‘Business as usual’ at Frankfurt Book Fair 2013

Monday, 14 October 2013 Books+Publishing

Books+Publishing editor-in-chief Andrea Hanke reports from Frankfurt:

Australian publishers have reported a productive Frankfurt Book Fair, which has been characterised by healthy interest in a broad range of titles rather than high-profile deals. While some publishers observed that the aisles felt a little quieter this year, when it came to meetings most said they were booked solidly throughout the week, with several publishers also taking meetings on Saturday, when much of the trade has already left the fair and the doors are open to the general public.

Contacts, not contracts
Few Australian publishers have reported closing any deals at the fair, which is seen much more as an opportunity to develop relationships with international publishers and agents. ‘It’s all about the follow-up,’ said UQP general manager Greg Bain.

Hardie Grant Books sales director John O’Brien told Books+Publishing that he had signed a number of co-edition deals at the fair, including The Green Kitchen by David Frenkiel and Luise Vindahl Andersen to Italy, Rainbow Tarts by Emilie Guelpa to France, Mr Todiwala’s Bombay by Cyrus Todiwala and The Fashion House by Megan Hess to Germany, and Change Your Mind by Rod Judkins to Italy and Brazil. However, O’Brien observed that all the deals were ‘in the works’ before the fair.

Random House rights manager Nerrilee Weir signed a two-book deal for Stuart Daly’s middle-grade fantasy series ‘Brotherhood of Thieves’ to Germany, with an offer received from Brazil. From her adult list she said her most popular titles at the fair were the novel Chasing Shadows by Leila Yusaf Chung and the cookbook Tasty Express by Sneh Roy. All three titles will be published in Australia in 2014. Weir, who was one of the Australians who was still working at the fair on Saturday, said she had scheduled 75 meetings for the fair and had not had a single cancellation.

Fremantle Press foreign rights manager Clive Newman sold rights to the picture book My Superhero by Chris Owen and Moira Court to Germany, with the possibility of a co-edition with France. Newman also reported interest in The Weaver Fish by T.A.G. Hungerford Award winner Robert Edeson, which will be published in Australia in March. Newman said he had read the manuscript just three days before the fair and was pitching it as an ‘accessible literary novel’.

Hardie Grant Egmont managing director Natasha Besliev described this year’s fair as ‘upbeat’, with many publishers looking for children’s and YA fiction with hope and humour. Besliev said that the publisher had signed ‘a couple of deals’ at the fair, with lots of interest in the ‘funny, non-gender specific’ junior fiction series ‘The Tinklers Three’ by M C Badger, the ‘Billie B Brown’ spin-off series ‘Billie B Mysteries’ by Sally Rippin, and the picture books Little Big by Jonathan Bentley and Parachute by Danny Park and Matt Ottley. Besliev said that Frankfurt was an important destination for the children’s publisher as it attracted different publishers to Bologna, including the multinational publishers as well as ‘slightly more obscure publishers’.

UQP’s Greg Bain said he was confident that his meetings at the fair would lead to a sale for Dennis Altman’s The End of the Homosexual?, while Melbourne University Publishing CEO Louise Adler, who was sharing a stand with Bain but was much more likely to be found travelling the aisles, said she was seeing strong interest in Rafael Epstein’s Prisoner X and Kirstie Clements’ The Vogue Factor and Tongue in Chic.

Penguin deputy rights manager Kate McCormack said it was ‘business as usual’ at this year’s fair, with lots of interest in Saroo Brierley’s memoir A Long Way Home, Guy Grossi’s Love Italy and Fiona McIntosh’s commercial fiction titles.

Allen & Unwin celebrated 25 years at the fair with a cake delivered to the stand by the fair’s organisers. UK director Clare Drysdale and rights manager Wenona Byrne described this year’s fair as ‘really positive’, with particular interest in Lenny Bartulin’s historical novel Infamy (Drysdale said people liked the idea of an ‘Australian western’) and Peter Gross’ nonfiction book The Good People of Chambon. Also popular were new and backlist titles from Kate Morton and Alex Miller, as well as Kerry Greenwood’s ‘Phryne Fisher’ series, with Byrne observing that there was renewed interest in cosy crime, with Scandinavian crime ‘on the way down’.

Spinifex Press has been coming to the Frankfurt Book Fair for over 20 years, and each year publishers Susan Hawthorne and Renate Klein bring a copy of their 1999 title Help! I’m Living with a Man Boy by Betty McLellan, which has now been translated into 16 different languages. ‘Every year there’s always a man who grabs a copy of the book and says, “the women in our country need a copy of this”,’ said Klein, who also reported strong interest this year in Misogyny Re-loaded by Abigail Bray.

Giramondo Publishing made its first appearance at this year’s fair, with managing editor Alice Grundy seeing her trip as a ‘reconnaissance mission’. Grundy, who was pitching Alexis Wright’s The Swan Book, among other titles, observed that European publishers seemed more open to shorter-format titles, which have the added advantage of being less expensive to translate than longer novels.

Pantera Press CEO Alison Green has been coming to the fair for the past few years, and said that while she hasn’t signed any foreign rights deals yet, ‘it’s all about developing relationships and understanding who’s looking for what’. Green said she was hoping to sell rights for Sulari Gentill’s ‘Rowland Sinclair’ series following the books’ local sales and awards success.

Jane Curry Publishing managing director Jane Curry said she had ‘strong meetings’ with publishers in Russia and China, with her parenting and health titles appealing to the countries’ emerging middle classes. Curry said the titles that attracted the most interest at the fair were Talk Less Listen More by Michael Hawton and Less is More: How to Declutter Your Life by Kim Carruthers.

UNSW Press CEO Kathy Bail said she was seeing lots of interest in popular science titles, including Flying Dinosaurs by John Pickrell and Extreme Cosmos by Bryan Gaensler, with publishers also enjoying demonstrations of the enhanced ebook features for The Beethoven Obsession by Brendan Ward. Bail said she was also interested in purchasing several popular science and medical titles, but only where simultaneous publishing dates with the US and UK were available, or where there was an opportunity for the author to visit Australia. ‘If you just buy the book and put your imprint in it, I don’t see the point,’ said Bail.

Scribe publisher Henry Rosenbloom, who recently purchased the UK rights to Fremantle Press’ The House of Fiction by Susan Swingler and Penguin’s The Reef by Iain McCalman, said he had put in offers for ‘one or two things’ at the fair. When asked about his experience this year he said simply that ‘Frankfurt is Frankfurt’.

Small press opportunities
Small Press Network general manager Mary Masters attended the fair for the first time this year, and described the experience as ‘eye-opening’. ‘It’s a massive commitment for all the publishers to be here when there’s not an assured result, but for those who understand what they’re doing it’s fully worthwhile,’ said Masters, who observed that publishers whose approach was ‘purposeful and targeted’ and who were ‘taking the right meetings’ were getting the most out of their experience. ‘It’s easier for niche publishers, but it’s still not easy,’ she said.

Professional development
With O’Reilly’s Tools of Change conference no longer running, those who attended the fair on the Tuesday had the choice between the CONTEC and Publishers Launch conferences, where the dominant themes were the importance of data, the growth in start-ups and the opportunities for publishers to work with social reading sites such as Goodreads and Wattpad and the ebook subscription service Scribd. The Penguin Random House merger was also much discussed at the fair, with CEO Markus Dohle telling the industry that they should not expect sweeping changes to the way Penguin and Random House operate, and publishing consultant Mike Shatzkin suggesting that the merger has ‘as much potential to reshape the industry as Amazon has’.

After hours
There was no shortage of after-hours entertainment at this year’s fair. A number of collective stands in the English-language hall, including Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Ireland, hosted drinks, while nearby hotels the Frankfurter Hof and the Hessischer Hof were also popular meeting spots. Kobo’s Brazilian-themed party, which featured caipirinhas, masks and dancing, was one of the hottest tickets of the fair, while the publishing band Half on Signature also drew a crowd at its traditional Frankfurt Book Fair gig.

To see some photos of this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, visit the Books+Publishing Facebook page here.

Category: Local news