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BRILL launches in India

02 09 , 2018 No Comments

L-R: Peter Coebergh, CEO, BRILL; Jaya Bhattacharji Rose, International Publishing Consultant; Vincent Oeters, Marketing Manager EMEA & India, BRILL

On 29 August 2018 the Dutch international academic publisher BRILL announced its arrival in India with an exclusive dinner thrown for publishing professionals, academics and librarians.  It is a listed company for more than 122 years in the Netherlands.

According to the Peter Coebergh, CEO, who made a short presentation at the event, BRILL was established on 17 May 1683 by Jordaan Luchtmans, who was registered as a bookseller by the Leiden booksellers guild. At the time company was called Luchtman and specialised in Biblical studies. Theology, oriental languages and ethnography. In 1848 the business passed from the Luchtman family to that of E. J. Brill, an ex-Luchtman employee. His ability to typeset non-Latin alphabets such as Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, Persian, Greek, Aramiac, Javanese etc helped his business expand. The logo represents the Greek Gods of Wisdom (Pallas) and of Trade ( Hermes), underlining what BRILL believes in as a company.

BRILL specialises in HSS ( Humanities and Social Sciences) and Law, adding Educational Sciences relatively recently. It publishes approximately 300 journals,  1400 new books and manages 120 online databases every year.

There are 4 main product types:

  1. Journals
  2. Databases
  3. Books and references
  4. Primary source materials– original texts around which BRILL usually builds publishing programmes, often requiring significant investments.

L-R: Vincent Oeters, Peter Coebergh, Anish Bhambal and David Elek

For the launch in Delhi,  BRILL was represented by Peter Coerbergh, CEO; Vincent Oeters, Marketing Manager EMEA & India; David Elek, Sales Account Manager, Cyprus, Turkey, Middle East, India and Africa. The India Representative is Anish Bhambal ( sales-india at brill dot com ).  The significance of the announcement is apparent that the first overseas trip Peter Coebergh made after being appointed as CEO of BRILL was to India. As he said, the company may have taken 335 years to set roots in India but now they are here BRILL wants to engage with author community for our books and journals. Also engage with Indian publishing houses in ways to collaborate, all the while recognising the price-sensitive market that India is!

LOGOS: Journal of the World Publishing Community, a prestigious publishing journal is one of the many journals BRILL publishes. LOGOS was launched by Gordon Graham, former Chairman of Butterworths and a few years ago handed over to BRILL to manage.  The current editor-in-chief is Angus Philips.  I have contributed to the journal on a few occasions as well.

Logos is a forum for opinion and the latest research from the world of publishing. The journal is international in scope and invites contributions on authorship, readers, book publishing, librarianship, and bookselling. Articles about the related fields of journals and magazines are also welcome, as are contributions about digital developments such as blogging and multimedia. Submissions are invited from both professionals and academics, and research articles are subject to peer review. It also publishes book reviews.

An English-language scholarly journal, published quarterly since 1990, Logos provides a platform for communication between publishing professionals, librarians, authors, scholars, and those in allied professions. It features articles from and about the publishing world, illustrating the unity, commonality, and conflicting interests of those who write, edit, manufacture, publish, disseminate, preserve, study, and read published works. Logos is international and intercultural, bridging gaps between academia and business, the developing and developed worlds, printed and digital media. The constituency comprises professional publishers and booksellers, both trade and academic; publishing studies, book history, new media and communications scholars, researchers and students; consultants, analysts, managers, and owners of publishing businesses; library managers and information professionals; as well as editors, typographers, and designers operating within the publishing industry.

BRILL is a welcome addition to the academic publishing community in India.

2 September 2018 

 

Robin Sloan, “Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore”

Robin Sloan, “Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore”

01 09 , 2013 No Comments

That is super-depressing. If I made five million dollars selling books, I’d want people to carry me around in a palanquin constructed from the first editions of The Dragon-Song Chronicles. (p.99 )

Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
Web-designer Clay Jannon is a victim of the recession, desperate for a job when he discovers Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. The management is looking for a clerk to manage the musty and mysterious bookstore on the night shift. It suits Clay perfectly little realising what he is committing himself to. From there unravels a fabulous, charmingly told, rich with details and imaginatively narrated, a story about a young man’s quest in unravelling the mysteries of the bookstore where he works. It is a delicious and intoxicating mixture of good fiction, fantasy, mystery, and most definitely about contemporary publishing, its history and the impact of technology over time. There are delightful conversations about bookstores, technology in print and publishing, ebooks and print books. For instance:

“I was under the impression they [young people] read everything on their mobile phones.”

“Not everyone. there are plenty of people who, you know– people who still like the smell of books.”

“The smell!” Penumbra repeats.”You know you are finished when people start talking about the smell.”

p.65

Robin Sloan wrote this novel while working as Media Manager at Twitter. It was inspired by a friend’s tweet that read ““Just misread a sign for a 24-hour book drop for 24-hour bookshop. My disappointment is beyond words.” He wrote it down and it became a 6,000 word short story a few months later. He published it on his website http://www.robinsloan.com/ . Eventually it was the prototype for this novel, a 2012 New York Times Bestseller title.

It is a satisfying read because the storytelling is intelligently done. It is an absorbing account of a secret society called the Unbroken Spine that has a cult following. Its members are determined to unravel the 500-year-old “Founder’s Puzzle”. Unbroken Spine was established by Aldus Manutius, fifteenth century publisher, who “believed there were deep truths hidden in the writings of the ancients– among them, the answer to our greatest question…– How do you live forever?” Upon his death Manutius left behind a book called Codex Vitae — book of life. It was encrypted and the key was given to only one person: his great friend and partner, Griffo Gerriszoon. A book that lingers with you for a long time afterwards is a treasure, Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore is one of those. 

There is a link that I came across. It is an online space about everything and anything related to the novel. http://readingmapofpenumbras24hourbookstore.wordpress.com/about-the-author/

Robin Sloan Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore Atlantic Books, Great Britain, 2013. Pb. pp. 290

1 Sept 2013

 

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