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Mini online book fairs held this spring have successfully plugged the gap caused by the delayed London and Bologna fairs, but can't match the real thing, agents and publisher say.
Broadly, agents told The Bookseller conversations conducted over Zoom and Microsoft Teams in the past few weeks were efficient, with one agency saying their virtual fair had matched any previous March business success. However, almost all parties report a strong desire to return to in-person meetings again.
Liane-Louise Smith, rights director at Madeleine Milburn, said staff had welcomed the opportunity to catch up with international colleagues. Though fair attendees and publishers seemed very positive, Smith admitted editors had said replacing the intense few days of a book fair for meeting spread across several weeks could feel “very unfocused and disconnected”. The agency still had huge success for many non-fiction titles, however, including Katherine May’s Wintering, which has sold in 22 territories, and Leah Hazard’s Womb, sold in 17.
“Virtually, it seems everyone feels a bit out on a limb, and there is definitely an eagerness to return to the normal set up,” she added.
Aitken Alexander prepared a translation rights guide for its contacts and held three weeks of Zoom calls with editors and co-agents in the second half of March. Rights director Lisa Baker said the event had been a success, adding: "The business value of this ‘virtual fair’ has matched that of any March fair for us."
Hachette UK held a spring rights festival across the company, for two weeks from 8th to 19th March. Over the period, 3,000 meetings took place. Rights director Rebecca Folland said of the event: “It was a rewarding and useful two weeks for all our global rights colleagues, not only because we were able to work with each other in a new way, but also because we caught up with so many publishers from around the world. We’ve learned so much this year about finding innovative ways to communicate and connect, which we’ll take forward into our future rights selling — but it goes without saying that we’re desperate to meet in person again.”
Though quick to celebrate the benefits of online meetings, agents have highlighted a priority when organising the virtual replacements was avoiding “screen exhaustion”. Foreign rights agent at United Agents Amy Mitchell told The Bookseller the agency was keen to avoid “Zoom fatigue”, and were selective about who they saw, condensing meetings into a two-week period.
“In general the mood was buoyant, and although most calls were ended with a longing ‘hopefully see you soon for a drink’, I think we all appreciate that we have adapted so well to using technology and are still able to continue to do our jobs and discuss brilliant books,” Mitchell said. The agency, which was one of the first to decide to hold its own spring fair, secured Italian and Greek pre-empts, and a Spanish auction for Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater, a debut novel, handled by Zoe Ross.
At David Higham Associates, the agency approached its event in different time frames, organising virtual “trips” to key territories ahead of the dedicated fair period to accommodate delegates in countries including Italy, France, Greece and Brazil.
“We worked with the view to ending meetings by the Easter holiday, which seemed to be the consensus between both editors and agents, and that was helpful as we avoided the fair dragging on for weeks, which is what happened with virtual Frankfurt,” Margaux Vialleron, translation rights agent, said.
She said the virtual meetings facilitated “proper conversations” and “a calmness we don’t reach at our tables in the middle of the Olympia”. Agents chose to focus on just a few titles in each meeting and she had “more conversations about backlist titles than I ever had at a book fair”. Commenting on the global impact of pitching during a pandemic, she added: “We’re seeing that we increasingly need specific strategies and flexibility across translation markets as countries are being affected by lockdowns and new waves at a different pace.”
PFD held a March edition of its #MeetTheAuthors online initiative, which this year featured Jeanette Winterson, Rose Tremain, Lesley Pearse, Len Deighton and Stephen Walker, alongside debut authors including forensic psychologist Anna Motz. The event took place from 8th to 12th March, and was followed by a mini two-week book fair.
International rights director Rebecca Wearmouth said the author events had been “highly successful”, and the agency has experienced a “great response from authors, scouts, and editors alike". By the end of the fair it had closed 17 deals, many the result of virtual conversations held during the two-week period. Wearmouth said the agency had seen “a surprising number of pre-empts coming in - it really felt like foreign publishers had woken up and were keen to acquire again”.
Commenting on the meetings, she added: “In addition to deals made, the Zoom meetings were also hugely helpful in terms of checking in with publishers and getting an update on what they’re now looking for and how their markets are doing. So it all definitely felt worthwhile to us.”
Though most agents described the benefits of the virtual fairs, all those that spoke to The Bookseller are eagerly anticipating a return to live events. Baker said though the experience had been successful, she said it was It’s important to recognise that most of the relationships the agency has with editors were established in ‘normal’ times. “There was already a great deal of understanding of both individual tastes and lists from the in-person meetings we have conducted over the years,” she said. “I strongly suspect this has greatly eased the path to these virtual fairs, but we very much hope to return to travel and in-person meetings soon.”
Baker is also wary of the business opportunities that may be lost if people are not able to meet spontaneously, and in person. “What no one can tell is how many books are eventually sold due to conversations in more informal settings; perhaps an exchange between two editors who met at a dinner, or brought up as part of wider-reaching conversations about industry and trends,” she said.
"It seems likely that without people in publishing actually meeting up and speaking to each other in this way, the less obvious shared passions and more surprising acquisitions could fall away. In terms of the delayed London Book Fair, we’re very glad we conducted this virtual series of meetings, as very few of the editors we met during the last month have been hopeful of seeing us in London in June.”
Mushens Entertainment literary agency held around 50 meeting last month, and though founder Juliet Mushens found the process “incredibly helpful to get to pitch to editors ‘face to face’, to hear about their challenges and successes, and share general book news in a way that you can’t over email", she predicted a hybrid model may follow in the future.
“I’m convinced that there will always be a demand for physical book fairs - the buzz and excitement, hearing news on hot books, running into someone for five minutes in the queue to grab a coffee and having a great conversation, just can’t be re-created digitally,” she said.