Updates from London and Brazil

by Marilyn Gordon, Director of Rights and Contracts, Baker Publishing Group

London Book Fair, April 2012

It was another exciting year at the London Book Fair. More than 1,500 companies exhibited and 24,500 publishing professionals attended LBF. Although our ECPA Christian Collective was smaller than previous years, we were certainly very busy. Rights staff from participating publishers had solid back-to-back meetings throughoutMonday and Tuesday, but Wednesday was a slower day. In addition to meetings with European publishers, we met with publishers from Brazil, China, Korea, India, Russia, and Turkey. The ECPA Collective became the gathering spot for many within our industry.

The digital presence at London Book Fair expanded again this year with two theaters plus an area dedicated to app development. Concurrent, back-to-back, digital presentations were held throughout all three days.According to Bowker’s research, the US, Australia, India, and the UK are leading the world in eBook adoption. The market share of eBooks in the USA is about 20% while the UK is 5% (Bowker). Barnes and Noble launched their UK Nook, which will be carried by Waterstone Bookstores.

Brazil, May 2012

Christianity is growing in Brazil as is the economic status of Christians. Brazil has sprung out of the global recession, and this increae in economic status has affected Christians. For the first time, many Christians are able to purchase books. This combined economic boom and rise in Christianity will continue to benefit Christian publishing houses over the next decade.

ASEC Book Fair:  The Associação de Editores Cristãos (ASEC), the Christian publishers association in Brazil, hosted its first book fair in May. The book fair provided professional meetings for publishers and retailers and an opportunity for international publishers to meet with Brazilian publishers to license translation rights. Later in May, another group of US publishers visited Brazil to promote and license titles. These two licensing opportunities enabled US publishers to meet with most of the major Brazilian publishers, and to make some new contacts as well.

ECPA members are eligible to participate in the ECPA Christian Collectives at the London Book Fair and the Frankfurt Book Fair each year.  Contact Lisa Hale for more information.