A Smooth Bologna
Diane Roback -- 4/24/00
Book buys take a backseat to corporate acquisitions, but the annual children's fair continues to prove its worth
 | | A sale during the fair put DK in the spotlight. |
Amid spring rain showers, intermittent sunshine and the incessant chirping of Italian cell phones, the stately medieval city of Bologna once again played host to the Bologna Children's Book Fair, now in its 36th year. The gathering, held April 5-8, saw 19,000 visitors, including 3,840 from abroad; 1,445 publishers from 81 countries exhibited their wares. This year's fair was notable in part due to the absence of events many Bologna-g rs have come to expect: a major international crisis or political upheaval just before or during the fair, excessive gloom caused by recessionary economies and/or threats of Italian transportation strikes--not to mention a "big book," which once again proved illusory. Scholastic U.K.'s Richard Scrivener called the mood of the fair "positive and excited, but not hysterical, with a slight tone of caution as a reality check."
 | Pleasant Company greeted international guests
for the first time. |
"This year it was all about companies buying companies, not people buying any books," observed DK's Neal Porter. And he was in a position to know: Pearson's deal to acquire DK was announced on the second day of the fair. Another topic of speculation was the impending sale of Grolier; Scholastic was seen as the front-runner, and indeed the $400 million acquisition was announced by Scholastic just after the fair, on April 14.
So if there was a buzz, it was about these corporate acquisitions, not book buys. Caroline Roberts, publisher of Hutchinson Children's Books in the U.K., said she'd been "wandering around to see if something leaps out at me," but hadn't really seen anything she felt she had to have. The lack of focus on any one title, according to many, made for a more casual atmosphere, far from the adrenaline- and espresso-charged fairs of the late '80s and early '90s. Lisa Simmons, assistant director of subsidiary rights at Holt, said that because no one book was getting a lot of attention, she thought "people are finding books that maybe had been overlooked in previous seasons."
John Lyon, v-p and managing director, international for Little, Brown, agreed. "People are focusing right across the lists," he said. A previous Bologna smash for his company, Look-Alikes by Joan Steiner, has been published in most major markets by now (except, oddly enough, the U.K.), and Lyon used the fair this year to sell the book and its sequel into countries like Norway, Portugal and Slovenia. (LB held a dinner for Steiner and her book's many foreign publishers and agents, as well as Time Warner Trade Publishing president Maureen Egen, who was attending her first Bologna.) Lyon said his "book of the fair" was a fall '00 picture book called The Book of Bad Ideas by Laura Huliska-Beith, from the Megan Tingley imprint; he sold it into 10 countries and held three auctions.
In other news, Random House's Craig Virden committed to buying 50,000 copies of The First Flight, to be co-published with Madison Press, due out in fall 2002, tying in with the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' flight at Kitty Hawk. Pat Buckley, director of subsidiary rights at HarperCollins, heard a lot of excitement for Little Lit: Folklore & Fairy Tale Funnies, edited by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly, a collection of short retellings by prominent illustrators and graphic artists. The book is due out in the States this fall with a 50,000 first printing, and Buckley will be arranging a European co-production next year involving four to six countries.
Phyllis Fogelman, now with her own imprint at Penguin Putnam, said she was "being more selective" now that she was buying for a much smaller list. Even so, two projects caught her attention, and she bought one of them at the fair: 40,000 copies of For Every Child, a picture-book adaptation of 14 principles from the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, illustrated by 14 international artists and published by Hutchinson. The other, a picture book called Chimp and Zee by Catherine and Laurence Anholt, wasn't sold at the fair. Frances Lincoln, which will publish it in the U.K. in fall 2001, was weighing interest from several American publishers, and will put together a European c0-edition in several languages.
The Harry Potter Effect
On the fiction side, the enormous success of Harry Potter loomed large. Beverly Horowitz at Random House was one of many who believe that the series has helped raise the profile of children's fiction worldwide. "With those kinds of numbers, people don't think of children's books as second class any more," she said. At Bloomsbury, Harry's originating publisher, editorial director Sarah Odedina gave word that the books have now been published into nearly 30 languages. "People are now looking beyond Harry in terms of fiction," she said. "They feel they can be braver in the kinds of books they can buy and publish."
Scrivener at Scholastic also believes in the spillover effects of Harry. "Kids are reading who would not normally be reading," he said. "It's been a very buoyant few years for all of us." Scholastic will be launching Dav Pilkey's Captain Underpants series in the U.K. this month, and Scrivener is hoping for the same level of success it has enjoyed in the States, where Scholastic U.S. has six million in print of the four existing titles.
Horowitz was excited to see some new novelists from Scotland and Ireland, and said she thought publishers are doing "a lot more complicated and difficult topics" for older readers, though they are aware of how difficult it is to sell. "With all the crossing back and forth [across the ocean]," she commented, "there's still a lot of 'not-working,' " pointing out that Jacqueline Wilson, a huge fiction seller in the U.K., is fairly unknown in the States, while Caroline Cooney, a big success story for Dell/Delacorte, "d sn't work in England."
Two middle-grade novels by Sarah Weeks, Regular Guy and Guy Time, were "our most requested novels," said Buckley at HarperCollins, who gave word that the four-book series has been optioned by Nickelodeon for a 90-minute TV movie. Buckley also saw a lot of action for the Nightmare Room series by R.L. Stine; there will be an auction in Germany, and she had offers from Finland and Israel.
Fiction was a big seller for Houghton Mifflin, said associate sub rights director Rebecca Mancini; she had three offers for a new Lois Lowry novel, Gathering Blue, a companion book to The Giver, and reported enthusiasm for Mathilda Bone, the latest Karen Cushman novel.
Mancini also reported "a heightened interest in nonfiction" this year--notable, she says, because she rarely experiences a demand for it at Bologna. She had a lot of inquiries about My Season with Penguins by Sophie Webb, a picture-book account of a woman who spent two months in Antarctica studying penguins; as well as Cornhusk, Silk, Wishe Bones: A Book of Dolls from Around the World by Michelle Markel.
Discussing nonfiction for the educational end of the market, Steck-Vaughn editorial director Frank Sloan said he was on the lookout for something inventive, but "low-risk inventive, because the library market is very traditional." He said he couldn't call the market for these kinds of books "burgeoning," but said that it's holding its own. "Fewer publishers are doing it these days, but then again, there are fewer publishers all around."
Nonfiction was a hot area for the U.S.'s neighbors to the north. Kids Can Press, for instance, said that its new history series for middle-graders, The Good Times Travel Agency, was well-received, having been sold in the U.K. and for French-language in North America. And Stoddart Kids was the first Canadian publisher to win the Bologna Ragazzi prize for nonfiction, for its book Too Young to Fight: Memories from Our Youth During World War II. According to Stoddart's Kathryn Cole, winning the award was a great help in driving traffic into the stand.
Since many of the larger Canadian children's houses now publish their books directly into the States, their major trading partners (for fiction, at any rate) tend to be Europeans. Both Stoddard and Kids Can reported strong Continental interest in YA fiction. And Groundwood had publishers competing for two novels: the new Tim Wynne-Jones, a fall book called Boy in the Burning House, and Bat Summer by Sarah Withrow. And despite a reportedly difficult market for children's books in Italy, Groundwood sold rights to Lord of the Fries by Tim Wynne-Jones and Covered Bridge by Brian Doyle to Mondadori.
New Ventures
 | Speaking of books: Andersen Press's Klaus Flugge (r.)
greets two booksellers, Albert Ullin of Australia and
Jenny Morris of the U.K. |
Ex-Dutton publisher Christopher Franceschelli told of his new company, Handprint Books. Handprint is set to launch this fall with 10 titles--board books and picture books, with fiction to follow on later lists. Also debuting this fall is a joint venture between Franceschelli and Henrietta Stickland of Ragged Bears in the U.K., to be called Ragged Bears USA, with a launch list of 15 titles.
Pleasant Company, though no newcomer to the publishing scene, was a first-time exhibitor at Bologna. Its presence signaled a shift to a more international focus for the company; previously Pleasant Company hadn't sold foreign rights to any of its titles, but this year held meetings with many publishers about doing just that. Editorial director Judy Woodburn said that the house would be following its business model in the States: choosing publishing partners in various countries, creating characters specifically for that market and following that up with a direct-mail catalogue. In England, however, Pleasant Company has set up a new division, under the direction of Ingrid Selberg, and will publish there directly, beginning in September 2001. Their stand also featured a mouse long absent from the scene: Angelina Ballerina. Pleasant Company now owns the rights to this picture book series, written by Katherine Holabird and illustrated by Helen Craig; it will begin reissuing the books in the States this fall, along with a new Angelina title.
Another first-time exhibitor, Klutz Press, found itself in the headlines shortly after the fair, when its acquisition by Nelvana Ltd. was announced. At the fair, president John Cassidy told PW he'd been coming to Bologna for five years, but had finally decided to take a booth because "we're becoming a little more global. For years we've had a reasonably exclusive relationship with various countries in Europe, and we're reaching beyond them now, into smaller markets." Cassidy said that Klutz prefers to enter into partnerships with publishers, rather than sell on a title-by-title basis; while Klutz didn't sign any new contracts at the fair, Cassidy was confident that "it'll happen." And after 20 years in the business, he commented, "It's been a long time since I've been a first-timer at a trade show."
Barry Cunningham, formerly of Element and Bloomsbury in the U.K., said he was "starting from scratch" with a new publishing house, to be called The Chicken House. A joint venture with Egmont, the list launches this fall and will build to a projected 30 to 40 a year: picture books, fiction, paperbacks and "book-plus" kits--what Cunningham termed a "free range list for children." At the fair he was looking for an American publisher to partner with, saying, "The eight-to-12 market in the U.S. is very active. Kids become active consumers earlier than in Europe."
Elsewhere Around the Fair
 | | The birthday boys, being serenaded. |
A few special events made this year's proceedings stand out. Veteran fairg r and pop-up maestro Waldo Hunt, CEO of Intervisual Books, was presented with a special award by the fair, for "what he has done to raise the awareness of the Bologna fair." Two longtime friends and publishers--Jean-Christophe B le van Hensbr k of Lemniscaat and Stephen Roxburgh of Front Street Books--celebrated their 50th birthdays right around fair-time. A surprise party was thrown for the two in a local restaurant, attended by a large cast of publishers from around the world.
Other than at the multimedia exhibit, which featured companies from a wide range of countries, the Internet wasn't physically apparent at the show, though it was on the minds of many attendees. Going to Bologna, observed first-timer Laura Tillotson of Cricket Books, helped her "to realize how big the Internet is on our side of the Atlantic, and see how much Europe is behind us." She predicted that the Internet will soon be a big part of the future, in terms of international rights, a belief ech d by Little, Brown's Lyon. He said that publishers need to make it a priority to show materials to prospective publishers on the Internet, and said "we've all got a year to get it right for next year."
From all reports, the fair went smoothly, with no major mishaps other than the usual complement of delayed luggage (this year's culprit: Air France). And publishers' enthusiasm for the show continued unabated. Horowitz at Random House said she always finds it interesting because it affords her "a sense of people's business," which can't be gotten from sitting behind one's desk. And for HarperCollins editorial director Robert Warren, "The most impressive thing about Bologna is speaking to all these foreign publishers and seeing their enthusiasm for books. The rights people are as passionate as the editors--they're speaking from the heart and not from the sales point of view. As an editor you respond to that honesty. It's a very positive cocoon here; this'll carry me for months."
Next year's dates: Wed., April 4, through Sat., April 7, a week before Easter.
A Look Around the World
by Herbert R. Lottman
 | Fukuinkan Shoten's Mariko Ogawa (l.) meets
Johanna Ringertz of Sweden's Natur and Cultur. |
For a happy few, Bologna actually began in London on Monday, at an international gathering of publishers of the Harry Potter books that included an unprecedented press conference during which J.K. Rowling submitted to a grilling from journalists representing every country in which her books are appearing. For Christine Baker, editor-in-chief of the Gallimard children's book department, the London meeting set the tone for the balance of the week, letting the world know that despite e-book hype, print was doing quite well, thank you.
If the euphoric mood should not have affected publishers who don't do Harry, it did seem to stimulate foreign demand for English-language fiction. For New York agent Sheldon Fogelman it was "the year of the novel," based on what he was being asked for. As for picture books, Fogelman's forte, "You have to make a case to get someone to look at one." He wasn't complaining; it was a good year for vendors, with every country except Japan in shopping mode.
The trend was confirmed by Curtis Brown's Bologna mavens Marilyn Marlow (a 30-year veteran) and Dave Barbor (at least a dozen fairs). Barbor even put in a good word for Japan (whose language he has been studying); thanks to a stronger yen, the Japanese were not turning a deaf ear to his proposals. Curtis Brown specializes in YA fiction and found Germany and even France quite receptive this year. The Scandinavians were buying more from each other; the Dutch were slower to react.
Italy has become one of the liveliest new markets, "because they've had so much catching up to do." A visitor could verify this on the stand of Milan's Feltrinelli, a well-known adult imprint for quality fiction and serious nonfiction, which was moving into children's books in a big way. PW met Valeria Raimondi, editor-in-chief of the new department (which is publishing under the logo Feltrinelli Kids). The goal, she said, is to match the quality of Feltrinelli's adult lines. To achieve that, they are doing a lot of buying from outside (so far, 22 translations to eight originals) and expect to take the lead in YA fiction. The book featured on their stand happened not to be for children but about children: Saying No: Why It's Important for You and Your Child by Asha Phillips, acquired from Faber & Faber (and the 70,000 copies Feltrinelli sold of its translation topped the figures for the Faber original).
Statistics compiled by Italy's Liber Database confirm the health of the children's sector in Italy, with a steady rise in title output year after year, but also the predominance of translations over Italian originals (with the U.K. as chief supplier, representing 25% of all new books). Surely the prodigy is Piemme, which has reported 10%-15% growth annually since its founding in 1993; its secret seems to be latching onto a good thing and running with it (the good thing is the Steamboat series, done in partnership with its Spanish sister company SM). Now Steamboat is launching a sub-series, Geronimo Stilton, another mouse in a world of mice whose publisher Elisabetta Dami and her CEO Pietro Marietti expect to conquer the world via TV and Internet adaptations as well as three different lines of books.
Italy's children's publishers have a working tool that neighboring countries might envy--a professional magazine not backed by any institution public or private, a for-profit journal called Andersen, which is edited by the father-daughter team of Gualtiero and Barbara Schiaffino. They also put out an impressive Annuario Andersen, a directory of publishers, agents, reviewers, authors and illustrators, specialist booksellers and libraries, plus school suppliers, Web sites, CD-ROM publishers, fairs and prizes.
Roaming the aisles, PW took advantage of the patience of notable trade leaders to sample the market in leading publishing countries. At Germany's Thienemanns Verlag, CEO Hansjorg Weitbrecht pointed to structural problems in the trade such as over-production and over-concentration in publishing and bookselling. But strictly in terms of business, the market is sound. German parents still think that reading is good for their kids, and the boom in multimedia hasn't hurt books. Thienemanns, a specialist in fiction and picture books, d sn't buy rights but sells them--to the Far East, to all of its Continental neighbors and Scandinavia, but not to the U.S. or U.K. Weitbrecht is even thinking of setting up a German-American company (with other publishers) to promote its books in the U.S.
Klaus Humann, publisher at Germany's Carlsen, found that he could indeed interest American publishers in his books--both picture books and YA fiction--even though the German market is strong enough to allow him to publish illustrated titles without the support of co-publishers. As for buying, he often found himself in the middle of a bidding war in Bologna, with lively competition for the books he wanted from the likes of Bertelsmann (for its C. Bertelsmann hardcovers and the ubiquitous children's paperback list called Omnibus). Humann, who sold his millionth copy of the Harry Potter series shortly before the fair, pointed out that Germany is not a growing market. "If you sell well, you are taking something away from others."
Agent Gloria Gutierrez of the Carmen Balcells office noted that Spanish publishers usually create their own picture books and in recent years were doing more fiction by their own authors. But it just wasn't possible for this first generation of Spanish children's writers to match the best that can be imported. Although co-published picture books had been priced out of the market by high production costs in the recent past, today's new technology is making it possible to consider importations again. Spain's market leaders include Santillana, SM, Edebe and Anaya--all with an assist from textbooks--but also Ediciones B, which lacks a school publishing arm. It's a growing market, with new players including Emece (which tried--and succeeded--with the Harry Potter books and is now looking for more of the same).
In the French compound, eyes were trained on Pierre Marchand, who after hoisting Gallimard to the top in France had gone over to Hachette for a makeover not only of its traditional children's lines but of its illustrated, travel and practical books as well. In another corner, Gallimard's Christine Baker was explaining the advantages of what seemed like an alliance against nature--the new partnership of upscale, non-denominational Gallimard with the Catholic mass-market press and book group, Bayard. And, unlike many of her colleagues who manifested a soupcon of Schadenfreude at the news that the mighty giant had fallen, Baker was relieved to learn during the fair that a very solid, reliable Pearson had come to the rescue of Gallimard's preferred trading partner, DK.
What Works in Europe
 | Lisa Simmons at Henry Holt confers with
French agent Jacqueline Miller. |
PW couldn't help noticing that classic storytelling with literal illustrations and no-nonsense nonfiction seemed to dominate in European markets. Thus, French-American Michel Duplaix, once Richard Scarry's outlet to the wider world, had transformed his publishing operation into a licensing agency and was successfully offering story books that might also have worked a generation or a century ago. Another Bologna regular, Jean-Manuel Bourgois, CEO of the Magnard school and children's book group, introduced the visitor to mini-imprint Mila (20 books a year), which for the third year in a row took home a Bologna prize for nonfiction. The subjects are the predictable ones--ancient Egypt, Inca civilization, prehistory and the Middle Ages--done with more than usual distinction and without gimmickry.
Ary Langbr k, CEO of Amsterdam's upscale Querido's, whose children's list is 50% translated, described a market dominated by traditional imprints working together to withstand the assault of multimedia and Internet; so far they aren't losing. For Dutch Book Week, which took place just before the Bologna fair, the theme was classical literature. A translation into Latin of a familiar Dutch children's story, done as a spoof, sold 30,000 copies.
Scandinavian publishers will tell you that things aren't so bad nowadays. Sweden is picking up, following a long period of stagnation. In Norway, North Sea oil wealth translates into book sales. Even Finland has survived the long depression that followed the collapse of its Soviet markets. In Denmark, publishers benefit from the positive attitude of parents, who want their children to read and to start reading earlier. Giant Gyldendal obliges with books for ever-younger age brackets, and here PW met Flemming Moldrup, publisher at Gyldendal (and therefore another publisher of Harry Potter). Thanks to that favorable climate and to Denmark's promising economy, Moldrup expects to be able to publish illustrated books regardless of whether partners can be found.
At the mid-March London Book Fair, Tokyo agent Ken Mori had confirmed in a rights symposium that Japanese publishing had been experiencing its most difficult time since the end of World War II. It had gone into the red in 1997 and hadn't recovered. No exception was made for children's books, save for Harry Potter, which proved that the Japanese could still have a million-copy bestseller.
In Bologna, Marika Ogawa, director of the international department of Fukuinkan Shoten, both a seller and buyer of rights and co-editions, corroborated the bad news: parents weren't buying much for their kids these days, a function of household budgeting w s. But she did see some light ahead: the market had begun to stabilize during the 1999 business year, in part because publishers were holding their prices. And Masaki Imamura, CEO of Kaisei-Sha, another top-ranker among houses specializing in children's books, attested that the downward curve has flattened out in the past 12 months. "It hasn't made us optimistic," he confessed. With a falling birth rate that is expected to continue, and so many new things that children could do with their time, what's a publisher to do? Only the largest groups, like Kodansha and Kadokawa, have tried to follow children into new media, so far without notable success despite lots of out-of-pocket money spent. As for Kaisei-Sha, it has dealt with the decline by stressing what sells best--picture books for preschoolers and more books directed at libraries (since school budgets are holding up). One book in five at Kaisei-Sha is a translation, but if that ratio increases in fiction it is likely to fall in nonfiction, since libraries look for books founded in the national culture.
The lesson in all this? Americans could see that the strong dollar was reducing the flow of U.S.-origin co-productions, even if Stephen Weitzen, in charge of licensing at Golden Books, reported that, thanks to the power of our visual media, America was once more becoming a net exporter of rights. Carolan Workman, selling for Workman on the Children's Books USA collective stand, indicated the way she was handling her markets. "One is going to have to be generous."
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