Romantic Reads

On Saturday evening of the Women's Fiction Festival, all attendees donned their best duds for a late-night gala at a brand new hotel. Like all the events at the conference, editors, agents, and authors mingled freely to talk shop or just hang out.  In this photo alone we have folks from the U.K., Sweden, Germany, the U.S., Italy and Egypt.

Me with Judith Ann Witthohn (left) and Christine Witthohn of the Book Cents Agency, one of the primary sponsors of the conference.

Chuck Sambuchino, editor of Guide to Literary Agents, and Scott Eagan of the Greyhaus Agency.

Screenwriter Doug McKeon of Sunset Ridge Productions and his wife, Kathy

Authors looking for a more intimate, less structured conference should definitely keep this one in mind.  There's a lot of face time beyond a 7-minute pitch with editors and agents, and everyone was friendly and approachable. It's the kind of conference where you easily start to regard people as friends instead of just colleagues.

With the Frankfurt Book Festival opening today in Germany, I thought it would be the perfect time to share some of the things brought up at the Women's Fiction Festival about foreign markets.  And to make everyone insanely jealous with pictures of Italy, of course.  ;-)  To the left is a former church, which is part of the former monastery where the conference was held.  Every morning, we'd walk from our hotels up a windy, winding road, past the church, through a narrow passage and into what is now a beautiful hotel.  After one morning workshop, we had "coffee break," which I quickly found out entailed full-on breakfast.  I like the way these Italians think.

The first panel I was on discussed trends in markets around the world.  I was incredibly heartened and somewhat surprised to hear that many foreign countries prefer to translate books from English, rather than buy ones in their native language.  Books from the U.S. and the U.K. make up about 70% of the list in countries such as Italy and Germany. With the costs of translations and certain legal issues, it seems like this is a trend they're trying to change. But it doesn't look as though there will be a major overhaul anytime soon.  Conversely, in the U.S. and U.K., very few foreign books are bought, mostly due to the cost of translation and overwhelming amount of material already available to us in English.

The paranormal boom that's been raging here for years has been slow to catch on in the foreign markets. In Germany, they're just starting to grow (as evidenced by huge success of Katie MacAlister there).  But folks in the U.K. and Italy just don't seem to get the appeal.  I can't help but think it will swing around eventually, but in the meantime, go Germany!

Chick lit hasn't been faring any better in the U.K. than it has in the U.S.  Folks at Headline have shifted to "more sophisticated, darker" women's fiction featuring older protagonists in an imprint called Little Black Dress.  They're also looking for "epic magical realism."

The photo to the right shows the Sassi, a section of caves where people from three centuries before Christ all the way up through World War II.  Due to overcrowding, people were eventually forced out and up to the higher ground of the town of Matera.

Highlanders are still ever popular with German romance readers, as are Regencies.  One house has also recently started a new line strictly for paranormal.  Outside of romance, they're also looking for crime and fantasy with an all-age appeal.  No cozies or American political thrillers, please.  Can't fault them there. 

In the photo at left, author Amanda Brice and I take a seat under an olive tree.  Jennifer Matthews didn't make the photo, but her gorgeous red bag did.

So what does all this mean for American writers? Unless you or your agent control your own foreign rights, probably not much. It's impossible to try to write to trends in this country, much less worry about foreign ones. However, it does pay to ask your agent or your editor what sales have been made, where there's been interest and what trends they see.  And remember to stay patient. It can take just as long to break into the foreign market as it did in the American one.

More pics to come! Meantime, feel free to hit me up with questions.  I'm feeling a bit blog-rusty.

The photos keep rolling in from RWA.  Do you ever see a picture of someone and think, That's not at all what I thought she looked like!  Maybe this will save you from one of the moments I had a conference a few years back where I was meeting an author for the first time (not someone who wrote for me) and the first thing she said after intros had been made was, "Oh, you're Leah.  You're not fat!"  Umm, thanks?

Eve Silver & Linda Howard

C.L. Wilson with her National Readers Choice Awards

Gemma Halliday channels a far-out agent at her Summer of Love skit at the Golden Network party

American Title winner Helen Scott Taylor, Elisabeth Naughton and Trish Albright get the Golden Boot for making their first sales.

Chris Keeslar & I at the Dorchester Spotlight

Colleen Thompson, Jennifer Ashley & Gerri Russell

Michelle Maddox, Trish Albright, Stephanie Rowe, Angie Fox, me, Michele Lang and Amy Rench