2015 Frankfurt CEO Talk on Thursday is featuring two independent publishers Andrew Franklin of Profile Books (UK) and Marcos Pereira of Editora Sextante (Brazil)

A debate on strategic developments in publishing – including notably consolidation, digital integration, and globalization as well as the specific challenges and opportunities for independent publishing houses in that challenging context -, will be presented by Livres Hebdo (France), with Bookdao (China), The Bookseller (United Kingdom), buchreport (Germany), PublishNews Brazil (Brazil), Publishers Weekly (USA), and the Frankfurt Book Fair Business Club, featuring the Global Ranking of the Publishing Industry 2015. The talk will be moderated by Rüdiger Wischenbart.

Thursday October 15, 2015, from 14:00 to 15:00

Frankfurt Book Fair, Hall 4.2, Room Dimension, Frankfurt Book Fair Business Club.

Register here.

While the largest international media and publishing giants often grab the industry’s headlines, many of the successful new voices are discovered and brought to readers by independents. Across all the diversity of markets and cultures, independent publishers have shown a knack for identifying new talent, developing rich and unique catalogues, and enriching the book industry by their original endeavors.

At the Thursday Frankfurt CEO Talks 2015, two outstanding independent publishers from two hugely different markets and backgrounds – Andrew Franklin, founder and Managing Director of Profile Books (UK), and Marcos Pereira, founder and CEO of Editora Sextante (Brazil) – will discuss their experiences.

Andrew Franklin launched Profile Books “on April Fool’s Day in 1996” to “publish stimulating non-fiction in a wide range of fields, including history, business and economics, science and biography, with a sprinkling of humour.” The house’s long list of bestsellers includes Alan Bennett, Simon Garfield’s Just My Type and, of course, Lynne Truss’s Eats, Shoots and Leaves. In 2015, a Tuskar Rock book, Seiobo There Below by László Krasznahorkai, won the Man Booker International Prize. Profile Books is based in London, and publishes around 120 books a year, and has 40 employees. (More at https://profilebooks.com/about-profile-books)

Marcos Pereira is the founder and CEO of Editora Sextante, a Rio de Janeiro-based publishing house, situated at one of Brazil’s most sought-after addresses. The company initially specialized in self-help, and more commercial titles at low prices, while always keeping the production standards at a high level. But with the Brazilian translation of The Da Vinci Code, Sextante moved into fiction. Sextante also holds a 50% stake in Editora Intrínseca, a notorious publisher for global as well as domestic bestsellers. Pereira’s personal credo is to operate a publishing house “that believes in the access to reading.”