Show Daily Magazine THURSDAY, 12 October 2017 | FRANKFURT BOOK FAIR | publishingperspectives.com Left to right at the Prix Goncourt shortlist announcement: Judith Roze, Language Department Director, Institut Français; Marie Dabadie, Secretary General, Goncourt Academy; Francoise Chandernagor, writer; Tahar Ben Jelloun, writer; Pierre Assouline, writer; Leïla Slimani, writer; Bernard Pivot, president, Goncourt Academy; Jérôme Ferrari, writer; Philippe Claudel, writer and film director; Patrick Rambaud, writer; Didier Decoin, writer; Virginie Despentes, writer; Eric- Emmanuel Schmitt, writer; Paule Constant, writer Who’s Who of Francophone Literature in Frankfurt From the announcement of the Prix Goncourt shortlist to publishers from francophone Africa and Haiti, the French-language literary world is in Frankfurt en force to celebrate their common language and cultural diversity. FROM PUBLISHING PERSPECTIVES From the Editor: Among Friends Tweets from the Frankfurt Book Fair By Porter Anderson at the heart of these deals: “To have a partner that already knows aving cleared the import- such a market,” Bodour said, “takes Hant political overtones of out a lot of the groundwork. And Tuesday’s formal opening events, in return, we can give them access Frankfurt Book Fair’s focus on to the 420 million Arabic speakers Wednesday sharpened quickly around the world while they can to business, as the show floors do the same for our books.” opened, the LitAg’s trades started Convivial partnership, however, flying, and escalators hummed. is never everything in love or in During the a Publishing Per- business. spectives Talk at Frankfurt’s Busi- And by the time the fair’s annual ness Club on Wednesday, Sheikha CEO Talk was underway, the chief Bodour Al Qasimi of Sharjah was of Simon & Schuster was getting reacquainted with a fellow Shar- good-natured laughs for her view jahn whom she hadn’t seen since of what Brexit means for the rest the last Frankfurt Book Fair of the world: “It will mean,” Carolyn As the audience members Reidy wryly told The Bookseller’s laughed about coming to Frankfurt Philip Jones, “an end to Britain try- to see home-country colleagues, ing to grab Europe as an exclusive they learned about innovative market. translation partnerships estab- “And I still don’t understand,” lished by Bodour’s Kalimat with she said, “why the British think the Quarto Group, Bloomsbury, they have India.” • and Gallimard Jeunesse. Sales are Today’s Event Highlights: Thursday, 12 October SHOW DAILY What Future is There for Hot Spot Tour Francophone Books? 11:00 am to 12:30 pm Publishing Perspectives is the leading source of information about the global 9:00 am to 11:00 pm Business Club, Hall 4.0 Foyer book publishing business. Since 2009, we have been publishing daily email Guest of Honor Pavilion Get to know the technical spe- editions with news and features from around the book world. (Forum, Level 1) cialists, digital innovators, and Our mission is to help build and contribute to the international This roundtable discussion put content creators at the Frankfurt publishing community by offering information that publishing and media together by several cultural orga- Book Fair’s Hot Spots—hubs of in- professionals need to connect, cooperate, and work together year-round nizations will explore the current novation throughout the fair. and across borders. developments in the francophone In addition to our daily online coverage, we also offer an online monthly publishing market. rights edition, as well as print magazines at special events including the New Trends in Copyright London Book Fair and the Frankfurt Book Fair. As a project of the Frankfurt Book Fair New York, Publishing Perspectives Trading in China works with our colleagues in Frankfurt and the Fair’s international offices, European Booksellers 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm as well as IPR License, to share with you the latest trends and opportunities, Conference Business Club Stage, Hall 4.0 people to know, companies to watch, and more. 10:00 am to 5:00 pm Publishers and experts from China Hall 5.1, Tulip Lounge and Germany will discuss how Organized by the European and the Chinese government policy of International Booksellers Fed- “Going Out” has affected the rights eration, this conference aims to business and what we can expect PUBLISHER : Hannah Johnson CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE : provide booksellers, associations, in this area in the future. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF : Porter Anderson Marie Bilde and executives with ideas and best BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT : Erin Cox Jane Chun practices that they can take back Alastair Horne to their own countries. International Publishing PHOTOGRAPHY: Johannes Minkus Mark Piesing Distribution Forum Olivia Snaije 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm DISTRIBUTION: Roger Tagholm CONTENTShift Publishing Hot Spot Publishing Services, Frank Hörnig Startups ARTS+ Hall 4.0 J37 Petra Hörnig PUBLISHING PERSPECTIVES 10:30 am to 12:30 pm The Frankfurt Book Fair and the Theresa Wössner a project of the Frankfurt Book Fair NY ARTS+ Runway, Hall 4.1 P53 International Publishing Distribu- 30 Irving Place, 4th Floor Five publishing startups from the tion Association are hosting a new New York, NY 10003 CONTENTShift Accelerator will forum and networking event for pitch their ideas to a jury which publishers and distributors to find will choose one winner. new commercial opportunities. Read more and subscribe at: publishingperspectives.com 2 PUBLISHING PERSPECTIVES / FRANKFURT BOOK FAIR 2017 NEWS FROM THE FAIR PUBLISHING PERSPECTIVES / FRANKFURT BOOK FAIR 2017 3 AUTHORS IN THE SPOTLIGHT 2017 Prix Goncourt Shortlist Announced Tahar Ben Jelloun, award-winning Moroccan-French author Leïla Slimani, winner of the 2016 Prix Goncourt; Bernard Pivot, president of the Goncourt Academy By Olivia Snaije The Goncourt is an internation- Sud) said that the Goncourt “im- THE 2017 SHORTLIST: ally recognized prize that guaran- mediately creates a rush for the he shortlist for France’s top lit- tees the winners translations into work that won the prize to be • François-Henri Désérable, Un Terary prize, the Goncourt, was other languages. translated. You hope it’s for the certain M. Piekielny (Gallimard) announced yesterday at the France Leïla Slimani, last year’s win- quality of the writing, but for me, • Olivier Guez, La disparition de Guest of Honor Pavilion by an im- ner said that within hours of get- what’s most important is that my Josef Mengele (Grasset) pressive group of authors and lite- ting the prize, 10 rights offers had work continues to be translated.” • Yannick Haenel, Tiens ferme ta rati, including Virginie Despentes, come in from various countries. Moroccan-French author Tahar couronne (Gallimard) Françoise Chandernagor, and “The word ‘Goncourt’ is extraordi- Ben Jelloun, a Goncourt Jury mem- • Alice Zeniter, L’Art de perdre Tahar Ben Jelloun. Not only was nary. I had no idea before getting ber ended the shortlist announce- (Flammarion) it unusual for the shortlist to be the prize. People in other coun- ment with a nice anecdote. He • Véronique Olmi, Bakhita announced in Frankfurt, said Ber- tries are amazed that authors in said his work was translated into (Albin Michel) nard Pivot, president of the Gon- France are treated like such stars.” 47 languages, one of which was • Alexis Ragougneau, Niels court Academy, but the longlist of So far, Slimani’s book, Chanson Esperanto. In Rotterdam, he said, (Viviane Hamy) 15 authors had been reduced to a douce (Gallimard), has been trans- there is a community of Esperanto • Eric Vuillard, L’Ordre du jour shortlist of eight authors in a “stu- lated into 37 languages. readers, and 2,000 copies were (Actes Sud) pefyingly” short amount of time, Jérôme Ferrari, a Goncourt published in the language, which • Monica Sabolo, Summer inspired, no doubt, by “German winner in 2012 for his novel Le Ser- were immediately sold out. • (JC Lattès) speed.” mon sur la chute de Rome (Actes Ken Follett on Brexit, Kingsbridge, and Book Promo By Roger Tagholm now almost like an international ers all bases, and the author clearly company, with a researcher hired receives much coverage as a re- en Follett is a firm “remainer” to find people for Follett to inter- sult, which may partly explain his Kand is appalled by his native view and academics paid to read extraordinary sales. His previous UK’s decision to leave the Euro- first drafts for accuracy. Global novel The Pillars of the Earth has pean Union. He also believes the success leads to a high number sold 5 million copies in Germany people of his famous fictional city of requests. The Follett Office, as alone and some 35 million copies of Kingsbridge—whose stories he it is called, recognizes this and is around the world. Total worldwide tells in A Column of Fire, the third awash with resources for the me- sales of his 31 novels are more than volume in his bestselling series dia. The press conference itself 160 million, in more than 80 coun- about the town—would have been was live-streamed on Twitter and tries and 33 languages. firm “remainers” as well. was preceded by a high-quality The good news for booksell- “They would hate the idea of film following Follett on various ers is that the 68-year-old author Brexit,” he told a packed press research trips around Europe, has no intention of stopping. He conference hosted by his German to cathedrals and ruins in Paris, is working on a new story—not a publisher Bastei Lübbe. “Kings- Orléans, and Seville. fourth Kingsbridge—and says re- bridge is a trading city, trading all Follett’s wife and now agent, assuringly “there will be another over Europe. It is consciously in- one-time Labour MP Barbara Fol- Kingsbridge story, too. I’m just not ternational. I’m a ‘remainer,’ and I lett, reminded the audience that sure if that will be the one I write believe the people of Kingsbridge extracts from the film—which was next.