In this photo: our lovely ladies of Sales and Subsidiary Rights, Jessica Schmidt (left) and Robin Klinger (right).
Post by Robin Klinger, Senior Subsidiary Rights Manager
As we do every year, we scheduled ourselves to attend the London Book Fair this year. Well, wouldn’t you know it - a spewing volcano spoiled our plans?! What to do? Stay home! Really, it was very discouraging, for business reasons (we go to sell and present future titles to our export partners and foreign publishers), but you can’t fight Mother Nature. That’s what I always say! As I’ve been repeating since our failed trip: we are lucky we live in the age of the Internet.
How did we address this huge missed opportunity, and how will we present our titles to the world, you ask? First, I cannot lead you to believe that we weren’t represented at the fair. We had luckily arranged to exhibit in our fabulous UK distributor’s booth. PGUK had already received our sales materials, which were sent ahead of time, and set up the booth and books for us. And we were also luck to have a few of our foreign agents present, who were either, luckily, based near London, or went above and beyond by getting there by any means possible. In case any of you are reading, a huge thanks to all of you. You know who you are!
What we usually do is present our titles in half-hour meetings. So, getting creative, Jessica (Sales Director) and I (Senior Subsidiary Rights Manager, aka Foreign Rights) filmed ourselves presenting the latest finished titles, the Fall 2010 list and materials we had to show, and a bit about what we have in store for Spring 2011. (No, you can’t see it!) We even had a back-drop of the UK flag and wore our “fair clothes” and badges! We uploaded it in pieces to Youtube for sharing to our agents, and I’m hoping to very soon finish a round of individual emails to every single meeting we had scheduled. I’m hoping against hope that they answer me! Constant communication is key.
What’s another back-up plan? BEA! I’ve seldom had much to do at Book Expo America, but this year, I’m using it as Back-up Expo America. See, people all over the world couldn’t make it to the London Book Fair, so many are also resorting to BEA, held May 24-26 in NYC. This year, it’ll hold special importance to me, hopefully making up for lost sales and meetings.
Will any of these attempts pay off? Surely! I mean, who could resist our delicious books? And I won’t just wait passively for answers. Follow-up is key.
So, my primer for missed book fairs:
1. Utilize staff who will be there.
2. Get creative!
3. Apologize and address each customer individually.
4. Rely on the interwebs.
5. Find alternative ways to meet.
6. Follow up.
So, that’s my wrap-up! I hope to fill you in later on our most-wanted books, internationally! Yes, I’m sure Night of the Living Trekkies will be one of them!
