Foreign rights agency Books Everywhere expands under lockdown

A foreign rights consultancy agency that launched during the first UK lockdown has managed to expand during the second.

Books Everywhere, an agency providing support for selling rights and coeditions to publishing houses internationally, was set up in April this year. Its founder Mauro Spagnol was prompted to found the company after the outcome of the Brexit vote. He told The Bookseller he felt he wanted to contribute to the diversity of publishing in the UK, and left his former position at Michael O’Mara to collaborate with various European publishers, mainly Italian, dealing with their foreign rights. 

"It wasn’t easy, no one could foresee Covid-19 coming," said Spagnol. "I have questioned myself a lot if whether starting a company at this time was the right move. In the months of April/May/June I had my hands full: social media video presentations; doing all markets; many lists; sales were low but not as terrible as I was expecting. I arrived at the point that I was working 12 to 15 hours a day, and knew that I could not have continued like that much longer."

Books Everywhere was officially registered as a company six days after UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the first lockdown, and has expanded throughout the second.

The sales team includes Elena Battista and Helen Pickford, while Fabio Bettin is head of the production team and Robert Hartland has recently joined as a marketing and communication intern. The company now has seven publishers and eight catalogues on its lists, including Il Castello, which carries titles for both adults and children, and over the summer took on lists including Edicare from Portugal, and Nomos Edizioni and Edicart Style from Italy.

Spagnol started his career as rights assistant at Quarto Children's, where he became manager and worked for five years. After that, he joined Michael O’Mara, where he was senior rights manager for several territories, including France and the US.

Books Everywhere was keen to assert its presence at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair, Spagnol said. "During the [Frankfurt Book Fair] in October, this was the main mantra: 'Yes things are bad, but not as terrible as we were expecting'. Book sales have not been such a disaster compared to other industries. I personally think the crisis has shown the importance of backlists and that it is important to keep a title alive for much longer than a couple of weeks. This has been a topic of discussion for a very long time, but never really taken seriously. Covid has changed that: the importance of backlisting titles for longer might finally happen."

Describing his vision for the company's future, Spagnol said: "I would like it to be a focus point in the UK, based in the UK, but proudly European, international and inclusive, as London is. I can already reveal we are in an advanced stage of negotiation with a Georgian publisher, a Polish publisher and a Romanian publisher, aiming to take them on board from 2021. I want Books Everywhere to be a platform, a voice and an opportunity for publishers that are from all over Europe, with their unique styles of illustrations and their histories of editorial content, some of which have so often been either overlooked or dismissed.

"The main aim of the agency is to give a voice to non-English- language European publishers in order to contribute to the diversity of publishing, both in terms of illustration and editorial content, as well as embracing the new challenges but also incredible possibilities of working remotely and being inspired by different cultures."