26/01/09

British Council’s UK Publishing Entrepreneur Trip to India

So, James and Peter from Apt Studio are currently in India on The British Council’s Young Publishing Entrepreneur trip.

James Bridle (producer at Apt) has been shortlisted for his awesome work on Bookkake and Bkkkpr (among other stuff).

Peter Collingridge, Managing Director of Apt, has been shortlisted for Apt’s innovative commercial work in the publishing industry.

We’re thrilled that Apt staff make up 33% of the most innovative young publishers in the UK, and with us on the trip are Davy Nougarede, Lucy Luck, Nii Parkes and Jessica Purdue

So far we’ve been to Jaipur for the Book Fair (where we took part in a panel discussion) and are currently in Delhi (we’ve just seen the National Day parade under intense security following suspected terrorist activity) before going to Kolkata for the book fair there on Thursday.

Highlights so far include:

• Sitting next to Colin Thubron on the flight out
• The Rambagh Palace hotel in Jaipur
• Tina Brown talking to Tarun Tejpal about her career and the decision to launch The Daily Beast online rather than in print
• Chatan Bhagat talking about how he persuaded his publishers to avoid piracy on his popular novels by pricing them at Rs 95 (about £1.50) – and selling them by the million
• Meeting and talking to editor and translator Gioia Guerzoni about her in-depth knowledge of Indian writers
• The world’s biggest movie star Amitabh Bachchan coming to the Jaipur fair!

There is a Flickr set of our photos to date as well, and if you watch the Apt Studio Flickr stream, more will be appearing soon.

Update:

Here’s some press following our panel at Jaipur:

• The Hindu: “Looking for new opportunities in a new land, a group of six young and enterprising publishers, who have made a mark by breaking new ground in the British industry and promoting budding writers and concepts, hope to extend their innovation in India.”
• “As life hurtles on the fast lane, the publishing industry is opening up new, cost-effective and easier reading formats for literature buffs.” The Hindustan Times

Posted by Peter Collingridge in Apt Studio work, Publishing, UKYPE India Trip.

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