SABA

On Tuesday, 9 March the Book Lounge are hosting the launch of activist Nathan Geffen’s long-awaited account of the TAC, Debunking Delusions: The Inside Story of the Treatment Action Campaign. Few people are better placed to tell this story than Nathan, and he will be joined on the night by Radio ZIbonele presenter Andile Madondile, who features prominently in the book. They will be interviewed by Cape Times editor, Alide Dasnois.
Date & Time: Tuesday, 9 March, at 5:30 for 6:00pm

The following night, on Wednesday, 10 March, the nomadic Breyten Breytenbach will be stopping off to launch his latest collection of essays and reflections, Notes from the Middle World, which has already caused a splash in the literary world, and beyond. Breyten will be in conversation with poet Rustum Kozain.
Date & Time: Wednesday, 10 March, at 5:30 for 6:00pm.

On Thursday, 11 March The Book Lounge (71 Roeland Street) is hosting the launch of Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism. Both authors - Lucien van der Walt and Michael Schmidt - will discuss the book, and they will be joined by Mandisi Majavu of the Africa Project for a Participatory Society and Znet.
Venue: The Book Lounge, 71 Roeland Street, Cape Town
Date & Time: Thursday, 11 March, at 5:30 for 6:00pm

At the same time, also on Thursday, 11 March, Lobby Books at Idasa are launching their shop with the launch of Idasa’s Democracy Index, edited by Neeta Misra-Dexter and Judith February. The speakers for the evening are Professor Njabulo Ndebele and Richard Calland.
Please Note: For this events, please send RSVP’s to Tanya Shanker at tshanker@idasa.org.za
Venue: Lobby Books at Idasa, 6 Spin Street, Cape Town
Date & Time: Thursday, 11 March, at 5:30 for 6:00pm

On Friday, 12 March, well-known academic and writer Ashraf Jamal from Grahamstown will talk about - and read from - his fantastic collection of short stories, Shades.
Date & Time: Friday, 12 March, at 5:30 for 6:00pm

Please remember to RSVP to either booklounge@gmail.com, or to 021 462 2425, should you be planning to attend any of the events at The Book Lounge.

Andrew Brown has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2009 for Best Book in the Africa region for his book, Refuge

“I am absolutely thrilled that Refuge has been short-listed for the Africa region of the Commonwealth fiction awards and I am humbled and honoured to be associated with the names of all the previously short-listed writers. My writing is ultimately motivated by the invigoration I feel at living in this extraordinary continent – so to be included amongst the writers that Africa has produced, and continues to produce, is recognition beyond my most imaginative dreams.

The Commonwealth awards are aimed at promoting fiction that might otherwise not reach a wider audience, thereby increasing an appreciation of different cultures. Refuge is an attempt to address the seemingly ever-widening gap between locals and ‘foreigners’ within South Africa, and the concerning lack for appreciation that we display for the culture of others. It is my hope that the book will in some small way cause those who read it to reconsider their attitude towards the displaced and desperate bodies that inhabit the stairwells and alleyways around them” says Andrew Brown.

Marlene Fryer, Publisher of Zebra Press, says “We are thrilled about Andrew’s shortlisting. He is one of South Africa’s most exciting novelists, and this recognition is well deserved.”

Refuge will now go through to the next phase of the competition, where the Africa regional judging panel will meet to decide the two regional Commonwealth winners for Best Book and Best First Book. The regional winners will be announced at an event on 11 March in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Andrew Brown won the Sunday Times 2006 Fiction Prize for Coldsleep Lullaby and was shortlisted for the 2009 Alan Paton Award for Street Blues

The PASA Directory 2010 is now available to order from On The Dot on SOR

The 2010 PASA Directory offers Authors, Book Sellers, Publishers and those in related industries more information than ever before. Like the previous edition the 2010 Directory remains in its existing user friendly format.

The 2010 PASA Directory remains an invaluable source of information about PASA and aspects of publishing in South Africa. It is the must-have source of information for anyone needing information about the publishing industry in South Africa.

Once again the contents have been expanded and contain the most up-to-date information of relevance to publishers, booksellers, librarians, authors, education departments and suppliers. An invaluable tool to obtain information about:

* The publishing industry
* Copyright Guidelines
* Buying & selling rights
* How to get published
* Freelancer Contracts
* Publishers Contact
* Consultants
* Distributors
* International book fairs & conferences

Centre for the Book, the National Library of South Africa’s outreach unit, has a mandate to promote South African culture of reading, writing and publishing in all local languages as well as easy access to books for all South Africans.

Centre for the Book is hosting a two-day intense South African Writers’ Symposium to be held in Cape Town at Centre for the Book’s Main Hall on 4 – 5 March 2010.

You are cordially invited to attend this symposium.

Delegates are requested to make own accommodation and travelling arrangements as the symposium organisers cannot provide any assistance to that effect.

Kindly confirm your attendance to Ms Bukelwa Baba at 021 4232669, email is:
bukelwa.baba@nlsa.ac.za

An international online publishing magazine, Publishing Perspectives delivers daily stories about the industry from top members of the global publishing community, a look at the innovators and issues who are shaping the future of the business, as well as news and links from around the Web and the world. Each day of the week is devoted to a particular area of editorial focus, providing in-depth personal stories relevant to an international audience.

Editorial Calendar for February 15-19

Monday, February 15 – English Speaking
Author Nick Flynn isn’t your typical Facebook user. The author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City and The Ticking is the Bomb covers notoriously difficult subjects, ranging from his father’s homelessness to the torture at Abu Ghraib. He seems an unlikely candidate to harness the power of social networking to help sell his books, but here he explains how he found an unlikely ally in Facebook.

Tuesday, February 16 — Growth Markets
Lewis Manalo, buyer for Idlewild Bookstore in New York City, writes about the billion copy bestselling author that you’ve never heard of, a writer whose works are only available to readers in the West via a few pirated-English language editions, and yet remains one of the popular writers on the planet.
Wednesday, February 17 - Europe
Publishing Perspectives talks to the organizers of this year’s Bologna Children’s Book Fair about current trends in kids books and the outlook for this year’s event. Will young adult books continue to reign supreme? And what impact is digital publishing having on the business of children’s books? These are among the questions we discuss in our wide-ranging interview.

Thursday, February 18 – Digital
A week before the O’Reilly Tools of Change conference opens in New York City, we look at one of the topics that not on the agenda — nor, apparently, on anyone’s agenda: the secondary market for e-books, “used” e-books if you will. Publishers don’t want one…retailers don’t want one…authors don’t want one….but readers would surely welcome it. Is such a market even a possibility? We explore.

Friday, February 19 — Editorial
Dutch author Arthur Japin writes about the personal journey in writing his latest novel Director’s Cut, a look at the life and loves of La Dolce Vita director Federico Fellini. Japin reveals his emotional struggle to coming to grips with the man who was an abusive lover of Japin’s long-time best-friend — and talks about how to transform that into narrative.

The Publishing Perspectives daily news blog reports international publishing news as it happens each day. Check that out and subscribe to the daily email edition at www.publishingperspectives.com.

For interviews or any other information about Publishing Perspectives, please contact:
Erin L. Cox
Publishing Perspectives
+1 (347) 581-0211
erin@publishingperspectives.com

Publishing Perspectives is a product of The German Book Office of New York, Inc. The German Book Office New York, Inc. is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to promote German literature abroad and to pursue international projects related to the publishing industry.

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 qualificationA 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.
Please apply by sending a CV to Tracy McOwen, email tracy.mcowen@oup.com or fax (021) 596-1226. he 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. 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.
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 8th of February
Please contact Karin on 021 6854775 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