Wrapping Up Bologna
By Diane Roback -- Publishers Weekly, 4/10/2008
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| Conducting business out of doors (weather permitting) is one of the Bologna Fair's true pleasures. Photos: Mario Ventimiglia. |
American agent Edite Kroll heard grumbling from foreign publishers in smaller markets where picture books cannot be produced without coproductions: grumbling because “despite the low dollar, American publishers are either uninterested or add on such high overhead that they are impossible for small publishers.”
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| The New Zealand jacket for a hot book at the fair. |
Newly minted agent Sarah Davies of The Greenhouse Literary Agency, with offices in Washington, D.C. and London, found that editors “aren’t looking for regular fantasy” any more, observing a lot of interest in “the paranormal dark Gothic romance,” and
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| Greenhouse agent Sarah Davies (r.), and Sarah Hughes, publishing director for fiction at Puffin. |
Wave, a picture book by artist Suzy Lee, proved an “international favorite” for Chronicle Books, Chris Boral reported, saying they’d had interest “from numerous countries,” and had sold Italian and Spanish rights before the fair. “The Italian edition was out in bookstores as well as at the publisher’s stand,” she said, “and that drove a lot of traffic to our booth. During the show another Spanish publisher wanted to publish it and when it was announced that we had already sold Spanish rights, Bill Boedeker, trying to be funny, suggested, ‘How about printing it in Catalan?’ After all, it’s a wordless picture book….”
Winning the BolognaRagazzi Award was a great boon for Tara Publishing in India. A presentation about the creation of the completely handmade The Night Life of Trees wowed a large crowd. The book’s print run is completely sold out; sharp-eyed fairgoers were able to nab a copy at the children’s bookstore on the Piazza Maggiore, though there were none to be had by fair’s end.
Two topics seemed to come up repeatedly for Random House’s Beverly Horowitz, in conversations with publishers around the world. The first was “finding a way to get fiction or nonfiction that deals with the ‘go green’ interest but does not sound agenda driven—not so easy!” And the second: “the need to let tweens and teens know about our books via digital and online markets and sites that are the mainstay in the life of kids today. We all know we need to do this—the question is how to do this successfully. No one seems to have an easy answer, but at least we are asking the same questions.”
That's Scholastic's Ellie Berger (l.) and Suzanne Murphy, and agent Barbara Marshall behind those Foster Grants.
Agent Kroll characterized this year’s Bologna as “a good working fair without highs and lows: steady, loads of interest in non-fantasy books, even original picture books, a couple of offers.” She found “lots of optimism” about children’s books around the world, except for the U.K., “where gloom and cautiousness seem to prevail. Not surprisingly, lots of editors and agents from various countries were looking for books with humor and boy characters. Books that will become backlist
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| Showing his wares: Andrew Smith of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, with Nathalie Maitenaz of Éditions Nord-Sud in Paris. |
It was the first Bologna for Penny Hueston at Text Publishing in Melbourne, and among the highlights for her were “running around like an athlete in training, spotting all the spotters from the studios on the lookout for the next great book-into-film project, and the agents sitting at their rows of desks like so many students doing exams.” She was excited to see publishers “falling over themselves” to get a copy of Genesis, which she published in Australia and sold to Quercus “for a goodly sum,” saying, “There is nothing so wonderful as a fair in which you’ve just sold the hot book.”
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| Australian artists Gregory Rogers (r.) and Wendy Binks draw for the crowd. |
Fiona Kenshole, v-p, development acquisitions for the Portland, Ore.-based film production company Laika, noted the emergence of a trend: increasing darkness in children’s books, even in picture books. “Publishers are not afraid to explore the darker side of human nature, even playfully,” she said, adding that fellow film scouts concurred that they, too, had noticed a rise in titles with darker themes for ever-younger readers. As examples, Kenshole and her Laika colleague, development producer Cath Hall, cited the Harcourt picture book Bone Soup by Cambria Evans; The Funeral Director’s Son by Coleen Paratore, a middle-grade novel represented by Adams Literary, about a 12-year-old who does not want to take over the family funeral home, his ability to talk to the dead notwithstanding; and a couple of works-in-progress involving orphans. “Every publisher has at least one such title on their list,” Kenshole said.
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| Together under the Macmillan roof: (from l.) Simon Boughton of Roaring Brook, Michael Eisenberg of FSG, Neal Porter of Roaring Brook, and Jean Feiwel of Feiwel & Friends. |
Jacqueline Miller of the Jacqueline Miller Agency in Paris offered an observation about how technology is changing the way business is being done (and not for the better). “To echo distress calls from top French publishers, submissions via electronic manuscript attachments are getting out of hand. And the speed of Internet submissions accompanied by demands for an offer within two or three days in some cases is playing havoc with the serious consideration required to decide whether and how best to publish even the most promising book. These ultra-urgent submissions are so piled up in some houses that they are resigning themselves to possibly missing out on a wonderful title but, as one editor told me, ‘We cannot stay up reading all night two or three times a week to meet these incredible deadlines.’ Super-title submissions aside, there is a pile-up of electronic manuscripts of books deserving consideration not as blockbusters but as excellent books publishers would be happy to add to their catalogues. But these electronic manuscripts tend to get lost or overlooked in the voluminous daily inflow of electronic submissions. No doubt the strong euro accounts for some of the wild precipitation via electronic submissions, but the goose laying these golden eggs is panting!”
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| Erica Wagner (l.) of Allen & Unwin in Australia looks over the Holiday House list, with HH's Barbara Walsh. |
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| The always crowded Illustrators Exhibition, a fixture of the fair since 1967. |
And he also pointed out an issue that’s specific to Hollywood, which publishers may not understand. “Some authors report that editors pressure them to tone down the prominence of adult characters in children’s lit. Hollywood needs castable roles for bankable actors. There are very few bankable child stars. This issue was another big point of conversation as book folks ask me to explain what the heck Hollywood is looking for and why.”
There was some news from London at the beginning of the fair. Publishers, authors, librarians and celebrities gathered at 10 Downing Street last Monday evening for the launch of the National Year of Reading. “Everyone here has done something special to support the 2008 National Year of Reading,” Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the crowd, adding that his own contribution will include writing a 366-word story for Wow! 366, a collection of stories that Scholastic will publish as one of its contributions to the Year. Designed to reach readers of all kinds, the government-backed initiative is led by Honor Wilson-Fletcher, who said, “The NYR aims to remind everyone that reading is an essential for daily life.” Beyond the many activities which are planned for the year throughout the country and across many industries, the intention is to create a shift in the U.K.’s national reading culture.
The finalists in the U.K.’s Best New Illustrators competition, designed the “best rising talent in the field of illustration today” were revealed at the fair by Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen. They are: Alexis Deacon, Polly Dunbar, Lisa Evans, Emily Gravett, Mini Grey, Oliver Jeffers, David Lucas, Catherine Rayner, Joel Stewart and Vicky White.
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| A busy morning at the stand of Dutch publisher Querido; that's Belgian author Bart Moeyaert, front right. |
Following the success of Claire Freedman and Ben Cort’s Aliens Love Underpants, which has sold over 200,000 copies in the U.K., Simon & Schuster was showing blads of the followup title, Dinosaurs Love Underpants, for the first time. “There’s a feeding frenzy for both Pants books in the U.K. trade and internationally,” Ingrid Selberg, director of children’s publishing for S&S U.K., said. “All U.K. retailers, supermarkets and book clubs are in for big numbers. The U.K. print quantity is 140,000 and rising prior to publication in June.” S&S also found success for its new pop-up Predators. “A number of publishers mentioned that it was the most spectacular pop-up they’d seen at the Fair,” Selberg said. “Subject to costs we’re expecting deals in at least nine markets for the first printing in 2009. The print run could be 80–100,000.”
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| The new agents gallery, which certainly had people talking. |
But Necarsulmer at McIntosh and Otis reported some positives. “We did feel a bit away from the fair, but there was definitely more space to move around. I actually thought it was fine and especially enjoyed not having to yell over other people as I made my pitches. I think the ceilings were higher and there was more room in the aisles. And the sun didn’t come flooding in around 3:00 in a debilitating way.”
Next year’s dates: Monday, March 23 to Thursday, March 26.
With reporting by Julia Eccleshare.
