My speech on The Future of Publishing was being given in the early afternoon at the Litteraturhuset, which translates as House of Literature. It is a striking building just off the main drag and is an arts centre completely devoted to books.
There is a busy schedule of author readings, signings and lectures with all manner of conventions and book-related gatherings. On the day I was there someone was giving a talk on Haruki Murakami that had sold out first time round so was back by popular demand. There is a children's floor, two bookshops, an apartment for visiting authors to stay in and a fine bar and restaurant. It stays open late and was busy from the moment I walked in at midday till I left much later that evening. It would be great to have something similar in London.
My hosts were Thomas Mala from Press Publishing and Mari Müller of the Norwegian Publishers Association. They were fantastic and made sure I was very well looked after. The speech went pretty well, I think. I gave my usual spiel about how we need to consider free content a lot more, how print media and high street retail are on the decline and how certain genres are going to evolve more quickly than others. The audience of just under 100 or so seemed to understand my Estuary English and laughed in all the right places. All in all not a bad result.
The second speaker was going to be addressing the audience in Norwegian so I nipped out to buy replacements for the toiletries that had been confiscated at Heathrow and have a bit of a walk around. I managed to find my way back in time for the third and final talk of the day, from crime writer Matt Rees.
Matt is a Welshman who lives in Jerusalem. He was Time magazine's Jerusalem bureau chief and has reported from the region for over a decade. He is now a full-time novelist with a series of crime books set in and around the area he has covered for so long and featuring a Palestinian detective called Omar Yussef. The books have been published in 22 countries and he spoke about how authors can market and promote themselves.
As an ex-journo he knows a thing or two about how the media works and his was an impressive speech. He is a dream author really, happy to promote his books in any country to the extent of learning enough of the language to conduct interviews if needs be. No such need in Norway where everyone speaks wonderful English. Matt has a website and blog as well as being involved in a range of social networking sites. The combination of online presence and active promotion of his work abroad is the perfect set up for an international author. And I am delighted to say that many of the key points in his talk were echoed in my own, despite the fact that we had never met or been in touch before.
We were keen to swap notes over dinner and drinks which, given the wonderful facilities at the Litteraturhuset, only involved walking about ten feet down the corridor.
More on that tomorrow.
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