The UKYPE award celebrates entrepreneurial ability within publishing, and strengthens creative leadership, networking, and capacity building in the UK publishing industry.  It also focuses on strengthening the engagement between the UK and publishing in emerging markets, and seeks to further stimulate the development of the UK publishing industry in an international business context.   The aim is to find the most talented young entrepreneurs working in the UK’s publishing industry and give them the chance to find out more about what is happening out there, by becoming part of the British Council’s international network of young creative entrepreneurs.   

UKYPE is a British Council award, co-sponsored by The London Book Fair, and supported by the Publishers’ Association and BookBrunch. It takes place for the sixth time in 2012. It was awarded to Clare Christian (The Friday Project) for the first time in 2007, to Emma Hayley (SelfMadeHero) at London Book Fair in April 2008, and to Davy Nougarede (Heavy Entertainment) in 2009. After an open application process, 8 finalists will take part in a ten day study tour in London and attend London Book Fair in April 2012. The aim of the study tour is both to challenge the finalists’ traditional perspectives on publishing and to provide them with the resources (networking and trade development opportunities) to understand and engage with the local market. They will share their experience, understanding, and ability to spot opportunities in the publishing sector.      

China has been chosen as the Market Focus Country at 2012 London Book Fair.   

Background

The Young Creative Entrepreneur – Publishing award finds the brightest stars in the world of international publishing, recognising the importance of entrepreneurs in industry development, championing their independent sector and representing the best of what’s going on in their local scene. Since 2004, 60 young publishing entrepreneurs from more than 40 countries have taken part in the programme, building an active alumni network in the process, seeing rights being sold with the UK and between numerous countries (including the first publication of Roald Dahl in Arabic), new business start-ups and other collaborations (including a digital consultancy between Argentina, Egypt and South Africa), increased profiles, participation as speakers and delegates and regular meet ups at Book Fairs and other industry events around the world. In 2011-12 national winners will be selected in countries around the world who will participate in a shared programme in the UK with valuable networking and idea exchange with their international and UK peers in the publishing sector. The UK tour will run alongside London Book Fair in April 2012.

Objectives

The British Council’s Young Creative Entrepreneur (YCE) programme connects a global network of innovative emerging entrepreneurs in the creative sector. It champions those who find new ways to take creative work to audiences and communities – e.g. using new models of production, distribution, value – and highlights the wider social, economic and cultural benefits in doing so.  It is about people who are passionate about what they do, helping to develop their skills, networks, and international inspiration. The focus of the programme is to catalyse future collaboration and business between the UK and participating countries around the world.  

Timeline

Please visit www.britishcouncil.org.cn for more information, you can download the application form and send to arts@britishcouncil.org.cn by 29 February 2012.

The basic timeline for the YCE Publishing 2012 award is:

• 29 February 2012: - Submit the application form
• 7 March 2012 - Selection Procedure
• 8-15 March 2012-  Interview in English
• 16 March 2012- Deadline for announcing winners of  national competition
• End of March 2012- Celebrating party
• 9 April  2012 – YCE Publishing trip to London

More about the programme in the UK

In April 2012 the national YCE Publishing winners will travel to the UK for a one week industry programme to develop opportunities for commercial and collaborative work in future.  The programme will include:

• Curated group meetings to give an overview of what’s happening in the UK publishing industry
• Peer networking with the international participants and UK young publishing entrepreneurs
• Access to senior UK industry figures (master-class and a lunch for select invitees), including potential advice/ongoing mentoring and investment
• Time for individual business meetings
• Attendance at London Book Fair and other partner events, as below, including an international networking reception where participants give a short pitch about their work to delegates

Previous tours have included: meetings and seminars with leading companies including publishers such as Penguin, Bloomsbury, Canongate, Pearson Education, Profile, Serprent’s Tale, Arcadia, agents such as Jenny Brown Associates and Blake Friedman and publishing services like Lightning Source, TBS, Turnaround, amogst others; meetings and support from key industry organisations and education institutions such as the Publisher’s Association, Bookseller’s Association, Independent Publishers Guild and the opportunity to network with young UK publishing entrepreneurs.      

More info about London Book Fair
www.londonbookfair.co.uk
The London Book Fair is the global marketplace for rights negotiation and the sale and distribution of content across print, audio, TV, film and digital channels. Taking place every spring in the world’s premier publishing and cultural capital, it is a unique opportunity to explore, understand and capitalise on the innovations shaping the publishing world of the future. The London Book Fair brings delegates direct access to customers, content and emerging markets. China will be Market Focus country in 2012, following Russia in 2011. The YCE participants will have the opportunity to attend various programmed events/receptions as part of London Book Fair, as well as having time to explore independently.

What will be required of YCE Publishing participants

Although there is no UK judging process/award ceremony in the YCE awards this year, we expect that participants will be actively involved in a number of other ways:

• Send all agreed marketing information (biog, photo etc.) during application process so that we can promote them in the UK as early as possible
• Actively participate in all arranged meetings and events during the programme, in particular:
• Give a presentation (10 min) about their work to their fellow participants
• Prepare a short (up to 3 min) ‘pitch’ about their work/company and why it is innovative during an event with invited UK industry attendees
• Be willing to participate in any events/panel discussions at the industry events, as appropriate, alongside other UK/international industry speakers (topics would be dependent on programming by partner events depending on experience/relevance of YCE participants)
• Be open minded and looking actively for future collaboration and business with UK companies, organisations and individuals that they meet
• Record their trip to the UK for use by British Council in country/UK – blog, film, participate in media interviews before, during and after the trip, participate in evaluation etc. – and to take part in events when they return to share their UK experience with a wider YCE network at home
• Be part of the BC’s international YCE network, and be keen to contribute ideas and feedback , participate in events, and develop projects

2010 SIX FINALISTS ARE:   

Daniel Crewe
Associate Publisher, Profile Books
www.profilebooks.com
Daniel is Associate Publisher at Profile Books, where he’s part of the company’s management team and electronic management team. His job involves helping to decide on the company’s acquisitions, managing a team of two editors, and signing up and publishing around 12-15 books each year. Profile Books was founded in 1996 to publish stimulating non-fiction. They publish across a wide range of subjects, including current affairs, travel, history, philosophy, psychology, and business, and publish all The Economist books. In 2003, they published their first million-copy seller, Eats, Shoots & Leaves. They have been awarded the Small Publisher of the Year award in 1999, 2004, and 2006.    

Julia Kingsford
Head of Marketing, Foyles
www.foyles.co.uk
Julia joined Foyles in 2005, working initially on their events programme, alongside marketing & promotion. Her brief soon expanded to include broader marketing work, and in 2008 she was made Head of Marketing, and given a place on the company’s executive management team. She now works very closely with the CEO and the rest of the management team, shaping the bookstore’s development. Foyles’ is one of the UK’s most famous bookshops, founded in 1903 by the  brothers William and Gilbert Foyle. Their flagship store at 113-119 Charing Cross offers a huge range of fiction and non-fiction, and runs an active programme of literary and publishing activities. Recently, they have opened new stores in St Pancras Station, the South Bank’s Royal Hall, and Westfield shopping centre in West London.  

Anna Lewis
Chief Operating Officer, CompletelyNovel.com
www.completelynovel.com
Anna founded CompletelyNovel in 2008, an interactive platform that helps readers and writers with niche interests/audiences to find each other more easily. This global publishing platform seeks to break down unnecessary barriers between content, distribution, and consumers. She believes that by storing content digitally, and then coupling it with digital, on-demand and traditional distribution, CompletelyNovel can improve the effectiveness of the supply chain. The platform intends to pave the way for content creators and publishers to extend the initial reach of their texts, as well as to facilitate them place their content in its most suitable supply channel.  

Rachael Ogden
Managing Director, Inpress
www.inpressbooks.co.uk
Inpress is a sales and marketing agency, representing over 40 independent publishers from across the UK. Upon joining Inpress, Rachael rebranded and relaunched the company, and relocated it from Ealing to Newcastle. She also increased the number of publishers they worked with, and started developing new digital services (e-books, e-marketing), and managed a series of showcase events. Inpress manages the warehousing of their publishers’ stock in London, and employs a team of eight freelance sales agents who sell their titles into bookshops in the UK, Europe and Australia.   

Mark Searle
Publisher, Elliot & Thompson
www.eandtbooks.com
Mark has over nine years of experience in publishing, having worked for large organisations like Pearson Education, Pan Macmillan and Anova Books. In 2005, he was recruited to set up the books division of magazine publisher Think Publishing, and later devised a joint venture agreement with Pan Macmillan for the imprint Think Books. In 2008, he was recruited to run Elliot & Thompson. He has been responsible for revolutionising the business, increasing its turnover significantly, and creating the infrastructure for the company to grow further in the future. Elliot & Thompson is a small independent house that specialises in trade non-ficion, as well as bespoke books for institutional clients.

Gavin Weale
Managing Director, Live Futures
www.live-magazine.co.uk
Gavin began his career as a journalist and web editor before joining Livity, a marketing agency in its first year of operation. Within six months he had become a full-time creative for Livity and a mentor on Live Magazine, one of Livity’s first projects. In 2004, Live Magazine became its own non-profit company, Live Futures Ltd, and Gavin became its Managing Director. Since then, Gavin has overseen Live Futures’ development into a profitable social enterprise which employs almost 20 staff, publishes 5 titles a year, and has helped over 75 young people into education and/or employment. Gavin has grown Live magazine into London’s best known youth-run publication, and has also taken a central role in the launch of Penguin Books’ Spinebreakers teenage writers’ initiative, and overseen the development of a flagship audience engagement platform for the BBC.