NEWS
Frankfurt Book Fair 2018 The headlines
Petition launched over FBF LitAg move
Anger has grown at Frankfurt Book Fair’s plans to move the Literary Agents & Scouts Centre (LitAg) next year, with a petition being launched during this year’s fair to atempt to reverse the move. A fortnight ago FBF said it would move the LitAg from Hall 6.3 to the Festhalle, a standalone building at the fair’s east entrance, claiming it was “without any other option” as Frankfurter Messe, the grounds’ owner, is undergoing a multi-year renovation. Lora Fountain, m.d. of Paris- based Agence Litéraire Lora Fountain & Associates, said French agents and publishers are “furious” at the decision. She has launched a petition, “gaining support by the day”, to block the move. She said the new location would make having back-to-back 30-minute meetings “unwork- able”, adding: “We have to think
[issue] when London Book Fair moved from Earl’s Court to Olympia, and the distances were much smaller.” Yet others sounded more concil-
A PETITION HAS BEEN LAUNCHED TO PROTEST MOVING THE LITAG
about how much business we will miss out on. I don’t think [rights professionals] could boycot Frankfurt, but I can easily see agents going as trade visitors... We could see a mass desertion in the LitAg. I’d rather pitch a tent in the Agora than be in the Festhalle.” Charlie Brotherstone of Brotherstone Creative Management agreed: “It makes sense for the LitAg to be close to publishers. I’m not surprised people are upset. We saw this
iatory notes. Andrew Nurnberg, who sits on the LitAg advisory board, said: “Trade fairs are all beholden to changes determined by the owners of the grounds, and if the later decides to close or develop part of the site, exhibitors have to adapt.” FBF director Jürgen Boos wrote
to agents stating: “I am sorry that the move has raised so many issues... I would like to assure all of you that the agents and scouts will always be important to us and that the Buchmesse will continue to subsidise the costs of the LitAg.” FBF organisers and the LitAg advi- sory board will meet this Friday (12th October) to exchange views. Reporting Tom Tivnan
Six-figure signing
Harrow Lake horror pre-empted by PRH Children’s for six figures
Penguin Random House Children’s has acquired a YA horror novel by Kat Ellis in a two-book, six-figure pre-empt. Harrow Lake is about the
KAT ELLIS HAS PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED WITH WELSH INDIE FIREFLY PRESS
Potter’s Pole new world Poland-based kids’ publisher Ameet will release a series of books based on the Wizarding World franchise—encompassing the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts films—after partnering with Warner Bros Consumer Products. Launching in autumn 2019, the series will include colouring and sticker books containing new, film-inspired artwork. Eric Huang, vice- president and publisher at Ameet, said the opportunity was “a dream come true for so many team members at Ameet”.
04 10th October 2018
daughter of a famous horror- film director who is sent to the sinister small town where her father’s most iconic movie was filmed. Strange gossip, frightening coincidences and a town obsessed with its tragic past make Lola start to question whether she’ll get out of Harrow Lake alive.
Canongate seeks Meek’s latest, 1348-set novel Canongate has acquired Booker-longlisted author James Meek’s “epic” novel—set in 1348, the year of the Black Death—To Calais, in Ordinary Time. Publishing director Francis Bickmore signed world rights, excluding the US, from Natasha Fairweather at RCW. The novel will be published by Canongate in autumn 2019, alongside a new edition of Meek’s novel The People’s Act of Love, issued in Canongate’s Canons series of classics.
Molly Ker Hawn at The Bent
Agency sold UK, Commonwealth and translation rights to editor Emma Jones just days after the book went out on submis- sion. Kathy Dawson of Kathy Dawson Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers, bought North American rights. Ellis, based in North Wales,
has previously written YA novels for Welsh independent publisher Firefly Press. Harrow Lake will be published in the UK and in the US in 2020.
ON NON-FICTION
Fogg leads new HC list Mudlark
List launch
HarperCollins is launch- ing Mudlark—a boutique imprint mixing “quality” memoir, polemic and
narrative non-fiction—in February, led by Jack Fogg, Harper Fiction and NonFiction publishing direc- tor, who promises that “every book will showcase an interesting, origi- nal writer with a distinctive voice, addressing a subject with both commercial and literary appeal”. “Mudlark” refers to the people
who scoured the Tames’ banks at low tide in the 18th and 19th century seeking objects they could sell, as well as the small, magpie-like bird. Te imprint will release about 12 titles a year. Its eclectic launch-year list includes heart surgeon Stephen Westaby’s Te Knife’s Edge, a look at what it takes to be at the top of his profes- sion; Vice columnist Joel Golby’s collection of essays, Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant Brilliant Brilliant; and Scottish comedian Limmy’s memoir, Surprisingly Down to Earth and Very Funny. HarperCollins executive
publisher Kate Elton said: “It’s been incredibly exciting to see the growth in both reader and retail demand for intelligent, quality, high-end non-fiction. Te Mudlark list is a way of curating a segment of Harper NonFiction’s publishing with a specific focus on that.”
Moving house
Mellor swings Hamdy’s pendulum to Pan Mac Thriller writer Adam Hamdy has followed his former editor Vicki Mellor from Headline to Pan Macmillan, signing a three-book deal. Mellor, who bought the trio of novels from Hannah Sheppard at DHH Literary Agency, published Hamdy’s Pendulum series while she was at Headline. The first novel in the new deal, Black Thirteen, will be released in autumn 2019, with the further two novels due in 2020 and 2021.
Bodley Head in the Cloud... After a five-way auction, The Bodley Head publishing director Stuart Williams signed Brett Scott’s Cloudmoney, a book exploring the intersection of digitisation and finance, and our current “moment of seismic change, with the tech and finance worlds colliding”. PEW Literary Agency’s Patrick Walsh conducted the deal for UK and Commonwealth rights with Williams, with Ecco pre- empting US rights. Deals were also struck in Dutch (Atlas) and Italian (Il Saggiatore).
JACK FOGG’S LIST FOCUSES
Photography: Josh Sedgley
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