Category Archives: book fairs

September 28, 2016   Stacey   advice, book fairs, business of publishing, buzz, Frankfurt Book Fair, Stacey, thrillers, trends  
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What’s trending in fiction

The annual Frankfurt Book Fair is almost upon us and even though it doesn’t actually begin until next month, there are already reports of some big deals happening. As agents, we watch what books are selling to publishers very closely, and we look at the deals coming out of these fairs as way to see what is trending in the marketplace.

A couple of things to note about these two deals they mention. First, they’re both thrillers. Seems GONE GIRL and GIRL ON THE TRAIN’s remarkable successes have paved the way for publishers to be really excited about new thrillers. This isn’t new news, and despite an overly crowded marketplace, the books with the right combination of elements are still working. We’re reading one now for book club, THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10 by Ruth Ware, which has already sold almost 100,000 copies in hardcover, according to Bookscan, since its publication in July. Clearly, having woman or girl in your title is a sure way to the bestseller list!

Product Details

Another thing that appeals to me personally is the motherhood angle of the first book Publisher’s Weekly mentions – Gin Phillip’s BEAUTIFUL THINGS, which reportedly sold for close to a million dollars. It’s a thriller which takes place over just 3 hours about a young mom who gets trapped in a zoo with her young son and an armed gunman. I love the premise. It’s simple, but scary and high-concept, and feels original and fresh.

Something else that strikes me about the recent Frankfurt deals is that the second one they talk about, Caz Tudor’s 2-book deal with Crown here in the US, is a debut author from the UK who won a contest for the first book, sponsored by Bonnier and called Twenty7, which offers aspiring writers professional feedback on their unpublished manuscripts. It’s really amazing to see that this freelance copyeditor is now going to be a major internationally published author with sales already in 25 territories.

For now at least, thrillers are still working in the market so polish up those thrillers and send them our way; we’d love to take a look.

May 27, 2015   Stacey   agents, author events, authors, BEA, book fairs, publishers, Publishing, Stacey  
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Book Expo America — it’s here!


Every year at this time, the entire publishing industry converges at the Javits Center in NYC for the biggest annual bookseller’s convention in the U.S. It’s a massive endeavor, full of publisher booths that cost tens of thousands of dollars, author events and signings, an International Rights Center where our own Lauren Abramo will be meeting with publishers form around the world, and a whole lot of schmoozing and general conversation about books.

BEA Amy

The books that are the focus at Book Expo (BEA for short) are the ones that will be published the following fall, so Fall, 2015 this year. Galleys, or early reader copies, abound and many of us run around sharing stories about who scored what.

Last year, I had a couple of authors at BEA, and even had a client doing a cooking demo from his latest book (photo below, the waffle chocolate chip cookies were delicious!).

 

BEA Dan

The past couple of years I’ve waited to get signed books from children’s authors, and last year I scored a big one with a special BEA edition copy of B.J. Novak’s THE BOOK WITH NO PICTURES. One of my colleagues saw me and took a picture when I was getting it signed.

BEA BJ Novak

And then of course, there are the parties that precede and follow BEA. Many publishers host parties at their offices, and some rent out space at local restaurants. Last year’s Harper party was epic, and not just because they were promoting their epic reads teen website!

Last year, I even got to see my mom doing an event for her own book at BEA, a fun first.

BEA Mom

The past couple of years they’ve also included a consumer post-BEA event called Bookcon, which has generated enormous interest and huge bestselling authors come to events where the public can buy tickets, meet the authors and get books signed. This year the lineup is pretty outstanding, and I suspect it’s going to continue to be a big draw in the years to come.

Thought you might enjoy a sneak peek at what we’re all focusing on this week. If you can’t find us, now you know why!

Take a look at the website links, and let us know what events you’d be most interested in attending, and which authors you’d love to see at BEA. Maybe next year, you can join us.

 

April 16, 2015   DG&B   book fairs, great books, travel, Uncategorized, vacation  
1

London Calling

I’m off to London, catching the tail end of events connected to the London Book Fair and attending a conference on literary translation at Oxford. I love London unabashedly, with the kind of nostalgia-tinged enthusiasm folks reserve for the place that was their first trip abroad, their first experience with independent city life.  I studied in London as an undergraduate and have returned at every opportunity I could manage. (I still mourn the demise of the Virgin Atlantic 99£ fare, which bore me across the ocean on an editorial assistant’s salary.)  In London I find a wonderful mashup of my childhood fantasies (surely there is a wardrobe into which I may wander? A chance to swoop past Big Ben and fly straight on ‘til morning?) and the rich, contemporary, polyglot literary scene that exists atop it,  a palimpsest of history, language and cultures.  Like many bookish kids, I was an Anglophile. I grew up reading C.S, Lewis, E. Nesbit, Edward Eager, J.R.R. Tolkien, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Noel Streatfield, J.M. Barrie, and later Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, Iris Murdoch, A.S. Byatt—and the list goes on. Although it dates me to admit it, I was already a full-grown muggle and working in publishing when a colleague brought me back a first UK edition of Harry Potter and urged me to read it. I was foolish enough to pass that copy along to a friend, who passed it to a friend, who passed it to a friend who never quite returned it, but I found my way back to Hogwarts later, and also found ample consolation in the magical landscapes of Philip Pullman’s Oxford, Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, and in the less fantastical (but no less transporting) works of post-colonial experience—books by writers like V.S. Naipul, Hanif Kureishi, Monica Ali, and Zadie Smith.

My own literary map of London would surely be less beautifully detailed than the one I found on-line, here and below. I’m not much of a cartographer and there are titles here that I’ve not read—but  it would be fun to make a personal version.  What books, or what city, would feature in your own literary map? What book would you nominate as the quintessential London read?

September 24, 2013   sharon   author events, book fairs, fun  
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Brooklyn Book Festival

Sunday was a bright beautiful fall day – perfect weather for the Brooklyn Book Festival! This was my third year in attendance, and it was the best year yet. What made this year so great? Well I’m glad you asked!

 1. My color-coded schedule. Don’t laugh! With so many fantastic author panels happening at the same time, it’s easy to get as overexcited as this fall-loving husky. Thanks to advance planning, my festival buddies and I knew exactly what events we wanted to attend at each hour of the day. – with back-up choices at the ready. And, believe it or not, one of my back-ups turned out to be the best panel of all! (See #2!)

 2. Literature for real life: I attended a panel in the gorgeous Brooklyn Historical Society Library: Get a Job! To Have and Have Not in America Today, a discussion between three authors of books on the impact of the economic downturn on society and culture. Now, I love a discussion of lyrical prose and wild imagination as much as the next bookaholic, but this dose of reality was both informative and inspirational. Bonus: one of the books is about my very own dear beleaguered homeland, Detroit.

 3. Lunch-time: Learning from last year’s experience waiting in long lines at delicious-but-overpriced food carts, I packed a lunch and ate it on the steps of the library, behind the children’s tent, eavesdropping on an author reading his picture book in Spanish and English to an enthralled group of little ones. Food for the tummy and the soul.

 4. New discoveries! In additional to panels, the Festival features an exhibit area where you can get to know small presses, indie authors, and literary organizations. Have you ever heard of the lit mag Armchair/Shotgun? Me either, but they were raffling off a typewriter – guaranteed to make an impression on lovers of artisanal writing.

 Have you been to any book festivals recently? What were your highlights?

 

May 30, 2013   Jessica   BEA, book fairs, Publishing  
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Live from BEA

This post comes from the floor of the Javits Center, where BEA is in full swing, and where—in flagrant contravention of my own plan to  travel light–I have acquired an armload of galleys, posters, postcards, business cards, blads, and countless pieces of candy.  I now have an extra tote bag to lug my swag, deep red welts in my shoulders for my efforts, and a profound sense of contentment  (numb arms nothwithstanding).

 

As ever, I have far too much reading to do to even consider cracking open one of these new ARCs, but it’s always possible that on the train home this evening, one might slip from my bag, accidentally fall open in my lap, and keep me captive for the duration of the ride.

 

Book Expo is a terrific opportunity to meet with out of town publishers, say hello to New York colleagues whom I see all too rarely, and survey the coming season of books.  Also to learn a few things (and not just the location of the “secret” ladies’ room with no line). On Tuesday I attended a  thought provoking conference on book marketing, hosted by the online magazine Publishing Perspectives.  I was curious to note that Harper Collins has hired a VP of “Consumer Insight” to better understand—and ideally grow—its audience, while  Jo Henry  of the global market research company Bowker brought me up short by predicting the demise  of bookstores and traditional review outlets inside five years. Gulp.  I don’t actually agree,  but in the event she’s correct, I’d better hurry to my next meeting.

March 20, 2012   Brenna   author events, book club, book fairs, Brenna, conferences, editor/agent lunches, relationships  
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Literary Socializing

As a newcomer, I’ve recently become more aware of the paradox of how social the publishing industry is and how solitary the act of reading itself is. I’m told that some of the industry’s seasoned professionals express disappointment that the days of gala book parties or hanging out at George Plimpton’s home are long gone. While I can’t imagine how exhilarating that must have been, I’m delighted that the industry is still so social and full of life.

There are few greater feelings in the world than when you connect with someone over a mutual book.

I’m convinced that bibliophiles living in the city are among the luckiest in the world. Not only is the heart of publishing in NYC, but the amount of events you can attend with fellow nerds grows by the second: launches, book clubs, readings, signings, discussions, mixers, benefits. This weekend, the KGB Bar Fiction Reading Series continues not far from our office.

Aside from the beloved book festivals and book weeks, which are a personal favorite, what are your favorite events to attend—either as a writer or as a reader?

November 17, 2011   Jessica   adaptation, book fairs, international literature, Jessica  
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Turkish Delight

I’m writing this post from Istanbul, where I was fortunate enough to participate, if only briefly and rather marginally, in the frenzy of bibliophilia that is the Istanbul Book Fair. Perhaps more a book bazaar than an international rights fair on the order of Frankfurt or London, it nevertheless provides an excellent immersion into this rich, energetic and fascinating language market. Indeed, I felt increasingly abashed that my knowledge of Turkish fiction begins and ends with Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk and Elif Sefak (whose books I have not even read, but plan to). Happily, at my request and over a dizzying array of mezze and kebab, a kindly Istanbul-based agent assembled a brief primer on contemporary Turkish fiction. She recommended that I check out the works of Mario Levi, İhsan Oktay Anar, Tezer Ozlu, and in particular the curiously titled The Garden of Departed Cats by Bilge Karasu. In addition to Turkish colleagues, I also met editors and agents from all over the world, and had an opportunity to compare notes on subjects familiar (the meteoric rise of the e-book, the role of Amazon.com) and less so (the fixed prices of books in many European countries). It’s always refreshing—and often reassuring—to see that despite the considerable challenges it faces, book culture is not only surviving, but adapting and thriving, throughout the world.

April 15, 2011   Michael   advice, book fairs, Michael, recommendations  
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A random collection of thoughts

I couldn’t come up with any great way to tie some of my random thoughts from this week together, so bear with my bullet point list here. And maybe one of you writer-types will know how to organize this into something more cohesive!

  • First, some advice: Unless you’re being referred to me by someone I know, whether it’s an author, editor, colleague or friend, you are not a referral. And saying you’ve been referred when in fact you haven’t is worse than not having a referral. We read everything that comes in, and it’s obvious quickly when someone is playing games. So don’t!
  • Am I the only one who gets super tense when my schedule is thrown off? It’s strange, because while I thrive on change (one of the reasons I love my job is that each day is different), I do not like to deviate once something is planned. I had to change some travel dates today, and boy was that stressful. But now that I’m all set again, I’m totally relieved. I guess what I really don’t like is the unknown–the part where I know that one plan is off but I’m not sure what the replacement plan is. As writers, do you like to have plans? Do you plan your writing, both content and schedule, in advance? Does it stress you out when those plans are thrown off?
  • The London Book Fair was this week, and the Bologna Book Fair was just a couple of weeks ago, and I keep calling and emailing people who are off gallivanting across Europe. I have to say, I’m eager for everyone to be back next week! But from various reports, it sounds like both fairs went very well (you can read about them here and here), and I’m glad to hear that people are generally more upbeat than in the past couple of years.
  • Is anyone else reading Bossypants by Tina Fey? I’ve been sneaking chapters right before bed most nights, because a good laugh is the perfect way to end the day. As with all things Fey, I recommend it highly!

That’s what’s running through my head at the moment. Anyone else have some random thoughts?

April 12, 2011   Jim   book fairs, conferences, Jim, optimism  
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The Children are Our Future

I spent much of last week at the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention in downtown LA. It was, as one would expect, delightful. I won’t bore you with all of the details of the conference. Suffice to say it’s thrilling to spend time surrounded by dozens of bestselling authors; the Mr. Romance pageant was cheesetastic fun; and Bottega Louie has amazing éclairs.

The most heartening aspect of the event for me was the massive Sunday book fair which then rolled into “Teen Day,” a separate event with the RT young adult authors being led through a day of activities from reading selected short pieces to rotating through groups of teen readers for chats. Authors seem so much more accessible than they ever did to me as a teen. While I’m sure there were author tours and events when I was a teenager, the reach of information via author sites and outreach and the scope of the events themselves seems ever greater. I don’t think I ever even thought about writing to an author. They seemed like distant, near mythical beings. Working in publishing divested me of that feeling pretty quickly! I kid, I kid. The point is, from the outside, it appears that teens are much more engaged in the reading process than they ever were before.

Maybe because I’m a ridiculous optimist about publishing in general, but given the growth of the young adult market and the fact that there is a generation raised on blockbusters like Harry Potter and Twilight, I have a completely unscientific hunch that reading is becoming a more popular pastime then it was when I had my nose buried in Fear Street and that there will thus be more adult readers in the next generation than my own produced.

What do we think? Are there going to be more readers buying books in the coming years? Is there job security in publishing after all? ARE the children our future?

March 25, 2011   Lauren   book fairs, fun, Lauren  
0

Laughing through the pain

With last-minute pre-Bologna Book Fair requests flooding my inbox and the London Book Fair looming in so few weeks I can hardly comprehend it, I barely have time to think this week, let alone try to find something interesting to say on the blog today. So it was with a great sigh of relief that I came across two chuckle-worthy pieces on publishing.

If you’re having as stressful a week as I am, take a deep breath and give yourself a moment to laugh along with this faux edit letter at McSweeney’s by Jay Dyckman and this Summer Book Roundup from the delightfully named A Shout Out to My Pepys. Do you think anyone will notice if I just copy and paste that second one into my London highlight list? Other than Justin, Katie, Katie, Justin, and Justin, of course.

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