The new normal in the age of virtual book fairs

Agents and rights professionals in the UK are reporting a “mixed picture” when it comes to selling rights in the run-up to the Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF).

According to Lisa Baker, foreign rights director at Aitken Alexander, it is “mostly business as usual”, though there is a “more cautious approach” overall. “Decisions in some territories are still taking longer than normal to process, but in Western Europe there are more people back in the office every day,” she says. She identifies Brazil and Israel as territories that seemed most affected by the pandemic, but both are “now slowly recovering”. Kate Cooper, joint head of the translation rights department at Curtis Brown, agrees that there is a “mixed picture”. While smaller markets such as Portugal were hit “particularly hard”, the upsurge in bookshop sales in countries such as France is “heartening”.

Madeleine Milburn rights director Liane-Louise Smith feels the landscape is “extremely positive” overall. Though editors are “being very selective”, they are “definitely still on the lookout for great books”. Smaller territories such as Hungary are much quieter as “they’re still regrouping”. Hardman & Swainson rights director Thérèse Coen expects that editors will “remain careful” when acquiring and that there will be less space for new titles in schedules for the next 18 to 24 months owing to so many delayed publication dates.

Mixed picture
Georgina Le Grice, foreign rights agent at United Agents, notes: “Spain has been hit hard and we understand the market there has dropped by around 20%. In more positive news, Germany seems to have remained relatively robust. Territories such as Poland have demonstrated amazing resilience—they have been hit really badly and yet are back at their desks and keen to acquire.”

When considering the impact Covid-19 has had on which genres rights are selling strongly in at the moment, Baker feels there is now “an exaggeration of the situation before: prizes still sell books; quieter books are harder to sell and intelligent non-fiction is still very attractive”. Cooper says: “It has been a period where people have connected to the natural world and we’d expect that to be reflected in rights sales.” Smith reports a “huge appetite” for up-lit, escapist stories and historic romance, but less interest in dystopian novels as they are “a little too close to the bone at the moment”. Le Grice agrees that “people want escapism, whether in really commercial crime, or up lit, or mythical books”. Coen predicts that publishers will want “books with a super strong hook and an immediate pitch, so many will be after high-concept love stories and crime”.

With FBF less than a month away, several rights agents are planning to hold video meetings around the fair period. However, none of those interviewed have taken part in digital offerings for book fairs (such as rights portals) so far as, in Le Grice’s words, “we haven’t seen anything that we thought would add significant value.” However, both Cooper and Smith are exploring the digital options proposed by FBF.

Aitken Alexander’s foreign rights team is meeting virtually with editors across September and October, while some co-agent meetings are already taking place. The agency’s hotlist for the fair includes new novels from prize-winning authors Pat Barker, Jessie Greengrass and Francis Spufford, as well as Cherie Jones’ début How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps her House (Tinder Press). There is also “timely and fascinating” non-fiction title Panic by Robert Peckham and an “urgent and practical” essay on race and society called What White People Can Do Next by Emma Dabiri.

As well as holding virtual meetings, Curtis Brown is “looking for innovative ways to connect” through social media, creating a new blog and hosting webinars. Cooper is particularly excited for the forthcoming publication of Susanna Clarke’s “extraordinary” Piranesi (Bloomsbury). Other fair highlights include Claire Keegan’s new novella Small Things Like These (Faber), a new series from Simon Beckett (Trapeze Books) and One Night in August by Victoria Hislop (Headline).

Madeleine Milburn will also be holding digital meetings over several weeks and hosting collaborative events for the publishers of its big 2021 books. Smith’s hot titles at the moment include: Charmaine Wilkerson’s “incredible” first novel Black Cake; Lizzie Pook’s “spectacular” literary début Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter set in 19th- century Western Australia; “unsettling” ghost story, Skin Whistle by Rebecca Kelly; and Laurie Dennison’s “compelling” YA mystery novel with cartography at its heart, How to Lie With Maps.

Le Grice says that United Agents’ usual FBF schedule remains “reassuringly the same” despite the move online. The team there is continuing to sell rights for David Attenborough’s A Life on Our Planet (Ebury) and Booker-longlisted Love and Other Thought Experiments by Sophie Ward. There has been “a lot of interest” in début novel, The Group, which has just gone on submission and Le Grice is “incredibly excited” about an upcoming “searingly honest” memoir from a vet.

The diary of virtual meetings for the foreign rights team Hardman & Swainson during September and October looks “a tad daunting”, but Coen is looking forward to catching up with contacts. Her hot books include: a novel called The Sleepless, set in a cult that believes sleep is a social construct; a sweeping historical romance set against the backdrop of a travelling circus called The Circus Train; and The Guest Room, a tense novel about a woman who is almost driven out her mind and home by an unwanted guest.

Considering the impact of not attending trade fairs for at least a year, Baker says that while it has been “frustrating and sad” to not meet industry friends, a bigger challenge has been not being able to hand-sell certain books in person. Similarly, for Coen the lack of book fairs seems unlikely to have a drastic impact on established relationships, however it may negatively affect deals with new contacts. She explains that the lack of face-to-face contact will “impact rights-sellers’ ability to sell a book in a genre they haven’t sold before, or those slightly more unusual books which require more groundwork and research to find a home.”

Smith echoes this, saying: “There is a synergy within book fairs that just can’t be simulated remotely. They allow for the opportunity for chance meetings leading to common interests, which is almost impossible to effectively replicate digitally.” Le Grice has noticed the same buzz this month as in other years, but she wonders whether this will continue closer to the fair, asking: “Without those face-to-face chance meetings, will editors still feel the same need to have a hot book fair book to talk about?”

Several agents anticipate that they will continue to hold digital meetings even if the book fairs open for business as usual in 2021. Going forward, Baker will try to maintain the increased level of contact she has had with editors through Zoom in recent months. Smith says that digital meetings are “an easy way to connect with editors around the world”, including those who cannot make fairs, but her focus will “still be firmly on meeting people face to face where possible”.

Looking to the future, Cooper suspects that book fairs may “evolve to a simpler form”. In contrast, Coen does not think that the lack of fairs this year will necessarily have a long-lasting impact on the industry. She explains: “Publishing is such a social business and so many of our sales rely on face-to-face meetings that I think many of us will be keen to go back to normal as soon as we can.” Le Grice echoes this, saying: “I think there will always be a place for the physical book fairs,” however, she does feel that the way they run has been permanently changed by the fallout from the pandemic.

Smith believes it is too early to know the effects of this year, but “it has certainly made us all think about the way we work and whether there are better ways of doing things”. She adds: “I hope this innovation continues into the future, even if the traditional fairs return.”