NEWS


Frankfurt Book Fair 2018 The headlines


Apple: Be ready for new audio platform


Apple has told publishers to “be ready” as it prepares to roll out its new audiobook platform. At a series of meetings held during the Frankfurt Book Fair, Apple did not disclose a launch date, but indicated that it was close. One publisher told The Bookseller: “It’s tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. Apple is excited by what it is doing.” Audiobooks took centre stage at the fair, with speakers from across the industry talking up the market, described by one as “the only growth sector” in the consumer books business. Publishers Faber and Kogan Page also announced a ramped-up audio emphasis (right). Speaking at Frankfurt’s half-day


AudioBook Conference, Michele Cobb, executive director of the Audio Publishers Association, highlighted growth in audiobook production and sales in the US (46,000 titles published in 2017,


the market in 2017, she added. There was also a renewed


GROWTH SECTOR’, FAIR DELEGATES WERE TOLD


AUDIO IS THE ‘ONLY


with sales up 23%) and the UK (3,700 titles produced, with sales up 16% in 2017). As a percentage of overall business, Cobb said audio- book sales were averaging out at around 4% of the total in the major markets, including Germany. Cobb said smartphones and


smartspeakers were driving growth, with 24% of US listeners using the later. In the UK, 36% of audiobook consumers were new to


atempt to convince publishers to adopt streaming models for audio- books. John Ruhrmann, director of business relations at Bookwire, said streaming was generating 30% of digital revenue for some publishers in Germany, with this anticipated to top 40%. However, he conceded that publishers in the UK, as well as in Spain, are cautious about the model. “This is a call to action for UK publishers. They should open their minds to streaming... You should distribute across all channels, and address all models, including streaming.” Speaking at the annual Rights Meeting on Tuesday (9th October), Nathan Hull, chief commercial and content officer of BookChoice, argued that stream- ing led to an increase in book sales, not cannibalisation.


Reporting Philip Jones


Allison opens Dialogue about care workers in unflinching début


Début Dialogue Books publisher Sharmaine Lovegrove has acquired a “stunning” début about a woman who works as


a carer for a fine art student with cerebral palsy. The Art of The Body by Alexander Allison is described as an “original, intimate and unflinching account of caring for a broken body, one that expresses both rage and tenderness and is incredibly powerful and arresting”. Lovegrove acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding


ALEXANDER ALLISON IS THE LATEST ADDITION TO SHARMAINE LOVEGROVE’S NASCENT DIALOGUE LIST


Crouch rekindles Pan Mac partnership Pan Macmillan has bought Blake Crouch’s second thriller, in which people’s memories are altered without their knowledge. Macmillan associate publisher for fiction Wayne Brookes acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, exclud- ing Canada, to Recursion from David Hale-Smith and Alexis Hurley at Inkwell Management. Dark Matter, US author Crouch’s first novel for Macmillan, was published in 2016 after being won at auction in January 2015.


04 11th October 2018


Canada) from Zoe Ross at United Agents. She said: “Alexander’s stunning début sheds a light on a person who is empowered by his disability and reveals to us the extent to which creativity can embolden. “I was taken by Janet’s character, which has a ‘Fleabag’ quality, and above all I am delighted to have Alexander as a vital part of the Dialogue family. His talent and original ideas bring to the novel a fresh perspective on the world.”


McCartney bags ticket to ride in France and Italy Penguin Random House Children’s UK has agreed pre- empts for Paul McCartney’s upcoming Hey Grandude! with Michel Lafon in France and HarperCollins Italia, with the publisher reporting offers on the table in numerous other territories. McCartney’s picture book, illustrated by Kathryn Durst, is about a magical grandfather and his four grandchildren. Puffin and Random House Children’s US will publish in September 2019.


Faber and Kogan Page key up audio output


Faber is to greatly expand its audio list in “ambition and [the] number of titles” in 2019, following its success with the format this year. Next year’s highlights from the


indie in audio format include Lemn Sissay’s reading of T S Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats; Leïla Slimani’s prize-winning début novel Adèle, read by actress Finty Williams; and Max Porter’s “devastating and anarchic” new novel Lanny (March), which will be a multi-cast audio production. Faber c.e.o. Stephen Page


said the opportunity to publish audiobooks creatively is being transformed by digital listening platforms, and that the company’s new string of publications are “thrilling, both in terms of the books at [their] heart and the inventiveness around the readings”. Meanwhile, fellow UK indie


Kogan Page is starting an audio list for its leadership and popular business publications, in partner- ship with production company Sound Understanding. Kogan Page m.d. Helen Kogan said the launch was an “exciting development”, and would be “the first time that we have been able to work with our authors to manage our own audiobook creation”.


HELEN AND PHILIP KOGAN’S LIST WILL VENTURE INTO AUDIO


Christopher Paolini short stories to return to Eragon Christopher Paolini, author of the Inheritance Cycle, has written a new collection of short stories set in the mythical world of Alagaësia. The first, The Fork, the Witch and the Worm begins a year after the events of his Eragon. Penguin Random House Children’s acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, and will publish the collection with four pieces of original art by Paolini. M.d. Francesca Dow said “this return to the world of Eragon is a long-awaited delight”.


Viking’s Moor-ish thriller


Début Viking has pre-empted a feminist thriller by


25-year-old University of Manchester creative writing graduate Jessica Moor. Her “pulse-pounding” début There is No Place follows the inhabitants of a women’s refuge after one of the support workers is found drowned in a local river, and examines “violence against women and the structures that allow it to continue”. Editorial director Katy Loftus bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Marilia Savvides at PFD.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44