Four days of glorious Italian sunshine provided the perfect backdrop for a low-key but busy Bologna fair, which took place over the second weekend in April. The 34th annual gathering of children's book publishers from around the world drew 4,300 foreign visitors from 80 countries. This year, in a bit of a sea change, publishers did not seem disappointed that a "big book" never emerged -- perhaps in recognition that the nature of the fair has essentially changed. The ubiquity of faxes and more frequent trans-Atlantic visits has meant that book projects are seen and discussed year-round. Gone are the frantic auctions, the espresso-charged bidding of inflated quantities; a more sensible, subdued air has taken over.

And tough times at home have made for tighter lists and much more selective buying at Bologna. "Publishers are thinking much more strategically," said Chronicle Books president Jack Jensen. "They're asking 'are there more books coming from this illustrator?' when they see a project. It's too labor-intensive to buy in just one book at a time."

The buzzword from publishers was "focus." As Dial's Skip Skwarek put it, "All publishers have narrowed down their focus, and are doing books they know they can succeed with. The old way of publishing -- throw the mud against the wall and see what sticks -- and the old model of 20% of what you do creating 80% of your revenue -- d sn't work now, in such a competitive market."

Almost the same words could be heard across the pond from Penguin U.K. publisher Philippa Milnes-Smith. "We're much more focused on where are our areas of business and how can we build on them. It's not 'here is the book that is going to save my company this year.'" As ABC's Sue Tarsky put it, "Everyone's looking for something that's going to sell. They're more commercially minded than ever."

Not finalizing deals at the fair has become much more commonplace -- and acceptable -- than it used to be. Many, in fact, consider this a positive development. "I would rather people not insist on selling things at the fair," said Judy Wilson, Orchard's new president. "It's too hard. I saw maybe 400 books in three days -- how can you sort that out?"

Wilson was, as might be expected, in acquisition mode, following the defection to DK last fall of Orchard's three key editors. "I certainly would like to buy," she said, "but I didn't see as much as I'd like. I put in bids on three books." Her aim is to keep Orchard's list at 60 books a year.

Some American editors said they had seen what they termed a lot of "mediocre" and "safe" books. Dutton editor-in-chief Lucia Monfried observed, "There's so much copycat publishing. Everyone has a Sam McBratney-type book; 'sweet' is in."

DK Ink's Neal Porter summed up the books he was shown this way: "It's 'guess how much I love my teddy bear who's missing his button eye and looking for a new owner, with Sara Fanelli-like art and a value-added plush toy.'"

And many said they had little room on their lists to buy anything anyway. As FSG associate publisher Michael Eisenberg said, "Our lists are so tight, but we came searching for something we just couldn't live without."

Crazy for Daisy

Though no one was calling it "the book of the fair," one picture book sparked enough interest from several American publishers to spark an on-site sealed-bid auction. Clare Hurst at Orchard U.K. held the auction for Come On, Daisy! by Jane Simmons, a debut picture book about an adventurous duckling, which was impressive for the depth of feelings it evoked as well as its accomplished look.

The winner was Little, Brown, which will pub Daisy in spring '98. LB guaranteed more than 25,000 copies and an advance of slightly under $100,000, for each of two books -- a sequel, Daisy and the Egg, is due in spring '99.

Little, Brown also acquired the Build a Book series from Reed. The series concept is a kit to help children design their own books; each title contains a book dummy, press-on type and illustrations to arrange. LB took 35,000 copies of each of four books; the first two (Halloweenand Space) are due out in fall '98.

Knopf took several major projects from Random U.K., including a retelling of Joan of Arc, illustrated by Angela Barrett; a Babette Cole picture book about divorce, called Two of Everything; and Peter Collington's A Small Miracle. Cape's Roald Dahl Treasury will be published this fall by Viking, in a combined first printing of 150,000 for the American, British and Dutch markets.

What were foreign publishers looking for from American houses? According to Sterling Lord agent George Nicholson, "They all want happy, cheerful books." Dial/Dutton rights director Donne Forrest agreed, saying, "A lot of people are asking if we have something that’s humorous -- because that's what kids want to read."

Rebecca Mancini, assistant director of subsidiary rights at Houghton Mifflin, found the most success with her company's recent reissues of Virginia Lee Burton and Margret and H.A. Rey. "Everyone wants the classics," she said. "Across the board, every country."

Many American rights directors reported that foreign editors seemed to be looking to the States for fiction. "More than ever, what is wanted, particularly in Western and Eastern Europe, is fiction," according to Pat Buckley, sub rights director at HarperCollins. "And especially older fiction. I wish I had the rights to more of it. A picture book has to be really outstanding to gain any attention." (Buckley was pleased to see a lot of interest in a fall Michael di Capua picture book, Tangerine Bear by Betty and Michael Paraskevas; she said she had at least 15 requests from foreign publishers to have it sent.)

According to Front Street publisher Stephen Roxburgh, the eager market for fiction "pleased me no end." Roxburgh was able to place some of his first novels in countries like Japan and Germany, and found the trend toward publishers looking for fiction "very encouraging."

Robie Rogge, publishing manager of special publications at the Metropolitan Museum, had her usual array of projects to show, but the title that caused a big stir was Gold: A Book, Kit, and Collection -- an elaborate gift book containing pieces of gold leaf and other materials to use for a multitude of activities. "It had the same kind of buzz that Fun with Hieroglyphs did all those years ago," Rogge said. "I had interest from France, Germany, England, Spain, Canada, the Dutch, and of course the Americans." Rogge will put the book up for auction in the States after she assembles prices for the book's many components.

On the News Front

Just a few days before the fair the children's list of Victor Gollancz was sold to Penguin, and in Bologna long-time Gollancz editor Chris Kl t was located on the Penguin stand, to the shock of many. Kl t's list will now be published under the Hamish Hamilton imprint in hardcover, and Puffin in paper.

Jensen at Chronicle Books gave word that his company would be distributing North-South Books in the U.S. as of June 1. "Their list is a good complement to ours," he said. "It's a group of high-end picture books we could never realize on our own." The deal adds 50 books a year to the 30-40 children's titles that Chronicle currently offers.

Charlesbridge announced that they are starting a fiction picture-book imprint this fall called Tale Winds. The new line will launch with four titles, with a projected four to six books per year (on top of the current annual output of 20).

A booth marked for Troll was noticeably vacant, leaving some to speculate about the fate of its Bridgewater imprint. Reached after the show, however, Troll chairman Jarret Schecter gave word that Bridgewater was "alive and well," and the company had decided not to attend the fair as a cost-saving move.

Author-illustrator Marc Brown was on hand to accept one of the many Bologna New Media prizes presented at the fair for the first time (for Arthur's Reading Race); he also did interviews with British reporters for the September launch of the Arthur TV show in the U.K. Brown reported that the show has been sold to an astounding 96 countries, and sales of his Arthur books have hit the stratosphere in the U.S. "Who knew the power of TV?" Brown said. "It took me 10 years to sell two million books, and we reprinted two million just in the month of March."

The fair had organized a tribute to renowned artist Leo Lionni; the "Secret Garden of Leo Lionni" exhibition at the fairgrounds marked the 30th anniversary of the Illustrators Exhibition. Lionni also spoke at a colloquium and ran a story-making workshop for children.

A recent trend of packagers becoming publishers was illustrated at the fair by news from Santa Fe-based packager White Heat that it was launching a publishing arm called Envision Publishing, to be distributed by PGW. Its first title is Nightmare Hotel, a "spooky pop-up" by Alex Henry and Antje Stemm; 40,000 copies at $14.95 will be printed, in a co-publication with French and Japanese publishers. White Heat creative director Lynette Ruschak explained that since "publishers are making it harder and harder to sell to them, that's forcing us more in that direction. We're always going to keep packaging for them, but [Envision] is just sort of a sideline."

Wearing its packager hat, White Heat was showing a dummy of The Elements of Pop Up by James Diaz and David A. Carter, "the definitive, ultimate book on how to do pop-ups." At least three American publishers expressed interest though no deal was made, since the project is still in early stages. White Heat is also producing a book of masks for Rogge at the Met, called Metropolitan Masks; the Met has world rights, and Neal Porter bought U.S. rights for his first DK Ink list this fall.

It was the first Bologna for another Santa Fe packager, Edy Keeler of Arroyo Projects Studio. She was showing 10 projects in various stages of completion, including an Algebra Survival Kit and a color-coded ABC called Talking Fingers. "We're work-ing to bring some fun to the educational market," she explained.

Reader’s Digest publisher Rosanna Hansen had two new Joshua Morris lines to show: Fisher-Price Little People Playbooks, a program of interactive books in a variety of formats that will appear this fall; and a Playmobil line, due in fall '98. Hansen called these programs "a big new direction for us -- signing up quality licenses." RD finalized co-editions for the Fisher-Price books in approximately 25 European and Asian countries.

It was Oregon-based Beyond Words' first Bologna as an exhibitor. Having a booth, publisher Richard Cohn said, "made a huge difference." His lead book was Frog Girl by Paul Owen Lewis, a followup to Storm Boy; artwork from the book, which features Native American art from the Pacific Northwest, was on prominent display. Cohn also said he wound up selling a lot of backlist, since his books are essentially new to publishers who have never seen his company before.

Katie McGowan at Rand McNally said she mostly sees Americans at the show, because "our products are so U.S.-centric that we don't have a lot of foreign interest." However, many publishers from around the world were impressed with the format of Rand McNally's Trip Tracker journal/activity book; McGowan says they will probably end up licensing the concept in several countries.

Jess Brallier at Planet Dexter was gratified by the response to his line of activity books, citing interest from Japan, Korea, Taiwan and "all the major Europeans." Planet Dexter books haven’t been sold into Europe yet but Brallier firmly believes this will be the year. "You can't connect the dots that lead to the deal without stopping in Bologna," he said.

Sporting a new logo and a "new brand identity for the company," Golden Books was taking the opportunity of Bologna to "bring everyone up to date on our new direction," said international division v-p Andrew Low. On display were Golden's range of storybooks, activity books, CD-ROMs and sound and story books from a host of licensed partners, as well as Futech Extra Smart Pages, a new interactive technology that was being shown "to great interest" to Golden's publishing and licensing partners.

The Warner Brothers stand was a beehive of activity; v-p of worldwide publishing Michael Harkavy called the fair "extremely important to us, particularly because our publishing group is new, and gaining international exposure is vital to us." WB helps develop publishing programs for its properties in a large number of countries; with the recent addition of the Turner properties (including the Cartoon Network and CNN), Harkavy called WB "the richest entertainment publishing group in the world." Though he says his company's kind of publishing is often considered a "step child" of the industry, "by sheer force it's becoming something to be reckoned with. It's a retailer-driven business, and this is what retailers want." At this fair WB launched a prototype for Looney Toons English, an ESL program that uses the Looney Tunes characters to teach English; Harkavy said that they are marketing it to Asian publishers first, but that it is a worldwide property.

The Landoll's stand was also doing a brisk trade; international sales manager Sean Buckley, who covers Asia, says "all those countries are doing exceptionally well with our books. They can't take the licensed stuff from me [because of licensing agreements] but they'll take the generic stuff." Though the U.S. market is "still huge" for Landoll's, Buckley says, the company is in the midst of rapid international expansion. "We're finding markets out there we didn't know existed."

A Look Around the World

The British market continues to be a difficult one -- demand for hardcovers is negligible (particularly in fiction), and libraries are spending less than ever.

"There's more and more competition for shelf space," said Milnes-Smith at Penguin. She pointed to a new emphasis on backlist, saying that she believed retailers don't necessarily need new books every season. "What they need is something that works with children, and it d sn't have to be brand-new." An example of this kind of publishing could be seen in the meeting she held at the fair for all the publishers of Raymond Briggs's The Snowman around the world, to discuss the Snowman relaunch in fall '98. (Other examples could be seen on many stands, with bestselling properties repackaged into other formats, such as board books or anthologies.)

Hugues de Saint Vincent of Paris's Editions Mango gave word of a flat market in France as well. Pocket readers are doing well, however, though the tendency of customers these days is to "buy cheaper." He found Americans looking at his list mainly for his new nonfiction collections, and was also showing an unusual new art magazine for children called Dada, reporting "big interest" from several companies in the States.

Jacqueline Miller of the Michelle Lapautre Agency said that French publishers are importing many fewer books these days, and look to Europe, much less to the States, for acquisitions. On the sales side, publishers like Seuil Jeunesse's Jacques Binsztok, who issue picture books with sophisticated artwork, find it difficult to sell into the U.S. market; many Americans say they greatly admire Binsztok's list, but fear the books will be difficult to sell in the States.

From Germany comes word that the market for children's books is stronger than for adult books, according to Beltz and Gelberg's Charlotte Larat. There is still a tradition of reading aloud to children at night; "even with the powers of TV and the computer, books have a very, very important role," she said, explaining that Germans have more money and fewer children per capita than several other European nations. The American editors she saw "look at the picture books and are very polite, but they are looking for strong fiction."

The Far East continues to be a booming market. Many rights directors commented on the interest that Korean publishers were showing in many of their books. As Mango's de Saint Vincent pointed out, "Their internal market is wealthy, and they are growing economically by 10—12% a year."

In Japan, the economic bubble has burst, according to Kayoko Yoneda and Rei Uemura of Tokuma Shoten. Parents don't want to spend much money, they say, and children are often too busy for pleasure reading. A typical first printing for a picture book in the 1980s would have been 5000 or 6000 copies; now 3500 or 4000 copies is more common.

The picture "down under" is a bright one, according to Sue Blackwell of the Australian Publishers Association. She says the market for children's books is "pretty strong" these days and there is a great continuing interest in new books from overseas, particularly tie-ins with American movies.

A Few Trouble Spots

Fairg rs were hit hard this year by pickpockets -- mostly small groups of Gypsies. Frances Foster of FSG and Kent Brown of Highlights both lost wallets -- Foster while walking on a Bologna street and Brown while waiting in the fair's taxi line. The incidents lent an unpleasant overtone to the proceedings; as Highlights's Jody Taylor put it, "It's the first time I haven't felt safe in this country."

In the scheme of things, of course, these are fairly minor complaints. The fair certainly fulfilled its purpose of bringing together the international community of children’s publishers. Though few deals are originated and finalized at the fair these days, Front Street's Roxburgh took the long-term view. "I've come to understand that what you achieve at Bologna is not the deals you may or may not make at the fair this year, but the relationships -- personal and professional -- that evolve over years."

And others take a slightly different approach. "I picked up a couple of Armani ties and a Jacques Binsztok book," said BDD's Craig Virden, summing up the myriad pleasures of this most civilized springtime fair.

Next year's dates: April 2-5, the week before the Easter holiday.