Dear Friends, 

You are Cordially invited to all the events.

Gate is FREEEEEEEE

2013 Lagos Book & Art Festival Programme

(IN MEMORY OF CHINUA ACHEBE) 

Theme:  NIGERIA’s CENTENARY: THE LAGOS NARRATIVE

Main Festival Dates: November 15 – 17, 2013

Venue: Freedom Park, Broad Street, Lagos.

(www.lagosbookartfestival.org)

Contact: info@coraartfoundation.com

Tel: Samuel,08036554119

PRE-FESTIVAL EVENTS 

MONDAY 11^THNOVEMBER

5pm @ British Council, 20 ThompsonAvenue, Ikoyi, Lagos.

BOOK TREK

(in partnership with BritishCouncil)

Young readers and book loversassemble at the British Council to discuss some of the books of the festivaland of course, have literary fun!

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TUESDAY 12^TH NOVEMBER

10am – 5pm @ British Council, 20 ThompsonAvenue, Ikoyi, Lagos. 

ONE DAY WRITERS’ SEMINAR – HOW TO GET PUBLISHED, WHAT PUBLISHERSARE LOOKING FOR.

 As part of the15th Lagos Book & Art Festival the British Council is running a workshopfor aspiring writers looking to get published.

The workshopwill be facilitated by Ms Sarah Odedina Managing Director of the UK Children’spublishing house Hot Key Books. Sarah has worked in some of the major UKpublishing houses and, notably, over-saw the publication of the entire Harry Potter series which wassuccessfully published in English around the world by Bloomsbury.

The workshop willexplore  ways to get published, fromworking on your manuscripts (writing tips to include looking at dialogue, plot,research, setting, character) as well as practical tips on how to submit topublishers and agents, knowing your market, making your story your own.

Participants in this workshop arepre-selected from a call-out made for applications; however you may inquireabout the event by calling: 08035250515.

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WEDNESDAY13^TH NOVEMBER

10am– 5pm @ British Council, 20 Thompson Avenue,Ikoyi, Lagos. 

ONE DAY ASPIRING /EMERGING PUBLISHERS WORKSHOP SESSION– LAUNCHING A NEW PUBLISHING HOUSE.

As part of the 15th Lagos Book & ArtsFestival, The British Council is running a workshop for people interested insetting up and running their own publishing house.

The workshop will be facilitated by Ms SarahOdedina Managing Director of the UK Children’s publishing house Hot Key Books.Sarah has worked in some of the major UK publishing houses and, notably, over-saw the publication of the entireHarry Potter series which was successfully published in English around theworld by Bloomsbury.

The workshop will focus on: A theoretical over view of the processof launching a publishing house from finding a name, building a team, toacquiring titles.  The workshop will focus on the logistical side ofbudget and planning in advance of a launch as well as the important role ofmarketing and social media in establishing a presence in the market.  Theworkshop will set your profile in context and help you to understand how youfit into the publishing scene before you start. It will encourage you to useall means possible to make sure that that message is understood by booksellersand readers. There will also be a focus on marketing and social media and howthis can help you to achieve success.

Participants at this workshop arepre-selected from a call-out made for applications; however you may inquireabout the event by calling: 08035250515.

ABOUT SARAH ODEDINA

Sarah Odedina began her publishing career working inthe adult rights department of Penguin Books.  She moved into children’sbooks in 1992 and quickly realised that she had found her niche.  Afterfour and a half years working as Rights Director for Orchard Books she moved toBloomsbury in January 1997 as Editorial Director and during her time atBloomsbury she commissioned and edited many prize-winning best-selling authorsincluding Neil Gaiman, Louis Sachar and Celia Rees.  She also over-saw thepublication of the entire Harry Potter series which was successfully publishedin English around the world by Bloomsbury.  In September 2011 Sarah leftBloomsbury to start a new fiction list for Bonnier Publishing and has alreadyenjoyed considerable success with one of the Hot Key Books titles winning theCosta Book Award.  She feels now that a start-up is an incrediblyprivileged place to be allowing  for greater integration between editorialand marketing and sales in order to ensure that there is a seamless approach togetting authors books in to the hands of readers

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WEDNESDAY13^TH NOVEMBER

5pm –6.30pm @British Council, 20 Thompson Avenue, Ikoyi, Lagos. 

PUBLISHERS’ INTERFACE WITH THE PUBLIC / PRE-FESTIVAL COCKTAIL

Since 2010, the pre-festivalcocktail has become our special way of getting into the festival mood. And ofcourse being book lovers, we use the event as an excuse to get fellow booklovers together to listen to publishers engage themselves in conversation. Thisyear we have the pleasure of having Sarah Odedina, Managing Director of Hot Key Books, former RightsDirector of Watts non-fiction and Orchard fiction and manager of the HarryPotter series for Bloomsbury; and  India Wussow who is an editorat Wunderhorn Verlag, which is apublishing house that publishes series of contemporary African Literature inGerman; being joined in conversation by AzafiOmoluabi, Managing Editor of Parresia,an emerging publishing house currently burning admirable tracks on Nigeria’sliterary scene.

SarahOdedina and India Wussow are both attending the Publishers’ Forum courtesy ofthe British Council and the Goethe Institut respectively.

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 THURSDAY 14^TH NOVEMBER,

10am – 4pm @ Goethe Institut, City Hall, CatholicMission Street, Lagos Island. 

THE 4^THCORA PUBLISHERS’ FORUM

(In Partnership with GoetheInstitut)

Theme: NEW TRENDS INDIGITAL PUBLISHING

The CORA Publishers’ Forum wasconceived in 2010 to provide a concentrated space for key publishers in Nigeriato gain critical insight into their current operations within the context ofthe challenges facing their industry, brainstorm on their findings and identifykey steps that can be taken as individual businesses or as a collective toimprove their bottom line. At CORA, we picture ourselves as midwives to thedifferent facets of the creative industries in Nigeria, therefore what we hopeto achieve through the publisher’s forum is the blossoming of the nation’s bookindustry.

We like to seethe Publishers’ Forum as a ‘focus group’ or a strategy session with keyfacilitators as guide. The forum is targeted at principals of publishing houseswho seek to grow their market and are willing to engage in creative thinkingtowards identifying strategies that can make this possible for them whetherwithin a collective or through their individual operations. Our expectation isthat cogent strategies would emerge from the session which can be immediatelyimplemented or could be built upon in future.

Taking theconversation about digital publishing forward from where we left off two yearsago, the Publishers’ Forum will interrogate what new opportunities have emergedin the intervening time.

Okechukwu Ofili of Okada Books and the duo of Kazeem Muritala and Moses Osunde (Wayne & Malcolm) have put inconsiderable effort in the past two years to create home grown digital publishingsolution via their digital book selling portals- www.okadabooks.comand www.takada.com.ng. Representatives of both start-ups will be presentingtheir solutions, their successes, challenges and possibilities yet to beexplored at the 4th CORA Pubishers’ Forum.

Debola Omololu‘s Debonair Publishing (www.debonairbookstore.com)has carved a niche over the years selling books via the internet and expanded thisniche by setting up physical retail outlets recently, now that they havelaunched a new line of devices- Debonair Devices Limited through which they aremoving into the digital devices market, it appears they are closely followingthe Amazon model of not just selling physical books over the internet, butmidwifing the creation of devices that can also aid that process for digitalbooks. In like manner, another organization, established to ‘get knowledge intothe hands of the African Child’, Afrelib, (www.afrelib.com) collaborates withteachers, students, parents and book publishersto collate and curate educational content for individuallearners and educational institutions in Africa in order to improve reading,writing and learning outcomes. These programs are accessible in the cloudand on storage devices via tablets, readers, smartphones and personalcomputers. Based in the Netherlands and the UK, Lanre and Joseph Ajuwon are co-founders of the Afrelib initiativeand would be joining in to share their vision and their experiences via skype.

Can Takada,Okada Books, Debonair and Afrelib help in the creation of the much sought afterdigital distribution back bone for Nigeria’s publishing industry? The 4th CORAPublishers’ Forum will interrogate this and other questions on the 14th ofNovember at Goethe Institut, 4th Floor, City Hall, Lagos.

The sessionwould have presentations from representatives of the four companies as keynotesto be followed by Q&As and then an interactive / ideas session involvingparticipants drawn from different publishing establishments would conclude theproceedings. The interactive session will feature interventions from Sarah Odedina, Managing Directorof Hot Key Books, former Rights Director of Watts non-fiction and Orchardfiction and manager of the Harry Potter series for Bloomsbury; and Indra Wussow who is an editor at“Wunderhorn Verlag”, which is a publishing house that publishes series ofcontemporary African Literature in German. Both publishers are attending thePublishers’ Forum courtesy of the British Council and the Goethe Institutrespectively.

The forum willbe moderated by Bukky Oyedeji anarchitect, artist and a researcher whose specialization in the design ofeducational facilities branches into the facilitation of learning environments,creative workshops and brain storming sessons.