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Welcome to season 2, episode 8!  After having spoken with editors, agents, translators, and people who work for cultural and governmental organizations that promote books, I’m excited to be talking to a literary scout today. Scouting is one of the more obscure parts of the international publishing scene. My guest, John Bowers of Sanford J Greenburger Associates, was happy to shed some light on his activities, both pre-covid and during the pandemic. You’ll hear that there are quite a few differences between the two... SHOW NOTES John's book recommendations: - Robert Jones Jr., The Prophets (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2021) - N.K. Jemisin, The Broken Earth Trilogy: The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, The Stone Sky (Orbit, 2015, 2016, 2017) - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, new unabridged audio edition narrated by Andy Serkis (Recorded Books, 2020) - Ron Chernow, Titan: the Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (Vintage, 2nd ed., 2004)  About John: Driven by a global outlook and cross-cultural understanding, John has found the perfect place to engage his passions in literary scouting. Previous to his work at Greenburger Associates, John worked in foreign rights and as an agent at the Bent Agency, assisted foreign and film scouts, and also taught middle and high school English and Drama in American international schools in Latin America.

On this podcast episode, I am speaking with Livia Stoia, founder of the Livia Stoia Literary Agency.  Based in Bucharest, Romania, Livia and her team represent international publishers and agents into many Central and Eastern European countries and the Baltic States, as well as Western Europe, Latin America and Asia.  For the sake of brevity, our conversation on this podcast episode focuses mainly on some of the publishing markets in Central and Eastern Europe, including Romania and the countries that were once part of Yugoslavia. These are the territories where Livia represents 2 Seas Agency, and where she started out when she founded her agency.  I was curious to hear about the impact of the pandemic on the local publishing markets, how ebook and audiobooks are faring, and how she came to founding her own literary agency in 2003. One note regarding the Covid-19 pandemic and the restrictions in Romania imposed by the government in order to curb the spread of infections: Our interview was recorded on January 21, 2021, and Livia has pointed out that in the meantime there's been is a slight relaxation of these restrictions in the country. Since the number of infections has decreased, restaurants, theaters and cinemas have recently reopened. Show Notes Livia's book recommendations: - Reptile Memoirs by Silje O. Ulstein (Aschehoug, 2020 for the Norwegian edition, we didn't find information on a possible forthcoming English edition at the time this episode was published)  - The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld translated by Michele Hutchinson (Faber & Faber, 2020-UK edition; Graywolf, 2020-US edition) About Livia Livia graduated from two faculties, engineering and sociology. She worked for 5 years at ASTRA Museum in Sibiu, as PR specialist and sociologist. Then, she moved to Bucharest with her family, and was hired by Humanitas Publishing House as copyright manager. She owes Humanitas the chance to enter into this amazing world of publishing, her job there being the cornerstone of a wonderful career in the world of foreign rights business. After 5 years at Humanitas, she opened her literary agency, which entered in its 18th year of existence in January 2021. She built a very nice representation list of Western publishers, and enlarged it constantly. First, she operated only in Romania, then she expanded the business to all Central and East European countries, year by year, and recently to Western countries too, through the acquisition of Ilustrata Agency, based in Barcelona. Now, her agency operates worldwide.

Today’s guest is Evangelia Avloniti, founder of Ersilia Literary Agency. Her agency represents Greek and foreign authors in Greece and worldwide, and foreign publishers and agents, including 2 Seas Agency, in Greece. Greece has had its share of crises these last 10-15 years or so, even before the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic. On this episode, we discuss amongst others how this has helped make the Greek publishing market more resilient, the impact of the pandemic on the country’s publishing industry, what led Evangelia to found her own literary agency back in 2009, the challenges she faced then, and how she dealt with them. Show Notes Evangelia's book recommendations - Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020) - Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart (Grove Press, 2020 for the US edition; Picador, 2020 for the UK edition) About Evangelia Evangelia Avloniti, was born in Corfu, Greece. She studied History of Art, Archaeology and Literary Translation at various institutions, including the Courtauld Institute of Art, King's College, London, and University College London.  She began her career at Sotheby's in London and then worked as an editor in ELT publishing for five years. In 2009, she founded the Ersilia Literary Agency, where she represents Greek and foreign authors in Greece and worldwide, and foreign agents and publishers in Greece. She was named a Frankfurt Fellow in 2013 and a Zev Birger Fellow in 2015.

This is the last podcast episode I am recording before the end of this crazy, intense, and just straight out tough year that 2020 turned out to be. So I just wanted to say thank you to the guests of all 26 episodes I’ve recorded so far. I really appreciate that you set aside some of your precious time to talk with me, sometimes during quite stressful moments. This was especially the case for the episodes I recorded early on in the pandemic, when there was so much more uncertainty than there is now.  I also wanted to say thank you to all you listeners. On the day I am publishing this episode (December 22nd), we are approaching no less than 6,000 plays! It’s been an amazing journey and I’ve learned so much. Recording these podcast episodes has turned out to be the second best thing to meeting people at international book fairs, which I do hope we can go back to again very soon in the New Year as I miss seeing you all...  Now, on to today’s episode, on which I’m joined by Rubén Padilla of the Guadalajara International Book Fair, also known as the FIL. This book fair was one of the last, if not the last of the year and as many events that took place this year, it went fully digital.  I was curious to hear Rubén’s impressions and experiences, especially since the FIL is very much a public fair, besides providing a trade program for international publishing professionals. In fact I learned during the interview that it was created for the public, to give people an opportunity to buy books, as the city of Guadalajara was lacking bookstores at the time. Having a chat with Rubén was a wonderful way to end this year and I hope you’ll enjoy it too!  Show Notes Rubén’s book recommendations – Cometierra by Dolores Reyes (Sigilo for the Spanish (ex USA) edition; to be published as Eartheater in English, translated by Julia Sanches, with HarperVia in September 2021)  – Un corazón demasiado grande by Eider Rodriguez (Literatura Random House for the Spanish edition, we didn't find information on a possible forthcoming English edition at the time this episode was published)  – Las Malas by Camila Sosa (Tusquets for the Spanish edition,  we didn't find information on a possible forthcoming English edition at the time this episode was published) About Rubén Graduated in International Business Management, Rubén works as General Coordinator of Professionals at the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL). Among his main tasks, he develops the content of programs such as the International Publishers and Book Professionals Forum, the International Forum of University and Academic Presses and the International Forum of Editorial Design.  He is also in charge of the FIL Rights Exchange, the fellowship program of FIL for publishers and editors interested in Spanish-speaking authors. Jury of the 9th Iberoamerican Illustrated Catalog in 2018, he has participated as a speaker in various forums and professional training activities of the publishing industry in the Book Fairs of Bologna (Italy), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Festilus (Chile), LéaLA (USA), Taipei (Taiwan), Bogotá (Colombia), Medellin (Colombia), Oaxaca (Mexico), as well as in specialized meetings such as Festilus (Chile), TLA Annual Conference (USA) and FILI (Finland). He participated in the Istanbul Fellowship Program in 2020.

Today’s guest is Paris-based journalist, author, translator and editor Olivia Snaije. For those of you who read the international publishing industry news, Olivia’s name probably sounds familiar as she is a contributing editor to Publishing Perspectives. Besides Publishing Perspectives, she has written for a variety of magazines and newspapers including The Guardian and the New York Times.  One of the subjects she has written a lot about is the publishing and book industry of the Middle East and the Arabic-speaking world in general, which is also the central topic of our interview. Show Notes Getting to know Arabic literature and its publishing industry Sources in English: Arablit.org ArabkidlitNow Banipal magazine Words without Borders RAYA literary agency International Prize for Arabic Fiction Literature Across Frontiers Arab Voices catalogue 2020 International Alliance for Independent Publishers French sources: Actes Sud/Sindbad Maghreb Orient des Livres book festival Editions Barzakh (Algeria) En Toutes Lettres (Morocco) Editions Elyzad (site under construction) Takam Tikou (children’s books) Italian source: Editoriaraba Some of Olivia's favorite books this year - The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld translated by Michele Hutchinson (Faber & Faber, 2020-UK edition; Graywolf, 2020-US edition) - The Eighth Life, by Nino Haratischwili translated by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin (Scribe US&UK, 2020) - Minor Detail by Adania Shibli translated by Elisabeth Jacquette (New Directions, 2020-US edition; Fitzcarraldo, 2020-UK edition) About Olivia Olivia Snaije is a journalist and editor based in Paris. She is a contributing editor to Publishing Perspectives, and has written for a variety of magazines and newspapers including The Guardian, The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar Art, and CNN, and was a staff member at both Vanity Fair and CBC/Radio Canada in New York. She is a former commissioning editor at Saqi Books as well as a former executive editor of Alef, a London-based cultural magazine about the Middle East. She translated Lamia Ziadé’s Bye Bye Babylon (Random House) in 2011, she has written several books on Paris published by Dorling Kindersley and Flammarion. Editions Textuel (France) and Saqi Books (London) published Keep Your Eye on the Wall: Palestinian Landscapes, which she co-edited, in 2013.

My guest of Season 2, episode 3 is Amy Marie Spangler, Co-Founder and Co-Director of Istanbul-based AnatoliaLit Agency.  Like several of my previous guests on this podcast, Amy took part in the Jerusalem Book Fair fellowship in which I took part as well, in 2017. A few months later, we started working with AnatoliaLit to represent our list in Turkey, and I’m very happy with our collaboration in this market which does have its challenges.  This podcast episode turned out to be a speed-course on the state of the Turkish publishing market. But we also talked about Amy’s activities as a translator from Turkish to English, and as an agent representing authors from Turkey and the surrounding regions internationally.  One thing Amy pointed out after we recorded our interview, and which she suggested I clarify here, is that the curfew that she mentions is in place in Turkey at the moment, is in fact for weekends only, so it is not applied everyday.  Thanks to this interview I learned a lot about Turkish publishing and hope you will, too!  Here are some of the questions I asked Amy:  What was the state of the Turkish publishing market before the pandemic started?  What has happened since the start of the pandemic in terms of book sales in Turkey?  Was the publishing world on a standstill at some point this year, and were publication dates postponed?  Was there a higher demand for ebooks and audiobooks, as we have seen in other markets?  Are there any genres that tend to sell well in Turkey, and others that don’t?  You also represent a select number of authors, in Turkey as well as internationally, and you translate from Turkish into English. Can you tell us more about those activities?  What was the biggest challenge for you when you launched Anatolialit? How did you address this matter?  Show Notes  Amy's book recommendations:  - My Autobiography of Carson McCullers by Jenn Shapland (Tin House, 2020);  - Woodcutters by Thomas Bernhard, translated by David McLintock (Vintage Classics, 2019).  Amy's and Szilvia Molnar's podcast: I Have to Tell You: The Letters (Also available on podcast feeds).  About Amy:  Amy Marie Spangler is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College, with B.A. degrees in Near Eastern and Classical Archaeology and German Language and Literature. After four years as rights manager and editor for the Istanbul-based publisher Çitlembik, Spangler left her position to found AnatoliaLit Agency, together with Dilek Akdemir, in 2005.  In addition to running AnatoliaLit, Spangler is a translator, primarily from Turkish into English, and has taught in the Translation Studies Departments of Boğaziçi University and Okan University. Her published book translations include Noontime in Yenişehir by Sevgi Soysal (Milet, 2014), Dawn by Selahattin Demirtaş, co-translated with Kate Ferguson (SJP for Hogarth, 2019), and A Strange Woman by Leyla Erbil, co-translated with Nermin Menenemcioğlu (Deep Vellum, forthcoming).

Welcome to Season 2, episode 2 of  Make Books Travel Podcast, during which I interviewed Judith Uyterlinde.  Judith has had a diverse career in publishing, and for the past few years she’s been Publishing Director of the very internationally-minded publishing house World Editions. It's one of the few publishing houses that focuses on bringing international literature to an English readership. If you listened to episode 20 of the first season, you may remember that translator Eve Bodeux and I discussed the challenges of translated literature on the English language market.  Yet 2020, in spite of the general challenges it has brought to us all, is turning out to be quite a successful year for World Editions. Here are some of the questions I asked Judith: Can you tell us about World Editions and its mission? How many titles do you generally publish every year? The US and the UK are infamously difficult markets for books in translation. How has your experience been so far, and do you feel that things may be shifting? What is your biggest market in terms of sales: the US or the UK? Or is it evenly balanced? Have you noticed that certain topics or genres sell better (or less well) on this side of the pond than in the UK, and vice versa? What has the impact of the pandemic been on your sales this year? Did you postpone any publications and/or adapted your marketing and publicity strategy? What went through your head when you found out that Pilar Quintana’s The Bitch, which you published earlier this year, was a finalist of the National Book Award for Translated Literature? How did the acquisition of this title happen? Were you already familiar with the author and her work? SHOW NOTES Judith's book recommendation: - Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, The Discomfort of Evening (Graywolf, 2020 for the US edition; Faber & Faber, 2020 for the UK edition; translated from the Dutch by Michele Hutchison) About Judith: Judith Uyterlinde (1962) started as an English, French, Spanish, German, and Portuguese translator for the European Community in Brussels. She wrote literary reviews for the newspaper NRC Handelsblad, and was a commissioning editor and publisher for several Dutch literary publishing houses, such as De Bezige Bij and J.M. Meulenhoff, with a focus on translated literature.  Subsequently, she worked as a literary programmer and coordinator for the international literature festival Winternachten in The Hague. She was a judge for the European Literature Prize, the Anton Wachter Prize for literary debuts and the Libris Prize for Dutch novels. Judith has also written several books, one of which, Eisprong, was translated to over twenty languages. She also coordinated the literary ‘Guest of Honour’ programme, which presented Dutch and Flemish literature to the international public at the Frankfurt Book fair.  Since 2017 she is the Publishing Director at World Editions, an English language publishing house specialized in voices from around the globe.

I am really excited to be back with Season 2 of The Make Books Travel Podcast! I took a break from recording new episodes earlier this fall to focus on the virtual Frankfurt Book Fair season. On this episode I’m joined by Gillian Fizet. Gillian is Executive Director of the Canada FBM2020 Committee, the entity responsible for representing the Canada's Guest of Honor (GoH) program at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2020/21. As most of you know, the GoH program for 2020 has been postponed to 2021.  I was curious to hear about her journey during this challenging year, Canada’s GoH program during the 2020 digital Frankfurt book fair, and how they’re going to prepare for the 2021 edition. Some of the questions I asked Gillian: - What has it been like to run this major international project in Canada’s official two languages (French and English) and represent Anglophone, Francophone and Indigenous literature?  - Before the pandemic hit the world, what specific actions did you and your team undertake in order to prepare for the 2020 Frankfurt Book Fair?  - As a result, how many Canadian books were planned to be published in German this year?  - In July, Canada FBM2020 announced it was postponing the Frankfurt Book Fair Guest of Honor program to 2021. How did this come about?  - Even though Canada’s physical Guest of Honor appearance has been moved up one year, you still had a digital program for this year’s virtual fair. Can you tell us some more about this?  - Looking forward to next year, what are the next steps for you and your team?  SHOW NOTES Gillian's book recommendations: - Kiley Reid, Such a Fun Age (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2019) - Joan Didion, A Year of Magical Thinking (Alfred A. Knopf, hardcover & paperback edition, 2005) - Elena Ferrante, The Lying Life of Adults (Europa Editions, 2020, translated by Ann Goldstein) Information about Canada FBM2020 and its featured authors and illustrators: https://canadafbm2020.com/authors/ About Gillian: Gillian Fizet is the Executive Director of Canada FBM2020, the entity responsible for representing the Canadian publishing industry’s presence at Frankfurt Book Fair in 2020/21 where Canada will be the Guest of Honour. In the lead-up to 2020, Gillian has developed and overseen tactics, tools and activities for the Canadian publishing industry to meet the export profitability and capacity objectives of the Government of Canada. Additionally, Gillian has worked with various other federal, provincial and territorial stakeholders, and has collaborated with key Canadian cultural agencies and organizations. Prior to this, she was Rights Director for House of Anansi and Groundwood Books in Toronto. Where to find Canada FBM2020 online: - Twitter - Instagram - Facebook

Welcome to episode #21 of the Make Books Travel podcast. Today's guest is Daniel Bunyard, Publishing Director and Head of Non-Fiction Publishing at Penguin Michael Joseph in the UK. Dan has been looking in detail at historical sales of books, in an effort to better understand what people’s book buying motivations and patterns are. Why did certain books sell well at a given moment in time, and why did others hardly sell any copies during that same period? And what book buying patterns are we seeing in times of Corona? These are fascinating and important questions to ask for us publishing folks. So let’s listen to my conversation with Daniel Bunyard! Show Notes About Daniel: Daniel Bunyard is a Publishing Director and Head of Non-fiction publishing at Penguin Michael Joseph, a division of Penguin Random House. After starting his career in academic publishing, working on history and philosophy titles at Palgrave Macmillan, he worked successively for John Blake, Orion and HarperCollins before moving to Penguin as a commissioning editor for commercial non-fiction. About his research: Daniel's paper on how publishing trends are influenced by historical context has not yet been published. I will update this information with the references once it's available.  In the meantime you can watch his interview about this topic with Angus Phillips, who runs the journal that is publishing his article. End of season 1 On a side note, after today’s episode I’m putting my recordings on hold for a short while. Even though I won’t be traveling, things will get a little crazy and intense in the weeks leading up to and during the virtual Frankfurt Book Fair mid-October, with plenty of video meetings and such.  Over the next couple of weeks, I will gradually move to European time, so I can make the most of this important book fair season. I'm in the Pacific time zone, which means there's a 9-hour time difference to overcome. It will be a first to be working on night shifts, and I’m curious to see how it will play out… In any case the podcast will return after the Frankfurt Book Fair with a second season!

Today I’m speaking with French-to-English translator Eve Bodeux. As a translator, Eve is someone who literally makes books travel. We discuss many things on this 20th episode of the Make Books Travel Podcast, including her professional journey, the challenges and rewards of being a translator from French to English, the American Translators Association, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on her work, and why the English language book market is so challenging for translated literature. SHOW NOTES Eve’s book recommendations: – Natalia Ginzburg, Family Lexicon (translated from the Italian by Jenny McPhee; NYRB Classics, 2017) – Bess Kalb, Nobody Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A true (as told to me) story (Knopf, 2020) She also mentioned: – Sayaka Murata, Convenience Store Woman (translated from the Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori; Grove Press, 2018) – Fredrik Backman, A Man Called Ove: A Novel (translated from the Swedish by Henning Koch; Atria Books, 2014) The American Translators Association: https://www.atanet.org/ Lisa Carter’s blog post on royalties and literary translation: https://intralingo.com/posts/10-truths-on-royalties-and-literary-translation Interview with Jenny McPhee, the translator of Family Lexicon: https://youtu.be/6MmCn2NFmg0 Pew Research article on language learning: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/06/most-european-students-are-learning-a-foreign-language-in-school-while-americans-lag About Eve: Eve Bodeux is a dual French-American national and French-to-English translator with over 20 years of experience. She is certified by the American Translators Association and works with clients in France, Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the UK, the US and around the world. In addition to her commercial translation work, she has translated several children’s books, and romance and non-fiction works into English. She is co-host of the long-running Speaking of Translation podcast. She earned a BA in French and Political Science and a graduate degree from the University of Lorraine (Nancy II) in France and an MA from the University of Virginia. She is currently serving on the Board of Directors of the American Translators Association through 2021.

For today’s show we’re going back overseas (at least from an American standpoint) as I’m speaking with Rita Fazenda from Portugal. Rita works as a publisher at one of Portugal’s major publishing houses called Leya Portugal. The Portuguese publishing market has seen many challenges over the years. I wanted to ask Rita how things are looking now, with the additional restraints imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.  I’m happy to say that at least one good thing is happening at the moment, namely the Lisbon Book Fair, which is held from late August till around mid-September. It is an important event for Portuguese publishers, even more so now. While it’s always been an outdoor event (even in normal, pre-pandemic times), I was curious to hear what its set-up looks like in times of Corona. Besides the Portuguese publishing market and the Lisbon Book Fair, Rita and I discuss many other topics including the hardships of selling translation rights in Portuguese books. SHOW NOTES Rita's book recommendations: - William Gibson, Neuromancer (Ace, 1984; new hardcover edition with introduction by Neil Gaiman, Penguin Galaxy, 2016) - Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life and Others (Vintage, Reissue Edition, 2016; includes “Story of Your Life” which was the basis for the motion picture Arrival) Information about translation grants for Portuguese titles:  Direção Geral do Livro, dos Arquivos e das Bibliotecas Torre do Tombo, Alameda da Universidade 1649-010 Lisboa, Portugal Tel: +351 21 003 7420 / +351 21 003 7422 General:  dsl@dglab.gov.pt Support for translation and promotion of authors: internacional@dglab.gov.pt  http://livro.dglab.gov.pt/sites/DGLB/English/Pages/home.aspx About Rita: Since Rita Fazenda was a little girl, books have been her passion. In fact, books were probably her best friends and certainly her window into the world. She started her career in communications agencies, and was in the first Portuguese company working with scriptwriting, actors, comedians, who she would represent as an agent, for several years. Then, life took her finally home, the world of publishing, where she’s been working for more than decade, in several Portuguese publishing houses, as a communications officer, an editor and foreign rights manager such as Objectiva and Marcador. Her work gave Rita the opportunity to know some amazing authors and to travel to find some awesome books. Now she’s a publisher in one of the major publishing houses in Portugal, Leya Portugal, and she’s thrilled. The little girl in her feels like a kid on a candy shop. Giving voice to authors it’s an out of this world experience. It’s a kind of magic. And Rita is a firm believer in magic.

On  this episode of the Make Books Travel podcast I’m speaking with Becca Puglisi. Becca is an international speaker, writing coach, and bestselling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and other books for writers. Not only does Becca help make books travel in the US and other English speaking countries through her creative writing books and her coaching work, she also does so in other languages. 2 Seas Agency represents translation rights in her books, which have sold into numerous countries. We discuss what led her to becoming a writing coach, the impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on her activities, the success of her books specifically in Japan and elsewhere in Asia, and her #1 tip for aspiring authors. SHOW NOTES Becca's book recommendations: - Mary Pipher, PhD, Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls (Riverhead Trade, 2005) - Rosalind Wiseman, Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and the New Realities of Girl World (Harmony, 2009) - Dr James Dobson, Preparing for Adolescence: How To Survive The Coming Years Of Change (Gospel Light, revised edition, 2005) - Mike Michalowicz, Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself (Portfolio, 2018) About Becca: Becca Puglisi is an international speaker, writing coach, and bestselling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and other books for writers—including her latest: The Occupation Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Jobs, Vocations, and Careers. Her books have sold over 500,000 copies and are available in multiple languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. She is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others through her Writers Helping Writers blog and via One Stop For Writers—a powerhouse online library created to help writers elevate their storytelling.

Today’s podcast guest is Rohit Bhargava. Not only is Rohit a #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author, a much-demanded speaker worldwide on disruption, trends and marketing, and an adjunct professor of marketing and storytelling at Georgetown University, he has also co-founded his own publishing house: IdeaPress Publishing. 2 Seas Agency handles foreign rights in their books, whose topics mostly focus on business, marketing, leadership and creativity. Since we started working together in 2015 we’ve managed to secure hundreds of rights deals for them (alright, so much for the self-promotion!). I have been curious to know more about how Rohit evolved from being a published author to becoming a publisher himself and what impact this has, if any, on the books he publishes. His most recent book is called The Non-Obvious Guide to Virtual Meetings and Remote Work so I also wanted to pick his brain about how to best prepare for the virtual meeting marathon that lies ahead for many of us, in lieu of the physical Frankfurt Book Fair. SHOW NOTES Rohit's book recommendation: Cindy L. Otis, True or False: A CIA Analyst's Guide to Spotting Fake News (Feiwel & Friends, July 2020) About Rohit:  IdeaPress Publishing co-founder Rohit Bhargava is on a mission to inspire more non-obvious thinking in the world. He is the #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of seven books and is widely considered one of the most entertaining and original speakers on disruption, trends and marketing in the world.  Rohit has been invited to keynote events in 32 countries … and over the past few months, given more than 40 from his home studio. He previously spent 15 years as a marketing strategist at Ogilvy and Leo Burnett and also teaches marketing and storytelling as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. https://www.youtube.com/rohitbhargava

Today I’m speaking with Barbara den Ouden of the Dutch Foundation for Literature. Anyone who has traveled to an international book fair is bound to have run into Barbara, who I believe to be something like a fixture at such events! The Dutch Foundation for Literature supports writers and translators, and promotes Dutch literature abroad. A few months into the pandemic, they announced to have set aside an additional budget amongst others to help foreign publishers who acquire Dutch titles during these challenging times. So I reached out to Barbara to ask her for further details about these special support measures. We also discuss the current situation in the Netherlands in terms of the Covid-19 pandemic, the book market and the economy in general. SHOW NOTES Barbara's book recommendation: Rodaan Al Galidi, Holland (Uitgeverij De Kade, 2020; no foreign language editions available at the time of recording)

On episode 15 I’m speaking with Jamie Dupras, General Manager of Los Angeles-based Deyan Audio. Deyan Audio is the largest independent producer of audiobooks and has won multiple awards for their productions. I was eager to learn more about the actual production process of an audiobook, and hearing about overall trends in the industry. As a rights seller, I only get to take part in the licensing side of audio rights. The licensing of such rights has been on the rise not only in the US and the UK but also in many other languages. For instance a few days ago we received an offer specifically for the Bulgarian audio rights in a Dutch title that we represent, our first audio-only deal for that language. The audiobook industry has recorded an explosive growth in the last couple of years, and Jamie explains why 2012 was a pivotal year in this development. We also discuss the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the industry, recording in languages other than English, and the rise in audiobook productions of poetry, graphic novels and comics. SHOW NOTES Publishers Weekly article: "All Signs Point Up for Audio Books" Jamie's book recommendation: Michael Finkel, True Story. Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa (Harper, 2005) 

Today I’m speaking with Maÿlis Vauterin, Rights Director at Editions Stock in France. I’ve previously interviewed various rights sellers about one specific type of subsidiary rights sales: the sale of translation rights. This means that a book is translated in another language and published in the local market of that language. In this episode however, Maylis and I discuss another type of subsidiary rights sales - and therefore a different potential income stream for authors - which is the licensing of audiovisual rights. We specifically cover movie and TV adaptations, as well as a relative newcomer in the book licensing world: podcast adaptations. Enjoy! PS: I'm excited to start including a "Show Notes" section below, which will mention the book recommendations from the guest of each specific episode. SHOW NOTES Maÿlis recommends the following three books: The Wall by Marlen Haushoffer (US paperback edition with Quartet Books; translated from the German: Die Wand, Claassen/Ullstein) Resilience: How Your Inner Strength Can Set You Free from Your Past by Boris Cyrulnik (US paperback edition with TarcherPerigee; translated from the French: Résilience, connaissances de bases, Odile Jacob) La coquille Saint Jacques, sentinelle de l’Océan by Laurent Chauvaud (Les Equateurs; no English translation available)

The 13th episode of the Make Books Travel Podcast welcomes Andrew Singer, Director of the literary journal Trafika Europe and of the literary radio station Trafika Europe Radio. This is the first time that the podcast features an interview with someone who is not either a rights seller or a rights buyer. Yet Andrew plays a very important role in making books travel. His literary journal and radio station have enabled the discovery of many European authors’ work outside of their local and national borders. On several occasions, this has led to their work being translated and published in English in book format. So I was very excited to talk to Andrew and in particular to ask him about his latest project, Trafika Europe Radio.  Feel free to reach out to Andrew at editor@trafikaeurope.org, and visit their website https://trafikaeurope.org/go/radio for further information and sign up to stay informed about future shows.

On episode 12 of the Make Books Travel podcast I’m talking to Antoine Tanguay, who founded the Quebec publishing house Editions Alto in 2005. When I asked Antoine if there were any specific topics he wanted to discuss on the podcast, he mentioned that for the past few years he’d been focusing quite a bit on publishing innovations, on new ways to spread writing and people's stories. During the interview it turned out that he is indeed full of ideas to try out different ways of telling stories, and isn’t afraid of unusual, out-of-the-box ideas. To put it in his own words, he “thinks outside the book”! It was fascinating to hear about some of his ideas on this podcast episode.  I truly enjoyed our chat and I hope you do, too!

Welcome to episode 11 of the Make Books Travel podcast. Today’s guest is Chiara Scaglioni, editor of international fiction at Mondadori in Italy. Chiara and I met a couple of times at various book fairs last few years, and had in fact scheduled to meet at the Mondadori offices in Milan early April this year. That obviously did not happen... Italy was the first Western country to be hit by the Covid-19 virus, late February, and for a while it was the global epicenter of the pandemic. So of course the coronavirus is an important topic of our conversation. I was especially interested in getting a sense of the current situation in Italy now that the restrictions have for a large part been lifted, bookstores have reopened, and books are being published again.

On today's show I am talking to Stephanie Barrouillet, founder of SB Rights Agency in Tel Aviv that represents foreign rights in children's books around the world. The 10-hour time difference between California and Israel didn’t stop us from having a great conversation about the global children’s book market. As we were talking, I realized Stephanie and I have a lot in common: we both live in a country we weren’t born in -Stephanie was born in France and I’m originally from the Netherlands-, we started our publishing career in yet another country -Stephanie in the UK and I started out in France-, we both founded our own agencies within a few years' interval, and, probably because of these international journeys, our agencies don’t focus on the representation of books from one specific language or country but rather, we represent authors and books written in many different languages.