It’s March, which is just another month for most people, but
for children’s publishing, it means one thing – the Bologna Book Fair, the date
in the calendar with the most exclamation points around it!
Much as March always feel like a big panicked rush, we have
actually been preparing for the fair for months. From the first meeting request that
came in December, to booking flights/hotels and arranging schedules, a lot of
preparation goes into these four days.
Last year was my first experience of the fair, and just
remembering the buzz makes me want to jump on the plane right now. From the
mood in the airport – goodness knows what any non-publishing people must think
– to the enthusiasm in the Agents Centre, this shared excitement by a group of
people focused on children’s publishing is the really big takeaway from the
experience.
I’m lucky this year to be going with my colleague Molly
Hawn, and that means shared planning, being able to chivvy each other along
when not even Italian coffee is working, and having a great sounding board to decompress
after the days’ meetings.
Over the next few weeks, Molly and I will be focused on
preparing pitches for the debuts we are taking and planning how to approach our
meetings. We will be seeing UK and US editors, and also foreign publishers to
show off our fantastic rights guide. Most of our meetings will take place in
the Agents Centre, which is positioned between the exhibition halls. The Agents
Centre can feel a little like speed dating at times – a half-hour focused
meeting to find out an editor’s personal taste and gauge what they are looking for
and what they are not. Then we pitch projects that we think would be a good fit.
Focused, repetitive pitching like this really makes a point
about things agents often say when turning down submissions: ‘It just isn’t for
me,’ or ‘I liked it, but I didn’t love it.’ We have read our clients’ books
countless times, edited them and written pitches for them. Then we have to talk
about them endlessly for four days. No wonder we have to LOVE these books!
Bologna is non-stop. We take a taxi from the airport to our
first meeting, and these meetings continue all day, with parties and dinners in
the evening. Catching up with agent friends and publishers in these more
relaxed social events was a big highlight for me last year. Publishing really
is filled with some of the nicest people!
And so after four days we will return from the fair with new
contacts, lists of manuscripts to send out to interested editors, and feedback
for our clients. We will have seen nothing of Bologna itself, but we will have
eaten a lot of pasta and maybe some gelato. We will be exhausted and feel the
need to hibernate, but that will quickly pass.
After all, we have London Book Fair three weeks later!
