China, Indonesia, Mexico, Turkey: these and three other relevant book and media markets are the focus of THE MARKETS – Global Publishing Summit, the new conference to kick off the Frankfurt Book Fair (14-18 October 2015).
As part of the one-day conference, to be held the day before the fair officially opens, industry experts from these regions will provide exclusive insights into their respective markets and valuable first-hand knowledge.
Each of the seven markets will be presented by an analyst from the respective country, who will explain and highlight the market's potential and the business opportunities for which it is best suited. The invited experts will provide an overview of trends and overarching market developments. Placing the individual markets in a global context, they will reveal what makes each of these markets unique and where the opportunities for business and growth lie.
Directly initiating contacts will be at the heart of meetings with the seven market representatives from each of the respective regions, who, in individual or group discussions, will also respond to detailed and individual questions and call attention to opportunities.
Speakers at THE MARKETS include Niels Peter Thomas, Executive Vice President, German Language Science Publishing, Springer Science & Business Media; Liu Zhong, Director of International Cooperation, China Publishing Group; Nubia Macias, Director, Planeta México; Wandi S. Brata, CEO, Gramedia (Indonesia); Eric Yang, CEO, RH Korea (formerly Random House Korea); Nermin Mollaoğlu, The Kalem Agency (Turkey); and Chantal Restivo-Alessi, Chief Digital Officer, HarperCollins (US).
THE MARKETS will take place on October 13, 2015. In the coming weeks, the Frankfurt Book Fair will be publishing a series of profiles of the seven markets.
The Turkish book industry has experienced a significant upswing in the past decade. Since 2005, the number of published books has increased by 300 per cent (Source: Seven Essential Publishing Markets for 2015. Compiled for THE MARKETS: GLOBAL PULBISHING SUMMIT by Publishing Perspectives). According to the Turkish Publishers Association Türkiye Yayıncılar Birliği, the Turkish book market is growing between 13 and 15 per cent annually. It holds thirteenth place in the global ranking of book markets in terms of annual turnover.
The Turkish Publishers Association registered an increase in book production in 2014 of 4.6 per cent over the previous year. According to their data, 1,732 Turkish publishers issued a total of 50,752 titles in 2014 (compared to 47,352 in 2013) (Source: Turkish Publishers Association). In 2014, total sales reached roughly 2.5 billion euros (compared to 2.3 billion euros in 2013), with educational books and textbooks accounting for almost 56 per cent of this figure.
Of the titles published, 30 to 35 per cent are translations, primarily from the English – a growing trend. That makes the Turkish market attractive to licensing representatives. At the same time, according to Banu Ünal, publisher of Günışığı Kitaplığı, which specialises in children’s books, and a speaker at THE MARKETS, this also represents the greatest challenge for Turkish publishers. In her view, it is a question of adjusting the imbalance between rights acquisitions and sales.
An additional challenge, according to the Istanbul literary agent Nermin Mollaoğlu (Kalem Agency), is the large number of pirated copies. No less than some 40 per cent of all books sold in Turkey are illegal copies. In 2013 alone, the Turkish police seized roughly 30 million pirated copies.
The global trend towards digitisation has not bypassed Turkey. Yet the development of the Turkish book market continues to be driven by demand for printed books. With a mere 1.3 per cent share of the country's total book market, the e-book market is still in its infancy. In 2013, just short of 7,000 electronic titles were available. Nevertheless, experts expect accelerated growth in the sector and predict a ten per cent market share by 2017. The underlying conditions are favourable: Almost 50% of households in Turkey have Internet access, and 41% of Turks use the Internet on mobile devices. Roughly a quarter of these users use the Internet for online shopping, 15% of them to buy magazines, newspapers and e-books (Source: Publishing Perspectives). Also worth remembering: a quarter of the country's total population of 77 million is under 25 years old.
Brought to you by Scope e-Knowledge Center, a world-leading provider of abstraction, indexing, entity extraction and knowledge organisation models (Taxonomies, Thesauri and Ontologies).
