"After three years of rain and misery at Bologna, it was wonderful to see the sun shining again," said Roaring Brook editor Neal Porter.
"Unfortunately," he added, "the sun was shining on a lot of bland books." Still, more than 4,500 foreign visitors from 63 countries gathered at the 42nd Bologna Children's Book Fair (April 13—16) to buy and sell foreign rights, to network—and to meet with an increased number of Hollywood agents and scouts.
As with other international fairs, the "book of the fair" at Bologna has gone the way of the three-martini lunch, as have overheated auctions. Picture books, long the shining star of Bologna, are in decline around the globe, almost uniformly. Coproductions, once the fair's raison d'être, are no longer as prevalent, and e-mail has meant that publishers rarely see a project for the first time at the fair. Instead, Bologna has become part of a yearlong conversation. "It's evolved from auctions at the fair to asking for quotes to just following up when you get home," said Harcourt's Allyn Johnston. "It's not as exciting but also not as freaky scary."
What was new this year was a larger Hollywood contingent than in years past. Representatives from Walden Media, Fox, Nickelodeon, DreamWorks and New Line, among other studios, were out in force seeking properties for the next hot family film franchise. As first-time attendee Stephen Moore, who reps film rights for a number of children's publishers at the Kohner Agency, explained, "I came because all of my publishing clients and all of my co-agents, buyers and scouts are all here." Fiona Kenshole, now director of scouting operations for Vinton Studios and a former children's publishing exec in England, observed, "L.A. has woken up to Bologna."
Hollywood still loves fantasy—and who can blame it, with the successes of Harry Potter, Lemony Snicket and Holes, and with plenty of other book-based films in the pipeline (including Artemis Fowl and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe). On that score, Bologna was the place to be, because fantasy remains the strongest children's fiction genre worldwide. Although the market has cooled for the elaborate fantasy trilogies of the last few years, demand for stand-alone fantasy titles is unabated. Angharad Kowal, sub rights manager at Simon & Schuster, reported that among the foreign publishers she met with, "They still want fantasy because it's still selling in their markets. It's the only thing people are specifically asking for." Science fiction, horror, suspense and mystery were also in demand and, according to Joan Rosen, director of subsidiary rights at HarperCollins, chick lit has not yet peaked: "Some people are just coming to it, others have had success and need more."
More and more, it seems, the fair seems to be about international strategizing and marketing: summits organized around individual projects and authors, and huge multinational houses calling together their global employees for meetings. Random House brought Magic Tree House author Mary Pope Osborne over to meet with publishers from 13 of the 23 countries in which her MTH series appears. HarperCollins held its now-annual "Snicket Summit," giving 43 Lemony Snicket licensees worldwide a peek at a dummy of a new Snicket pop-up, The Intricate Investigation, which has multiple interactive novelty elements and gives readers the option of choosing 60 different endings. Disney Publishing Worldwide used Bologna as the platform to launch its new global Fairies franchise, which makes its debut this fall with Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg by Gail Carson Levine, illustrated by David Christiana. The novel invents a new world for Tinker Bell and her friends, and boasts a 750,000-copy first printing across 41 countries.
When in Bologna
On the surface Bologna looks like other industry gatherings, replete with colorful stands, guest authors, a costumed character or two, and long lines at onsite food vendors. Days jammed with half-hour appointments segue into cocktail parties followed by multi-course dinners that often end after midnight, a routine that often results in what several fairgoers called a "food hangover."
But Bologna's not all just collegiality and good pasta. Plenty of solid business gets done, a fact not lost on a number of big-time literary agents known for their adult client lists, including Andrew Wylie and Esther Newberg. "They're realizing there's money on this side of the business," said Random House editor Anne Schwartz. "When picture books bounce back, this may change. With novels, it's their world, it's what they know."
This year, few U.S. editors shopping for new properties reported finding much to e-mail home about. "There aren't any must-haves," said Regina Griffin, editor-in-chief at Holiday House. As another publisher put it, "Why the hell should we buy boring books in Bologna when we can do enough of them on our own?"
Porter at Roaring Brook, one of the few American editors who was selling as well as buying, said that despite the global gloom about picture books, he found the response to his company's list "incredibly positive," and expects to sell at least two titles into half a dozen countries. Russell the Sheep by Rob Scotton (HarperCollins), The Other Side by Istvan Banyai (Chronicle) and The Gift of Nothing by Patrick McDonnell (Little, Brown) were among a handful of books mentioned by American publishers as garnering strong interest from other countries. Jacques Binsztok, formerly of Seuil Jeunesse, purchased French rights to The Gift of Nothing in his new role as publisher of Editions du Panama (News, Mar. 14). "We're small and we want to stay small," he said as he showed a project for which he was putting together a worldwide co-edition, Vladimir Radunsky's Big Busy Book.
Binsztok's recent move, precipitated by the merger of Le Seuil/Seuil Jeunesse with La Martinière, has effectively ended a copublishing partnership between Seuil Jeunesse and Chronicle Books that was announced at Bologna two years ago. "I have grave concerns about a future Chronicle-Seuil list on the juvenile side," Chronicle's Jensen said. "It was a novel experiment. We've published some good books and may continue with some on a rights basis."
If fairgoers weren't buzzing about specific books, they were certainly chatting about a number of personnel shifts in the industry. "People are the news here," observed Patty Sullivan, principal of p.s. ink. Aside from Binsztok's new venture, the aisles and parties were humming with talk of Barbara Marcus stepping down from her longtime post as head of Scholastic, and Lisa Holton leaving Disney to take her place.
The weak dollar has accelerated a trend already in motion: the decline of the co-edition. Technological advances have made it more advantageous for many publishers, when acquiring a picture book from abroad, to purchase a disk rather than join a co-production, thus allowing them to publish on their own timetable and easily make text and art changes. And acquiring a book on disk, for Americans, means paying the foreign publisher merely an advance and a royalty, rather than the extensive costs of joining a print run, in which currency conversion becomes much more of an issue.
Global Concerns
In England, the U.S.'s strongest trading partner, the picture book market has slowed to a near standstill; Waterstone's has reduced its children's book range to a core list. But Philippa Dickinson, managing director of Random House Children's Books, remains optimistic. "We know there is [much] more room to grow the market," she said. As Philip Pullman, Mark Haddon and Jacqueline Wilson are all authors within the Random House group, Dickinson is certainly in a strong position to pin hopes of growth on individual creative talent.
Fly by Night by Frances Harding was one of the more buzzed-about fiction titles of the fair. Macmillan planned to hold an auction after the fair for U.S. rights, and was also responding to bids throughout Europe. The novel's success was a valuable asset for Macmillan, at its first Bologna under new managing director Emma Hopkins, who recently replaced Kate Wilson. It was, however, bittersweet for former fiction director Marion Lloyd, who acquired the title before her recent move to Scholastic.
At Puffin, managing director Francesca Dow gave news of success for The Princess and the Pea, a picture book by Lauren Child that has been bought by her publishers around the world (Hyperion will publish in the U.S.). "People want something that's deeply commercial or incredibly rare and special," Dow said. "It's the stuff in the middle that falls through." But Puffin had a fiction ace as well: Endymion Spring by Matthew Skelton was part of a six-figure, two-book deal, due out in spring 2006. Rights had been snapped up around the world before Bologna: the business of the fair was orchestrating the most effective worldwide launch.
New places to watch were Scholastic U.K. under Kate Wilson, and the newly formed Hachette Children's Book group, led by Marlene Johnson. Wilson's editorial directors Marion Lloyd and Alison Green were at Bologna scouting for the new talent they need to build their eponymous lists. "A completely blank sheet is exciting and daunting," said Lloyd, who has the luxury of the Philip Pullman backlist and, in particular, the opportunity to republish for the 10th anniversary of His Dark Materials this fall.
At Hachette, the new name consolidating Hodder Children's Books and Watts Publishing, the message was that things basically will remain much the same. "There'll be very clear segregation of imprints," said Johnson, who believes that the two lists complement each other creatively. She takes a pragmatic approach to the challenges of today's market: "There's no room for flabbiness. If something takes off—exploit it. Build yourself a brand and get it to run for two or three years. That way you can get the most out of it." It's a formula that has worked well at Watts, where the Rainbow Fairies have been a runaway success for Orchard Books.
Following international hits Dragonology and Egyptology, Templar has created another "luxury nonfiction title" in Wizardology. With a U.K./U.S./Australian print run of 750,000, Templar was in the midst of doing deals with the 27 foreign publishers whose success with Dragonology made them sure-fire purchasers of the new title.
Walker Books has some of its biggest-name illustrators working on lavish editions of classics—Helen Oxenbury is following up her version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with Alice Through the Looking Glass, while Patrick Benson has tackled Moby Dick. It's a clever way of making sure Walker's distinguished list of illustrators can keep on reaching an audience.
The European children's book market is, literally, all over the map. While picture books are down in France, fiction is "exceptional, thriving," raved literary agent Jacqueline Miller. In Germany, the market is "the worst I've seen it in five years," said Kowal at S&S, yet Loewe Verlag has been able to sell 40,000 copies of Nancy Farmer's The Sea of Trolls since January. Just before Bologna, Beltz & Gelberg fired Ulrich Störiko-Blume, publisher of children's books, in a move that shocked the industry there; he was the division's third head in six years. After the fair, editorial directors Barbara Gelberg and Petra Albers were put in charge of the children's list.
The Swedish market is quite lively, but Denmark is "a bit flat," reported Eva Lie-Nielsen, foreign rights director of Gyldendal in Oslo. Norway is stable and, in Finland, "books have become trendy accessories for teenagers." In Italy, the market is becoming difficult, said Fiametta Giorgi, editor of children's books at Mondadori, and while Spanish publishers had a good year in the kids' sector, Susanne Theune, editorial director for Barcelona-based Ediciones B, mentioned that she hopes to become less dependent on foreign titles. "We need to build up our own Spanish authors," she said.
Canada's market for children's books continues to struggle, said Fitzhenry & Whiteside's Gail Whitskill. "If I didn't have the U.S. market, I'd be dead," she said.
Although in Taiwan the picture book scene was described as "tense" by Grimm Press publisher K.T. Hao, and the market has softened in Korea, the news wasn't all bad in the Pacific region. In fact, the best news for children's book publishers may come from Japan. Japanese parents tend to spend a lot of money on their children, especially on anything educational, which has contributed to the solid performance of picture books, which is also helped by the fact that women in their 20s and 30s buy those books for themselves. Another factor: kids who grow up reading manga are drawn to teen fiction with action and illustration.
But Japan's biggest boon to the book business may be three-year-old Princess Aiko. "If there is some footage on TV of the young princess with a book, in just a few hours young mothers will go out and buy it," said Kyoko Kubo, deputy director of foreign rights at Kodansha. "Booksellers will put a sign that says 'As read by the princess' in their windows or in their displays. It's a huge selling point."
—With reporting by Julia Eccleshare
