Publishers join literary agencies in running spring 'rights fairs'

Hachette UK, Pan Macmillan and a number of literary agencies will run their own "digital rights fairs” in March to make up for the rescheduling of the London Book Fair and the Bologna Children's Book Fair.

London Book Fair has moved from March to late June this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, while the Bologna Children's Book Fair has moved from April to June.

Last week, Curtis Brown announced it would be running its own “spring fair” in late March to fill the hole left in the schedules by the lack of an early 2021 event.

Hachette UK has now also revealed its plans, scheduling a "spring rights festival across the whole of Hachette worldwide" for two weeks from 8th to 19th March.

"One of the silver linings in the past few months has been working with our global counterparts to tackle common challenges and we’re looking forward to bringing all our international rights teams together in one place in this way," said Rebecca Folland, rights director at Hodder, Headline, John Murray and Quercus. "We’ll be launching a dedicated web page to showcase acquisitions and digital content from our companies in the UK, US, Australia, France, Spain and India, with the aim of making it easier for publishers around the world to access our books. All our teams will be scheduling meetings separately, with the US choosing slightly later dates to align with the rights community there, so do be in touch with them directly."

Pan Macmillan said its rights teams would run a series of virtual meetings and fairs over the next few months. The children's rights department will be carrying out “virtual London and Bologna book fairs” throughout March and April as well as conducting all their usual meetings virtually.

The adult rights teams will also be undertaking virtual meetings in February, followed by a Spring Showcase of titles in mid-March to coincide with the original dates of the London Book Fair. A spokesperson explained: “This will be similar in format to last year’s ‘Frankfaux’, with targeted bulletins including videos from authors and editors, and meetings with customers, sub-agents and scouts.”

The spokesperson said: “Pan Macmillan’s rights teams are continuing to adapt to the current circumstances this quarter with a series of virtual meetings and fairs, which proved successful for the business last year. They are taking the opportunity to embrace the reduction in carbon footprint that this allows but are looking forward to seeing customers in person again at a real-life fair, as soon as the time is right.”

Meanwhile a number of agencies will hold events of their own including Aitken Alexander, PFD and RCW.

At PFD, agents are planning a special March edition of their #MeetTheAuthors online initiative featuring Jeanette Winterson, Rose Tremain, Lesley Pearse, Len Deighton and Stephen Walker alongside debut authors including forensic psychologist Anna Motz. The event will be held from 8th to 12th March. 

This will be followed by a mini two-week book fair from 15th March. International rights director Rebecca Wearmouth said: “It will be an intense and focused selling spree of the great writers and books we have this year."

There will be special events featuring some of the agency’s children’s authors, including Ross Welford, Onjali Q Raúf, Lisa Thompson, Nicola Skinner, Lisa Lueddecke, E. Latimer, Ava Eldred and Melissa Welliver. There will also be talks honouring the contemporary classics list including Ivy Compton-Burnett, Josephine Johnson, Nicholas Blake and Nicholas Rhea. The full programme will be announced on the PFD website in due course, along with details of how to sign up to the events.

Aitken Alexander is preparing a translation rights guide for its contacts and plans to hold more than two weeks of Zoom calls with editors and co-agents in the second half of March. Foreign rights director Lisa Baker explained: “We have a super spring list which will be ready for the traditional time of the LBF and didn’t want to miss out on this moment.  We expect the majority of our business to be done within ‘normal’ time frames, while also looking forward to seeing as many of our international friends and colleagues as can visit us in June.”

At RCW, the foreign rights team will also hold meetings from mid to late March, in the same way as they did during the virtual Frankfurt event last year, accompanied by the usual spring catalogue and hotlist.

The IPG will hold a virtual international publishing forum for networking and discussion on 9th-10th March.