Pub Rants

Frankfurt

 5 Comments |  Share This:    

STATUS: I was a reading demon this weekend. I also found out that Kim’s interview on NPR about NO PLACE SAFE happens tomorrow, Oct. 9th. I had originally said Oct. 10th.
You can click here to listen—even if you don’t get a chance to catch her live.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? DREAMS by The Cranberries

Some of you out the in the blog world might not know that the Frankfurt Book Fair is just about to unfold in Germany. It starts on Wednesday.

Frankfurt is considered THE international book fair and the world’s largest marketplace for trading in publishing rights and licenses.

In other words, it’s the biggest fair to sell translation rights for projects sold in the U.S. and vice-versa.

Lots of big foreign rights deals get done at Frankfurt.

And some happen right before. I’ve been fielding many an offer for a number of NLA projects currently on submission in foreign territories. Some nice auctions going down as well. Can’t really reveal details as of yet but will when I can.

I’m not there this year but my foreign rights co-agent is currently in Frankfurt on my behalf. I do, however, plan to attend one of these years so as to meet all the wonderful foreign publishers who have made my clients a success abroad.

Frankfurt does tend to make New York a little quiet this week.


5 Responses

  1. Anonymous said:

    I’m know this has nothing to do with Frankfurt, but I have a question I was wondering if you’d tackle on your blog. My question is what percentage of the time a good agent should get a publisher to increase the $$ from their initial offer in the absence of an auction. It’s so hard to know what is a realistic expectation and what is not, becuase you hear so many things until it becomes so difficult to tell when an expectation of an agent is realistic or not. Thank you so much for your time and for your great blog!

  2. Anonymous said:

    Ohhh, Frankfort! I’ve wanted to go for years. I did some ghostwriting for a gentleman who has a boutique publishing company out of Australia. He loved the Frankfort book fair.

    Is it still located high in the clouds where everyone wears white and doesn’t split infinitives??

  3. Anonymous said:

    Kristen,
    Do agents try and sell projects at foreign book fairs that they haven’t sold yet in the US or is it primarily for books that have already been contracted?

    Thanks!

  4. Alice said:

    Frankfurt IS huge. I was there last year and the sheer size of it knocked me off my feet (you are actually better off wearing hiking boots when going there).

    Another very important place – according to my publisher – for licences is Bologna in Italy.

    Alice