications is 5 February 2010.

Oxford is an equal opportunity employer

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted and we reserve the right not to fill the vacancy at this time.

Maps & Travel, an innovative travel concept store boasting a large selection of travel publications, maps and accessories, is poised to open its doors on 15 February 2010 in Cape Town with a 170m2 store at the Gardens Shopping Centre.

“The concept behind the store is to enhance the travel experience by offering excellent destination information, travel tips and maps for every holiday destination worldwide. We’ve taken great care to ensure that not only the popular destinations are featured, but also those seen to be ‘off the beaten track’”, says Kathy Munro, Maps & Travel store manager.

For companies, Maps & Travel will not only house a large variety of wall maps but will also have a specialist custom mapping division with facilities to tailor maps to specific needs, be it a customized map depicting a specific sales region or a wall map indicating a company’s office locations worldwide.

Commenting on stock variety and availability, store manager Kathy Munro said: “Our philosophy is to assist with whatever request we receive. If we don’t have it, we’ll do everything in our power to source it.”

Visit this exciting new store from 15 February at Shop no. 13, First Floor, Gardens Shopping Centre.

Have you ever thought about selling your rights to the Arab World? Would you like to get information about potential business partners from that part of the world? Or would you just like to know more about the market in the Arab World – and all of that for FREE?

If so, then here is the perfect and once off opportunity: The Cape Town Book Fair will organise a South African collective stand at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, the largest Book Fair in the Middle East and Northern Africa, due to take place 2 – 7 March 2010.

The Abu Dhabi International Book Fair is organised by KITAB, a joint venture company between the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage and the Frankfurt Book Fair. With 637 exhibitors from 52 countries, ADIBF 2009 staged a growth of 32 % in exhibitors and 100 % in visitors (200 000). All important Arab publishers take stands at this book fair which is a public fair with a strong trade element. On the trade day and during the lunch break, seminars, matchmaking sessions etc. are organised, and all exhibitors and trade visitors have free access to those events. The ADIBF offers the programme “Spotlight on Rights” by which every exhibitor who buys rights from an Arab publishing house can apply for a subsidy of up to 1000 USD for the deal – Arab exhibitors who buy rights from foreign publishers or other Arab publishers can apply for the subsidy as well. This year, the ADIBF is preceded by the IPA International Copyright Symposium which takes place every four years and is a major international and well attended event.

Together with ADIBF the Cape Town Book Fair is happy to offer all South African publishers the opportunity to be part of the SA collective stand at ADIBF 2010.

You can send up to five titles (each in 2 copies please) to the Cape Town Book Fair offices, and register these titles online in our database. This database is then communicated to all exhibitors of ADIBF and visitors of ADIBF, and we will make sure that more interest is generated.

This is a very unique opportunity and we would like to help you to promote books from South Africa to the Arab World. You might be aware that Dubai and Abu Dhabi can call a reasonable South African population their own.

What you need to do:

• Please send 5 titles (2 copies of each title) to the Cape Town Book Fair offices.
• Deadline is 4 February 2010.
• You will then be requested to enter your titles into the data abase that will be promoted to libraries, institutional buyers etc. As a tip, most wanted categories in the Arab World are the following: Children’s Books, business books, health and self help, biographies, political science, media and journalism as well as award winning fiction.
• Books will be shipped to Abu Dhabi in one bulk. The only thing we will have to charge you for is the transportation fees from Cape Town to Abu Dhabi – and you will receive a detailed invoice for that.

Sadika Ahmed and Claudia Kaiser will be presenting your books to the Arab publishers – but of course to all other publishers as well. As a very outstanding exception to the rule, the representatives of South Africa will be able to apply for the spotlight on rights subsidy, but of course only after having discussed this with you.

Please contact the CTBF offices should you wish to participate in this exceptional programme.

The recent merger of South Africa’s two most prominent book publishers, Random House and Struik Publishers, resulted in the formation of Random House Struik. The newly formed company is the largest general trade publisher in Southern Africa, and is now leading the way with creative writing education.

Random House Struik has partnered with Getsmarter, a specialist internet-based training company, to present the part-time Random House Struik Short Course in Creative writing. As the course is offered via the Internet, both local and international students will be accepted on the course.

The Random House Struik Short Course in Creative writing is a 10-week part-time course presented internationally in an internet-based distance learning format. The course is ideal for anyone who has dreamt of writing a novel or a short story as well as accomplished writers, fiction or non-fiction, who wish to bring more flair and drama to their work. The course is compiled and convened by American professional literary agent, editor and author Ron Irwin. See Ron’s top 5 tips below on how to start and finish your novel:

1. Grab the Reader, Right From the Start.

Understand that most editors make the decision to buy or reject a manuscript after reading only the first few pages, and often just the first few paragraphs. You have one page to really hook the reader therefore start with a bang. Begin your story with a situation that is designed to excite the reader’s natural curiosity and make her want to read more.

2. Develop Main Characters Who Are Absolutely Fascinating…and Imperfect.

Readers will not tolerate bland main characters. We meet boring people every day. Make your characters breathe by giving them traits we can all identify with. But be sure to give them strange habits and make them less than perfect. Give them hang-ups, phobias and issues. Sherlock Holmes does drugs, James Bond drinks too much and the average Jane Austen heroine is less than statuesque. Readers love flawed characters, don’t you?

3. Give Them Problems They Must Solve: What drives a novel? A great character solving a great problem. Before you start writing, ask yourself what your character really wants. What is she willing to sacrifice?

4. Don’t Give The People What they Want: Do not cave in and make things easy for the character or the reader. If your main character badly wants Mr. Right, make him come from a family that hates her family (think Romeo and Juliet) or impossibly rich and in love with the character’s sister (think Jane Austen). If a shark attacks a sleepy community, make it really hard to kill (think Jaws). Readers like to see characters they admire get the things they hope for after a long, bitter struggle and they read on until this happens….on the last page.

5. End the Novel…Right at the Beginning. Start ending your novel right from page one. Your novel should build to the ending from page one, not in the last few paragraphs.

Getsmarter’s advanced and user-friendly learning model provides students with a personal and professional educational experience. Students work through the course material together mirroring a typical face-to-face classroom environment online and receive continuous academic and administrative assistance throughout the duration of the course. Each of the 10 modules includes course notes; discussion forums where students interact with one another; an interactive “test your knowledge” quiz as well as video lectures to make the course material engaging. The course module titles include planning the story; the importance of beginnings; characters and characterization; plot vs. story; dialogue; point of view; conflict; and tying it all up.

In addition to the core coursework, students become part of a network of writers. This means that as the course progresses, students not only make friends with fellow writers; share creative writing pieces, contacts and ideas, but are also given the opportunity to review each others work and receive rich personal feedback on their work.

A further benefit of this course is that Random House Struik have committed to read and consider the top manuscripts from the course.

The course starts on the 8^th of February 2010. Please contact Karin on 021 685 - 4775 or karin@getsmarter.co.za for more information. Alternatively, see www.getsmarter.co.za

Since 2004 statistical information on the South African book industry has been collected in a consistent and reliable way, allowing comprehensive and credible analyses of the industry. These analyses provide innovative tools for the tracking, monitoring and measuring of changes at the different stages of the book industry value chain.

The Publishers’ Association of South Africa (PASA) commissioned a book publishing industry survey for the 2008 calendar year. The survey included all local book suppliers, whether they were publishers or distributors of book products, as well as overseas publishers and distributors competing in the South African book market through locally based marketing and sales offices.

The South African Booksellers’ Association (SABA) also commissioned a book retail survey for the calendar years 2008. Book retailers reported on turnovers according to a number of customer categories, the number of sales outlets per province, the purchase of books and book-related products from various sources including those purchased directly from overseas suppliers.

Identical product and industry sub-sector definitions were used in both supplier and the retailer surveys, and the average trade discounts granted by suppliers to retailers according to sales outlet category enabled the results of the two industry surveys to be applied across both industry sectors.

The two surveys have been reconciled by independent research analyst Willem Struik Click the link below for the full report.

reconciling-pasa-and-saba-reports-2008

JOB TITLE : Marketing Co-ordinator

DEPARTMENT : International

COUNTRY : South Africa

MINIMUM SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED
• Good presentation / public speaking skills
• Marketing diploma will be an advantage
• Ability to speak at least one African language fluently
• Project management experience
• Design experience will be an advantage
• Excellent writing skills

BEHAVIORAL DIMENSIONS REQUIRED

• Outgoing personality
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Excellent time management skills
• Excellent organizational skills
• Interest in books
• Interest in travelling in Southern Africa

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF KEY RESPONSIBIBILITIES

• Marketing International Product in Southern Africa
• Producing Marketing material for Southern Africa
• Managing sample and review copy distribution
• Responsible for submissions in South Africa and BLSM

CONTACT PERSON : Ina Calitz
E-MAIL ADDRESS : recruitment@macmillan.co.za
DATE CIRCULATED : 04 January 2010
CLOSING DATE : 15 January 2010
SALARY: :

4 January 2010

Oxford University Press SA seeks the services of a Personal Assistant and Archiver, based in the Cape Town office and to start in February 2010.

Reporting to the Creative Services Director and Schools Marketing Manager, the main purpose of this post is to provide support to the director, be the gatekeeper of company intellectural property and assist the manager with smooth functioning of the Sales & Marketing department.

Key responsibilities include:
- Secretarial services including call screening, diary, typing and travel
- Minute-taking, general administration, filing and maintenance of information
- Management and archiving of intellectual property
- Assistance to other departments in accessing and retrieving intellectual property
- Administrative liaison with internal and external contacts

Minimum requirements to apply:
- Previous reception and administrative/secretarial experience
- Excellent administrative and planning skills
- Excellent English written and verbal communication skills
- Attention to detail
- Good typing skills
- Computer literacy in MS Word, MS Outlook and SAP (preferable)
- Code 08 driver’s license

Knowledge of working on Macintosh computers will be an advantage.
If you possess enthusiasm, initiative, diplomacy and good organisational skills, and meet the minimum requirements above, we would like to hear from you!

We offer a competitive salary commensurate with experience, participation in pension and medical aid schemes, and 20 working days’ leave a year.
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To apply, please send your CV to willow.burmeister@oup.com. The closing date for applications is 20 January 2010.
We reserve the right not to fill this post at this time. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Position : Product Manager (Pan Macmillan South Africa)
Reporting to : Managing Director/ Sales and Marketing Manager
Location : Johannesburg

Key Responsibilities:
• Product Management for key agencies including:
o Sales and marketing strategy formulation
o Financial management including setting and achievement of budgets and margins
o Stock management
o Key account management
o Liaison with suppliers both local and international
o General administration
o Management of PR agencies
o Monthly and quarterly reports
o Special sales

Requirements:
• Appropriate experience either in the publishing industry or in a sales environment
• An ability to multitask and manage a wide variety of simultaneous processes and deadlines to achieve budgets
• Good communication and presentation skills
• An eye for detail and strong organising skills
• An eye for opportunities
• Financial acumen and understanding of stock control
• Strong interpersonal skills
• Good computer skills including MS Word, Excel and Powerpoint
• Good English skills
• Relevant Tertiary Education

Please send your application together with a CV to Ina Calitz - recruitment@macmillan.co.za
The deadline for applications is 20/01/2010. Only short-listed candidates will be interviewed. Please note that if you have not heard from us by 25/01/2010 you should regard your application as unsuccessful.

The company offers a competitive salary, as well as membership to the Medical Aid and a Pension Fund. Given our employment equity guidelines, preference will be given to suitable candidates from the designated groups.

Book retail industry survey report 2008 was released in August this year. The research was funded by the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) through the South African Book Development Council (SABDC) and by the South African Booksellers Association (SABA). Please click below to download a PDF copy of this enlightening document.

Book Retail Industry Report 2008

The Cape Town Book Fair is already gearing up for 2010. Calls for registration have gone out and the deadline for early registration is on the 31 Dec. All early birds will receive a discount of 2.5%. According to www.capetownbookfair.com there will be a strong trade element to the Fair in 2010. On offer will be a whole day dedicated to trade alone. There will be a new book titles list ‘for exhibitors to promote their exhibits well before the fair, more of Africa and more of the world in Cape Town.’
The fair will run from the 30 July to the 2 August 2010 at the CTICC. SABA looks forward to seeing you there!