StoryDrive Asia 2017 — a conference full of energy and ideas
The second edition of StoryDrive Asia 2017, a conference for authors and creative storytellers from Asia, organised by Singapore Book Publishing Association (SBPA) and Frankfurter Buchmesse, was a big success. From 13–14 November, some 250 participants met at IPOS Singapore to discuss developments in the Asian publishing and media industries and to take part in training, pitching, and matchmaking sessions. Claudia Kaiser, Vice President Business Development at Frankfurter Buchmesse, talked to Kristin Kliemann, one of the conference speakers, about her work in Rights and Licensing, StoryDrive Asia and the Frankfurter Buchmesse.
Claudia Kaiser: Can you tell us a bit about your background and your work?
Kristin Kliemann: I grew up, professionally, in Rights Departments, from starting as an assistant at HBJ to becoming VP and Director at Farrar Straus & Giroux, to eventually running a big global team for 14 years at John Wiley & Sons. I made deals with a variety of licensees, for a variety of rights types — working with a variety of books and journals — from trade to higher education to STM. I also spent a few years in a publishing role at Hyperion/Disney and also at Fodor’s Travel/Random House. Rights licensing is at the heart of what I do now as a consultant — my goal is to help medium to large companies develop a robust approach to rights — knowing what they have the rights to license and setting them up to make the best deals possible with the assets they control. The most successful rights teams around today are those that cultivate their own education on markets and practice being aware of and open to new business models. Using technology to help execute and track contracts and deals can also give sellers an edge when it comes to being efficient and giving good service to their customers.
How significant is the Frankfurter Buchmesse for you and how often have you been?
Frankfurt has always been the most exciting fair — I love the feeling of turning a corner in one of the vast halls, and realising that there is a whole aisle full of great publishing right there in front of me, from a country I just haven’t been thinking about as part of my daily routine. And because we’re all at the Frankfurter Buchmesse, I can walk down that aisle and feast on all the great books they’ve done and talk to them about licensing some of the books I know and care about.
StoryDrive Asia is the second edition of this conference, staged by Frankfurter Buchmesse and Singapore Book Publishers Association. It aims at providing new insights, deeper understanding of processes and new business models and opportunities — through different formats, i.e. pitchings and matchmakings. What do you think of StoryDrive Asia? Has it achieved its goals?
StoryDrive Asia was a great conference. Of course, two things make conferences worthwhile — the people attending and the programming. I think this one really hit the mark — everyone was generous with their time and enthusiastic about the give and take of talking about successes and challenges.
As a participant, was it a valuable conference for you and why?
I have to confess, I was less familiar than I would have liked with some of the ASEAN markets — and being here for even these few days gave me a wealth of knowledge.
As a speaker: what was your feedback from the audience? Are the participants in the market at par with what is happening in the West?
I would say that everyone was open to hearing about business models and approaches that work — whether they were coming from the West or anywhere in the world! Most of the feedback around my presentation on rights was that there is a real need and interest in going deeper — in the possibility of a workshop/training on how to present titles, negotiate contracts and move toward more fully realised deals and new editions of ASEAN titles around the world.
The last session was about creating more exchange between the ASEAN countries and also with the West. A number of ideas were quite energetically developed. Is it worthwhile to take this forward?
There was a lot of passion and energy in that room — even at the end of two full days of conference sessions! It was very impressive to see the outpouring of ideas — and there were more than a few that should definitely be explored. I think there would be much to gain from an exchange between companies such as internships and fellowships, and working together more, as a group vs appearing as individual countries would also help raise the profile.
What were your learnings about the markets? Any advice you would give the market players, from your perspective as a rights professional?
I think the ongoing growth in the exchange of rights for Indonesian titles, as presented on the last day by Laura Prinsloo of the Indonesia National Book Committee, was very impressive. Their focus on creating custom catalogues of titles to fit to the interests of the different types of rights licensees that attend the Beijing Book Fair or the Frankfurter Buchmesse was spot on — we rights sellers need to tailor our pitches to the potential customers, not simply flog the titles that are newest or most popular in our local territories. I also appreciated the focus at StoryDrive Asia on working with each other to find titles of common interest. I think there’s a lot of fertile ground for cooperation and while it may take some hard work, and time, there will surely be some success soon too!
Would you recommend attending conferences like this?
I would definitely recommend attendance for publishers from the region — making contacts and learning about the successes and challenges of others who are close to you in market size or in category of publishing is always valuable. Also these conferences are about building up knowledge and contacts over time, in addition to being able to return home immediately with a few small ideas that could be put into practice right away.
What do you think of the international activities of the Frankfurter Buchmesse?
It’s great for the Frankfurter Buchmesse to be taking the experience into other markets — not every publisher can afford to attend the Book Fair in Germany every year — and having a regional gathering where discussions about what makes good publishing and about the trends in sales and production and licensing, is a really good value. In some ways, the smaller regional meeting makes for faster bonding between potential partners — there’s just a little more time and lot more focus on the issues that are really important in the region.
About Kristin Kliemann
Kristin Kliemann is the President of Kliemann & Company Consulting, where she is responsible for advising companies on strategic approaches to licensing rights, permissions and other copyright and intellectual property for maximum reach and revenue. Prior to forming her own consulting firm, Kristin was Vice President, Director of Global Rights, with Wiley Inc., where she led a large team with sales, marketing and operations members located in US, UK, and Asia. She’s passionate about Licensing as an important source of income and promotion for books, and takes every chance she can to talk about this often-overlooked area of publishing
