PubU | ECPA

These recorded sessions are accessible on the PubU attendee mobile app in the Schedule section.

SESSIONS AVAILABLE:

The impact of the European Accessibility Act and the updated ADA Title II Regulations on reflowable and fixed layout epubs

The new U.S. and E.U. regulations governing accessibility for digital products will have a profound impact on most publishers. This Master Class will delve into the specifics of what that means for U.S. publishers for their frontlist and backlist titles that are available in reflowable epub format. Then we’ll take a deep dive into how to make fixed layout epubs more accessible.

Larry Bennett

Larry Bennett, Executive Director, North America, manages North America for French technology company Nord Compo, the leading supplier of composition and digital services to French language publishers. Prior to Nord Compo, he was President of Distribution at Bookmasters, Inc., where he was responsible for managing the global distribution business, including print and eBooks. Before Bookmasters, he served as Vice President of Digital Print Media at Baker & Taylor, where he was responsible for developing and managing the company's Digital Print Media (print on demand) business worldwide. He is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Placing a high value on languages, he is a fluent Spanish speaker and speaks conversational French and Italian.

Colour Management

Friesens Corporation’s PrePress and Colour Expert, Brad Schmidt, walks you through colour management and how to prepare your files for print on either a digital or offset press.

Paul Cibulka

Paul Cibulka has been in the printing industry for over 35 years. He joined Friesens in 2010 as the Great Lakes Region Account Manager serving clients in IL, IN, MI, OH, VA, WV and Washington DC). His clients include self-publishers, indie presses, small businesses, major publishers, and large corporations. They publish books in several categories: Religious, Art & Entertainment, Educational, Children’s, Biography & Memoir, Cookbooks, Classics, University, Museums and Graphic Novels. Paul’s depth and breadth of experience helps him serve clients by developing a printing solution(s) to help them meet their business and publishing needs. As an employee-owner, Paul is committed to the Friesens vision, “We help others share their best story with the world!”.

Brandie Herrell

Brandie Herrell is the Southeast US Sales Executive for Friesens Corporation. Brandie manages publishing accounts throughout AR, KY, TN, GA, SC, and NC. She is a proud single mother of 4 children and lives on the coast of Georgia. Brandie is very involved in her faith and her community, both personally and professionally. She serves on the planning committee and hosts an annual workshop for the Protestant Christian Publishing Association. At home, she is a member of Community Church and serves as a board member at a Christian, re-entry program, Newpoint Partnership, in Brunswick, GA. Brandie brings books to life for ECPA publishers, such as: Harper Collins Christian, Lifeway Christian Resources and Hachette. At Friesens, she has spearheaded our application into and sponsorship of ECPA, because our involvement was very important to her. Brandie feels certain her role in printing Christian titles is her calling and she looks forward to meeting you all at PubU!

Brad Schmidt

Brad Schmidt started working at Friesens Corporation in 1994. He started as a camera operator and has experienced the many changes in Prepress equipment and technology over the last 30 years. His experience and innate ability to connect with customers lead to Brad becoming Friesens Tech Support person in April of 2000. Since then, Brad has fielded thousands of calls and emails from customers on a wide variety of prepress related questions. Since colour management and system calibration have become a critical part of file creation the focus of the tech support calls has shifted somewhat since he started in 2000. Brad has presented at many seminars hosted by Friesens in various regions and is a key presenter at the Book Manufacturing Seminar that Friesens hosts twice annually.

Reimagining the Retail Landscape with James Daunt, CEO of Barnes & Noble

The Focus webinar presentation with James Daunt, CEO of Barnes & Noble, Inc., interviewed by ECPEA president Jeff Crosby

James Daunt

James Daunt is Chief Executive Officer of the world’s largest retail bookseller Barnes & Noble, of stationery and gift retailer Paper Source, and of the largest retail bookseller in the United Kingdom Waterstones. Mr. Daunt currently oversees approximately 610 Barnes & Noble bookstores and 125 Paper Source in the United States and over 300 bookshops across the United Kingdom, Ireland, The Netherlands and Belgium, which include Waterstones, Blackwell’s, Foyles and Hatchards.

The Way Forward: How DEI is Shaping the Future of Publishing

The Focus webinar Q&A with Carrie Bloxson, Hachette Book Group’s senior VP of culture and diversity, equity and inclusion, in conversation with ECPA president Jeff Crosby, and ECPA board member Daisy Hutton, VP and publisher of Hachette Nashville

Carrie Bloxson

Carrie Bloxson oversees HBG’s diversity and inclusion programs and strategy with the objective of creating a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable company with increased representation of people of color in HBG’s leadership, workplaces, and publishing programs.

Online Retail Analytics: How changing title data impacts sales

On any given day about 1/3 of metadata sent to market is not displayed as intended. There are differences in title, author, list price, cover images, and even pub date. You've invested in your product metadata; it's been meticulously developed to help you increase discoverability and sales. When your metadata is changed you lose control of that important investment.

Retail compliance auditing reveals these kinds of metadata issues, and it also uncovers other opportunities that can help you positively impact your book sales. In this online session, we will discuss how retail analytics works, what kinds of details you should be looking for, and how to approach your own retail analytics process. This session will demonstrate Firebrand's Eloquence on Alert platform, including some exciting new features that make retail analytics easier to do than ever before.

Joshua Tallent

Joshua Tallent is the Director of Sales and Education at Firebrand Technologies (https://firebrandtech.com), where his focus is on helping publishers of all sizes learn about, and find solutions to, their workflow and metadata problems. Joshua’s background is deeply rooted in ebook development, metadata, and other publishing technologies, and he is an acclaimed teacher and guide on the role of data in publishing. He serves as the Chair of the BISG Board of Directors and is the host of the BookSmarts Podcast (https://booksmartspodcast.com ), which features practical discussions and interviews about publishing data and technologies. In his spare time, Joshua enjoys teaching Bible studies, playing complex board games, and fiddling with his home automation system.

Forecasts and Opportunities in Christian Publishing

Kristen McLean, Executive Director and Primary Industry Analyst for Books & Entertainment at Circana, presented a Trends in Christian Publishing Report on May 1^st to Leadership Summit attendees. This presentation will be made available to PubU attendees.

Kristen McLean

Kristen McLean is the Executive Director and Primary Industry Analyst for Books & Entertainment for Circana. With more than 20 years of experience in the publishing industry in roles including retailing, sales, marketing, and industry advocacy, she oversees research into the consumer behavior of readers, and she is Circana's in-house specialist on both the Children's and the Christian markets. She is the editor of the recent ECPA Landscape Survey of Book Buying Trends in the Christian Market. As part of her role as an industry strategist, Kristen speaks extensively on issues facing the publishing world including the effect of technology and culture on books and reading, and evolving models for publishing. Kristen is deeply interested in the confluence of consumer behavior, technology, literacy, and global information in the Digital Age.

Instant Purchasing in Multiple Channels: Reducing Cart Abandonment

Instant purchasing capabilities from all your sales and marketing channels has proven to halve cart abandonment. Supadu will discuss how and why this happens and how you can make this work for you!

Sarah Arbuthnot

Sarah has been at Supadu, a Firebrand Group company, for a good number of years championing websites and ecommerce technologies, which was her background before she joined. Her role to Supadu’s wonderful publishing customers is to help them increase online book sales!

Circana Books Report: Snapshot on the Christian Market

This report, made exclusively for Circana BookScan subscribers, is available to PubU attendees and reflects data as of August 2024. The report will be available on the PubU attendee mobile app. For more information about BookScan and ECPA member bundle discounts, visit ECPA.org/page/circanabundle.

About Circana Books

With the explosion of content generated by print books, streaming video on demand services, podcasts, and audiobooks, our culture is increasingly dominated by the stories we tell. In this interconnected media landscape, books are where some of today’s hottest media properties get their start. But as retail and consumer change accelerates, it can be a challenge to make sense of it all. We work with all the major players in U.S. publishing, retail, media, and toys to understand how digital and print content is evolving. Our book industry experts know the publishing world inside and out; they tap into our point-of-sale data to help you make better and faster decisions in today’s market. For more information, contact Brooke Borneman.