London Wrap: More Deals, Plenty of Glitz
by Jeff Zaleski, with reporting by Amanda-Jane Doran, PW NewsLine -- Publishers Weekly, 3/17/2004
If the first day of London Book Fair 2004 found aisles teeming with publishers, booksellers, bookbuyers and agents, with attendance up 9% from last year, the second day found those same aisles overflowing, so packed that negotiating the narrower corridors in the main Olympia Hall resembled trying to make one's way through the Underground at rush hour.
Major news continued to be less of a factor than the general buzz of deals. A few notable ones announced/conducted: Headline winning an auction for a new book by Monty Roberts (the model for Nicholas Evans's The Horse Whisperer) and HarperCollins signing two new novels by Cecelia Ahern, whose debut novel, PS I Love You, has just been published in the U.S. by Hyperion.
The greatest star-power of the day was afforded by Ewan McGregor, who visited the Time Warner booth to promote his forthcoming book Long Way Round, co-written with Charley Boorman (son of film director John Boorman). The two plan to ride round the world on BMW motorbikes, from Calais to New York, then write up their experiences for fall 2004 publication.
If McGregor represents the Hollywood end of the increasingly interlocked filmmaking/publishing spectrum, the bookish end was represented by a wide array of publishing chiefs; among those spotted were Sally Richardson of St. Martin's, Fred Ciporen of Reed Press and Larry Kirshbaum of Time Warner, who pronounced the Fair "fantastic." Kirshbaum added that "most of our American buyers are here, including Sam's, Costco's and Barnes and Noble," making the Fair a great opportunity for doing business. Jane Friedman of HarperCollins, dressed as ever in high style, this day in a black Chanel jacket and colorful Hermes scarf, reported that while her booth was steadily full and business there was "pretty good," it seemed to her that the busiest area was the International Rights Centre. But Friedman also uses the Fair as a gathering spot for all of her executives worldwide; she revealed that while in London she would be chairing an "intense" meeting of HarperCollins heads to "think about the future of HarperCollins."
Robert Gottlieb of Trident Media observed that, while business was brisk, he was generally initiating conversations here but planned to close deals when back in the States; he mentioned working on a new Dean Koontz deal with HarperCollins UK as one example. He added that the timing of LBF made it an ideal to conduct business, because its positioning near the end of the first quarter of most firms' financial years found them flush with money to spend, while, by comparison, Frankfurt, occurring in the fourth quarter, sometimes found purse-strings tightening.
The highlight of the day was perhaps the final of the Lit Idol competition to find the brightest new fiction writer. Inspired by commercial television's Pop Idol, the literary equivalent had opening chapters of up to 10,000 words submitted, 1,466 entries in all, whittled down to a short list of 5 by 31 readers and a panel of 5 judges. An Internet vote through the Book Place was won by Tom Easton, a production manager from Hodders, but the audience vote on the night did indeed go to literary favorite Paul Cavanagh, whose Northwest Passage deals with the aftermath of grief and changing family dynamics. Cavanagh will now be represented by Curtis Brown.
Many visitors were drawn away from the exhibition and rights floors to attend seminars, including a seminar on Publishing Webster Strategies, hosted by Joe Tessitore, group publisher of Reed Business Information. A three-minute silence announced at mid-day in honor of those killed and injured in the Madrid bombings added a sad note to the general ebullient atmosphere, but the note was muted as the silence was only sparsely observed, most likely because few seemed to have heard the announcement.
The most sought-out invitation on the evening of the second day of LBF London was a glittery party thrown by Penguin at the ultra-cool Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens. As waitresses circulated with various hors d'oeuvres including a triple tiered tray of brightly colored quail eggs topped with caviar, a grand assortment of publishing executives were very much in presence.
The third day of LBF London 2004 opened in a quieter fashion. While still busy, the aisles were noticeably less congested, at least early in the morning, a phenomenon perhaps due as much due to visitors recuperating from the previous evening.
