In a blog post, BEA show director Lance Fensterman writes, “BEA is at a cross roads, this point is not lost on me or the BEA team, but at the crossroads I see opportunity and I believe we are aggressively working through a process to evolve the show and serve our customers and our industry ever better.” He adds, ” the current climate has accelerated our action and our customers’ desire for action.” That action includes creating “an executive steering committee to advise us on the most top level issues.” Fensterman says they are examining a number of “big issues,” […]
Book Fairs
Miami Book Fair's 25th Anniversary
The 25th Miami Book Fair International begins on November 9 and organizers “expect some of the world’s most acclaimed writers to attend, including Salman Rushdie, Nathan Englander and Joyce Carol Oates, as well as some locally based talent.” Co-founder and bookseller Mitchell Kaplan tells the AP, “I think there is still room for lots of growth. I think Miami will continue to grow and diversify as a literary community.”AP
Frankfurt Stats
According to organizers of the Frankfurt Book Fair, every day at the show as busier than last year (though indeed the opening day, Wednesday, was the quietest of all). For the first three trade-only days they show visitors of: 10/15: 46,108 (+ 1.76 % to 2007)10/16: 58,772 (+ 2,4 %)10/17: 53,146 (+ 3,1%) And for the final two days, when the German public can attend: 10/18: 78.218 (+ 8.1%, and a new record total) 10/19: 62.868 (+ 11%)
Some US Publishers Actually Buy to Translate
Motoko Rich looks at some of the “handful of American publishers who regularly seek out books to translate during the [Frankfurt Book] fair every year.” They include David Godine, Chad Post from Open Letter (based at the University of Rochester), Jill Schoolman from Archipelago Books, and Fiona McCrae at Graywolf. The publishers that look for translations do so with a clear business strategy in mind. McCrae says, “Philip Roth is not going to suddenly be published by Graywolf. So you see who is the Philip Roth of Italy or who is an interesting writer out of Sweden.” And in many […]
Charkin Winds Down
Filing on Saturday from Frankfurt, Richard Charkin’s last blog post: “Hall 8 is emptying. The bigwigs have all left for home and now the sales and rights directors have the place more or less to themselves. The atmosphere has been less hectic than usual, a natural consequence of the world economy. There seem to be fewer people but there is still business being done, albeit at highly competitive prices and with lower print quantities. For those of us in our dotage this is familiar territory. Batten down the hatches. Publish well. Waste less. Throw complacency out of every window. We have […]
Fairing OK for Now
There’s a quality to this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, in these perilous times, that leaves one speechless. But that makes for a very short column. The final accounting–and it is all about accounting these days–won’t come for a while. So the best handle on the show I found is stolen from a prominent journalist at last night’s still-packed Bertelsmann party (though we were assured the guest list had been trimmed by about 300 people): “So book publishing fiddles while Rome burns?” With no one knowing just how bad the wreckage of the financial crisis will be when all is said […]