Bologna Book Fair delay 'a real blow' to trade as coronavirus hits Italy

Children‚Äôs publishers say the Bologna Book Fair‚Äôs postponement until May because of the coronavirus is a “real blow” but they will find new ways to market their titles to clients in the meantime.

Organisers announced yesterday (24th February) that the event, originally due to begin on 30th March, will now take place from 4th May to 7th May.

In an email to exhibitors, the organisers said: “We of course understand the organisational problems this postponement will cause. However, given the current national and international situation, we felt duty bound to take this difficult decision. We very much hope you can fit these new dates into your work schedule and that we will be able to welcome you to Bologna as usual.”

Publishers yesterday were scrambling to rearrange meeting, flights, trains and hotels and facing emails from worried clients.

Chicken House rights director Elinor Bagenal said the news was a “nightmare” and feared delegates may not turn up on the new dates or the fair may end up being cancelled completely. But she said the publisher, marking its 20th anniversary this year, should also be able to deal with any problems that arose.

She explained: “We‚Äôre going to be telling everyone that we‚Äôll just keep the same appointments for May. We‚Äôre coming up with creative and innovative ways of presenting our storytelling before the book fair.”

However, she admitted things would just not be the same without the face-to-face business Bologna provides. She said: “There‚Äôs a sort of alchemy that happens between people quite regularly at fairs and you can‚Äôt really quantify it. But it happens as a result of you telling them your story and then people remember you and the quality of your list. That can only happen when you‚Äôre two people looking at each other with the sun shining or the rain pouring.”

Belinda Ioni Rasmussen, publisher at Macmillan Children's Books, also raised concerns the rescheduled dates might not take place. She said: "Our thoughts are with the Italian people and all our customer friends around the world at this worrying time. Of course, the Bologna Book Fair is an essential part of the business year for us and, as things are developing by the day, it is hard to know if even the May dates will go ahead as a Plan B.

“We are working on our approach to mitigate the risk to our MCB year and are keeping in close contact with all our international customers. We have seen many of them during the last year, as our rights team have visited 50 cities since the last Bologna Fair, and we will be maximising modern technology to work effectively with them in the coming months."

Agent Caroline Sheldon suggested the biggest problems could be for full colour picture books that were to be launched in to the fair‚Äôs international co-edition market. She explained: “Such projects require several international partners for their success and there is no real substitute for a hand-selling presentation.

“One fears that, despite what I know will be the best efforts by publishers to compensate, the excitement and thrust of a fair cannot be replicated. We will miss our international contacts and opportunities and those happenstance meeting at fairs one can never predict that lead to exciting projects, but mainly we believe we can find other routes to do the business.”

Kate Wilson, m.d. of Nosy Crow, described the news as a “real blow” but said her firm would also find a way to work around the problems.

She explained: “So much of our business comes from Bologna and Frankfurt, and our schedules are shaped around the dates of the fairs. But the vast bulk of our appointments at the book fairs are with people we already deal with, and we expect that we will be able to keep in touch with them through calls and emails and through switching the dates of trips we‚Äôve already got planned to key territories. We expect that we‚Äôll be sending a lot of material digitally over the next few weeks, rather than holding material back to reveal at the book fair itself.”

Zosia Knopp, rights director for Penguin Random House Children‚Äôs said the firm hoped to reschedule our meetings and its big Puffin 80th party around the new dates. She added: “We can only imagine what a difficult decision this has been for the organisers of the Fair. Our thoughts are very much with those affected in the region.”

Italy, which has seen six people die from coronavirus, has the highest number of cases in Europe. Quarantine restrictions have been imposed in two regions in the north, close to Milan and Venice. In Veneto and Lombardy, around 50,000 people cannot enter or leave several towns without special permission. Officials have closed the Venice Carnival two days earlier than planned, sporting events have been cancelled and businesses and schools have suspended activities.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced that "extraordinary measures" would come into force on Saturday to try to control the outbreak.

A spokesman for Bologna said they hoped to issue updated guidance today (25th February) “or later”.

The announcement comes after the Taipei Book Exhibition, due to start on 4th February, was also postponed until May. Next month’s London Book Fair is going ahead as planned, with organisers releasing advice to those attending.

An LBF spokesman said today: "The London Book Fair wants to express our concern for everyone impacted by the COVID-19 virus and we send our warm wishes to all our book industry colleagues around the world.

"Our event in London is going ahead, March 10th–12th as scheduled. We’re actively and continuously monitoring the situation around Covid-19 Cornavirus in line with Public Health England and WHO guidelines. Working with the venue, the health and safety of our exhibitors, visitors and staff is our number one priority."