British football has the FA Cup; music the BRITS; and publishing the London Book Fair. This is our sector's unique annual marquee event attracting the engagement of the world's industry and giving us the opportunity to show the media, politicians and anyone else who is interested, what publishing is all about.

America is renowned for its optimism.  Visiting last week for meetings with the AAP and International Publishers Association the positive ethos somehow infused all of our conversations. 

"CREATe will bring a fresh approach to the creative industries....Our vision is that successful copyright reform must be based first of all on incentivising innovation from SMEs and individual creators as the true incubators of change and growth."

The PA-sponsored Byte the Book event, held at the Ivy Club, focused on the question of what skills do publishers need in their workforce.

Welcome to The Publishers Association Forward Look, providing a brief summary of the policy areas of interest to the publishing sector in this parliamentary session.

The IPO’s Christmas gift to the world “Modernising Copyright”, published on 20 December, set out new detailed proposals for copyright reform based on the Hargreaves Review.

Whether their market be academic, professional, education or trade, every publishing company has a vested interest in the maintenance of a robust and flexible copyright framework.

The award ceremony of the Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction is as good a place as any to reflect on the incredible strength of British publishing and the importance of copyright to writers and publishers. 

The Conservative party conference, held this year in Birmingham, and Frankfurt Book Fair, held in, er, Frankfurt,  have little in common other than that every other year they take place in the same week. 

The party conference season may not hold as many delights for publishers as the London and Frankfurt book fairs, but the gatherings are useful nonetheless.