SIDT Books - Sustaining and Innovating cultural Diversity in literary Translations

fep-fee admin — 2021-03-04T11:43:49Z

The purpose of SIDT Books
Book culture and business in Europe excels in bringing a rich diversity of voices and narratives to often highly specialised and segmented audiences. Between printed books and various digital editions catered to readers and listeners of all strands, books are produced and consumed in increasingly varied ways and formats.
The vendors supporting these bookish offerings are often relatively small organisations. Due to both their size and their vocation as highly specialised cultural services, finding their audiences is a challenge in view of their limited resources.
In this situation, timely and continuous innovation is both a necessary and difficult task.
Researching new techniques and practices; experimenting with new models of authoring, production and distribution of books; and directly entertaining active communities of customers is difficult to balance with the daily professional obligations of a small company.
SIDT Books (which stands for Sustaining and Innovating cultural Diversity in literary Translation) aims to build bridges between proven innovators and practitioners.
With a mix of research and a set of hands-on training modules, SIDT Books has the skill to identify and disseminate relevant best practice models and market analyses for small and medium-sized book publishing and retail companies.

What SIDT Books has to offer
Building on research on market segments, trends and dedicated actors in the book translation publishing industry across Europe, SIDT Books proposes a set of professional training modules centred around proven business practices for authors, publishers, distributors and retailers.
Our goal for each training unit is to bring together decision makers, young talent, leading international industry experts and teachers to share their knowledge and skills as well as learn how to apply novel business practices.
SIDT Books has prepared four different training modules, each of which proposes a unique and distinct set of skills and methods to optimise workflows, marketing and the handling of multiple formats and business models in the book sector.

The training modules of around 10 to 12 hours each will be offered to interested practitioners, first between April and June 2021, and then a second time in the autumn of this year. Topics will range from “digitisation of the publishing workflow”, and “radical innovation” approaches, to “user-centric marketing” and “new business models”, notably in publishing operations specialising in translated fiction.
Each module will introduce a group of around 20 to 25 trainees to market overviews and practical case studies, elements of innovative business practices and hands-on group work. Experienced industry practitioners will act as trainers, together with professional moderators.
Participation in the modules is free but subject to submitting an application with a detailed questionnaire and a motivational letter, available (with more details on the project and the modules) at www.sidt-books.eu; the project management board will retain the final decision on applications.

SIDT is a joint initiative of Beletrina Academic Press, Ljubljana, Slovenia, the Federation of European Publishers, Brussels, Belgium, the Fundación Germán Sánchez Ruipérez, Madrid, Spain, Lietuvos Leidėjų Asociacija (Lithuanian Publishers' Association), Vilnius, Lithuania, and Rüdiger Wischenbart Content and Consulting, Vienna, Austria, as a project coordinator.
The project is co-funded under the Creative Europe programme by the European Commission.

The role of FEP in the project is to provide expertise from the book sector for the development of the training modules and to ensure wide dissemination of the project outcomes in the publishing community.

Contact and information:
SIDT Books
info@sidt-books.org
Rüdiger Wischenbart Content and Consulting
Laudongasse 50/7
1080 Wien, Austria
www.sidt-books.eu