With 1,449 publishers exhibiting from a total of 75 countries, this year's Bologna Book Fair got off to a strong start, with the spring skies (mostly) cooperating, and with publishers pleased to be greeting old friends and making new ones, against the backdrop of this beloved medieval city.
The biggest star of the fair wasn't one book, as is sometimes the case, but instead a genre: fiction. Everyone was either asking for it or selling it, thanks in no small measure to the international success of a certain British boy wizard. As Eileen Pagan, subsidiary rights director at Walker and Co., observed, "Most people are not looking for picture books; they have their own well-known illustrators. And art sensibilities are very different in other countries. We're doing far better with our fiction."
Translation, though, is still an issue—more fiction continues to flow from the U.S. than flows into it, since publishers in other countries are more willing to translate fiction and readers abroad can be more receptive to foreign fiction than American readers. This did mean, however, that U.S. rights directors found themselves swamped with fiction requests. "Kids are reading books again," exulted John Lyons, managing director, international, at Little, Brown. LB's big book was a first novel, What Every Girl (Except Me) Knows by Nora Raleigh Baskin, which garnered interest from the U.K. and all over Europe, from Australia, and even from countries like Singapore, Malaysia and Croatia.
Random House's Pam White also felt that "fiction was the thing everyone wanted from us." Among the books she was selling briskly were Lord of the Nutcracker Men by Iain Lawrence ("We've had interest everywhere, and it's sold in at least eight countries"); Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares, a fall 2001 novel that was generating both international and domestic buzz; and A Mother's Gift by Britney and Lynne Spears, just out in the States and sold into the U.K. (Boxtree won it at auction), Australia, Germany, Sweden and Brazil, among other countries.
Rei Uemura, editor of children's books at Tokuma Shoten in Tokyo, whose list is 20% Japanese, 80% foreign authors, and who publishes a wide selection of top British and American writers, said that in recent years, "American fiction has been pushing too hard toward problems, and the books seem to be written to describe the problems, not the characters." FSG rights director Maria Kjoller noticed the same trend, quoting a German publisher who told her, "I've seen so many depressing books—we want happy stories now."
Kjoller's standout title was a David Klass spring novel, You Don't Know Me; it sold at auction to Penguin in the U.K. for a "significant five-figure advance, by far the highest advance we've ever received in the U.K." Other auction winners for the book included Seuil in France, De Fontein in Holland and Arena Verlag in Germany; Kjoller also sold it to Otava in Finland, saying that it was the first fiction title she could recall selling into Finland and her first Finnish deal in 15 years. She also expects to sell the novel into Scandinavia, the Spanish-speaking countries and Taiwan, and has even heard from an interested Icelandic publisher.
For rights director Pat Buckley at HarperCollins U.S., the standout project was the Abarat Quartet, Clive Barker's high fantasy series (the first volume is due in fall 2002); the stories will be accompanied by Barker's own paintings. Buckley registered interest from 26 publishers in 14 countries, and she predicted auctions in France, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands; HarperCollins U.K., Barker's originating publisher, will do the books in England. Buckley also reported a lot of interest in two YA novels, Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn and Jakarta Missing by Jane Kurtz.
For Pagan at Walker and Co., a handsome hardcover reissue of Enchantress from the Stars by Sylvia Louise Engdahl drew widespread attention. The fantasy novel, which won a Newbery Honor in 1971, had been out of print for years; Pagan brought 40 copies to the fair and ran out by the third day. "I haven't had anyone not interested—I know I'm going to be selling it very quickly," she said, mentioning strong interest in the U.K., Germany, Spain and Brazil.
Regina Griffin, editor-in-chief of Holiday House, who was selling rights at the fair, found that she loves showing the backlist. "It can be really exciting to sell an older title, where you feel you've given it a new life," she said. "Of course you spend more time at it and make much less money, but it's wonderful to sell an author into a new country and a new home."
Peachtree Publishers was in the spotlight, because its picture book The Yellow Star won the Bologna Ragazzi Nonfiction Children's Prize. President and publisher Margaret Quinlin called the award "a very positive experience all around," and said it helped stir interest in the rest of her list. The Yellow Star has sold into the U.K., Brazil, Korea and the Scandinavian countries, but, interestingly, not Denmark, the country in which the book is based. It retells a Danish legend set during the Nazi occupation, but Danes know the story isn't true, and Quinlin found that they aren't interested in a picture book that presents it as fact.
Narrative nonfiction as a genre is picking up in the States, reported Nancy Feresten, editor-in-chief of children's books at the National Geographic Society. "We're just getting to the point where we can do entertaining nonfiction for kids. Adventure is hot—Shackleton opened the door to a lot of true-life survival stories." However, she's still finding that it's difficult to sell internationally. "I'm seeing more DK permutations still, the same stuff and approach," she said.
Little, Brown editor Megan Tingley, attending her fifth Bologna, said she felt she finally knew the lay of the land. "Now I know who I want to talk to and who does books like mine," she said. "And I don't get too excited or impulsive on the first day." This year, she said, "there's not so much talk about nonfiction or launching a new character" as she'd seen in previous years.
Joan Slattery, publishing director of the Knopf and Crown imprints at Random House, said she "was being cautious, because it's my first Bologna, but I'm having a lot of stuff sent to me." Slattery noticed that a lot of books she might have expressed interest in were option books or had already been claimed. "There's a lot of good fiction out there," she said, "but it's a question of what's available. I'm forging relationships so that maybe next time I can get an early look at something."
Another first-timer was Anne Schwartz, head of Atheneum's Anne Schwartz Books imprint. She was at the fair to squire about her author Ian Falconer, creator of the internationally successful Olivia; during the fair, S&S threw a cocktail party in his honor. Other authors in attendance included Debi Gliori, Anthony Browne, Vladimir Radunsky, Kevin Crossley-Holland and even the ubiquitous Dr. Ruth, now a Golden Books author. Novelist Aidan Chambers was feted at a dinner thrown by Random House U.K. for his many foreign publishers. After the fair, rights director Linda Summers announced that Dutton had bought U.S. rights to Chambers's Postcards from No Man's Land, which won the 1999 Carnegie Medal.
A Tight Focus
Some publishers come to the fair to see what strikes their fancy; others come with more specific purposes in mind. Yet another Bologna first-timer, Kevin Jones, associate publisher of Random House U.S., arrived wearing two hats: to oversee the division's movie tie-in business (it has tie-in programs for forthcoming movies Atlantis and Monsters Inc.) and to help coordinate Random's new Disney imprint, which launched this January, by meeting with its counterparts in other parts of the world.
At Running Press, rights director Moira McCann said her company went to Bologna specifically to sell its new interactive novelty series for preschoolers, called Busy Block Books. "We set out to create a series that would travel," she said. "It's gone down particularly well with European publishers." She'll be putting together a European co-edition this year, and then targeting the Scandinavian countries.
Jim Henson's Shelley Sanderson was on hand to spread the word on The Hoobs, a half-hour show that launched in January in the U.K. ("the biggest preschool commission in U.K. history," Sanderson said, with 250 half-hour episodes ordered). It's been sold to ABC in Australia and TVO in Canada, but not yet in the States.
"Getting our name out there" was one of the primary goals for Shari Kaufman, publisher of innovativeKIDS. Kaufman said she also "wanted to get a better feel for the market, so we can produce books that translate." Its Flip and Slide series garnered a lot of interest, as did a new Pop-Up Pals line, illustrated by an artist Kaufman found at last year's fair.
Free Spirit publisher Judy Galbraith, attending her third fair, said that in the last 12 months her foreign rights business has doubled, partially due to her attendance at Bologna. She said she was starting to see more publishers with "issues-related needs" that mesh with her list, and her books are now published into 14 languages. "As countries become more middle-class," she observed, "all of the same issues may apply: depression, stress, bullying, the disconnect between teens and parents." She predicted that her foreign sales will continue to grow "exponentially" and gave word of a publisher from mainland China that wanted to take four of her books, in a series.
Over the last several years, the number of packagers exhibiting at the fair has significantly diminished. Jim Becker of becker&mayer! said that times are fairly tough for packagers these days. "You have to be really clever," he said. "Packaging only works if the perceived value of a book is much more than what it costs to print. It's really changed in the last five or 10 years. Publishers want to buy from packagers about what it costs to print; it's hard for a packager to make any money." Fortunately, Becker said, his business is driven primarily by the U.S. market, "which is big enough for us so that it works. The foreign market is an add-on for us."
For ipicturebooks.com, Byron Preiss and Harold Underdown were on hand to demonstrate what a children's book can look like as an e-book. "For people who don't know what an e-book is," Underdown said, "we're showing what they are and how they work. And once you're past that, we start talking about making agreements with publishers." He explained that they were interested in licensing e-book rights for entire lists, rather than doing book-by-book agreements. "It's really worthwhile being here," he said. "Judging from the responses, we'll wrap up some agreements right away."
The English Experience
British publishers came to Bologna in a hopeful mood; 2000 had been a tough trading year, caused partly by lack of government investment in education and partly by the narrowing down of stock by the bookselling chains. The hard figures were especially disappointing given the enormous rise in the public profile of children's books brought about by the unprecedented sales of the Harry Potter titles, the continuing and growing success of Jacqueline Wilson's books, and the enormous crossover impact of Philip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass.
Confidence in fiction is strong, fueled by the above titles and evident elsewhere, too: the success of David Almond, whose latest, Secret Heart, came out this spring in the U.K. and is due from Delacorte in the U.S. in fall 2002; Celia Rees's Witch Child, which sold over 10,000 in hardback for Bloomsbury and which Candlewick will publish this summer (a sequel is also in the works); picture book author Debi Gliori's first novel, Pure Dead Magic, a gothic romp, just published by Doubleday and bought as the first in a three-book deal by Knopf; Malorie Blackman's Noughts & Crosses, a powerful statement on racism and a major hit for Transworld this spring.
And there's more to come. Already attracting exceptional media attention is Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl (Viking in the U.K., Talk Miramax/Hyperion in the U.S.), which is seen as the title most likely to fill any space left by the absence of a J.K. Rowling title this year.
All publishers reported confidence in British fiction, with titles attracting attention from both the U.S. and Europe. Fantasy, not surprisingly given Rowling and Pullman, is seen as the most likely to succeed, though there are still many first-person teenage diaries, such as Karen McCombie's Ally's World from Scholastic, and junior imitators of Bridget Jones, on the lines of Ros Asquith's Teenage Worrier series and Louise Rennison's Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging.
Philippa Milnes-Smith of Penguin confirmed the widespread interest in British fantasy, reporting the sale of Robin Jarvis's Hagwood trilogy to Harcourt. Penguin was also selling rights for its newest acquisition, Frank and the Black Hampster of Narkiz by Livvy Michael, which it had just bought after a fiercely contested auction. Milnes-Smith, who described it as "Watership Down meets The Borrowers," said, "We don't expect to finalize deals here, but it's all about building partners. It is certainly exciting to see fiction being so important."
Scholastic had success with The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray, a gothic fantasy title by Chris Wooding, one of Scholastic's young authors. Richard Scrivener, publishing director of Scholastic U.K., pointed out that individual titles, whether fantasy or not, are now most strongly in demand. "Series publishing is not what it used to be," he said. "The success of Harry Potter has shown what can be done with a single title or author-led publishing."
The same holds true at Macmillan. Editor Marion Lloyd, whose long-term commitment to literary fiction has included publishing U.S. authors such as Sharon Creech (who recently moved to Bloomsbury for a two-book deal) and Karen Cushman as well as British authors Peter Dickinson and Eva Ibbotson, said, "At the moment the U.S. seems to want good, strong literary novels. They want crossover books following Pullman and Sachar, so they rejacket our titles in a more sophisticated way to give them that appeal."
Bloomsbury is increasingly seen as a strong fiction publisher, not just as the publisher of Harry Potter. Its success with Louis Sachar's Holes has done much to change the perception of U.S. fiction in the U.K. "Since Holes, it's been much easier for us to sell U.S. fiction," said publisher Sarah Odedina. "It used to be said that U.K. children couldn't take books from the U.S., but Holes has shown that is no longer true." Odedina is putting that to the test with Gennifer Choldenko's Notes from a Liar and Her Dog, a spring 2001 Putnam novel that she purchased at the fair from Marilyn Marlow at Curtis Brown.
But not all American fiction is to Odedina's taste. "I've been shown a lot of fiction with social issue themes recently. They tend to be too worthy for my taste. I want a book that has universal themes but that isn't too moralistic. It has far more appeal than the weighty stuff about drugs."
The success of fiction in the U.K. has been underscored by the launching this spring of no fewer than five new young adult lists. The most recently announced is Young Picador from Macmillan; its first titles will be published in autumn 2002. Kate Wilson, managing director of Macmillan Children's Books, said, "Establishing Young Picador is designed to make people think of us as acquirers of young adult fiction. It's become a very competitive area. Young Picador will give us an unparalleled opportunity to publish the very best new writing for young people, backed by the weight and excellence of the Picador name."
Hodder, too, is launching a new imprint, called Bite. The first four titles will be published in July 2001, including Sue Mayfield's Blue and David Belbin's Festival. "There's a heavy interest in good fiction just now," said managing director Mary Tapissier. "We're launching Bite to make the most of the contemporary teenage market." Little, Brown is also moving into the YA market with a new list designed to capture its adult fantasy and science fiction readers at an earlier age. Red Fox and Collins Children's Books, both longtime publishers of teenage fiction, have just created "Definitions" and "Flamingos," respectively, to highlight their YA titles.
The strength of fiction did not detract from the picture books business in Bologna, but gone are the days of putting together huge co-editions on the basis of the first sighting at the fair. Klaus Flugge of Andersen Press, who has attended every fair since the first, said, "This has been a good fair. There has been a lot of interest in picture books from all around the world. Though the quantities are small, certainly smaller than in the past, they are still coming in." His company was doing particularly well with Tony Ross's latest title, I Want to Be a Cowgirl, Emma Chichester-Clark's It Was You, Blue Kangaroo! and Ralph Steadman's Little Dot Com, which sold into five new countries, in addition to those already agreed before the fair.
Francesca Dow at Orchard agreed that "all in all, it was an extremely successful and upbeat fair." Five out of the 10 picture books Orchard took to the fair were already optioned. "We work very closely with a number of U.S. publishers from a very early stage," said Dow. "So, many U.S. publishers coming to the stand were disappointed that half the titles were not available." Orchard had two obvious favorites. The first was Miriam Moss's Scritch Scratch, illustrated by Delphine Durand, which was keenly fought over by several U.S. publishers, though the winning company has not yet been announced; Dutch rights were sold in Bologna, with likely sales in several other European countries. (Since the plot concerns a classroom invaded by head lice, Scritch Scratch got a lot of fair buzz as "the head lice book.") The second title was Ursula Jones's The Witch's Children, illustrated by Russell Ayto, also sought after by American publishers. Dow, who has successfully veered the Orchard list away from its delicate and rather too-pretty image, said, "You can't get away with a sweetish, softish story; backbone is needed. The need is for strong texts, a distinctive authorial voice, fresh and playfully quirky artwork—and humor."
But behind the actual title-by-title business, there had been some major changes among British publishers during the year which were evident at this year's fair. Transworld joining the Random House stand reflected the new relationship between the two companies. Managing to maintain its separate identity and style, the small, finely tuned Transworld list retains its family feeling and gives no impression of having been swallowed up. Equally, Random House, with its proliferation of imprints, looked more coherent. Transworld rights director, Rebecca Winfield sees the shared resources such as rights as entirely beneficial to both sides. "The stand has been busier for all of us," she said.
Random House's profile has been further enhanced by the arrival of David Fickling Books from Scholastic. Though just over a year old, the David Fickling list has had a raft of successes with Jan Mark's The Eclipse of the Century, Adèle Geras's Troy, Tony Mitton's poetry collection The Red Spotted Handkerchief and, of course, Philip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass. Fickling himself was only in Bologna for a day but his list continued to attract great attention.
Random House's gain has been Scholastic's loss. Fickling, backed by Scholastic, has an exceptional reputation for allowing authors to write without constraints as to length or difficulty of subject matter or style. While Scholastic will keep Fickling's backlist, it is likely to lose some of the authors mentioned above. Scrivener, however, is optimistic about the future strength of Scholastic fiction, especially for older readers.
Walker, too, had a distinctly different feel, with Jane Winterbotham and Denise Johnstone-Burt both making their mark as the new generation of Walker leaders. Though chairman David Lloyd is still very much in charge, Winterbotham hosted the meeting for the 20 international publishers of Lucy Cousins's Maisy books, gathered to discuss future publishing policy. Johnstone-Burt is building a robust novelty book list, including Robert Crowther's Football and a first novelty book for Anthony Browne, The Animal Fair.
Overarching all these recent moves and restructuring, the major concern among British publishers was who would succeed Philippa Milnes-Smith when she leaves the company sometime in the next few months. Widely respected, Milnes-Smith signaled her intention to step down after five years as managing director at Puffin and 15 years with the company. She was noncommittal about her reasons for leaving, but the general view is that the absence of a place for the head of Puffin on the main Penguin board must be one of them. Penguin U.K. CEO Anthony Forbes-Watson's absence from the fair meant that all speculation was possible and that it could continue without check—and it did.
A Comeback in Asia
Perhaps the biggest surprise in the fair's non-English-speaking pavilions was the growth of participation from the Far East, with extra-large contingents from the relatively new markets of Taiwan and mainland China, but also the conspicuous return of publishers from countries that had been in deep economic distress. The South Koreans were certainly in a buying mode. "They're taking everything!" exclaimed an overworked Nilli Cohen, representing Israeli children's books for the Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature. Lois Kim, international rights and sales manager for Seoul's Woongjin.com—the trendy new logo for the Woongjin publishing empire whose chief products remain paper-based—explained that despite the slump in the general economy and a publishing crisis, the children's market sails along, and in fact has expanded in every recent year. "It's because of the absolute priority parents give to the education of their children."
While a large group of Korean publishers had made the trip to Bologna, few had taken booths (although there was talk of sharing a collective stand next year). Woongjin itself had not been exhibiting in recent times, but returned this year and intends to show at every major fair including mainland China's. The company is strong in series publications, notably with quality books for children, but also does one-shots, study books and periodicals for schools, and reference sets sold door to door.
Kim had come to town as part of a 10-person contingent and was getting much rights interest from visitors to the stand (only the Chinese were talking about copublishing or joint printings). She'll also be showing Woongjin's line of digitized products at Frankfurt. (Then why not at Bologna? Because it wished to present itself as a content publisher first.)
At the fair's agents center, PW sat down with Tachi Nagasawa of the Japan Uni agency, which sells rights into Japan for some of America's biggest children's publishers. She too could report that, while Japanese book sales were declining, children's books have held up, and indeed sales rose slightly last year—although "publishers don't want to admit it." And it is just possible that Harry Potter alone was responsible for the black ink (Potter #2—the latest to appear in Japanese—sold some 600,000 copies). Japanese representation at Bologna held steady; Nagasawa guessed that some publishing people had made the trip, with some 30 imprints represented on a dozen stands. At least one of her customers, Shogakukan, Japan's number one in the general trade and publisher of the Pokémon books, has made clear its intention to expand its children's list. "Harry Potter opened a lot of eyes," she said.
Of Europe and Euros
In Germany concentration is the name of the game. There are still some 60 or 70 children's publishers registered with the combined publishers/booksellers trade association, yet on examination most of them can be tracked to larger groups. But then little houses spring up all the time, explained Viktor Niemann, CEO of the Bonnier companies in Germany—including Carlsen Verlag, a leader in children's books—suggesting that it's a lively market all the same.
Carlsen happens to be the German publisher of Harry Potter, and three million copies were sold of HP#4 (released after the Frankfurt Fair last autumn). "Children's books are one of the rare growth sectors in German publishing," Niemann said, "outpacing other strong areas such as pocket books."
PW also talked to Harry Potter's French publisher, Hedwige Pasquet of Gallimard, who found that it was a good year not only for her company but for the Bologna fair. "People know what they want. There's less shuffling of pages to find something interesting." She was struck by the low profile adopted by producers of multimedia, the disappearance of CD-ROMs—although projects involving the Internet were clearly on the rise.
The big story at Gallimard was the joint venture with Bayard, a large and largely mass-market Catholic publisher strong in periodicals. "We are more author-oriented, Bayard more children-oriented; the two are or should be complementary," said Pasquet. "It's important for us to maintain the two brands, for they correspond to separate kinds of readers." She made it clear that each house has retained its editorial independence; the fusion is apparent only on the selling side—a Gallimard person handles rights and co-editions for both companies, while Bayard is responsible for promotion.
With some 300 new titles a year at Gallimard, another 200 at Bayard, the combined group was the country's leading children's publisher even before Harry Potter, responsible for nearly a quarter of the total market. Gallimard Jeunesse had been the brainchild of Pierre Marchand, who moved to Hachette two years ago. To accommodate Marchand's various talents his new bosses created a new company for him, calling it Hachette Illustrated (combining the resources of Hachette, its art imprints Hazan and Chêne, and British affiliate Orion). "To expand as a publisher and to be taken seriously you have to publish in English," said Marchand, explaining the use of English in the logo of the new entity.
Good, gray Hachette had been known for traditional children's books which changed only imperceptibly from one generation to the next. Among Marchand's first achievements was a makeover of these series, and then came some rigorous planning for an entry into new media. Hachette had been the French leader in nonfiction—until Pierre Marchand's tour of duty at Gallimard. Now he intends to see Hachette climb back. He began by launching a new 3-D series whose digitized drawings seem to add a fourth dimension (it has already been placed in seven other language markets). Then at Bologna this year he could be seen leading potential partners into a windowless room to meet Big Bang. A book? More than that. A CD-ROM? And then some. Each title in the Big Bang series will steer readers to further reference materials, with a link to bigbang-net.com, whose search engine leads to visual information, games and quizzes, and the possibility of exchanging experiences with readers and classrooms around the globe. The first four titles (in natural sciences, human and animal life, history and civilization, and science and technology) are due in October.
A spot check of French publishers suggested that the adoption of the euro to replace national currencies (including French francs, German marks, Italian lire and Spanish pesetas) is being carefully prepared. Egged on by their governments, publishers have been writing contracts in the new currency since the beginning of this year. Mirelle Debenne, international rights and co-edition manager at Vivendi Universal Education (formerly Havas Education and Reference, and including Larousse and Bordas), found that some of her foreign partners resisted the introduction of euro equivalents at first. On the other hand, some Americans—who had always insisted on quoting prices in dollars rather than francs—accepted euro quotes right away, apparently realizing that they won't make a difference in value or convertibility. At Editions Grasset, rights manager Marie-Hélène d'Ovideo has been placing euro equivalents alongside francs so that she and her trading partners can get used to the future single currency.
It's no surprise that U.S. publishers prefer that Hachette do its contracts in dollars, and Hachette goes along with them, explained Hachette Illustrated's international director David Inman, who himself prefers euros because it will be the stable currency for translations between euro-zone countries.
With Harry or Without
Thanks to the most recent Harry Potter, explained Luigi Spagnol, his Salani imprint is Italy's market leader despite its size (Salani does 65—70 new titles a year, to Mondadori's 300-plus titles). Spagnol published Prisoner of Azkaban in February 2000, beginning with a 40,000-copy first printing, and got up to a quarter of a million; Goblet of Fire, issued this past February, attained an unheard-of 400,000 copies. All but four or five new books issued each year at Salani are translations; among the authors here are Roald Dahl, Jacqueline Wilson, Philip Pullman, Roddy Doyle and Jostein Gaarder. Even without Harry, Spagnol asserted, his house would be among Italy's leaders in sales, and "higher than that in quality."
PW also called at fast-growing Piemme, a logo spelling out the initials of founder Pietro Marietti, who sees his house as number one in Italian children's fiction, number two in general children's books after Mondadori. Elisabetta Dami, CEO of junior books and a house author, now owns a third of the company; the news is that Italy's large publishing and distribution group Messaggerie Italiane, part owner of Salani, has entered into Piemme's capital to the tune of 10%.
According to Marietti, Italy's is a lively children's market nowadays; if sales don't show it, there is evidence that actual reading of books purchased has risen steadily. Piemme has long been involved in reading programs and now sponsors a foundation named after its Steamboat series to promote reading (and not only of its own titles). A character it launched only a year ago, the mouse Geronimo Stilton, is the hero—and self-proclaimed author—of (so far) 21 little books for ages four and up (to 10), which together have racked up sales of 400,000 copies. Rare in today's Italy, the books export easily (to Germany's Bertelsmann, for example). More, Geronimo is the hero of what Piemme is advertising as the first original e-book for children, presumably to distinguish it from e-books adapted from print-on-paper texts that could be seen elsewhere in the fair. Four of Piemme's Humorous Tails, e-books using Microsoft Reader technology, are already available in English (soon to be released via Barnes & Noble).
Meanwhile, Mondadori was filling the press with pictures of its touring author David Grossman, who cut the opening ribbon to the fair. It turned out that Grossman's latest book, Duel, an adventure told in the manner of a detective story, has been published by Bloomsbury in the U.K. (where it pulled down the Marsh Award for last year's best young adult novel)—but still had no American publisher.
PW met with Juan de Isasa, president of the Madrid Publishers Association and CEO of SM, which shares leadership of the Spanish school market with Santillana and Anaya—the three groups together hold some 60% of the market; in Spain children's publishing is almost always an adjunct to textbook production. (SM probably holds the edge in Spain, while in Spanish America Santillana leads both in school and trade.) Some 15,000 titles in Spain's annual total of 50,000 are children's trade books, and SM accounts for up to 450 of those. At the same time, half of the books sold in Latin America come from Spanish publishers.
SM publishes via its own companies in Mexico, Argentina and Chile—but also in Brazil, which curiously enough has become another Spanish-language market—apparently it's a way for Brazil to spread its influence. SM's Isasa describes the Spanish children's market as stable—on one hand there's a declining birth rate, on the other a gratifying rise in literacy and purchasing power to compensate. And then Latin American markets are booming, a result of an evident political will to increase reading. Thus SM's Mexican affiliate, launched four years ago, has been growing 25% a year after a slow start. Brazil is also a growth market; Argentina will become one as soon as its current economic difficulties are resolved.
Barcelona-based international agent Ute Körner, who sells into Spain for some of Germany's leading children's publishers, is convinced that her market is expanding. She points to the example of—what else?—the Harry Potter books; the latest sold a phenomenal quantity in Spanish terms—250,000 copies—for Salamandra (the new name for Barcelona's Emecé Editores, the imprint of Pedro del Carrill and Sigrid Kraus now separated from its Argentine parent house). "Publishers now tell us that they are ready to do other big children's books. They say, 'If Harry Potter works let's try some others.' "
This year the Netherlands was Bologna's guest country and the star of a special exhibition of 50 Dutch illustrators alongside the annual Illustrators Exhibition. The Dutch throw a party each year in one of Bologna's small palazzi: to mark the occasion, several additional splendidly decorated rooms had been opened up to accommodate an expanded guest list. Did all this signify a booming market? Rudi Wester of the Dutch Translation Foundation told PW that her country's children's publishers were doing better than their adult counterparts.
And a call was made to Nord-Süd Verlag, a Swiss imprint located just outside Zurich; a family company, it is something of an international phenomenon, publishing as it does in several major languages under its own imprint (via North-South Books in New York and other production offices in France, the Netherlands and Italy, in addition to having distribution facilities in the U.K. and Japan). The group was celebrating its 40th anniversary at Bologna. PW spoke to Marianne Martens, director of subsidiary rights, responsible for the foreign-language program for books produced in the United States (including Spanish as well as English). In all, Zurich does some 40 releases annually—board books, picture books, fairy tales and plush products among them—and most find their way to New York. A separate U.S. imprint, SeaStar Books publishes American authors and illustrators; when appropriate these books cross the ocean in the opposite direction, for adaptation into other language markets from Zurich headquarters.
Martens sold a new North-South picture book, A Cat and a Dog, into Korea, with strong interest from Japan and China. She also mused on the unpredictability of Bologna. "You never know what will sell," she said. "We sold a novel, Annie Bitts, Burger Kid, to a Greek publisher [Castor] at the fair."
That sort of serendipity is one of the great pleasures of attending a fair like this one, that plus seeing the output of children's publishers throughout the world on display all in one place. As S&S's Anne Schwartz said, after touring the fair's various pavilions, "I was struck by what a huge community we are. I was not aware of how broad a range of art styles and designs there are for children's books. It's opened up a new world for me." Next year's fair dates: April 3—6.
