Doing business in North America

Doing business in North America is the fourth of our series of webinars looking at some of our key international markets.

Join this webinar to hear Jo Henry; managing director of BookBrunch discuss with Simon Littlewood, adviser, consultant and coach the opportunities available to those of you who are interested in embarking on your journey in the North American territory as well as those who are already active and seeking guidance or looking for alternative options.

This 60-minute ‘in conversation’ style webinar will prepare you to do business effectively helping you navigate this market, as well as providing you with an opportunity to ask any burning questions you might have. 

This event is delivered by the Publishers Association and attendance is free for members.

If you are not a member of the Publishers Association, the fee is £30 (excluding tax), which you can redeem against the cost of your membership you join the Publishers Association within 90 days of the webinar taking place. If you’d like to find out more about membership, get in touch: membership@publishers.org.uk

Speakers

Chair

Jo Henry; Managing director – BookBrunch

Jo was most recently VP of insight and analytics at Nielsen Book. She started in publishing at Victor Gollancz, becoming sales director in 1989. In 1995 she joined Book Marketing Ltd (BML), becoming managing director a year later. In 2004, BML was acquired by Publishing News (PN), and in 2007 she was appointed managing director of PN.

In 2010, on the closure of PN, BML was acquired by Bowker, whose market research division was in turn acquired by Nielsen Book in 2013. Jo is co-founder of the Book Marketing Society and a former chair of both the Book Society and the Book Trade Charity.

Simon Littlewood; adviser, consultant and coach to a range of international book industry companies and government organisations

Simon has held positions in trade, academic and professional, educational, and illustrated publishing in the UK for over 30 years. A member of Macmillan’s Graduate Recruitment Scheme, where he gained experience of sales, marketing and editorial management both at home and overseas, he was also a founder director of Pan Macmillan South Africa. He later took senior roles at Phaidon Press and Headline Book Publishing before becoming International Director of The Random House Group (now part of Penguin Random House) in 1997, a post he held until 2014. During successive phases of expansion at Random House he oversaw strategic developments in Europe and East Asia as well as leading the start-up of Random House India in New Delhi. As a director of Random House South Africa he played a key role in the establishment of its local publishing list Umuzi, and under his stewardship Random House won the British Book Award for Export in three successive years from 2005 to 2007. From 2009 to 2011 Simon was Chair of the UK Publishers Association’s International Board, leading copyright protection campaigns jointly with the PA’s International Director. He has been closely involved in publishing education for many years, giving seminars on a range of courses, and sitting on the Industry Advisory Board of the Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies. Since 2014 he has represented the UK PA on the Executive of the Federation of European Publishers in Brussels, and from 2014 to 2019 he fulfilled the same role at the International Publishers Association in Geneva. He is a trustee of the Orchestra of the Swan in Stratford-upon-Avon, and lives in Oxford.