Education publishers to go to TIBE 2015

New Zealand is Guest of Honour at next year’s event and we are part of a wider sponsors group that includes the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, Creative New Zealand, MFAT and the Publishers Association of New Zealand.

Six educational publishers – Lanky Hippo, ESA Publications, Wendy Pye Publishing, MJA Publishing, NZCER and Clean Slate Press – are attending the book fair to promote their educational products and services.

“This is the largest offshore presence of education publishers since the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2012,” said David Glover who is managing the project for the Publishers Association.

“Research shows that one third of New Zealand’s education publishing income is earned from exports and TIBE is a valuable opportunity for publishers to make connections in the Asian market.”

“TIBE is also a big public fair that attracts almost half a million visitors. With New Zealand as Guest of Honour we should be able to raise the profile of both New Zealand publishers and our education system in general.”

Over the past 28 years the Wendy Pye Group has worked in many Asian countries, including Taiwan and China.

“Our flagship product, Sunshine Classics, has already been sold into mainland China and will be released as a celebration package for the Chinese New Year, in Chinese and English in both print and as apps for Apple iPads,” said Wendy Pye.

“While in Taipei, the company will be involved in a discussion for a collection of the best of Margaret Mahy titles in picture book format for translation into Chinese.”

Clean Slate Press also have experience in Asia but are looking to get into Taiwan specifically.

“We are currently selling in China through an agent and have distributors in Singapore and Hong Kong but are keen to expand our base,” said Sandy Roydhouse of Clean Slate Press.

“PANZ are doing the groundwork around TIBE and getting Taiwanese publishers on board which should make all the difference this year.”

“Along with our range of maths and literacy books, we are the exclusive education publisher of Joy Cowley titles and she is well-loved in Asia.”

For David Ellis of the New Zealand Council for Educational Research, TIBE is the opportunity to test the water in Asia.

“NZCER Press is a small publisher with a long history publishing research-informed content for the education sector in New Zealand. We need to strengthen our international reach to continue to attract the best authors and to ensure the sustainability of our organisation.”

“We are particularly strong in teacher education, with a lot of interest internationally in our indigenous and early childhood education publishing programmes.”

“It is difficult to build relationships from a distance and so going as part of a group to this major fair should make it easier for us to meet with the right people and establish connections.”

“We will also be meeting with the Taiwanese Education Research Association which is a similar organisation to our own. We hope they can help us to understand the market in Taiwan and wider Asia, including partnership opportunities involving our new online assessment platform", said David.

For more information and news about TIBE 2015 visit http://www.publishers.org.nz/news/