Expected first half lift in FDI fails to materialize

Last update 16:15, Tuesday, 10/08/2010 (GMT+7)

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VietNamNet Bridge – Foreign direct investment (FDI) flows have decreased substantially, although the number of small FDI projects has soared recently.

According to the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA), an the arm of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, one hundred less projects were registered in 2010’s first seven months compared with the previous year. Newly-registered capital fell to 68 percent of the preceding year . Meanwhile, $6.4 billion was actually disbursed, $100 million more than in the same period of 2009.

Alarmingly, few commitments to manufacturing sector

FIA reports that in the first seven months of 2010, only 35 provinces and cities landed FDI projects. Nine provinces attracted only one project each, and most localities bagged less than 10 projects. HCM City continued to lead in the number of projects attracted (165), followed by Hanoi (135).

Notably, many of those projects are small ventures in import-export, real estate and services.

Law firms in HCM City that provide investment consultancy services say that they do not have many clients this year. “Early last year, we were very busy serving a high number of clients, one consultant said, “but we are sitting idle now. One investor has refused to pay his consultancy fees, because we set up companies in Vietnam for him, he changed his mind about doing business here!”

According to the prominent economist Nguyen Mai, the biggest problem is that FDI capital is not going into the manufacturing sector. “I think government agencies need to review the FDI picture,” Mai says.

Reports by the management boards of industrial zones (IZs) showed that very few new investment projects have been attracted. For example, in the first half of the year, Hai Phong attracted only five new projects, four outside IZs.

Almost two-thirds of the FDI capital flow to HCM City has been into real estate, while industry won only 6.2 percent of the new capital, and trade 15.2 percent. HCMC industrial zones have attracted less than 15 projects.

Implementation of projects nationwide is also considered unsatisfactory. Only ten out of the 50 big FDI projects licensed in 2006-2008 have been initiated. Additional paid-in capital in the first seven months of the year was only $715 million only. Mai says theis shows that the nation’s ability to attract FDI is problematic.

“In principle, when projects go smoothly, investors always try to expand investment and increase capital. The low level of capital increase means low investment effects,” Mai said. “It is necessary to reconsider our approach when a report shows that more than 50 percent of FDI projects have reported losses.”

Trend toward smaller projects

An official from the HCM City Planning and Investment confirmed that the scale of newly registered investments is notably smaller. Some represent less than $100,000 in foreign capital. Many are to set up trading companies. In the trade sector, for example, in 2007, HCM City licensed 17 projects only, while the number rose to 72 in 2008 and then to over 100 in 2009. In the first half of 2010 alone, 70 projects were licensed.

For example, HCM City has licensed a foreign-invested company which provides customs declaration services and has registered capital of only $62,500 only, and a fashion institute which has the modest capital of $30,000. The appearance of small projects, capitalized at just several tens of thousands dollars, has raised worries.

“Should we license foreign investors who come to Vietnam to repair motorbikes? We have a lot of technicians already who can provide this service to the market,” said Nguyen Vinh Nhung, Deputy Director of the HCM City Industry and Trade Department.

At the Binh Duong province Planning and Investment Department, Deputy Director Le Viet Dung said that recently many foreign investors have sought permission to operate in the fields of construction and installation with the capital of only a few hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“We need technology transfer, but such projects do not bring the technologies Vietnam wants,” Dung said.

Mai: Vietnam needs to rethink its approach

Mai does not think that the decrease in registered FDI capital is a big problem. “The most important thing is the disbursement rate,” he says.

“What worries us most is that many real estate projects have been licensed. Investors just register to get the use of large areas of land and then let them sit idle for several years,” Mai said.

In Hai Phong, Planning and Investment Department Le Thanh Son also thinks that Vietnam should reconsider current policies in order to have more effective capital disbursement.

uoi tre

Obama space policy prizes international cooperation

President Obama's national space policy, released Monday, focuses more on international approaches to space issues than previous presidents' policies.

Astronaut Michael Good, STS-132 mission specialist, is seen from the space shuttle Atlantis working during the flight's final space walk at the International Space Station on May 21.
(NASA/AP)

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By Pete Spotts, Staff writer
posted June 28, 2010 at 7:50 pm EDT

Somewhere, Gene Roddenberry -- whose Star Trek franchise carried multicultural crews to cosmic destinations where no one had gone before -- is smiling.

President Obama released his administration's national space policy today. It's a document in which international cooperation on issues ranging from controlling space junk to hurling humans beyond low-Earth orbit sits as a cornerstone instead of boiler plate.

In addition, the document focuses on international issues such as arms control in space. The policy expresses the administration's willingness to "consider" arms control agreements in space, a position held by several of Mr. Obama's predecessors, but one dropped during the George W. Bush presidency.

IN PICTURES: Aboard the International Space Station

The policy "is not a revolutionary document," said a senior administration official during a briefing this afternoon. It represents a great deal of continuity with past administrations' national space policies, he said.

Still, some analysts have been struck by both the document's tone and its increased emphasis on international approaches to a range of space-related issues.

That change reflects growth in the number of countries relying on satellites in space for communications, navigation, disaster-relief coordination, as well as national security. And it reflects the growth in spacefaring nations -- those capable of launching satellites and astronauts into orbit. Space is no longer the geopolitical playpen for two cold-war superpowers.

The increased focus on international cooperation "is essential to bringing the benefits of space to the greatest number of people on the planet," says Eliott Pulham, who heads the Space Foundation, a Colorado-based non-partisan organization supporting human expansion into space.

The new policy has some rough edges, he adds – in particular the administration's plan for NASA, which "would defer human exploration of space beyond low Earth orbit for 15 years, to 2025, essentially ceding US leadership in human space exploration."

Still, the document has much to recommend, Pulham says, putting emphasis on beefing up the commercial spaceflight sector, as well as extending US participation in the International Space Station to 2020 instead of cutting it off at 2015, as the Bush administration envisioned.

Indeed, the contrast with past space policies is perhaps the sharpest with that of former President Bush, who unveiled his administration's guiding principles for US space policy in 2006, during his second term.

Bush's was in many ways a "prickly," confrontational document, says Ray Williamson, executive director of the Secure World Foundation in Superior, Colo. "It was: Stay away from our satellites or else. And: We're not going to brook any interference with our ability to get to space."

Obama's policy also carries a warning that Washington will use "a variety of measures" to deter or respond to attacks on US space systems or those of US allies "consistent with the inherent right of self defense."

But it also recognizes that all nations hold the right of passage through space or to "conduct space operations" without interferences from other countries.

The Obama document "is much more: Hey guys, we've got to work things out because we're dealing with a global commons," Mr. Williamson says.

And that commons must be used sustainably – a seemingly odd concept given the vastness of the cosmos. But the inadvertent collision of two satellites in 2009, along with a Chinese anti-satellite test in 2007, highlighted the need to reduce space debris.

Everything from spent rocket boosters to wayward astronaut toolkits can remain on orbit long enough to threaten satellites or the international space station. Even if no active satellite is threatened, one derelict on orbit can smack into another, creating potentially dangerous debris.

Senior administration officials noted in a briefing Monday that efforts to improve "space situational awareness" – knowing where all the satellites are in their orbits and where space junk is hurtling, and sharing that information with other countries with assets on orbit – can serve as confidence-building measures for more international agreements on space-traffic management and future broader agreements on space governance.

Such efforts can help reduce flash points for conflicts back on Terra Firma, one official says. A transparent system for tracking debris and active spacecraft, sharing that information, and providing timely warnings of potential collisions can "mitigate the risk of mishaps, misperceptions, and miscalculations."

SOurce: CS Monitor

World Cup

For the upcoming tournament, see 2010 FIFA World Cup.

FIFA World Cup

The current FIFA World Cup Trophy, awarded to the World Cup champions since 1974
Founded	1930
Region	International (FIFA)
Number of teams	32 (finals) 204 (qualifiers for 2010)
Current champions	Italy (4th title)
Most successful team	Brazil (5 titles)
Website	http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/
2010 FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup, also called the Football World Cup or the Soccer World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not contested because of World War II.

The current format of the tournament involves 32 teams competing for the title at venues within the host nation(s) over a period of about a month – this phase is often called the World Cup Finals. A qualification phase, which currently takes place over the preceding three years, is used to determine which teams qualify for the tournament together with the host nation(s).

During the 18 tournaments that have been held, seven nations have won the title. Brazil have won the World Cup a record five times, and they are the only team to have played in every tournament. Italy, the current champions, have won four titles, and Germany are next with three titles. The other former champions are Uruguay, winners of the inaugural tournament, and Argentina, with two titles each, and England and France, with one title each.

The World Cup is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world; an estimated 715.1 million people watched the final match of the 2006 World Cup held in Germany.^[1] The next World Cup will be held in South Africa, between 11 June and 11 July 2010, and the 2014 World Cup will be held in Brazil.

Contents [hide] 1 History 1.1 Previous international competitions 1.2 First World Cup 1.3 World Cups before World War II 1.4 World Cups after World War II 1.5 Expansion to 32 teams 1.6 Other FIFA tournaments 2 Trophy 3 Format 3.1 Qualification 3.2 Final tournament 4 Selection of hosts 5 Organisation and media coverage 6 Results 6.1 Summaries of previous tournaments 6.2 Performances by host nations 6.3 Best performances by continental zones 7 Awards 8 Records and statistics 9 See also 10 Notes and references 11 External links

History

Main article: History of the FIFA World Cup

Previous international competitions

The world's first international football match was a challenge match played in Glasgow in 1872 between Scotland and England,^[2] with the first international tournament, the inaugural edition of the British Home Championship, taking place in 1884.^[3] At this stage the sport was rarely played outside the United Kingdom. As football began to increase in popularity in other parts of the world at the turn of the century, it was held as a demonstration sport with no medals awarded at the 1900 and 1904 Summer Olympics (however, the IOC has retroactively upgraded their status to official events), and at the 1906 Intercalated Games.

After FIFA was founded in 1904, there was an attempt made by FIFA to arrange an international football tournament between nations outside of the Olympic framework in Switzerland in 1906. These were very early days for international football, and the official history of FIFA describes the competition as having been a failure.^[4]

At the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, football became an official competition. Planned by The Football Association (FA), England's football governing body, the event was for amateur players only and was regarded suspiciously as a show rather than a competition. Great Britain (represented by the England national amateur football team) won the gold medals. They repeated the feat in 1912 in Stockholm, where the tournament was organised by the Swedish Football Association.

With the Olympic event continuing to be contested only between amateur teams, Sir Thomas Lipton organised the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy tournament in Turin in 1909. The Lipton tournament was a championship between individual clubs (not national teams) from different nations, each one of which represented an entire nation. The competition is sometimes described as The First World Cup,^[5] and featured the most prestigious professional club sides from Italy, Germany and Switzerland, but the FA of England refused to be associated with the competition and declined the offer to send a professional team. Lipton invited West Auckland, an amateur side from County Durham, to represent England instead. West Auckland won the tournament and returned in 1911 to successfully defend their title, and were given the trophy to keep forever, as per the rules of the competition.

In 1914, FIFA agreed to recognise the Olympic tournament as a "world football championship for amateurs", and took responsibility for managing the event.^[6] This paved the way for the world's first intercontinental football competition, at the 1920 Summer Olympics, contested by Egypt and thirteen European teams, and won by Belgium.^[7] Uruguay won the next two Olympic football tournaments in 1924 and 1928.

First World Cup

Estadio Centenario, the location of the first World Cup final in 1930 in Montevideo, Uruguay

Due to the success of the Olympic football tournaments, FIFA, with President Jules Rimet the driving force, again started looking at staging its own international tournament outside of the Olympics. On 28 May 1928, the FIFA Congress in Amsterdam decided to stage a world championship organised by FIFA.^[8] With Uruguay now two-time official football world champions (as 1924 was the start of FIFA's professional era) and to celebrate their centenary of independence in 1930, FIFA named Uruguay as the host country of the inaugural World Cup tournament.

The national associations of selected nations were invited to send a team, but the choice of Uruguay as a venue for the competition meant a long and costly trip across the Atlantic Ocean for European sides. Indeed, no European country pledged to send a team until two months before the start of the competition. Rimet eventually persuaded teams from Belgium, France, Romania, and Yugoslavia to make the trip. In total thirteen nations took part: seven from South America, four from Europe and two from North America.

The first two World Cup matches took place simultaneously on 13 July 1930, and were won by France and USA, who defeated Mexico 4–1 and Belgium 3–0 respectively. The first goal in World Cup history was scored by Lucien Laurent of France.^[9] In the final, Uruguay defeated Argentina 4–2 in front of a crowd of 93,000 people in Montevideo, and in doing so became the first nation to win the World Cup.^[10]

World Cups before World War II

After the creation of the World Cup, the 1932 Summer Olympics, held in Los Angeles, did not plan to include football as part of the schedule due to the low popularity of the sport in the United States, as American football had been growing in popularity. FIFA and the IOC also disagreed over the status of amateur players, and so football was dropped from the Games.^[11] Olympic football returned at the 1936 Summer Olympics, but was now overshadowed by the more prestigious World Cup.

The issues facing the early World Cup tournaments were the difficulties of intercontinental travel, and war. Few South American teams were willing to travel to Europe for the 1934 and 1938 tournaments, with Brazil the only South American team to compete in both. The 1942 and 1946 competitions were cancelled due to World War II and its aftermath.

World Cups after World War II

The 1950 World Cup, held in Brazil, was the first to include British participants. British teams withdrew from FIFA in 1920, partly out of unwillingness to play against the countries they had been at war with, and partly as a protest against foreign influence on football,^[12] but rejoined in 1946 following FIFA's invitation.^[13] The tournament also saw the return of 1930 champions Uruguay, who had boycotted the previous two World Cups. Uruguay won the tournament again by defeating the host nation Brazil in one of the most famous matches in World Cup history, which was later called the "Maracanazo" (Portuguese: Maracanaço).

Map of countries' best results

In the tournaments between 1934 and 1978, 16 teams competed in each tournament, except in 1938, when Austria was absorbed into Germany after qualifying, leaving the tournament with 15 teams, and in 1950, when India, Scotland and Turkey withdrew, leaving the tournament with 13 teams.^[14] Most of the participating nations were from Europe and South America, with a small minority from North America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. These teams were usually defeated easily by the European and South American teams. Until 1982, the only teams from outside Europe and South America to advance out of the first round were: USA, semi-finalists in 1930; Cuba, quarter-finalists in 1938; Korea DPR, quarter-finalists in 1966; and Mexico, quarter-finalists in 1970.

Expansion to 32 teams

The tournament was expanded to 24 teams in 1982,^[15] and then to 32 in 1998,^[16] allowing more teams from Africa, Asia and North America to take part. In recent years, teams from these regions have enjoyed more success, and those who have reached the quarter-finals include: Mexico, quarter-finalists in 1986; Cameroon, quarter-finalists in 1990; Korea Republic, finishing in fourth place in 2002; and Senegal and USA, both quarter-finalists in 2002. European and South American teams have remained the stronger forces; for example, the quarter-finalists in 2006 were all from Europe or South America.

198 nations attempted to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, while a record 204 countries entered qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.^[17]

Other FIFA tournaments

An equivalent tournament for women's football, the FIFA Women's World Cup, was first held in 1991 in the People's Republic of China.^[18] The women's tournament is smaller in scale and profile than the men's, but is growing; the number of entrants for the 2007 tournament was 120, more than double that of 1991.

Football has been included in every Summer Olympic Games except 1896 and 1932. Unlike many other sports, the men's football tournament at the Olympics is not a top-level tournament, and since 1992, an under-23 tournament with each team allowed three over-age players.^[19] Women's football made its Olympic debut in 1996, and is contested between full national sides with no age restrictions.

The FIFA Confederations Cup is a tournament held one year before the World Cup at the World Cup host nation(s) as a dress-rehearsal for the upcoming World Cup. It is contested by the winners of each of the six FIFA confederation championships, along with the FIFA World Cup champion and the host country.^[20]

FIFA also organizes international tournaments for youth football (FIFA U-20 World Cup, FIFA U-17 World Cup, FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup), club football (FIFA Club World Cup), and football variants such as futsal (FIFA Futsal World Cup) and beach soccer (FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup).

Trophy

Main article: FIFA World Cup Trophy

The FIFA World Cup Trophy on a German stamp

From 1930 to 1970, the Jules Rimet Trophy was awarded to the World Cup winner. It was originally simply known as the World Cup or Coupe du Monde, but in 1946 it was renamed after the FIFA president Jules Rimet who set up the first tournament. In 1970, Brazil's third victory in the tournament entitled them to keep the trophy permanently. However, the trophy was stolen in 1983, and has never been recovered, apparently melted down by the thieves.^[21]

After 1970, a new trophy, known as the FIFA World Cup Trophy, was designed. The experts of FIFA, coming from seven different countries, evaluated the 53 presented models, finally opting for the work of the Italian designer Silvio Gazzaniga. The new trophy is 36 cm (14.2 in) high, made of solid 18 carat (75%) gold and weighs 6.175 kg (13.6 lb). The base contains two layers of semi-precious malachite while the bottom side of the trophy bears the engraved year and name of each FIFA World Cup winner since 1974. The description of the trophy by Gazzaniga was: "The lines spring out from the base, rising in spirals, stretching out to receive the world. From the remarkable dynamic tensions of the compact body of the sculpture rise the figures of two athletes at the stirring moment of victory."^[22]

This new trophy is not awarded to the winning nation permanently. World Cup winners retain the trophy until the next tournament and are awarded a gold-plated replica rather than the solid gold original.^[23]

Format

Qualification

Main article: FIFA World Cup qualification

Since the second World Cup in 1934, qualifying tournaments have been held to thin the field for the final tournament.^[24] They are held within the six FIFA continental zones (Africa, Asia, North and Central America and Caribbean, South America, Oceania, and Europe), overseen by their respective confederations. For each tournament, FIFA decides the number of places awarded to each of the continental zones beforehand, generally based on the relative strength of the confederations' teams.

The qualification process can start as early as almost three years before the final tournament and last over a two-year period. The formats of the qualification tournaments differ between confederations. Usually, one or two places are awarded to winners of intercontinental play-offs. For example, the winner of the Oceanian zone and the fifth-placed team from the Asian zone entered a play-off for a spot in the 2010 World Cup.^[25] From the 1938 World Cup onwards, host nations have received automatic qualification to the final tournament. This right was also granted to the defending champions between 1938 and 2002, but was withdrawn from the 2006 FIFA World Cup onward, requiring the champions to qualify. Brazil, winners in 2002, thus became the first defending champions to play in a qualifying match.^[26]

Final tournament

For the various formats used in previous tournaments, see History of the FIFA World Cup#Format of each final tournament.

The current final tournament features 32 national teams competing over a month in the host nation(s). There are two stages: the group stage followed by the knockout stage.^[27]

In the group stage, teams compete within eight groups of four teams each. Eight teams are seeded, including the hosts, with the other seeded teams selected using a formula based on the FIFA World Rankings and/or performances in recent World Cups, and drawn to separate groups.^[28] The other teams are assigned to different "pots", usually based on geographical criteria, and teams in each pot are drawn at random to the eight groups. Since 1998, constraints have been applied to the draw to ensure that no group contains more than two European teams or more than one team from any other confederation.^[29]

Each group plays a round-robin tournament, guaranteeing that every team will play at least three matches. The last round of matches of each group is scheduled at the same time to preserve fairness among all four teams.^[30] The top two teams from each group advance to the knockout stage. Points are used to rank the teams within a group. Since 1994, three points have been awarded for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss (prior to this, winners received two points rather than three). If two or more teams end up with the same number of points, tiebreakers are used: first is goal difference, then total goals scored, then head-to-head results, and finally drawing of lots (i.e., determining team positions at random).^[31]

The knockout stage is a single-elimination tournament in which teams play each other in one-off matches, with extra time and penalty shootouts used to decide the winner if necessary. It begins with the "round of 16" (or the second round) in which the winner of each group plays against the runner-up of another group. This is followed by the quarter-finals, the semi-finals, the third-place match (contested by the losing semi-finalists), and the final.^[27]

Selection of hosts

Main article: FIFA World Cup hosts

Early World Cups were given to countries at meetings of FIFA's congress. The choice of location gave rise to controversies, a consequence of the three-week boat journey between South America and Europe, the two centres of strength in football. The decision to hold the first World Cup in Uruguay, for example, led to only four European nations competing.^[32] The next two World Cups were both held in Europe. The decision to hold the second of these, the 1938 FIFA World Cup, in France was controversial, as the American countries had been led to understand that the World Cup would rotate between the two continents. Both Argentina and Uruguay thus boycotted the tournament.^[33]

Since the 1958 FIFA World Cup, to avoid future boycotts or controversy, FIFA began a pattern of alternating the hosts between the Americas and Europe, which continued until the 1998 FIFA World Cup. The 2002 FIFA World Cup, hosted jointly by South Korea and Japan, was the first one held in Asia, and the only tournament with multiple hosts.^[34] In 2010, South Africa will become the first African nation to host the World Cup. The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be hosted by Brazil, the first held in South America since 1978,^[35] and will be the first occasion where consecutive World Cups are held outside Europe.

Wikinews has related news: FIFA receives eleven bids for 2018 and 2022 World Cups

The host country is now chosen in a vote by FIFA's Executive Committee. This is done under a single transferable vote system. The national football association of a country desiring to host the event receives a "Hosting Agreement" from FIFA, which explains the steps and requirements that are expected from a strong bid. The bidding association also receives a form, the submission of which represents the official confirmation of the candidacy. After this, a FIFA designated group of inspectors visit the country to identify that the country meets the requirements needed to host the event and a report on the country is produced. The decision on who will host the World Cup is usually made six or seven years in advance of the tournament. However, there have been occasions where the hosts of multiple future tournaments were announced at the same time, as will be the case for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

For the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, the final tournament is rotated between confederations, allowing only countries from the chosen confederation (Africa in 2010, South America in 2014) to bid to host the tournament. The rotation policy was introduced after the controversy surrounding Germany's victory over South Africa in the vote to host the 2006 tournament. However, the policy of continental rotation will not continue beyond 2014, so any country, except those belonging to confederations that hosted the two preceding tournaments, can apply as hosts for World Cups starting from 2018.^[36] This is partly to avoid a similar scenario to the bidding process for the 2014 tournament, where Brazil was the only official bidder.

Source: Wikipedia

Publishing

Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information – the activity of making information available for public view. In some cases authors may be their own publishers, meaning: originators and developers of content also provide media to deliver and display the content.

Traditionally, the term refers to the distribution of printed works such as books (the "book trade") and newspapers. With the advent of digital information systems and the Internet, the scope of publishing has expanded to include electronic resources, such as the electronic versions of books and periodicals, as well as micropublishing, websites, blogs, video games and the like.

Publishing includes: the stages of the development, acquisition, copyediting, graphic design, production – printing (and its electronic equivalents), and marketing and distribution of newspapers, magazines, books, literary works, musical works, software and other works dealing with information, including the electronic media.

Publication is also important as a legal concept: (1) as the process of giving formal notice to the world of a significant intention, for example, to marry or enter bankruptcy; (2) as the essential precondition of being able to claim defamation; that is, the alleged libel must have been published, and (3) for copyright purposes, where there is a difference in the protection of published and unpublished works.

A printing press in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Contents [hide] 1 The process of publishing 1.1 Acceptance and negotiation 1.2 Editorial, Design, Sales and Marketing stages 1.3 Editorial stage 1.4 Design stage 1.5 Sales and Marketing stage 1.6 Printing 2 Publishing as a business 3 Academic publishing 4 Tie-in publishing 5 Independent publishing alternatives 6 Recent developments 7 Standardization 8 See also 9 Footnotes 10 References 11 External links

[edit] The process of publishing

Book and magazine publishers spend a lot of their time buying or commissioning copy. At a small press, it is possible to survive by relying entirely on commissioned material. But as activity increases, the need for works may outstrip the publisher's established circle of writers.

Writers often first submit a query letter or proposal directly to a publisher according to submission guidelines or to a literary agent. Submissions sent directly to a publisher are referred to as unsolicited submissions. The majority of unsolicited submissions come from previously unpublished authors. When such manuscripts are unsolicited, they must go through the slush pile, which publisher's readers sift through to identify manuscripts of sufficient quality or revenue potential to be referred to acquisitions editors, who in turn refer their choices to the editorial staff. This process is dependent on the size of the publishing company, with larger companies having more degrees of assessment between unsolicited submission and publication. Unsolicited submissions have a very low rate of acceptance. Many book publishing companies around the world maintain a strict "no unsolicited submissions" policy and will only accept submissions via a literary agent. This shifts the burden on assessing and developing writers out of the publishing company and onto the literary agents.

Established authors are often represented by a literary agent to market their work to publishers and negotiate contracts. Literary agents take a percentage of author earnings (varying between 10 - 15 per cent) to pay for their services.

Some writers follow a non-standard route to publication. For example, this may include bloggers who have attracted large readerships producing a book based on their websites, books based on internet memes, instant "celebrities" such as Joe the Plumber, retiring sports figures and in general anyone whom a publisher feels could produce a marketable book. Such books often employ the services of a ghostwriter.

For a submission to reach publication it must be championed by an editor or publisher who must work to convince other staff of the need to publish a particular title. An editor who discovers or champions a book which subsequently becomes a best-seller may find their own reputation enhanced as a result of their success.

[edit] Acceptance and negotiation

Once a work is accepted, commissioning editors negotiate the purchase of intellectual property rights and agree on royalty rates.

The authors of traditional printed materials sell exclusive territorial intellectual property rights that match the list of countries in which distribution is proposed (i.e. the rights match the legal systems under which copyright protections can be enforced). In the case of books, the publisher and writer must also agree on the intended formats of publication -— mass-market paperback, "trade" paperback and hardback are the most common options.

The situation is slightly more complex if electronic formatting is to be used. Where distribution is to be by CD-ROM or other physical media, there is no reason to treat this form differently from a paper format, and a national copyright is an acceptable approach. But the possibility of Internet download without the ability to restrict physical distribution within national boundaries presents legal problems that are usually solved by selling language or translation rights rather than national rights. Thus, Internet access across the European Union is relatively open because of the laws forbidding discrimination based on nationality, but the fact of publication in, say, France, limits the target market to those who read French.

Having agreed on the scope of the publication and the formats, the parties in a book agreement must then agree on royalty rates, the percentage of the gross retail price that will be paid to the author, and the advance payment. This is difficult because the publisher must estimate the potential sales in each market and balance projected revenue against production costs. Royalties usually range between 10-12% of recommended retail price. An advance is usually 1/3 of first print run total royalties. For example, if a book has a print run of 5000 copies and will be sold at $14.95 and the author receives 10% royalties, the total sum payable to the author if all copies are sold is $7475 (10% x $14.95 x 5000). The advance in this instance would roughly be $2490. Advances vary greatly between books, with established authors commanding large advances.

[edit] Editorial, Design, Sales and Marketing stages

Although listed as three distinct stages, these usually occur concurrently. As editing of text progresses, front cover design and initial layout takes place and sales and marketing of the book begins.

[edit] Editorial stage

Once the immediate commercial decisions are taken and the technical legal issues resolved, the author may be asked to improve the quality of the work through rewriting or smaller changes, and the staff will edit the work. Publishers may maintain a house style, and staff will copy edit to ensure that the work matches the style and grammatical requirements of each market. Editing may also involve structural changes and requests for more information. Some publishers employ fact checkers, particularly regarding non-fiction works.

[edit] Design stage

The type of book being produced determines the amount of design required. For standard fiction titles, design is usually restricted to typography and cover design. For books containing illustrations or images, design takes on a much larger role in laying out how the page looks, how chapters begin and end, colours, typography, cover design and ancillary materials such as posters, catalogue images and other sales materials. Non-fiction illustrated titles are the most design intensive books, requiring extensive use of images and illustrations, captions, typography and a deep involvement and consideration of the reader experience.

[edit] Sales and Marketing stage

The Sales and Marketing stage is closely intertwined with the editorial process. As front cover images are produced or chapters are edited, sales people may start talking about the book with their customers to build early interest. Publishing companies often produce advanced information sheets which may be sent to customers or overseas publishers to gauge possible sales. As early interest is measured, this information feeds back through the editorial process and may affect the formatting of the book and the strategy employed to sell it. For example, if interest from foreign publishers is high, co-publishing deals may be established whereby publishers share printing costs in producing large print runs thereby lowering the per-unit cost of the books.

Conversely, if initial feedback is not strong, the print-run of the book may be reduced, the marketing budget cut or, in some cases, the book is dropped from publication altogether.

When a final text is agreed upon, the next phase is design. This may include artwork being commissioned or confirmation of layout. In publishing, the word "art" also indicates photographs. This process prepares the work for printing through processes such as typesetting, dust jacket composition, specification of paper quality, binding method and casing, and proofreading.

The activities of typesetting, page layout, the production of negatives, plates from the negatives and, for hardbacks, the preparation of brasses for the spine legend and imprint are now all computerized. Prepress computerization evolved mainly in about the last twenty years of the 20th century. If the work is to be distributed electronically, the final files are saved as formats appropriate to the target operating systems of the hardware used for reading. These may include PDF files.

[edit] Printing

Before printing begins, a pre-press proof is created which is sent for final checking and sign-off by the publishing company. This proof shows the book precisely as it will appear once printed and is the final opportunity a publisher has to ensure there are no errors in the material. Some printing companies use electronic proofs rather than printed proofs. Once the proofs have been signed off, printing of the book begins. Some copies of the finished book are flown to publishers as sample copies to aid sales or to be sent for pre-publication reviews. Remaining books often travel via sea freight. As such, the delay between proof and arrival of books in warehouse can be some months. For books which are tied into movie release dates (particularly children's films), publishers will arrange books to arrive in store up to two months prior to the movie release to build interest in the movie. A new printing process is 'Printing on Demand'. The book will be printed upon receipt of the order. This procedure ensures low costs for storage.

[edit] Publishing as a business

Eslite Bookstore in Taiwan.

The publisher usually controls the advertising and other marketing tasks, but may subcontract various aspects of the process to specialist publisher marketing agencies. In many companies, editing, proofreading, layout, design and other aspects of the production process are done by freelancers.^[1][2]

Dedicated in-house salespeople are sometimes replaced by companies who specialize in sales to bookshops, wholesalers and chain stores for a fee. This trend is accelerating as retail book chains and supermarkets have centralized their buying.

If the entire process up to the stage of printing is handled by an outside company or individuals, and then sold to the publishing company, it is known as book packaging. This is a common strategy between smaller publishers in different territorial markets where the company that first buys the intellectual property rights then sells a package to other publishers and gains an immediate return on capital invested. Indeed, the first publisher will often print sufficient copies for all markets and thereby get the maximum quantity efficiency on the print run for all.

Some businesses maximize their profit margins through vertical integration; book publishing is not one of them. Although newspaper and magazine companies still often own printing presses and binderies, book publishers rarely do. Similarly, the trade usually sells the finished products through a distributor who stores and distributes the publisher's wares for a percentage fee or sells on a sale or return basis.

The advent of the Internet has therefore posed an interesting question that challenges publishers, distributors and retailers. In 2005, Amazon.com announced its purchase of Booksurge and selfsanepublishing, a major print on demand operation. This is probably intended as a preliminary move towards establishing an Amazon imprint. One of the largest bookseller chains, Barnes & Noble, already runs its own successful imprint with both new titles and classics — hardback editions of out-of-print former best sellers. Similarly, Ingram Industries, parent company of Ingram Book Group (a leading US book wholesaler), now includes its own print-on-demand division called Lightning Source. Among publishers, Simon & Schuster recently announced that it will start selling its backlist titles directly to consumers through its website^{[citation needed]}.

Book clubs are almost entirely direct-to-retail, and niche publishers pursue a mixed strategy to sell through all available outlets — their output is insignificant to the major booksellers, so lost revenue poses no threat to the traditional symbiotic relationships between the four activities of printing, publishing, distribution and retail.

[edit] Academic publishing

Main article: Academic publishing

The development of the printing press represented a revolution for communicating the latest hypotheses and research results to the academic community and supplemented what a scholar could do personally. But this improvement in the efficiency of communication created a challenge for libraries which have had to accommodate the weight and volume of literature.

To understand the scale of the problem, consider that approximately two centuries ago the number of scientific papers published annually was doubling every fifteen years. Today, the number of published papers doubles about every ten years. Modern academics now try to run electronic journals and distribute academic materials without the need for publishers.

One of the key functions that academic publishers provide is to manage the process of peer review. Their role is to facilitate the impartial assessment of research and this vital role is not one that has yet been usurped, even with the advent of social networking and online document sharing.

Today, publishing academic journals and textbooks is a large part of an international industry. Critics claim that standardised accounting and profit-oriented policies have displaced the publishing ideal of providing access to all. In contrast to the commercial model, there is non-profit publishing, where the publishing organization is either organised specifically for the purpose of publishing, such as a university press, or is one of the functions of an organisation such as a medical charity, founded to achieve specific practical goals. An alternative approach to the corporate model is open access, the online distribution of individual articles and academic journals without charge to readers and libraries. The pioneers of Open Access journals are BioMed Central and the Public Library of Science(PLoS). Many commercial publishers are experimenting with hybrid models where older articles or government funded articles are made free, and newer articles are available as part of a subscription or individual article purchase.

[edit] Tie-in publishing

Technically, radio, television, cinemas, VCDs and DVDs, music systems, games, computer hardware and mobile telephony publish information to their audiences. Indeed, the marketing of a major film often includes a novelization, a graphic novel or comic version, the soundtrack album, a game, model, toys and endless promotional publications.

Some of the major publishers have entire divisions devoted to a single franchise, e.g. Ballantine Del Rey Lucasbooks has the exclusive rights to Star Wars in the United States; Random House UK (Bertelsmann)/Century LucasBooks holds the same rights in the United Kingdom. The game industry self-publishes through BL Publishing/Black Library (Warhammer) and Wizards of the Coast (Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, etc). The BBC has its own publishing division which does very well with long-running series such as Doctor Who. These multimedia works are cross-marketed aggressively and sales frequently outperform the average stand-alone published work, making them a focus of corporate interest.^[3]

[edit] Independent publishing alternatives

See also Alternative media

Writers in a specialized field or with a narrower appeal have found smaller alternatives to the mass market in the form of small presses and self-publishing. More recently, these options include print on demand and ebook format. These publishing alternatives provide an avenue for authors who believe that mainstream publishing will not meet their needs or who are in a position to make more money from direct sales than they could from bookstore sales, such as popular speakers who sell books after speeches. Authors are more readily published by this means due to the much lower costs involved.

[edit] Recent developments

The 21st century has brought a number of new technological changes to the publishing industry. These changes include e-books, print on demand and accessible publishing. E-books have been quickly growing in availability since 2005. Google, Amazon.com and Sony have been leaders in working with publishers and libraries to digitize books. Currently Amazon's Kindle reading device is a very significant force in the market, although the Sony Reader and Palm are also strong in the market, and the Apple iPhone is considered by many to be a competitor in the E-Book reader space.^{[citation needed]} In November 2009, Barnes and Noble announced its entry in the ebook market, the nook.

The ability to quickly and cost effectively Print on Demand has meant that publishers no longer have to store books at warehouses if the book is in low or unknown demand. This is a huge advantage to small publishers who can now operate without large overheads and large publishers who can now cost effectively sell their backlisted items.

Accessible publishing uses the digitization of books to mark up books into XML and then produces multiple formats from this to sell to consumers, often targeting those with difficulty reading. Formats include a variety larger print sizes, specialized print formats for dyslexia^[4], eye tracking problems and macular degeneration, as well as Braille, DAISY, Audiobooks and e-books^[5].

Green publishing means adapting the publishing process to minimise environmental impact. One example of this is the concept of on demand printing, using digital or print-on-demand technology. This cuts down the need to ship books since they are manufactured close to the customer on a just-in-time basis^[6].

Collected from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publisher

Climate

Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and numerous other meteorological elements in a given region over long periods of time. Climate can be contrasted to weather, which is the present condition of these same elements over periods up to two weeks.

The climate of a location is affected by its latitude, terrain, altitude, ice or snow cover, as well as nearby water bodies and their currents. Climates can be classified according to the average and typical ranges of different variables, most commonly temperature and precipitation. The most commonly used classification scheme is the one originally developed by Wladimir Köppen. The Thornthwaite system,^[1] in use since 1948, incorporates evapotranspiration in addition to temperature and precipitation information and is used in studying animal species diversity and potential impacts of climate changes. The Bergeron and Spatial Synoptic Classification systems focus on the origin of air masses defining the climate for certain areas.

Paleoclimatology is the study and description of ancient climates. Since direct observations of climate are not available before the 19th century, paleoclimates are inferred from proxy variables that include non-biotic evidence such as sediments found in lake beds and ice cores, and biotic evidence such as tree rings and coral. Climate models are mathematical models of past, present and future climates.

Source: Wikipedia

Biz this week!

The Reserve Bank of Australia raised its main interest rate by 25 basis points, to 3.25%, the first central bank in a G20 country to increase rates since the start of the financial maelstrom in September 2008. The move took markets by surprise. Analysts wondered if other governments would follow and hoist their rates, but some cautioned that Australia was a special case, having avoided a recession and retained a comparatively robust banking system.
The failure of a government-bond auction in Latvia caused more concern about the struggling Baltic economies. Separately, the European Union warned nine countries, including Germany and Italy, that their budget deficits were excessively high.
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European banks took further measures to repay bail-out money. Société Générale launched a €4.8 billion ($7 billion) rights issue, €3.4 billion of which will be returned to the state. And ING agreed to sell its Swiss private-banking unit to Julius Baer, a wealth manager, for SFr520m ($505m). ING is offloading assets to help it pay back the Dutch public.
Spain’s Santander completed a share offering for its Brazilian banking unit that raised 14 billion reais ($8 billion), the world’s biggest flotation so far this year, but the unit’s share price fell on its first trading day.
Spurred on by buoyant equity markets, Aviva, a British insurance company, launched an initial public offering of its Dutch subsidiary from which it hopes to raise £1 billion ($1.6 billion). There have been few flotations in America and Europe lately; the value of IPOs in Europe plunged by 83% last year.
Norway’s Telenor reached a tentative agreement to merge its telecoms assets in Russia and Ukraine with those of Alfa, its partner in both countries, with which it has been engaged in a courtroom battle over control of the units. Alfa has stakes in a diverse range of enterprises, including TNK-BP, a joint venture with BP.

(Source: Economist.com)

Carmakers Porsche and VW to merge

Carmaker Porsche says it has agreed a merger with fellow German manufacturer Volkswagen (VW) after weeks of talks between the two firms' management.
The luxury carmaker said in a statement that it wanted to see the "creation of an integrated car manufacturing group".
VW hailed the decision of the Porsche and Piech families, owners of Porsche group, to create the merger.
It means a Porsche takeover of VW will not happen. The format of the new group will be decided in the next four weeks.
Talks will now take place between the two carmakers, VW's home state of Lower Saxony, and employee representatives.
The state's president Christian Wulff said in a statement: "We are ready for discussions, which must be carried out quickly."
Brand independence

Porsche will now hold further discussions with VW
The move should unite 10 brands under one roof, Porsche said.
Nine of the brands are owned by VW, and the other is the Porsche sports car brand.
"In the final structure 10 brands shall stand below an integrative leading company alongside each other, whereby the independence of all brands and explicitly also of Porsche shall be ensured," a Porsche statement said.
It also said that its plan would also include unspecified "capital measures".
In January, Porsche announced it had increased its stake in Volkswagen to more than 50%, and said it planned to lift its stake in VW to 75%.
However, even with a 75% stake it would not have been able to take complete control because under the "VW law" the state of Lower Saxony, which holds a 20% stake, can block strategic decisions.
Stock markets had closed before the announcement, with Porsche shares up 1.2%, and VW's down slightly, by 0.4%.

(BBC > Business)