My FBF Catherine Clarke


My Frankfurt Book Fair Catherine Clarke


My first visit was as a commissioning editor for Oxford University Press in the early 1990s. I was seting up the Oxford History of Art series—it was a huge project, and important that we got foreign interest. Having a clear agenda made things easier for me at the fair.


I went to the fair as an agent for the first time in 2001, and it’s a very different experience. You’re busier and more focused than you are as an editor, because you are there to sell.


I was lucky enough to find myself with a hot book at my first fair as an agent. I’d sent out a proposal for John Dickie’s Cosa Nostra, and within two hours at the agents centre [Hodder’s] Roland Phillips made a six-figure pre-empt. We had a joyful auction over the week— I thought every Frankfurt would be like that!


The fair is like Groundhog Day. But in a positive way: aſter all, the point of Groundhog Day is that you try to reach your optimum. You know how much preparation is needed, how intense the back-to- back meetings will be, and what the fallout will be like, but as soon as you land you are happy to be back in this familiar place. Every year I try to watch and learn and try to improve the experience.


There are some great parties, but it’s hard to beat Bertelsmann’s. In one of my early years I lost my invitation but decided to blag my way in with [fellow agent] Caroline Wood. As we arrived the Transworld team was leaving, so I took Bill Scot-Kerr’s name badge and Caroline took Larry Finlay’s.


The much-missed [agent] David Miller once told me to pack plenty of Strepsils and eye drops. Good advice. Another tip is to take some- one else with you to a part—it makes it less daunting. And remem- ber the queues for the ladies’ loos...


I always make a point of doing one thing in Frankfurt that has nothing to do with the fair. It’s an extraordinary cit and it’s so easy to miss it completely. The opera house is amazing—last year I saw “The Marriage of Figaro”, and this year it’s “Peter Grimes”. Take a look at the museums, cathedral and Goethe House. Doing just one new thing gives you a much beter sense of place.


The fair is all about relationships. That became clear to me early on. I find that you discover very quickly whether you click with people.


You can email or Skype all you like, but you can’t match face-to- face encounters. Nothing beats siting across a table—in the agents centre, on a publisher’s stand or at the bar—and making eye contact and talking. Chance encounters and unscheduled conversations are so important too—they can lead to all sorts of new projects and ideas.


14


Goethe House left provides a welcome distraction to the fair for Catherine, who makes sure there is always space in her luggage for her FBF essential: Strepsils


WORDS Tom Holman 11th October 2017


Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, situated in Opernplatz


(Opera Square)


Agent/m.d., Felicity Bryan Associates


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