During the last Readmagine conference there was a dialogue between Ashleigh Gardner (Wattpad) and Tuomas Sorjamaa ((Kaiken) about the Intellectual Property as a new kind of raw material for the business models in a multichannel environment. One of the key issues was identifying the challenges for the next years. In this web site the users can access to the video of that dialogue and here is just their takes on the issue of the most relevant challenges for the Book industry during the next immediate years.
The view of Gardner is that the main challenge for the publishers is understanding the needs and preferences of readers in this moment of transition to the online sales and fragment market, thus she believes that the trend for the next years will imply a more direct interaction between authors and readers.
Sorjamaa considers that the real challenge is to remain vital, how to win over new readers and how keep them interested.
Ashleihg Gardner is Deputy General Manager, Wattpad Studios, Publishing at Wattpad which aims to create meaningful promotional and editorial partnerships with the publishing, advertising, and entertainment industries. Before joining Wattpad, Ashleigh was director of content management at Kobo, where she focused on expanding Kobo’s existing catalogue, while developing new ebook stores in international markets.
Tuomas Sorjamaa is Licensing & Acquisitions Manager at Kaiken Entertainment, an entertainment company specializing in storytelling through TV, film, digital products, licensing and publishing. Kaiken discovers, develops and creates original IPs with potential to build multimedia franchises around them. At Kaiken, Tuomas handles licensing and rights sales and new IP acquisitions and development. Previously he has worked as writer, editor, and children’s publisher. Tuomas holds master’s degrees in both intellectual property law and English language and literature.
