Though it opened and closed on the eve of the American/British—led war with Iraq, very real concerns about what was happening in the world did little to detract from the business (and pleasure) of the London Book Fair, which took place from March 16—18.
Attendance reached a record high this year, with 13,500 total visitors (a 19% increase from last year), approximately 5,000 from outside the U.K. (a 20% jump) and just over 3,000 booksellers (up by 17%). In the rights center on the second floor balcony above the show floor, business buzzed at a level rivaling that of Frankfurt, with 393 tables (up 16%). The possibility that travel fears would deter foreign agents and publishers—especially from the U.S. and Canada—proved unfounded. Those who did have second thoughts about traveling were most concerned about airline cancellations stranding them in London, but most seemed to think there are worse things than being stuck in London (like being left in Frankfurt.)
Overall, the strong showing of international players this year in the face of such challenges established once and for all the London fair's place and importance in the rhythm of worldwide publishing. "Now the international community has on its calendar that March is London, May is BEA, October is Frankfurt," observed Alistair Burtenshaw, LBF's exhibition director. "I think there is very much a feeling among fairs that we each have our own niche."
Even the weather seemed to cooperate, as spring smiled upon a city decorated in daffodils. Sunlight streamed through the vaulted windows of Olympia's Grand Hall, which is part airline hanger, part Victoria station. "We ought to start selling suntan lotion," quipped someone from the New Era Publications booth to a Time Warner counterpart across the aisle.
While there was no breakaway book this year, there was much chatter about a possible W.H. Smith purchase of the Time Warner book division from America Online—a purchase that did not, in the end, come to pass. The mood in London was emphatically upbeat.
"Last year was the turning point," said Patrick Janson-Smith, managing director of Transworld Publishers. "Publishers from the U.S. realized that if they weren't here, then they missed something." Suzanne Baboneau, publishing director of Simon & Schuster UK, also noted the strong American presence: "All the key people are here, and all the European publishers are here, and we're all comparing notes."
Sometimes they do more than that, as was the case at the fair-opening party hosted by HarperCollins, where PW happened upon CEO Jane Friedman and Grove Atlantic's Morgan Entrekin as they discussed Deafening by Frances Etani, a much-talked-about book at last year's Frankfurt, and due out this fall in Canada published by the former, and in the U.S. by the latter. London is a place for many such meetings of the minds.
Unlike the party-heavy schedule of BEA, London affords the chance for colleagues from various houses to attend each other's events. Mingling at the opening night party with Harper General Book Group publisher Cathy Hemming, Children's Book Group publisher Susan Katz and U.K. publisher Victoria Barnsley was a veritable who's who of publishing from both sides of the Atlantic. While talking with Overlook's Peter Mayer, PW spotted Nibbie publisher of the year Jamie Byng from Canongate chatting with Random UK's CEO Gail Rebuck. Over their shoulders: Knopf's Sonny Mehta talking to U.S. agent Jean Naggar. Andrew Wylie tried to pass himself off to an unsuspecting LBF first-timer as Ed Victor while the real Ed Victor stood not far away. Everyman Library's David Campbell proclaimed the Harper bash "always the best in London"—though this was only its second year.
As for other LBF parties, apparently the Carlisle & Co. and Conville & Walsh event at the Polish Club was the place to be and be seen on Monday night, St. Patrick's Day; although the competing Thames & Hudson bash celebrating the launch of its new line of illustrated Style City guides featured, as its centerpiece, a mirrored Ford Capri and specially created cocktails coordinated to match the sharp book jackets. Of course, the place to end up that night was the Canongate, Grove/Atlantic and De Bezige Bij party, which offered three floors of smoky schmoozing and a quirky acoustic band that inspired dancing described by Chronicle Books CEO Nion McEvoy as "mosh-pit unplugged." And, yes, that was Jamie Byng spinning on the dance floor into the wee hours of the morning.,
PW caught up with a post-party Friedman donning dark glasses on Monday afternoon—and she had much to celebrate. In one of the few really big deals at the show, Harper signed what is believed to be a seven-figure one with Wylie for the second novel by Ann-Marie MacDonald, whose first, Fall on Your Knees, grabbed Oprah gold. "I've been waiting to get her," said editor Terry Karten. It's titled The Way the Crow Flies, and Harper will publish it this fall in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia (see Hot Deals, Apr. 7). Friedman, who arrived a week early to meet many of the new hires on the Harper UK executive team (most recently Caroline Michel from Vintage), said London '03 solidified the company's global reach. "It's now moved Harper into exactly the position we need to be," she added.
Bloomsbury flexed its international publishing muscles with a widely talked about pre-LBF deal for the U.S. and U.K. release of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, a first novel by Susanna Clarke, an editor at S&S in Cambridge. "We know how to deal with magic," CEO Nigel Newton told PW while standing in his booth dominated by an image of Harry Potter and bannered simply, "21st June 2003." Editor-in-chief Alexandra Pringle explained that she bought the Clarke book, which is about two 19th-century English magicians, based on a 750-page partial manuscript. "I can't remember when I was this excited about a book," said Karen Rinaldi, editorial director of Bloomsbury USA. Newton said he expected to make 10 foreign rights sales at the LBF, and there were seven on the table at last count. "It may as well be the biggest novel published in 2004," he told PW. "We're being a bit hyperbolic," he continued, pointing to the sign above his head touting that other magician. "But there was another time when we were hyperbolic. We'll just have to wait and see."
Grove's big score at the fair came from France's Plom, The Last Night of the Damned by Slimane Benaïssa, an Algerian who writes about a young Syrian man, living in Silicon Valley with his parents, who becomes involved with fundamentalist Islam and trains to be one of the 9/11 terrorists. Two days before the fair, Entrekin bought Polish-Russian War Under a White and Red Flag by Dorota Maslowska, a prize-winning bestseller in Poland, written by a 19-year-old woman. "A friend of mine told me about it and said it was like F. Scott Fitzgerald crossed with Bret Easton Ellis," he explained. "We're translating it quickly," he added. Grove has world rights and has already sold the book in France, Italy, Russia, Hungry and the Netherlands, with Germany pending at press time. Another pre-LBF deal for Grove involved a significant three-book acquisition of European bestseller Donna Leon's work. A fall publication is planned for Uniform Justice in hardcover, to coincide with the mass market paperback release of A Noble Radiance, the third book to come out of a new Grove/Penguin arrangement.
On Monday, at the Time Warner booth, U.K. editorial director Alan Samson said, "I haven't found anything that I've got my mark on, but there's still time." Meanwhile, the house picked up In Our Lifetime, Elinor Sisulu's biography of her parents: Walter, an African National Congress member who was imprisoned with Nelson Mandela, and Albertina, who carried on the struggle while he was behind bars. Mandela has written a foreword. South African agent Isobel Dixon from Blake Friedmann brokered the deal.
At Random House, the buzz was about the U.K. division joining its U.S. counterpart in continuing to publish the Mario Puzo legacy, which made Random chief Gail Rebuck happy. She also beamed about a forthcoming illustrated book by Karin Slaughter about "Sensation," the controversial Brooklyn Museum exhibit of art from the Charles Saatchi collection. "We commissioned this book three weeks ago, and we are now showing it to foreign publishers," he said. "Illustrated books are always big international deals."
"American fiction is traveling really well right now," observed Baboneau at S&S UK, referring to a new novel by Leslie Schnur about a dog walker in New York City recently bought by Judith Curr; it will be published in paper in the U.K. next summer. Baboneau was also high on two new books by Lynda La Plante (Prime Suspect), to be published by Random in the U.S., that bring a new character to the page.
Fiona McCrae, publisher of Graywolf, credits her meeting with Baboneau in London with helping her sell The House on Eccles Road by Judith Kitchen. It was taken by Ireland's Town House, which works closely with S&S UK. McCrae told PW she hadn't been to the LBF since 1999; she plans to make it an annual event from now on. "When I was first at Graywolf, I felt that I shouldn't overload the list with everything British," she said. "But I feel I've been restrained enough." McCrae also came armed with a Lannan Foundation grant earmarked for translations.
At any book fair, everyone seems to have their own agenda; London first-timer Munro Magruder, marketing and rights director at New World Library, had his eye on distributors. "My favorite subject is what the new AMS/High Marketing Airlift/PGW entity will look like," he said. Sure, he was willing to buy and sell, but he said making connections with people is the most important reason for coming to London. "I stopped by a booth to talk with a New Zealand distributor and, lo and behold, a distributor from Singapore came by. And I'm looking for a distributor in Southeast Asia."
The U.S. distribution company Independent Publishers Group has been a presence at both London and Frankfurt for several years. "Before I started coming here, we didn't have any international clients," said IPG president Mark Suchomel. "They make our list that much more interesting." But he only has eyes for publishers serious about making books for an American audience. As for London, he said, "it's a great place to meet with all of these people from around the world all in one place at one time."
For the first time, children's publisher Anderson Press had its own booth on the floor. Publisher Klaus Flugge noted that more and more publishers are using London to get a jump on their competitors before Bologna. "There are some publishers [of mostly adult books] that don't necessarily go to Bologna, or who are just waking up to children's books, that we see here," he told PW. During the fair, he met with publishers from mainland China, Croatia, Poland, Slovenia and Estonia. Flugge used to work London out of the Random House booth, his distributor. He said having his own booth gave him more space to display books, and with co-publishing deals in illustrated books, "you have to see these things."
Meanwhile, upstairs in the Rights Center, more agents and publishers than ever took tables to make deals. "The agents center at Frankfurt is off in Siberia, while this is wonderful and airy, despite the smoke," said Sourcebooks' Todd Stocke to colleague Hillel Black. "This is Westchester," joked Black.
Although the center was humming with activity, there was no big buzz about any one deal. "There are not many big books as compared to other years," observed Gloria Gutierrez of Agencia Literaria Carmen Balcells, although she was happy with the traffic and had only one cancellation, which she quickly filled. Georgia Morley, editorial director of Pan Macmillan, offered her own take on the show: "No one seems to be killing themselves running around trying to acquire things." Also, as Isobel Dixon noted, "as agents, we like to make lots and lots of little deals and medium deals."
"They add up," said Overlook's Mayer about such deals. While he might choose Frankfurt to launch books like Robert Littell's The Company and Charles McCarry's The Old Boys, in London, making deals for Littell's entire backlist (which he happens to carry along with him everywhere) and a U.K. deal for McCarry was his goal. "For your list as a whole, and for a somewhat less pressured environment, the London Book Fair is important," said Mayer. Although 25% of Overlook's list is British, Mayer said he makes an effort not to see British publishers in Frankfurt.
While much is made of the huge growth of London as a rights fair, Gloria Bailey, manager of the U.K.'s Publishers Association, said much business gets done on the floor. "Six or seven years ago, people would be packing up today," she said on the final afternoon of LBF. "But now, the quality of the business here has gotten so much better, so people are booked right up to the end." K.T. Forster, managing director of Virgin Books, concurred: "We write orders here." PW noted that the sound of packing tape unrolling was not heard in the hall until well after 4 p.m.—and of how many book fairs can that be said?
