Publishing Scotland reveals International Publishing Fellows for 2020

Publishing Scotland has announced its new International Publishing Fellows for 2020.

Ten publishers have been chosen for the sixth International Fellowship and will spend a week in Scotland at the end of August meeting Scotland-based publishers, agents and writers in a varied programme of events across the country including the Edinburgh International Book Festival dinner at Robert Louis Stevenson’s former home, a writer showcase in Glasgow, and a trip to the Highlands to meet publishers and writers based there.

Dr Cordelia Borchardt (S Fischer Verlage, Germany), Sarah Cantin (St Martin's Press, USA), Johannes Engelke, Mosaik (Goldmann Taschenbuch, Germany), Nicol√°s Rodr√≠guez Galvis (√âditions Métailié, France) and Esther Hendriks (De Arbeiderspers/Singel Publishers, the Netherlands) have been selected.

They will be joined by Peter Joseph, Hanover Square Press/HarperCollins (USA), Talia Marcos, Keter Books, (Israel), Jean Mattern (Editions Grasset & Fasquelle, France), Andrea Stratilov√° (Albatros media, Czechia) and Mark Tauber (Chronicle Prism, USA).

The purpose of the visit is to help develop relationships between the international publishing community and the Scottish sector, facilitate rights selling and bring Scottish books to an international audience.

Scotland-based literary agent Jenny Brown of Jenny Brown Associates , who has been involved with the fellowship since it was established in 2014, said: "The fellowship enables us to meet publishers and understand their markets, introduce them to authors and for them to encounter the vibrant literary scene here, in a way that brief 30-minute meetings at book fairs can never achieve. And it works in terms of selling rights, especially successful for our authors, both in fiction and non-fiction."

Marion Sinclair, c.e.o. of Publishing Scotland, added: “We are hugely privileged to have this Fellowship Programme as a means of attracting publishers to come and experience the industry here. Thanks to our funders, in the six years since the fellowship began, we will have invited 55 senior international publishers to Scotland and given our publishers, agents, and writers the chance to get to know them in a more relaxed setting. It’s part of a wider internationalisation strand within our work and is paying dividends in terms of rights deals made, and in the very important relationships that have been forged between the fellows and the sector.”

The award-winning programme is supported by funding from the arts body Creative Scotland. Alan Bett, literature officer at Creative Scotland, said: “The International Publishing Fellowship builds relationships between publishers and therefore develops channels for voices in Scottish literature to reach readers beyond the UK. By facilitating rights sales in international territories, the programme builds a more global readership and profile for our authors, as well as contributing towards sustainable writing careers.”