What do European book editors want? - London Book Fair 2017 Throwback
Wilkommen, bienvenue, welcome!
As the French Book Office is getting ready for la rentrée littéraire (this autumn's new titles) and packing suitcases with little more than a bathing suit and a pile of books, now is the time to take a look back at one of the highlights of our activities this year: the Triangular Talks.
On March 13th, 2017, the French Institute and New Books in German co-hosted a session of talks open to publishers interested in translation trends between French, German and English. This event was the occasion to explore hot trends in German-, English- and French-language fiction and non-fiction with editors from Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Zurich, Cologne and London, and to discuss new perspectives for translation between the three languages.
The event attracted more than 80 guests, all professionals of the publishing industry (editors, foreign rights managers, translators, etc.)
A few days after the event, Georgia de Chamberet wrote an excellent review of the talks on the BookBlast™ Diary, entitled "Britain and Creative Europe: what do book editors want?"
Here is an extract:
"Motivation: to buy or not to buy? When it comes to translations, commissioning editors are competing with the internet (rather than other publishers) and the sales team has to approve the acquisition. The bigger the book, the idea, the name, the easier it is for a book to get through the acquisition process. What works in France can be too French for Germany; what works in Germany may not work in Britain, and so on. Political or social science titles that open up new horizons, or reverse traditional narratives, or question and revisit, say, the democratic process, are popular with commissioning editors; as are books about unconventional economics. Global trending stories that drive mediatised domestic narratives give an author global appeal, so editors buying in other territories are more likely to take a risk on them. The Panama Papers is a good example of a book which goes back to the source of the story and is different to news revelations. The question is asked: “What does it feel like when someone contacts you and says, ‘I have 11.5 million secret documents. Will you work with eighteen journalists in 400 countries for a year in secrecy and persuade your boss not to sack you?’” How do you manage to do that and get away with it? Answering such questions is how a narrative story is lifted away from the internet, and gives depth and context. The Optician of Lampedusa by Emma Jane Kirby addresses the refugee crisis and asks: “What do you do when they turn up at your door and you see they are human beings?” Antoine Leiris writes in You Will Not Have My Hate about losing his wife (and mother of their baby) in the Paris attacks at Bataclan theatre, and his response in the face of such a loss. In these three instances, the authors were uniquely placed to write about events which become a sweeping narrative. How foreign books travel is the same as for their British counterparts since the same basic criteria apply: good writing, good narrative, good story, and is there a readership out there for it?"
A summary of the Triangular Talks, accompanied by interviews of some of the panelists, will be published by New Books in German during the Frankfurt Book Fair this October.