Momentous world events, from the war in Iraq to the outbreak of the SARS virus, as well as some gloomy spring weather, threatened to cast a pall over the 40th annual Bologna Children's Book Fair (April 2—5). But things proceeded smoothly at the rights confab, with attendees embracing more than ever the common sense of purpose—a dedication to children's publishing—that brings them to Italy each year.
Large rainbow banners proclaiming "pace" hung from the windows of homes and businesses throughout the city of Bologna (and all of Italy), a symbol that many attendees found moving. A number of fairgoers called it "surreal" to return from a day of international harmony to turn on the TV in their hotel rooms and see nonstop television coverage of the war on CNN. "In many ways, the fair has been like a vacuum from the outside world," commented Clara Hillen, publisher of Uitgeverij Hillen in Amsterdam. Christine Baker, publisher of France's Gallimard Jeunesse, remarked, "The climate here is so friendly and amicable. We've heard not a word of animosity. Everyone wants business to carry on."
Because of cancellations, overall attendance at this year's fair was down by 10%, according to fair officials (1,100 exhibitors from 62 countries attended, vs. last year's 1,376 exhibitors from 55 countries).
Tim Schwarz, rights and permissions manager of Lerner Publishing Group, echoed the observations of many other exhibitors when he commented, "There's been much less traffic in the aisles this year." (Some of the lighter traffic, however, could be thanks to tighter restrictions the fair has placed on local attendees.) Karen Lotz, president of Candlewick, added, "It seems like there were lots of people missing, but it didn't affect us."
Most of those missing were from Asian countries, where SARS created significant travel difficulties. "My flight over was almost empty," said Yuki Katsura, an agent for Japan Uni Agency in Tokyo. SARS was also a source of concern for Barbara Howson (v-p, rights and licensing) and Karen Boersma (v-p, associate publisher) of Kids Can Press in Toronto. "We're more nervous about SARS than anything else right now," said Howser. "When we left, several of our hospitals were shut down, and we don't know exactly how things have progressed since we've been here."
A handful of Americans, most noticeably the entire Harcourt trade division, also stayed home, citing international travel concerns. By and large, however, most of the U.S. contingent was in attendance. Sue Tarsky, editorial director of children's books at BBC Worldwide, said, "I was so glad to see the Americans en masse. Every day I'd check my fax machine thinking this would be the day I'd see mass cancellations, and it never happened."
High-Flying Fiction
Much of the business at this year's fair revolved around the pursuit or purveyance of novels. The current strength of this particular category led many publishers to deem this "the golden age of fiction." With fiction in such demand, high-profile auctions are multiplying, and several took place on the eve of this year's Bologna fair, to create buzz and drum up interest. "Auctions are reaching amounts we couldn't imagine just a year ago," said Sarah Odedina, children's publisher of Bloomsbury. Her American counterpart, Victoria Wells Arms, testifying to the demand for fiction, observed, "I had a meeting at OUP where just about every piece of fiction was already sold."
At its core, the bustle of activity in the middle-grade and young adult arenas is a reflection of demographics. The birth rate is decreasing in many countries, and the number of picture-book readers are on the decline. However, the tots who fueled the picture-book boom of five to 10 years ago are now reading chapter books and longer fare. And, of course, the phenomenal success of Harry Potter is a significant factor as well, since readers who fell under the boy wizard's spell in the late 1990s still comprise a large book-buying audience.
Harry Potter and other properties that have dominated bestseller lists over the past year (the Series of Unfortunate Events books by Lemony Snicket and Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl trilogy) continue to loom large when it comes to identifying fiction trends worldwide. Fantasy is still hot, with fantasy trilogies seemingly ubiquitous. "For a long while, fantasy was truly niche publishing," said Elise Howard, executive publishing director at HarperCollins. "It's now mainstream fiction. Everyone I've seen has had fantasy titles to sell. Sales are still strong; they'll settle down, but the plateau will be much higher than it was before."
Deals for fantasy titles were some of the most talked-about this year. Though deals are rarely made on the spot these days (especially fiction, which involves longer reading and/or translation time), there are always a few exceptions. Liza Baker, editorial director of Hyperion Books for Children, snapped up a trilogy called The Illmoor Chronicles by first-time British author David Lee Stone, after an overnight reading at the fair of The Ratastrophe Catastrophe, the first installment. Hyperion placed a preemptive offer of $500,000 for the trio of books that Lisa Holton, publisher, Disney Global Children's Books, described as a "darkly humorous adventure." Hodder Children's Books will publish The Ratastrophe Catastrophe in the U.K. this June and the U.S. edition should hit bookstores next year. The deal was brokered by literary agent Sophie Hicks of London's Ed Victor Ltd. Hicks was the lucky recipient of Stone's manuscript, which his mother is said to have retrieved from the frustrated writer's trash and submitted on his behalf.
Author Philip Pullman has penned a companion to his bestselling His Dark Materials trilogy entitled Lyra's Oxford, to be published by David Fickling Books U.K. in association with Knopf Books for Young Readers in the U.S. Pullman's agent, Caradoc King of A.P. Watt, was at the fair to preside over the completion of the U.S. deal. Lyra's Oxford is a short story with illustrations by John Lawrence, set after the end of The Amber Spyglass. Fickling described it as "pure storytelling delight. In my view, it is one of the finest pieces of writing that Philip Pullman has ever produced."
Louisa Young's Lionboy, published by Puffin, was sold in a high-profile auction to Dial Books for Young Readers just before the fair. "It's very magical and a wonderful adventure story," said Puffin marketing director Elaine McQuade. Fifteen countries have been signed up so far, and film rights went to Dreamworks before the fair.
HarperCollins U.K. made two big purchases of first-time authors in March. One of those, Katherine Langrish's Troll Fell, went for a six-figure sum following a fierce auction. Managing director Sally Gritten described it as "a page-turning yarn. It doesn't use any of the language of fantasy, but it has the fantastic elements of Vikings, trolls and legends." HC will also publish it in the States.
Odedina of Bloomsbury announced that "for the first time ever" she had completed a deal at Bologna (though the agreement was months in the making). She finalized details for buying Septimus Heap, the first title in a fantasy trilogy by Angie Sage, from HarperCollins U.S. "It's a very funny fantasy," she said. "It's exactly what we're looking for."
Bloomsbury had also bought Anna Dale's Whispering for Witches, a "gentle fantasy for eight-to-twelves" from agent Abner Stein, just before the fair and were doing brisk business in it at the fair with four or five deals already signed up. "Fantasy's on such a wave at the moment," said Odedina. "The market is hungry for it just as much as it was a year ago—if not more."
Simon & Schuster sub rights manager Angharad Kowal had her biggest success with the faerie-filled Spiderwick Chronicles books by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi, just published in the States, which she was selling as a "serial," not a series. As of the third day of the fair, she was up to 15 languages sold; the company threw an impromptu stand party for all of the books' foreign publishers.
First-time attendee Nancy Siscoe, executive editor of Knopf and Crown, said she was now seeing a number of sub-genres within the fantasy genre: "time travel, dragons, gentle alternate universes, ecological fantasy. The range is incredible. And the fantasy trilogy is such a phenomenon that it's refreshing to hear 'this is just one book.' " Siscoe said she was asking publishers for middle-grade fiction, because "there's a lot of YA, and middle-grade is harder to find. It used to be you wanted to buy middle-grade because YA wouldn't sell at all!"
Some publishers believe that fantasy as a genre may be finally cooling off. "Everyone's looking for the successor to fantasy," observed Flemming Møldrop, publisher of Gyldendal in Copenhagen. "We're in a time of limbo now. No one knows yet what it is going to be." As Harry Potter's publisher in Denmark, however, Møldrop still has as his main priority the publication of the new title, and getting a speedy translation that will also "keep up standards," to limit sales of English-language editions into his country.
Møldrop said that at the fair he was looking for books based in real life, dealing with contemporary issues—"more personal books," as he put it. He's buying in less and less ("our market wants domestic books"), and is originating more nonfiction, explaining, "It takes a lot of time and money, but it's worth it."
Kevin Williams, executive v-p, business development of Raincoast Books in Vancouver, B.C., commented on the "ever-broadening circles of fiction," noting that "historical fiction is coming back—in solid books that are firmly placed in the period and that use less time-travel or other gimmicks."
Houghton Mifflin's Margaret Raymo bought a historical novel from Averbode in Belgium. Called Kipling's Choice and written by Geert Spillebeen, it's based on fact, which she found appealing. "Rudyard Kipling had an only son who was gung-ho about going off to war [WWI]," she said, "and when the son was refused by the military for bad eyesight, Kipling pulled strings to get him in. He went to the front, and was killed on his first day of battle. It's got a pretty strong antiwar message, which also had appeal for me right now." Raymo will have it translated from the Flemish and will publish in spring 2005.
Howard of HarperCollins is one of several who commented on a trend toward humor. "I've noticed more funny mainstream fiction for girls," she said, "and fewer gritty teen books." Viking rights director Helen Boomer also found that publishers were asking for humorous stories. "Everyone has dark fiction on their list," she said. "People are looking for a change."
"Dark" fiction is far from disappearing, however. The second major pre-fair acquisition for HarperCollins U.K. was what Gritten called a "hard-hitting and ultimately very gritty" teenage novel, Come Clean, by debut author Terri Paddock.
Along these same lines, many people were talking about U.K. Children's Laureate Anne Fine's scorching attack on Melvin Burgess's forthcoming novel, Doing It. In her review, published in the Guardian just before the fair, Fine declared it to be a "grubby book which demeans both young women and young men" and unsuitable for a children's list. "All of the publishers who have touched this novel... should pulp their own copies now," she wrote. Burgess and his publisher, Klaus Flugge at Andersen Press, were unfazed by the criticism; at the fair Flugge signed deals with Carlsen in Germany, Gallimard Jeunesse in France and Holt in the U.S.
Literary agent Andrew Wylie, known for his adult book client list, was in attendance to oversee the progress of Madonna's first foray into children's books, The English Roses—and yes, Puffin assured PW, she did write it herself. Madonna's long picture-book text, which is to be illustrated by five as-yet-undisclosed illustrators, had been sold before the fair into 27 countries, including the U.S., where it will be published by Callaway Editions and distributed by Penguin USA.
Privately, some eyebrows were raised at Wylie's presence (and the appearance of a handful of other representatives from the adult book world). One American editor speculated that these types may enjoy what amounts to "recruiting from the farm team," as many of them do not consider children's books major league. "But most adult publishers simply don't have the body of knowledge about children's books," the editor added.
Notable this year were the number of film agents in attendance, as demand grows for children's and "family-friendly" properties. Several sub rights directors commented on how many meetings had been scheduled to discuss movie and TV rights; a separate area of the agents center had been created to accommodate these attendees.
A Picture's Worth Smaller Print Runs
Fiction may have grabbed much of the attention at Bologna, but the picture-book business chugged along, too, if at a slower pace than years past. Where once artwork traveled as print reproduction of varying quality, it can now wing its way around the world (via digital technology) in perfect condition. The element of excitement and surprise—the wow factor—has largely gone from the stands, since many publishers are now able to show their picture-book wares long before the fair.
Also, despite the difficulties in the U.K. trade market, publishers there are now more able to do picture books without the need for large print runs put together from all over the world. At Macmillan, managing director Kate Wilson said, "We're very good at co-editions and we do a lot of rights sales, but we've never canceled a book because we didn't get enough co-editions. We'd just do it alone."
Odedina at Bloomsbury also called the co-edition market tough: "It's certainly not like it was seven or even five years ago. People are not looking to the U.K. for color origination. More and more, people are publishing their own books for their own markets." That said, she'd brought an extra person to the fair just to concentrate on co-editions, saying, "If we focus on that, we can increase our co-edition business."
Co-editions are declining in Germany, according to Edmut Gross, editor for Carlsen Verlag in Hamburg, where the picture-book market has become very "difficult." "Print runs that used to be 8,000 to 10,000 copies are now often down to 4,000 to 5,000," she said.
By and large, U.S. publishers continued to play it conservatively when it came to picture books, citing a stagnant market and a wealth of titles already available. "Niche picture books" were on Laura Godwin's shortlist of desirable Bologna properties for Henry Holt. She signed one deal just prior to the fair for Our Twitchy by Kes Gray and Mary McQuillan, a Random House U.K. picture book about a horse and cow that adopt a rabbit. But, in general, "we're cutting back on picture books," Godwin said.
Another Random U.K. title (under the Hutchinson imprint) garnered a fair amount of attention: Nicholas Allan's new picture book, Where Willy Went, the story of a sperm who was a good swimmer but "not very good at maths," who takes part in the Great Race (and wins). Rights director Linda Summers was finalizing deals in Denmark, Holland, Spain, Germany and Italy, among other countries, but a U.S. publisher has not yet bought the title.
Flugge at Andersen Press almost always has his "book of the fair"; this year it was the latest Jeanne Willis/Tony Ross collaboration, I Hate School; Anne Schwartz at S&S had bought it in a two-book deal along with Tadpole's Promise, while sales were being arranged at the fair for Holland, Denmark, France, Germany and Japan, among others. Nancy Siscoe of Knopf snapped up a fall '03 Andersen picture book called Halibut Jackson by David Weas, and will publish 22,ooo copies next spring.
On the eve of Bologna came word that Amazing Grace author Mary Hoffman and her daughter Rhiannon Lassiter were collaborating on an antiwar anthology for Frances Lincoln, called Lines in the Sand. The book, which will include contributions by many top authors and illustrators, will pub in June; profits from the book are being donated to UNICEF. Hoffman was at the fair as Bloomsbury's guest to greet the many foreign publishers of her Stravaganza: City of Masks.
A sequel to Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's The Gruffalo, called The Gruffalo's Child, was the big news for Wilson at Macmillan, who will publish it in fall 2004. The first title was wildly successful in many countries, Wilson said, except (fairly inexplicably) for the U.S., where Dial published it. "We're preselling [the sequel] now and everywhere else people are enormously excited," she said.
Moon Mountain publisher Bob Holtzman, exhibiting for the first time, noticed that "a lot of people are looking for picture book series." He found a lot of interest for his books about Hamlet the pig by Brian Lies; "I'll probably send out as many samples of that as everything else combined," he said.
Around the World in Four Days
One of the obvious and consistently cited benefits of the Bologna Fair is the opportunity for publishers to see what their counterparts in other countries are doing, and to learn where things stand financially and creatively in those countries. Though U.S. publishers routinely do the bulk of rights business with U.K. companies, it's essential to keep abreast of market developments worldwide. Trends often become clearer in the process.
At Italy's Mondadori, children's book director Margherita Forestan estimated that the children's book market in her country has decreased by about 5% in the past year. She pointed to several factors for the decline, including a glut of inferior products stemming from a market boom 10 years ago, as well as a decrease in school and library funding and a lack of emphasis on reading programs. But more distressing, she said, is "the arrival of blockbuster books. Publishers now invest millions to launch one book because selling one blockbuster makes more money for booksellers than selling three or four midlist books." Looking ahead, she said she sees difficulties: "We must decide whether we want to build a market of readers or just create mass consumers."
That's not to say that Forestan does not covet (or already have) bestsellers. The Italian edition of Neil Gaiman's Coraline was just hitting bookstores during Bologna, with a 30,000-copy printing. She hopes that its anticipated success will help fuel other projects. "We publish Joyce Carol Oates," she said. "I know that I will only sell 5,000 or 6,000 copies, but I am just happy to put out a good book."
Also in Italy, representatives of Piemme spoke of riding a wave of success started by Geronimo Stilton, the mouse-journalist star of a 50-volume series of illustrated chapter books that has sold more than 2.5 million copies in Italy alone since 2001 and is now published in 168 countries (Scholastic will release the first four U.S. editions next January). Warner Bros. has signed deals for merchandise, film and theme-park rights, and Piemme president Pietro Marietti estimates that Harry Potter and Geronimo Stilton combined currently make up 30% of Italy's children's book market. "There was a general decrease in Italy in 2001, and it has not come back," he said. "You must have something very strong to make it in this market."
The state of publishing in Germany continues to be dire, with several publishing houses (most recently Altberliner) filing for bankruptcy. "Usually economic lows hit publishing later," said Jacques Dohmen, editor-in-chief of Querido Uitgeverij in Amsterdam. "Not so for Germany." Dohmen was particularly concerned about Altberliner, as it was scheduled to release the German-language edition of one of his company's novels (The Ark Fathers by Anne Provoost) during Bologna. "We don't even know yet if the books have made it to the shops," he said.
For a few the picture is somewhat brighter. Though Gross of Carlsen cited distinct market difficulties, she noted, "We are in a better position than most because we are the German publishers of Harry Potter. The market is very unpredictable right now, but we continue to do books with the same conviction we've always had."
France is suffering economic woes as well. "Up until Christmas, the market was very good," said Hedwige Pasquet, general director of Gallimard Jeunesse in Paris. "Then came a rude awakening and many more returns. There is greater price sensitivity, though fiction is still selling. The world situation has affected us, and the general economic crisis that started in Germany is now hitting France." On the upside, her colleague Christine Baker noted that "a lot more English-speaking publishers are open to French fiction."
Dohmen of Querido said that things appear to be falling into place in the Netherlands. "We have been working hard for so long, now we are harvesting. The Anglo-Saxon world is opening up for us after many years." He feels gratified that Dutch and Flemish authors, such as Anne Provoost and Bart Moeyaert (published in the U.S. by Scholastic and Front Street, respectively), are gaining international recognition.
The picture is equally rosy for Clara Hillen, whose three-year-old press is thriving. "We are just a baby in this field," she said, "but we are very honored to be a part of it." At the moment, children's book sales in Holland remain steady, and Hillen is impressed that publishers "are doing more and more daring and sophisticated projects." But, she added, "Because of Germany being our closest neighbor, I'm not so optimistic about the future." She also expressed concern over the potential governmental changes in 2005 that would eliminate Holland's current practice of selling books at a fixed price. "The children's book market can't take that if everyone makes their own price," she said.
Book sales to families are on the rise in Denmark, according to Gyldendal's Møldrop, though library sales are declining. They are declining in Norway as well, he said, but he reported that the picture in Sweden was improving, as sales to libraries are rising, along with a 20% increase in bookshop sales. On the licensing end, Egmont Kids senior v-p Lene Brunner, who is based in Denmark but coordinates licensing across all Egmont imprints, said that Disney continues to be strong, and that these days a property needs to be connected to a very strong toy or television show to succeed. She, too, noted the economic problems in Germany, but said that the Nordic countries are doing fine, and she predicts "a great future for Eastern Europe," though she pointed out that "some countries will have to struggle longer."
For Slovenia, like other Eastern European countries, Germany is the main trading partner, said Andrej Ilc, children's fiction editor at Mladinska knjiga. Print runs are down dramatically, from 12,000—15,000 15 years ago to 3,000 these days, making it "harder for the artist to survive." Ilc's company does well with Eric Hill's Spot ("our bestseller for 15 years"), Lucy Cousins's Maisy (who is known as Minka there), Max Velthuis's picture books and Bob the Builder, though Ian Falconer's Olivia didn't work ("we sold only 500 copies, but I'm still happy I published it"). Their bestselling domestic picture book artist is Lila Prap, who is beginning to make a bit of an international breakthrough.
The market for children's books in Spain is growing, reported Teresa Petit of Random House Mondadori in Barcelona. The house has had great success with its Chicas line for girls, now numbering 54 titles. Fiction imports include Carl Hiaasen's Hoot, Clive Barker's Abarat and Philip Ardagh's Eddie Dickens trilogy, but the big hit of late is Isabel Allende's City of the Beasts, which has sold close to 300,000 copies since last September, published in both children's and adult editions. The demand for fiction is increasing in Spain, Petit said, noting that they are now "paying a lot more for rights. Everyone is looking for the next Harry Potter."
In Mexico the children's book scene is "very good," according to Andrea Fuentes Silva of Fondo de Cultura Económica. "In the last five years, it has become a market with very healthy competition. It's a strange paradox, because statistics from UNESCO and other sources say that Mexicans are not readers. But we are selling so many trade books; Mexicans love Chris Van Allsburg," she said, giving one example.
The Mexican market is also currently benefiting from a program started by the country's minister of education in 2001. All 750,000 public elementary schools in Mexico can obtain funds to start small classroom libraries of trade books. "There are many criteria for what the books can be, but teachers are choosing lots of good titles," Silva said. Essentially, a publishing house can stay afloat if just one of its titles is purchased. Though the country is experiencing a "very difficult economy," she pointed out half-jokingly that compared to Argentina's situation, it doesn't seem so bad.
In Canada, Howser of Kids Can said "things are steady" in the children's book market. Franklin the turtle, a Kids Can property, "is still growing in various countries"; for example, Franklin sales topped 2.5 million copies in France in 2002, and has already sold 1.5 million books so far in 2003.
At Raincoast, Williams pointed to a picture-book slowdown, but noted an increase in sales for middle-grade and YA. "Tremendous production goes into the picture books, but the sheer volume of titles makes it difficult for booksellers to deal with," he said. "Children's specialty bookstores are still best [at retailing]. The indies that have survived this long may be earning market share back. They have energy, resources, will and innovation. Any one of these is not enough—you need them all."
In Japan, the market "is changing," said Katsura of Japan Uni. "Picture books are slow and the deals are getting smaller and fewer. Fiction is more interesting at the moment." Small publishers like Rironsha, which is new to the translation world and is experiencing success with such YA fare as The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares, are "more active than the big companies now." In general, "the atmosphere is not that happy. Some presses are bankrupt and even Kodansha was in red figures last year. Some publishers are worried about the joint venture between Random House and Kodansha, but nothing has really changed yet." Despite these concerns, Katsura believes that "the children's book market is more lively than the adult market right now. Last year, there were fewer big titles at the fair; this year, I'm finding more exciting things. I'm quite optimistic."
Fantasy is still very strong in Japan, reported Rei Uemura of Tokuma Shoten Publishing, and she predicted it would stay strong at least through next year (thanks in part to an animated film, due out next summer, of Diana Wynne Jones's Howl's Moving Castle, from the director of Spirited Away). A growing audience in Japan for fantasy, Uemura said, is young women who never read the genre as children; another trend is that YA novels, such as Getting Near to Baby and titles by Francesca Lia Block, are being bought by and published by adult book publishers.
Maja Nikolic, director of foreign rights at Writers House, on the other hand, said that their Japanese agent called the market for fantasy "truly saturated," and reported that the "next thing" in Japan was "YA chick lit." In that category, Katsura anticipates strong performances by The Second Summer of the Sisterhood (Delacorte U.S.; Rironsha in Japan) and Little, Brown's Gossip Girl books (the first title has just been published in Japan by Sony Magazines, which also published Bridget Jones's Diary).
Korean publishers turned out in force, as they have in the last several years; according to Hans Kim, managing director of Cheong Moon Gak—which launched its Lux Kids line last year—more than 300 Koreans were in attendance, many in acquisition mode. "There's too much competition," he said. "The Korean market is very small. And we don't have many of our own authors." Kim, who called the U.S. "our primary market for buying," gave word of an increasing demand for English-language books, as parents want their children to learn the language, and said English kindergartens are proliferating. Several American publishers commented on the Koreans' interest in their properties at the fair. "Everyone else is depressed," said Peachtree editorial director Kathy Landwehr. "The Koreans are saying, 'What else have you got?'" And Pasquet of Gallimard observed, "They're buying series, 50 at a time."
Educational publishers were highly visible this year, thanks largely to the Global Learning Initiative, a new section of the fair where educational publishers could exhibit their wares and participate in informative programming. "We started to talk about doing this two years ago," said Charlene Gaynor, executive director of the Association of Educational Publishers, which organized the exhibit. "AEP had been getting inquiries about Bologna, and the fair also noticed an increase in inquiries, so we decided the time was right."
An international steering committee planned the 2003 GLI launch with a goal of 30 exhibitors (which Gaynor said was easily met) and modest networking and programming. Scholastic, Harcourt (U.K.) and Pearson were some of the major players taking part; sessions that ran throughout the fair were heavily attended. Next year's goal, according Gaynor, is to increase international participation by inviting five countries to be special guests of the fair. "There is no place in the world where you can go and see what is new and innovative in education," she said. "We want to become that—like Toy Fair is for the toy industry."
Italian educational publishers took center stage at their own concurrent show (April 3—6), DOCET, held in two nearby pavilions on the fairgrounds. This new program offered "ideas and materials for education and teaching" via exhibits and workshops. Some of the children's book fair attendees complained that the general public tended to wander over from DOCET and gum up the works a bit, but no major problems were reported.
Evolving Relationships
As Bologna's 40 years attest, children's book publishers have been able to weather numerous market challenges and still keep their businesses alive. This longevity is in no small part due to the relationships that are formed and fostered at this unique venue. In a world economy where marketing, promotion and all-out synergy are integral to a book's success, Bologna now serves as an international sales conference/pep rally for some publishers.
HarperCollins U.S. for example, gathered with the approximately 37 foreign publishers of the Series of Unfortunate Events books for a meeting nicknamed the "Snicket Summit." "At least 70 people were there," said Elise Howard. "It's a forum to share opportunities, challenges and creative marketing and publishing strategies." Similar meetings involving foreign publishers and licensees of Harry Potter and Franklin, among other properties, also took place. "It's a much more inclusive process now," said Howser of Kids Can. "We can bring all the Franklin copublishers together here much easier than we could at home."
At the fair, Chronicle children's publisher Victoria Rock and Seuil Jeunesse publisher Jacques Binsztok announced a brand-new co-venture, in which Chronicle will publish approximately 15—20 books per year (both children's titles and illustrated titles for adults) from Seuil's list directly into the U.S. market, bearing a Chronicle-Seuil logo. Seuil is already publishing a comparable number of Chronicle titles into the French market. The first American list, which will be unveiled at BEA, includes Bruno Munari's ABC and When Mommy Was Little—in all, four children's titles and five adult titles, to start.
"The U.S. is my first foreign market by far," Binsztok said, "and I have always wanted to publish my books directly into America. It's a new challenge for me." The books for the list will be decided upon collaboratively, and the remainder of Seuil's list will be available for sale to American publishers. "Essentially, this is an alliance of two independent publishers who have created a presence for themselves in their own markets and who are open to alternative ways of thinking," Rock said.
Rock's philosophy of bringing innovation to familiar relationships is what many publishers agree lies at the heart of the Bologna fair. "There's less of a sense of secrecy among publishers these days," said Baker of Gallimard. "There is a much greater openness and a sharing of ideas about books and markets. It's quite helpful."
Godwin of Holt said, "I know that I can meet with a copublisher and say, 'We're not buying picture books right now, but what else can we do in the meantime to keep this relationship going?' So many people have the same values—they really care about the artists and authors."
Howard at HarperCollins concurred. "When you're meeting face-to-face, the focus can get beyond the dollars," she said. "It actually facilitates buying on the spot in some cases, because a one-on-one meeting can make things more irresistible. Talking about books, discovering writers and books and sharing them—it reminds you of why you are in the editorial business."
Alison Morris of Wellesley Booksmith in Wellesley, Mass., got to experience this type of professional bonding for the first time, as winner of an essay contest sponsored by the Bologna Book Fair. "Being at the fair was equal parts exciting, intriguing, fascinating, bewildering and overwhelming," she said. "So many books, so many people, so much artwork, so many languages. It was amazing to see the range of books available throughout the world and imagine the range of children reading them in every corner of the globe—such a heartwarming picture."
And after another year of tending business relationships long-distance, publishers will relish the chance to reconnect in Bologna next spring. The 2004 fair will take place a little later in the month: April 14—17, the week following Easter Sunday.
