Pub Rants

Category: book fairs

Online Writing Events: What’s Working? What’s Not?

by Angie Hodapp

This week, the New York Times started publishing a series of articles under the heading “Six Months In,” looking at what we know now (and are still waiting to learn) after half a year of confronting COVID-19. That got me thinking about my friends in the writing world. We’re six months in, and our favorite writing conferences and conventions have been canceled, postponed, or made virtual. Writing is a lonely endeavor anyway, and it seems it has become even lonelier.

Or has it?

All of us at NLA have participated in myriad online events in the last six months, from one-hour Q&As to multi-day virtual events complete with pitch appointments, critique roundtables, social rooms, and dozens of workshops keyed to various learning tracks. We’ve witnessed event organizers innovate in some pretty commendable ways. The occasional tech glitch and Zoom learning curve aside, it’s actually been pretty great.

But I want to hear from you—all of you writers out there who have participated in online writing events and communities in the past six months. In our new virtual world…

• Are you more involved with writing communities, less involved, or the same?

• Is pitching to an agent or editor online more stressful or less stressful than it is in person? Why?

• Are you connecting with the same folks you were connecting with in person, or have you branched out and networked with new folks?

• How has your critique group adapted in the age of COVID?

• What types of online events have attracted you to participate, and how did they catch your eye?

• What could online-event organizers do to improve writers’ experiences, or what types of things do you wish would be offered?

• Have you attended virtual author readings or book-launch events? If so, what’s worked? What hasn’t?

I want to hear from you! Leave a comment with your thoughts down below. Next month, I’ll report back on the virtual writing world through your eyes…six months in.

(Unfortunately, our newsletter redacted the email we included to receive your responses. Please use the comment section to share your thoughts with us!)

Creative Commons Photo Credit: Ralf Steinberger

Verdict Out On Whether A Good Idea Or Not

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: For the last three days running, I’ve made it a goal to power through all the emails while I was at Frankfurt. I started out with 170. Made good headway but now for three days running, I’ve started with 130 emails and I still have 130 emails. Can’t shake the feeling of running in place….

What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? THIS GUY’S IN LOVE WITH YOU by Herb Alpert

As I was walking the Frankfurt Fair floor, perusing the booths on display, I stumbled upon a booth for a company called Booktrack. In short, they do sound tracks for electronic books.

Not sure what I think about that, so I figured I’d give it a listen.

The sample work on the floor was the short work IN THE SOUTH by Salman Rushdie. I popped on the earphones and gave it a listen as I read. There was ambient noise and sounds that connected with the text on the page.

Kind of reminded me of Spa on XM radio.

Did I think it enhanced the reading experience? The jury is still out on that for me.

Frankfurt–Day After And Then Some

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Went to Frankfurt with a cold. Had the cold during all of the Frankfurt Book Fair. Brought the cold home with me. Truly, I like to hang on to things.

What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? SHE’S NO LADY by Lyle Lovett

I figured blog readers would get a kick out of this. Agents Agents! As far as the eye can see… Kind of like Water Water everywhere and not a drop to drink.


Jamie Ford, who was there at the Fair meeting with his many foreign publishers, said it looked like a sweat shop and wondered where the sewing machines were. Rather apt.

It’s definitely not romantic in any way shape or form. Agents sit down with scouts, territory co-agents, and editors to highlight frontlist titles as well as nice selling backlist titles that are available for translation sales. It’s not unusual for a rights person to have 12 to 18 appointments in a day, back-to-back, and in thirty minute intervals. Lunch is often optional.

And Frankfurt is not London, Paris, or Rome (not to offend any German blog readers!) but the downtown area is probably the least charming European city I’ve been to. I imagine outside of the city centre there are lots of nice spots but considering what was available within walking distance of the hotel, it was slim pickings.

To offset the rather bland Frankfurt, a day trip to Heidelberg was in order! From Left: Jamie Ford, Me, Luceinne Diver (also a client of mine) and Elaine Spencer of The Knight Agency.

Frankfurt Book Fair – Day 1

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: All last week I was knocked out of commission by a nasty head cold. Winter hasn’t even begun. Like the overachiever I am, just getting it done early.

What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? MR. JONES by Counting Crows

This week begins the madness that is the Frankfurt Book Fair and guess where yours truly happens to be.

For the last three years, I’ve made a point of attending each of the main book fairs: London, Bologna, and now Frankfurt. I have a foreign rights person so it’s not imperative that I go specifically so you might be wondering why I pursued this goal.

You can’t best support someone who is representing your authors until you’ve seen for yourself what the fairs are all about. It’s helps significantly to prepare the rights and press sheets so that foreign editors can best utilize them if applicable to their markets.

Also, if an editor has bought a lot of your clients, nothing beats a face-to-face meeting simply to connect on a personal level.

For this year’s fair, I have two authors with me: Gail Carriger and Jamie Ford. Both have sold tremendously abroad and have been bestsellers in several other countries besides the US.

So what does one do at Frankfurt? Lots and lots of meetings in the agents’ centre which is about the size of two football fields. And I’m not exaggerating here.

The Fair is so big, it can literally take 30 minutes to walk from an appointment at one hall to another.

To put this in perspective, it only takes me 15 minutes to walk from my hotel to the Fair.

Tonight I attended two parties–one at the German publisher S. Fischer Verlag and the other held by Hachette at the Hessischer Hof.

The Hachette party was so packed, I literally walked in and had to stifle the urge to turn around and walk back out. Elbow to elbow. I thought the chances of my finding anyone for whom I might be looking would be slim but oddly enough, it worked.

The undefinable magic of Frankfurt.

Book Expo 2010

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Ready to shut it down for the night.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? YOU AIN’T THINKING (ABOUT ME) by Sonia Dada

You guys can’t possibly have missed that Book Expo is next week in New York. Yes, I’ll be heading there on Sunday. Y’all know what this means. Spotty blogging unless they’ve got good free wireless from the fair floor.

I’ll have my netbook handy just in case so I can blog at a moment’s notice.

So you tell me, what do you want your intrepid literary agent blogger to report from the floor?

I’ll try and accommodate.

Update Potpourri

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Today I worked on finishing a contract (pre-new boilerplates) which did conclude. I really tackled emails in my inbox as well. Now I just have to tackle the slew of royalty statements we get in April.

What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? GREETINGS TO THE NEW BRUNETTE by Billy Brag

Today is a little potpourri of things.

1. Penguin Australia issued a more formal apology for Cookbook misprint. Sounds like a PR person got a hold of the situation. Grin.

2. Foreign rights co-agent did not make it to London (as you probably have already guessed). On the upside, perhaps more folks will come to BEA at the end of May. As you can imagine, reports from the LBF floor have been quiet. Great for the folks who did make it there though. Will the lack of a robust LBF deter foreign sales? Well, nothing beats conveying enthusiasm for a title in person so that’s the downside for sure. On the whole, I don’t think so. It will be hard to have the “big book of the fair” but I imagine most sales will get done via email and phone.

I don’t envy their journey home…

3. Business has resumed in Poland. We’ve been careful about waiting but today we got emails from folks in that territory so we felt comfortable resuming communication, negotiations, etc.

4. In watching Deal Lunch for the last couple of months, I’m starting to see quite a few more sales listed than I have in the past months. This is a good sign as I take it to mean that editors are starting to get back to buying.

International Events Impact Foreign Rights Sales

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: TGIF although I’m working this weekend at the Missouri Writers Guild Conference in St. Louis. If you live in town, maybe I’ll see you there.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? CHERRY BOMB by John Mellencamp

Here in the United States, we are often insulated from world news but events of the past two weeks have had a huge impact on publishing in the international arena. Even as US agents, we have to be aware and sensitive to all that is going on abroad.

Case in point, Post-Bologna, we were negotiating some new foreign rights deals when the huge tragedy in Poland hit the newswires. Immediately, we put everything on hold in that territory (and there was a lot going on!). The whole country is in mourning. Now is not the time.

And then this past Wednesday, a Volcano erupts in Iceland. Probably just a blip on your radar until one realizes that most transatlantic flights crossover Iceland to get to Europe and the London Book Fair is supposed to start next week. LBF is not as big as Frankfurt for translation deals but it’s big enough. According to the Fair officials, they plan to stay on schedule despite the near impossibility it will be for people to actually reach London in time for the fair.

Of all the things that could disrupt travel to an international event, I can’t imagine any agent had “volcanic ash” on the list for travel interruptions. All I can say is that as much as I love being in London, I’m glad I had no plans to be at the fair this year as I was just in Bologna. This is not true of our foreign rights co-agent who I know was en route. I’m trying to find out if she made it there or not.

I really want next week to be a quiet one in terms of news items…

Bologna Children’s Book Fair Pics (Take 3)

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: All I can think about is getting another 9 hours of sleep. . .

What’s playing on the iPod right now? Nothing at the moment

Last of the Bologna Pics! Enjoy. I’ll get back to topics soon—once I’ve fully recovered.


Gelato! The only way to take a break during the Bologna Book Fair! Here Ally Carter and I indulge with Tim for Brilliance Audio and Marisa from Bolinda Audio Down Under.

Ally and Sarah Rees take a moment to pose during the NLA dinner. It was definitely the best restaurant I went to while in the city. The name cannot be revealed or Agent Barry will hunt me down…
Probably the coolest part of the trip was going to a signing outside of the Fair set up by Ally’s Italian publisher De Agostini.. Here we are standing in front of Kinder College outside the city. The school was gorgeous–an old monastery that overlooked the Bologna Valley and city centre.

Ally Carter takes some questions from a very enthusiastic audience. And language was not a barrier. These Italian kids knew their English! They had also read I’d Tell You I Love You before our arrival and had lots of questions.

Ally with the whole crew!

Ally’s Italian publisher also had her pop by BoLibri–the book festival that was going on in downtown Bologna at the same time as the fair. It’s a way to allow the public to interact more with all the events going on at the fair. Here she sits on an Alice in Wonderland type chair to sign book copies.

A couple of kids participating in a reading nearby recognized Ally and raced over to get their books signed. Almost famous!

Ally wasn’t the only author at the BoLibri festival. Here she is with author Kristin Cashore (Graceling). As for me, I’m predisposed to like Kristin as she spells her name correctly. Grin. Not 15 minutes later we got to watch Ms. Cashore’s prowess with a sword. Good thing BoLibri didn’t make Ally do something similar like rappel over a wall to demonstrate a Gallagher Girl move. Watching Kristin, it looked like hard work!

Bologna Children’s Book Fair Pics (Take 2)

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Fighting the flu. Kristin—0 Flu—10 I’m getting my you-know-what kicked.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? NOTION by Kings of Leon

As you can imagine, the first week back in the office after being gone for 2 weeks is a bit chaotic. In fact, today I didn’t even make it there thanks to being sick. I really had no desire to pass this lovely illness on to Anita or Sara. If I don’t have a fever tomorrow, maybe I’ll go in but I’m thinking it will be more like Wednesday.

As promised (since blogger is no longer acting up) I can finally share pics from the Bologna Children’s Book Fair so you can get a visual—a little snippet of what it was like to be there. Besides, this is all my brain is capable of doing at the moment.


Here I am sitting at my table in the Agents Center. Behind me is Riley Ellis from 20th Century Fox Studios.


Out to dinner. Author and Agent comraderie! Starting from left: me, clients Sarah Rees Brennan and Ally Carter. Next to Ally is Cassandra Clare’s husband Josh, Cassie Clare, Maureen Johnson and her agent Kate Testerman. Cassie’s agent Barry Goldblatt is taking the picture.


Jamie Ford’s HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET, an Italian bestseller, in the front window of the main bookstore in Bologna. That was so cool to see in person.

In the Agents Centre. From left: me, Irene Calpe of Versatil Spain. Next to her is Sarah Rees Brennan. Irene is Sarah’s Spanish editor for THE DEMON’S LEXICON. Standing next to her is Consuela, Editorial Director of Versatil.

More pics tomorrow!

Bologna Children’s Book Fair—Days 2 Thru 4

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Currently sitting on a terrace in Florence and drinking wine.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? Nothing at the moment.

I’m back!

A bad internet connection at my hotel made any daily blogging difficult. I actually tried popping up to press room one afternoon as it had been rumored there was free internet there. Alas, that was not so. I’m also on vacation this coming week so I’m going to post a bunch of entries today to get you through the week.

Bologna in a Wrap Up.

1. The “big” book of the fair was a middle grade fantasy called EMERALD ATLAS. From the buzz I heard, there was a large auction in the US for the title at the same time a lot of foreign publishers decided to kick in some good money as well.

On the whole, this was seen as a positive sign that middle grade could make a little resurgence soon as sales have been slow in this arena—despite a lot of editors looking for good MG material.

2. Almost all foreign editors expressed some fatigue in vampires, werewolves, angels, demons, and all things paranormal. Despite that, these titles were still selling like crazy in their territories so I’m not sure what to tell you. I actually got a lot of interest in my fun vampire books as they are a bit different but on the whole, foreign editors weren’t jumping on things paranormal unless it was a ‘big” book.

3. YA is still hot.

4. Foreign editors love Ally Carter. She seems to be the one non-paranormal author who works well abroad. We just found out she is a bestseller in Brazil. How fun is that?

There it is in a nutshell really.