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Bologna hopes to attract the full focus

28.03.08 Alison Flood

A deal for Darcey Bussell and a raft of paranormal fiction is setting the pre-Bologna children’s rights market buzzing. The Bookseller provides a round-up of the pre-fair action.

A hotly contested auction for Sarwat Chadda’s The Devil’s Kiss has kick-started what publishers and agents are predicting will be a busy Bologna Book Fair 2008.

Lindsey Heaven, senior fiction editor at Puffin, bought UK and Commonwealth rights in the dark teen novel and a sequel in “a very nice” deal, while Hyperion snapped up US and Canadian rights for a major six-figure sum. The agent was Sarah Davies, the former publishing director of Macmillan Children's Books, who sent the novel out as the very first submission from her new agency Greenhouse, part of Working Partners.

“Massive foreign rights and movie rights interest has been coming in, and we expect to do very brisk business, with a number of auctions for foreign rights, at the fair,” said Davies.

Delegates are confident that the timing for this year’s fair (31st March to 3rd April), which falls before the London Book Fair for the first time for some time, will guarantee a good turnout.

“Foreign publishers who previously might have gone to either London or Bologna are all focused on Bologna,” said scout John McLay. “I think there will definitely be increased footfall of publishers, agents and scouts. There are also a lot of film agents going along.” Last year the fair attracted more than 4,700 foreign visitors, and 1,300 exhibitors from 66 countries.

McLay predicted that fiction would be key at this year’s event. “People are really looking for commercial material in the nine to 12 area,” he said. He pointed to a recent trend towards paranormal writing: "Teen vampires and demons are big—there’s a lot of Stephenie Meyer-esque writing out there. The Devil’s Kiss, for example, has got a bit of Knights Templar—but there are demons at its heart."

Following this trend at Macmillan Children's Books, publishing director Rebecca McNally has swooped on three young adult horror novels by début author Steve Feasey, paying a five-figure sum for the books via agent Catherine Pellegrino at RCW. The series, which kicks off with The Changeling, features a 14-year-old werewolf.

HarperCollins, meanwhile, has just signed a deal for a series of books by ballerina Darcey Bussell for girls aged six to eight. The Magic Ballerina series launches this autumn.

Publishers also had high hopes for foreign rights deals in novels at the fair, with Egmont Press predicting big things for Julia Donaldson’s first teen novel Running on the Cracks. At Random House Children’s Books, David Fickling singled out “spine-chilling” new novel The Toymaker by Jeremy de Quidt, which features a boy pursued by a sinister doctor and his devilish toys.

A raft of new deals and ventures are launching at the fair, with HarperCollins due to unveil details of a new deal with website Bellasara.com. The site is aimed at horse-loving girls aged five to 12, allowing them to collect and trade horse cards and explore a world of “castles and forests, beaches and racetracks” with their horses. HC UK has acquired publishing rights in a global deal with HC US, and is planning to present its programme of guides, story books and activity books at the fair.

Random House Children’s Books Australia will use the platform of the fair to showcase Leonie Tyle’s new young adult imprint in Australia. The imprint, which will replicate how David Fickling Books and Tamarind operate at RHCB in the UK, launches on 9th April and RHCB Australia m.d. Linsey Knight will reveal details at the fair.

Macmillan Children’s Books will present its e-playbook Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, a new interactive digital format including animation, sound effects, music, song, games and activity sheets. The product will launch in the UK in October to coincide with Halloween, and MCB will be presenting the format to Donaldson and Scheffler’s international partners at the fair.

The fair will also see RHCB present titles from Verna Wilkins’ Tamarind imprint for the first time. RHCB acquired Tamarind late last year, and believes the list has great potential for international sales.

And following Macmillan’s acquisition of Kingfisher last autumn, and the rebrand of Holtzbrink Publishers to Macmillan US, the three entities will sit together on a brand-new stand.

RHCB says it has seen a “substantial” amount of pre-fair interest from option publishers in Bill Bryson’s illustrated A Really Short History of Nearly Everything, a new fully abridged and adapted edition of the original A Short History of Nearly Everything.

Walker, meanwhile, said the jewel in its crown would be 12 of the world’s favourite classic stories, illustrated by artists including Helen Oxenbury, Patrick Benson, Inga Moore and Chris Riddell, brought together into a series of Walker Illustrated Classics.

Picture books are also expected to be key at this year’s fair, with RHCB acting rights director Maeve Banham saying: “We are particularly excited about this year’s Bologna in light of the début illustrators whose work we are bringing to the fair for the first time, who we are confident will become established names.”

Banham tipped début artists Katie Cleminson’s Box of Tricks, Louise Yates’ A Small Surprise, Evil Weasel author Hannah Shaw’s second book Erroll and Lizzie Finlay’s Dandylion.

David Bennett at Boxer Books was waxing lyrical about Beverlie Manson’s Fairies, a “very traditional-looking gift book aimed at a family audience. We’re not trying to do an ‘ology’; it’s going to be a stunning book to really pore over.”

At MCB, head of marketing and publicity Viviane Basset was predicting strong interest in Emily Gravett’s Dogs—“another gem which everyone will very much want to have on their lists”—as well as Sir Charlie Stinkysocks and the Really Frightful Night. Puffin said début picture book Bridget Fidget by Joe Berger was “sure to cause a stir”.

Childrens Flagship Feature Alison Flood Global Bologna Book Fair

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