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Frankfurt Book Fair 2024: Export editions 'cannibalising' sales in Europe as horror, fantasy and romance soar
Export editions have continued “cannibalising” sales for international publishers, while the market has become increasingly more competitive, The Bookseller heard at the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair. This is particularly felt in countries like The Netherlands, where English literacy levels are high, and increasingly in larger territories like Germany.
Juliet Mushens of Mushens Entertainment said: “Conversations around the threat of English-language export editions to translation editions continue, particularly in the Dutch market. There is definite pressure there for the Dutch to be able to publish simultaneously or ideally ahead of the cheaper English edition.”
Will Francis at Janklow & Nesbit explained that certain publishers in the Netherlands have even stopped working with some of their authors, and the issue seems to affect literary writers from the UK the most.
The prevalence of English-language editions is making the market very competitive for authors writing in English, and agent Madeleine Milburn said that this may be leading some editors to prefer local writers. Milburn said: “International editors are publishing a lot more homegrown talent and only offering for the very best voices from the UK and US, given the competition with export editions cannibalising their sales, and the increased costs of translation." She also noted a “huge growth in translated fiction”.
Yet appetite has grown for horror titles, despite challenges in the market, while romance and fantasy have remained highly popular with European editors and readers.
Mushens added: “We had a buzzy fair particularly around [Sonia Tagliareni’s] fantasy debut Deathbringer – generally we are finding that the appetite for fantasy is unabated across Europe, and more American publishers are dipping a toe into that space.”
Cathryn Summerhayes of Curtis Brown explained that the “world seems to want horror and romance most of all”, which was echoed by a spokesperson from Pan Macmillan, who added: “Romance is very much still in the air: there’s a big appetite for romance in all its forms, although there are signs romantasy may be reaching its peak, with a growing interest in modern contemporary romance, as well as rom-coms for teens. Horror is also still on trend: from literary through to genre lists and crossover books for the ‘horror curious’.”
For Pan Macmillan, standout titles have included the “sapphic Dracula horror” book The Brides by Charlotte Cross and the haunted house novel The House That Eats the Dead by Max Doty, and the publisher has sold the US rights to both. Its YA imprint First Ink has seen interest in the romantasy book The Sleepless by Jen Williams, which has sold in the US, France, Germany, Poland and Italy at auction or in a pre-empt.
Moreover, Milburn has noticed “similar trends” emerge between territories, “with the surge in commercial fiction including romantasy and fantasy”, and said that there is also a “continued trend” when it comes to “cosy” Japanese and Korean fiction, although “taste is skewing darker and crossing into horror further” with books like Asako Yuzuki’s Butter (Fourth Estate).
Stacey Hamilton, head of international sales at Bonnier Books UK (BBUK), was showcasing the special English-language editions of books from the publisher’s science-fiction and fantasy list, including Olivia Rose Darling’s Fear the Flames and Mai Corland’s Five Broken Blades, which have been popular in Europe and especially Germany. BBUK has also been seeing international interest in titles like Satoshi Yagisawa’s Days at the Morisaki Bookshop and the “cosy fiction” genre, which is popular in Europe, Australia and India.
This year’s fair “felt a little calmer” and Milburn said that “a wider variety of titles [were] sparking global conversation rather than a few debuts dominating”.
Paul Baggaley, editor-in-chief at Bloomsbury, also found the fair “less frenetic”, and said the publisher is “riding a crest of bestsellers”.
Baggaley explained: “We have a very strong forward list, so we are happy to be very selective about what we add, and to avoid getting carried away by the buzz. So, for me it is more about reinforcing our values and introducing international publishers and agents to the full range of our publishing, rather than entering feverish auctions, of which there seem to be fewer this year.”
But competition was high for some debut novels at this year’s fair, according to United Agents foreign rights agent Amy Mitchell, who was running auctions for Colin Morgan’s The Ballad of Ronan McCoy and Blake Flanagan’s Jago Trevarno.
Mitchell said: “It’s been a wonderful reminder of the impact that great books can have, and the conversations surrounding them have been energising; it also shows that international publishers are quick and keen to acquire when they love a title.”
Meanwhile, Catherine Cho, a literary agent at Paper Literary, highlighted Kate Eberle’s high-concept rom-com If Books Could Kill, which has sold at auction in the UK and America, and has been acquired in 11 territories within the last week, as well receiving “a lot of excitement for film and TV rights”.
The Borough Press’ Jo Thompson also triumphed in a 10-publisher auction for Imani Thompson’s Honey, and David Higham Associates (DHA) managing director Lizzy Kremer argued that this was “one of the most talked about books of the Fair”. Rights to the book were sold to Random House in America, after a nine-way auction, while, in translation, it was acquired by Rowohlt in Germany, Ambo Anthos in the Netherlands and Urano in Spain.
Kremer also has seen offers for Hitomi Kanehara’s Japanese literary fiction book, Ataraxia, while a German auction was taking place for Anna Brook Mitchell’s “upmarket fiction” title, Motherfaker, which went to Pan Macmillan’s Katie Loughnane in the UK, following a 48-hour pre-empt.
Canongate c.e.o. Jamie Byng said there was significant interest in Our Numbered Bones, the debut adult novel by children’s author Katya Balen, and Nick Foster’s Could, Should, Might, Don’t, but he spent “a good chunk” of his time in Frankfurt discussing Omar El Akkad’s One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This (Canongate/Random House Large Print Publishing).
The book is “about what it means to live in the West today” and Byng has described it as “the most urgent book I have read on submission”.
When it comes to non-fiction, a Pan Macmillan spokesperson said that whether a book “travels successfully depends heavily on the platform; the author’s expertise and unique point of view; and the quality of the book, which must be exceptional”.
The spokesperson explained that publishers prefer works by local non-fiction authors, with the exception of some established voices that resonate with readers across territories.
However, in an age of “so much misinformation”, Cambridge University Press & Assessment managing director Mandy Hill said there is an appetite for well-researched non-fiction books by experts in the areas of health and wellbeing, climate science and social psychology.
The academic publisher has a small trade programme, but Hill noted the “crossover between academic and trade”, and argued that “evidence-based, high-quality information is really having an impact and informing wider publishing”.
