Publishers, agencies to run their own digital rights fairs
In the UK, Hachette, Pan Macmillan and a number of literary agencies will run their own digital rights fairs in March, following the rescheduling of the London and Bologna book fairs, reports the Bookseller.
Curtis Brown will run its own ‘spring fair’ in late March, while Hachette UK has scheduled a ‘spring rights festival across the whole of Hachette worldwide’ from 8–19 March.
Hodder, Headline, John Murray and Quercus rights director Rebecca Folland said: ‘One of the silver linings in the past few months has been working with our global counterparts to tackle common challenges and we’re looking forward to bringing all our international rights teams together in one place in this way.’
Folland said Hachette will be ‘launching a dedicated web page to showcase acquisitions and digital content from our companies in the UK, US, Australia, France, Spain and India, with the aim of making it easier for publishers around the world to access our books,’ and added that the US will be choosing slightly later dates.
Hachette Australia head of rights Sarah Brooks confirmed the Australian business will be ‘combining forces with our sister companies and planning our Spring Rights Festival for 8– 19 March’. ‘We’ll be scheduling meetings across those two key weeks and really focusing our spring rights selling activities around that time,’ said Brooks. ‘I’m looking forward to working closely with the other Hachette rights teams to really showcase what the group has to offer on an international scale.’
Pan Macmillan said its rights teams would run a series of virtual meetings and fairs over the next few months, with its children’s and adult rights departments hosting showcase events to coincide with the original dates of the Bologna and London book fairs respectively. ‘This will be similar in format to last year’s ‘Frankfaux’, with targeted bulletins including videos from authors and editors, and meetings with customers, sub-agents and scouts,’ said a Pan Macmillan spokesperson.
Other agencies to hold events include Aitken Alexander, PFD and RCW.
Category: International news
