Frankfurt A-Go-Go
As I mentioned in the introductory post, I realize that the Frankfurt Book Fair is probably somewhat of a mystery to many and that I might be doing folks a service to report on what goes on there so here's dispatch #1.
In fact, Frankfurt, though it officially runs Oct 18-24th, started for us all back in early July, when the world's publishers started frantically e-mailing one another to make apppointment at each others' booths and tables—most appointments for this October rendezvous have been made by the end of July and you won't get a meeting with anyone worth meeting if you wait til the Eurorepans have disappeared for August.
Why such organization? Part of it could be that it's Frankfurt and therefore the Germans are involved—for the other major international fair, in London, you're fine making your appointments 6 weeks in advance. The other factor, of course, is that Frankfurt is the Big Kahuna. It's Cannes and Sundance combined (minus the glamor). It's largely about pimping tranlation rights to one another in a fashion that's somewhat like speed-dating. You race to the table, greet each other in pidgin English, exchange cards and Rights Guides—xeroxed stapled descriptions of your books—ideally playing down anything that's overly culture-specific (Paul Berman's Power and the Idealists will play abroad, but America's Mayor won't, especially after all the Europeans lost money hand over fist doing Giuliani's Leadership), playing up blurbs from folks who have sold well internationally (Paul Auster blurb sells translation rights in France, Sam Lipsyte in Italy, Colum McCann and Colm Toibin sell them everywhere...). You give your two sentence description, guage the reaction from the eyes lighting up/dulling over, and immediately move onto the next one/launch into a deeper blow-by-blow.
And you basically do that from 9am to 6:30pm (or 900 to 1830, as is the tradition of he Frankfurt appointment-making process.)
And then, the day's appointments done, you start hustling invites to cocktail parties, dinners, parties and such, where, assuming you're successful, you simulataneously realize that this is one of the best aspects of your job, talking about books and writers with your peers from all over the world, and one of the most stressful, because you're desparately hoping they'll buy translation rights to one of your authors cause that's your best shot at ever being able to buy dinner at Frankfurt without mooching it off Random House Deutschland, or Einaudi, or Gallimard.
Then you go back to your room, in the European equaivalent of a Comfort Inn (the Hotel Ibis chain) in what's technically another city altogether, at around about 2-3AM, and report on the day's events to you, Dear Reader, courtesy of T-Mobil wi-fi.
FYI, as I'm sure you understand, but I'll make explicit right now nevertheless: this will be a snail's eye view of Frankfurt Book Fair. I'll do my best to find out the high-octane stuff like who's the next Melissa P. and was Padma there and will the titled publisher of a certain British independent house be doing his best Kate Moss impression...But largely I'm a grunt, so it'll be the trenches you'll be hearing about, and maybe Ron Hogan or Sarah Weinman will be able to persuade Laurel Touby to spring for one of them to go to Frankfurt next year for a more elevated perspective...