Want to know what international agents, editors and foreign rights specialists see in their respective markets? Twice a month we'll be talking to publishing professionals around the world about what they do, and the trends they're spotting.
We reached out to Job Lisman, editorial director of Prometheus/Bert Bakker Publishers in the Netherlands--which publishes such heavy hitters as Jonathan Franzen, Jeffrey Eugenides and Alan Hollinghurst--about what's selling on his home turf, how he sees international authors faring abroad, and more.
In the Dutch market, right now, what type of books are selling well?
Scandinavian crime is still very popular in Holland, and we are very proud to have some of the best: Jussi Adler-Olsen, whose sixth book in his Q Series has just been delivered, but also Leif Persson, and Jenny Rogneby, a new sensational crime author. Soccer memoirs is a new genre that many Dutch publishers are looking for now, but of course in most cases that is a rather national issue. And there is, as everywhere, a huge interest in food and health.
What’s the biggest challenge facing the Dutch publishing community today?
The Dutch market has shrunk 30% in the past five years, and is still not recovering. The e-book market is still rather small, about 4% to 5%, and there is a general feeling that e-books are being downloaded illegally which might be the reason for the low level of official sales. Finding new readers, and bringing old readers back to their big love, seems the biggest challenge these days.
Prometheus is known for its strong fiction list. What are some debut novels you have recently acquired?
We just bought The Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal, who is published by Pam Dorman Books. [It's] a beautiful and brilliant book, features excellent storytelling and is set in a highly unusual setting: the world of cooking and eating. A new author for us is Anne Tyler, not exactly a debut, but her new novel, A Spool of Blue Thread, has been received here in the office with all the excitement that you usually find when you discover a new voice. It's brilliant. And one book of which I am particularly proud is The Man Who Spoke Snakish by Andrus Kivirähk. Kivirähk is an Estonian author who is going to be published in the U.S. by Grove.
Given the success in America of Karl Ove Knausgaard, Jo Nesbo, Herman Koch, and others, do you have confidence that translated authors will continue to find an audience in the U.S.?
I very much hope so. Now that western cultures are getting closer to each other, I am sure that the trend will continue. With Holland and Flanders being the guests of honor in Frankfurt in 2016, there will also be great possibilities for Dutch and Flemish authors to find even bigger audiences.
