The BEA Road Show

I am heading out on a trip to meet with a group of German publishers in Munich followed by a stop in Paris to do the same with a group of French publishers.  I am extremely grateful to several organizations for their help in putting this opportunity together.  The biggest thanks go out to the AAP & BISG for allowing me to use data from the recent BookStats report that was completed in November.  It is chock full of market data and intelligence that has not been available before they collaborated on this project.  It is critical in providing real market data in the US that has never been available to this extent - at least in accuracy and in scope.  Without the BookStat data I would not have had compelling information that would have been worth the time to present to these key European publishers.  An equal thanks goes to buchreport, the German trade magazine for helping promote and organize this meeting.  The same for Hebdo Livres, the French trade pub for their enthusiastic support.


While this trip sounds exciting - going to Munich and Paris, I leave on an overnight flight tonight and will spend about 24 hours in each destination.  I wish I had the luxury to extend my stay, but that is not in the cards.


The purpose is to share key market data and trends from the US publishing market.  BEA's goal is to build stronger and more direct relationships with publishers in these 2 key European publishing markets while highlighting the opportunities that are available in the US for international publishers.  The US is years ahead in e-book adoption, transition and integration as part of the publishing ecosystem, especially in comparison to any other developed publishing markets.  There are critical learning to be had from the information BEA will be presenting with the hopes of delivering a genuine value for those taking time to meet with the BEA team.  Thanks also goes out to Dr. Ruediger Wischenbart, BEA's Director of International Affairs.  He had the vision to put this program together that will benefit all the participants in some way and that is the ultimate goal, delivering value for your partners.  I look forward to posting some jet lagged thoughts along the way.