MGIP October Newsletter 2018

Welcome to our October 2018 Newsletter. Autumn has blown in and with it, a round-up of our MGIP activities at Frankfurt Book Fair and some very exciting announcements.

For the fourth time, the MGIP Frankfurt dinner was held at the Restaurant Margarete, situated in the ‘House of Books’ and the FBF headquarters. The wonderful autumn weather allowed us, for the very first time, to enjoy our drinks on the outside terrace. This year we welcomed about 100 MGIP members and guests for drinks, food and lively discussions. During the dinner we also announced the location of our next summer meeting (see below in the newsletter for the big reveal) and handed-out the diplomas to the winners of the MGIP Book Award.

Please see below a few photos from the dinner. More photos are available on the website at www.motovungroup.org/gallery

To officially start the Frankfurt dinner a welcome speech was given by Jean Arcache, MGIP President:

This year the Frankfurt Book Fair is celebrating it’s 70^th anniversary. We, the Motovun Group, celebrated our 40^th anniversary last year. Of course, we are not as old as FBF, may be not as international, obviously not as well known, but we are improving each year with our activities such as our Facebook page, newsletters and cultivating our YouTube channel, our website and our business events. And we are definitely looking at the book eco-system in the same way as the FBF does.

Frankfurt Book Fair is not celebrating it’s anniversary by looking back in publishing history but is looking forward to the future and to the transformation of the worldwide book community. The MGIP is following in their footsteps. We are not forgetting our roots and DNA, but we are staying awake, facing all major changes and opportunities in publishing and enlarging our community.

What’s new in our book eco-system?

Privacy and rights:
Everywhere in the world, data protection, paid content and freedom of speech are challenging issues. Here in the EU, we are very proud that the Data Protection Regulation became a binding law, protecting our data privacy against the power of GAFA (Google, Amazon, FaceBook, Apple). We are even more proud of the latest EU vote which will obligate big platforms such as GAFA and YouTube to pay authors royalties on content which they use or reuse. Fighting against lobbies is collectively helping us to win.

Free publishing:
This should generally mean: no censorship and freedom of speech for authors, wherever they live, particularly in democratic nations. State censorship has already become a reality in Turkey, whilst in the US, an elected president is condemning books which tell the truth about him like Fear by Bob Woodward or previously Fast and Fury. We acknowledge with applause those publishers who were, who are, or who will be, brave enough not to have a self-censorship attitude. A living example of this is William Nygaard, one of our honorary members, who many years ago published The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie and was shot for it.

Motovun and Frankfurt
During our anniversary year we have intensified our partnership with FBF by launching a new collaboration with the creation of the Best Illustrated Book on Film Award. Some of our talented publishers formed the jury for this award and it was awarded for the first time this year. See below for winners.

Concerning our cooperation with the FBF Fellowship Programme, I am glad to announce that Katrien van Oost, from Lannoo Publishers, was chosen among 105 brilliant worldwide candidates, to take part in the program. Congratulations to Lannoo Publishers, one of our famous Belgium members.

Last but not the least, I want to share with you a Picasso statement: “We have to invent new inventions”.

This statement was quoted by his friend, the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, and sums up the experimental spirit of Cubism. Cubism changed the face of painting internationally the same way digitalisation has changed the nature of publishing worldwide. Being part of MGIP will change your publishing vision. You should not miss the opportunity to be part of the MGIP community of friends.

During the MGIP Book Awards, all members were asked to vote for the best Best Illustrated Book on Film – an award organised for the first time in cooperation with Frankfurt Book Fair.

The winning book was announced by Jean Arcache at The ARTS+ stage:

Best Illustrated Book on Film
Cinemaps: An Atlas of 35 Great Movies (Quirk Books)

There were also two runners-up:
Marilyn Monroe 50 sessions (Knesebeck Verlag)
Frankenstein - The First Two Hundred Years (Reel Art Press).

The short ceremony was a great success, with many more people in attendance than was expected by the organisers!

We are happy to welcome our new associate members Priya and Kapil who are already well-known members of the Motovun family!

MGIP would like to congratulate members, Nicola von Velsen and Laurent Germeau, on their new positions and wish them the very best luck in their new roles.

Nicola von Velsen was appointed as the new Head of Publication and Member of the directory at Hatje Cantz Verlag.

During her career, she has worked for Cantz, Taschen and DuMont as well as working as freelancer in texts and pictures editing.

At our last summer meeting her book PAPER – PAPIER, which she had edited for Prestel Verlag, won the MGIP Award Best Book in the Special Interest category.

Laurent Germeau has been appointed Publications Manager of the newly opened Louvre Abu Dhabi.

In this position, Laurent was able to represent the Louvre Abu Dhabi with a beautiful stand at Frankfurt Book Fair.

We are pleased to announce that the traditional MGIP London dinner will be held at the Stationers’ Hall for the second time on Monday 11th March 2019. The Hall provided this year’s dinner with a wonderful ambience. We would like to thank Thames & Hudson for sponsoring the location hire for next year, which makes it possible for us to celebrate with all of you and your colleagues at this historic venue again!

We hope to welcome all MGIP members and their guests attending the 2019 London Book Fair.

With much excitement, we can announce that our 2019 summer meeting will take place in Grecotel, Greece from 28th Juneto 1st/2nd July 2019. Our members, Annie Ragia and Lila Karatza, working with their special connections, make it possible for us to spend three wonderful days of business and leisure time at one of the most unique places in Greece with the beautiful Cape Sounio being situated close to the famous Temple of Poseidon.

Following tradition, the summer meeting will start with a welcome dinner on Friday 28^th June, followed by the General Assembly on the Saturday morning. After this, there will be plenty of time for business meetings at the Rights Centre. Although there will not be a Queen this year, we are preparing some exciting adventures not to be missed! This time we recommend you stay and join us on the extra excursion, as this promises to be a true highlight of the weekend.

You are able to book your flights now, travelling to Athens, for the duration of the weekend (28^th June to 2^nd July), or even longer if you want to extend your time in Greece. The hotel guarantees special prices for all those staying even after the MGIP meeting has finished.

More information about our summer meeting will be available at the beginning of next year, once all the details are finalised.

To reserve and book for our events, remember to email office@motovungroup.org.

Please follow us on Facebook and view our YouTube channel for more members’ information.

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Please send us your ideas and we can include them in the next quarterly newsletter.

Motovun Group of International Publishers
International Non-profit Association Under Belgian Law | Founded in 1977 - Founding President: Bato Tomasević

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office@motovungroup.org

Responsible for editorial content: copy by Barbara Glauning and layout Eden Phillips Harrington (Librios)

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