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Member only guide to the Australian book industry.
MIN READ
The ASA was delighted to attend Creative Australia’s Visiting International Publishers (VIPs) Forum in May to hear from international publishers and agents about global publishing trends and challenges, as well as opportunities for Australian authors overseas.
There were twelve international publishers, editors, scouts, and literary agents presenting this year from the UK, USA, Taiwan, France, Brazil, Poland, the Netherlands, and Germany. The panel themes explored children’s publishing in turbulent times, East and South-East Asia market updates, the impact of artificial intelligence on the publishing industry, and the power of the backlist.
Panelists: Arthur A Levine (President and Editor-in-Chief of Levine Querido, USA) , Hannerlie Modderman (Senior Commissioning Editor for Children’s and YA at Uitgeverij Luitingh-Sijthoff, the Netherlands), and Sandra Rothmund (Editor – Thienemann Esslinger Verlag, Germany)
The throughline of this panel was the potential of children’s books to generate social change and make better citizens of young people, as well as the false binary between publishing books that stimulate ideas and publishing commercial titles.
When it comes to threats facing publishers across markets, access to books was one concern, with Arthur A Levine proposing the biggest threat in the US market over the past 15 years is book banning. LGBTQI+ books and ‘those that challenge the white, straight, Christian history’ of the country were noted as being the significantly targeted. Defunding of public libraries has also had a dramatic impact.
Another pressing concern is not just limited access to a diverse range of books, but low literacy rates. Hannerlie Modderman reported that reading skills in the Netherlands are declining, and young people want to read in English instead of Dutch, contributing to a rise in English-language imports into the Dutch market (1 in 4 books are in English). Sandra Rothmund shared that in Germany, teenagers also prefer to read in English, making buying translation rights increasingly unnecessary.
In terms of which kinds of books can successfully reach young audiences, Levine said there is an unchallenged bias in the global publishing industry that only a certain kind of book will appeal to children and make money, but there doesn’t need to be a divide between commercial and socially worthwhile books. ‘It’s not the case that you have to play it safe and mainstream,’ he said.
Modderman supported this, saying in order to best engage children with reading they should be encouraged to stretch their skills. Instead of continuing to publish ‘redos of the best sellers’, all types of books should be available for all types of children. Publishers should look to books with ‘staying power’, that are relevant now but will also be relevant in decades to come, instead of becoming reliant on current TikTok trends and bestseller lists.
Speaker: Gray Tan (Founder of the Grayhawk Agency, Taiwan)
Key trends in China, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia were discussed in this session. One overarching trend in all five territories is that romcoms and romantasy are not working in translation in Asia, as the need is filled by local authors, with the BL genre, web novels, and k-dramas and other local TV shows proving to be popular.
Also on trend is foreign-born authors of South-East Asian descent writing books in English, which have then been translated into local languages. For example, R. F. Kuang is popular in all five territories.
The main takeaways from each market were:
Panellists: Camila Berto (Executive Editor of Companhia das Letras, Brazil), Lettice Franklin (Publishing Director of Weidenfeld and Nicolson, Orion, Hachette, UK), Joanna Maciuk (Acquiring Editor at Grupa Wydawnicza Foksal, WAB, Poland), and Anna Michels (Editorial Director at Sourcebooks and Poisoned Pen Press, USA)
This session focused on the value and changing nature of a publisher’s backlist. In a world where social virality can catapult books back into bestseller lists and decades-old books are finding readership with younger generations, having a strong backlist is vital. This creates an interesting challenge for publishers who must balance backlists and frontlists.
The panellists discussed how an author’s backlist can inform acquisitions, with the possibility of re-releases and repackaging sometimes making an author more appealing to a publisher.
There was also agreement that the sales period for titles has increased over the past five years since the pandemic, expanding from one year to around three. This was attributed to the ability of backlist titles to find new audiences thanks to social media (TikTok in particular) and the impact of availability on Amazon.
Panellists: Mieke Chew (Editor and Executive Director of Publicity at New Directions Publishing, USA), Marine Alata (Editorial Manager, Foreign at HarperCollins, France), and Daniela Schlingmann
This panel was not about the threats and challenges posed by generative AI, but a discussion of if – and how – publishers are using generative AI tools.
While some panellists did not use AI at all, others mentioned using generative AI tools for a range of purposes including as virtual assistants, for brainstorming marketing copy and selling points, creating content summaries, assisting with translations, and writing press releases. Panellists also mentioned they were unable to say whether AI tools were being used by external contractors such as readers and translators.
The idea of producing AI-voiced audiobooks was discussed as a possibility in development, however, the general consensus was that generative AI cannot produce the quality or nuance of a human voice actor.
We thank Creative Australia for their generous invitation to the forum, and the panelists for their thought-provoking insights.
