By Siobhan O’Leary

Last fall Droemer Knaur launched a new fantasy line called PAN, focusing on so-called “all-age books.” As part of its plan to start building a list that would speak to a broad range of age groups, the publishing house attended the Bologna Book Fair for the first time last year. In an interview with the Boersenblatt, Beate Kuckertz, publishing director for fiction at Droemer Knaur, discussed some of the trends she noticed at this year’s fair. Not surprisingly, the undead in its many forms is still alive and kicking. Kuckertz also noted that dystopian novels for children (with slightly less heavy endings than their adult counterparts) are also on the rise and that it is getting more and more difficult to find good stand-alone titles as trilogies and series become more popular. PAN will publish 14 titles per year.