From the interior of ‘Fake Over’ by author Nereida Carrillo and illustrator Alberto Montt, a Catalan release from Barcelona. Image: Editorial Flamboyant
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
YA Nonfiction for a Disinformed World
Few sectors of the world book publishing industry, of course, are as reliably robust as the children’s and young-adult (YA) book sector. At Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 19 to 23), we expect to see this hold true, yet again, not only at many stands on the show’s exhibition floors but also in the Literary Agents & Scouts Center (LitAg) this year in Hall 4.2 and with all 456 tables sold out.
Just to remind you, there’s also a half-day program devoted to children’s books, in case you’re interested, the Frankfurt Kids Conference on running 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. on October 19 in the Conference Center’s Illusion Room. In this program, specialists will talk children’s books in a socio-political content and from an international viewpoint. Tickets for that the children’s publishing program are here, at €250.00 (US$254.18).
We’re also putting together a B2B series of international book business leaders on various topics facing the industry in our Publishing Perspectives Forum, running from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on both Frankfurt Wednesday and Thursday, and you’ll find the Publishing Perspectives Forum in Messe Frankfurt’s Congress Center, the Spektrum Room.
As more details develop on the forum—where attendance will be free for all trade visitors and exhibitors—we’re updating them for you here.
And today, we’re starting our Rights Roundup—focused on children’s and YA titles—with a YA selection that will warm any good journalist’s heart: Fake Over by Nereida Carrillo and Alberto Montt was published by Editorial Flamboyant, a house you’ve seen represented quite frequently in Rights Roundups.
Carrillo is a journalist, herself, with a PhD in the field and a media education project she founded called “Learn to Check.” Illustrator Montt is Chilean and has had his work seen in Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, Peru, and Spain, as well as Chile.
And as we all know, Montt’s artwork gets the whole issue right, with lots of use of Pinocchio–the character who’s been made a fact-checking comeback kid by the whole, seething problem of disinformation and its threat to democratic debate.
The book has a handsome start on rights sales, as you’ll see. And some of us are looking forward to news that Fake Over has sold its translation rights into English.
From the interior of ‘Fake Over’ by author Nereida Carrillo and illustrator Alberto Montt. Image: Editorial Flamboyant
A special note: We have had to reject some submissions for this Rights Roundup because they have arrived without photos of both an author and an illustrator—this, despite our repeated reminders of this requirement to the many fine agents and rights directors who provide submissions. Please let us know if you are having trouble getting more than one attribution photo to us so that we can work out an easy means for you to do that. We credit illustrators as well as authors whenever both are present. We will not carry an illustrated title listing for which we cannot appropriately credit both.
And, as in each roundup, we use some of the sales copy supplied to us by agents and rights directors, editing that copy to give you an idea about a book’s nature and tone, but limiting the promotional elements. If you’d like to submit a deal to Publishing Perspectives, see the instructions at the end of this article.
Fake Over
By Nereida Carrillo
Illustrated by Alberto Montt
- Publisher: Editorial Flamboyant, Barcelona
- Rights contact: Marina Huguet, m.huguet@editorialflamboyant.com
- Book info: Read more here
Reported rights sales:
- Newest – World French: Éditions Les 400 Coups
- Serbian: Kreativni centar
- Simplified Chinese: China Translation & Publishing House
- Maltese: Merlin Publishers
- Korean: Nermerschool
- Czech: Host Publishing House
Nereida Carrillo and Alberto Montt (image: Lorena Pavalecino Hunting)
“The era of ‘fake news’ is here. But what if we have the right tools to fight disinformation?
“Trolls, bots, deepfakes, information disorder, conspiracy theories … New generations stumble on these phenomena on a daily basis on social media and on instant messaging platforms. But what is fake news, really? Who creates it? Has fake news always been around? What purpose does it serve?
“This book empowers YA readers to take action and learn to trust professional, contrasted, plural and useful information and to avoid having a fake and biased worldview. How can we spot and debunk misinformation or detect fake videos or images? How can we verify a piece of information? How can we get rid of our biases?
“Online tools, tricks, step-by-step instructions, funny explanations, games… An entertaining and humorous guide useful for teenagers and adults alike.”
From the interior of ‘Fake Over’ by author Nereida Carrillo and illustrator Alberto Montt. Image: Editorial Flamboyant
Unraveller
By Francis Hardinge
- Publisher: Macmillan’s Children’s Books
- Rights contact: Asia Mabboni
- Book info: Read more here
Reported rights sales:
- Newest – French: Gallimard Jeunesse
- Italian: Mondadori
- English/United States: Abrams
- Russian: Clever Media
- Japanese: Tokyo Sogensha
- Castilian: Casals
- Catalan: Casals
- Hebrew: UTZ Publisher
Frances Hardinge (image: Dave Levenson)
“A new tale from a Costa Award-winning author of YA fantasy.
“In a world in which anyone can create a curse, only one person has the power to unravel them. Kellen does not fully understand his talent, but he helps those transformed maliciously.
“Recovered from entrapment in bird form, Nettle is now his constant companion, and closest ally. But Kellen has been cursed, and unless they can remove his curse, Kellen is in danger of unravelling everything and everyone around him.”
Honeybee Moonlight Series, Set 1
By RK Madhukar
- Publisher: Moonlight Books, Delhi
- Rights contact: Jyotsna Khandelwal, Moonlight Books
- Book info: Read more here
No reported rights sales at this point.
RK Madhukar
“These exclusive stories brought to you from distant lands and different cultures carry the irresistible charm of ancient storytelling, orally passed on from generation to generation, by peoples” in many parts of the world.
“The Honeybee Moonlight series comprises 20 books, and the first set of 10 books is presented here.
“A humble effort at enriching children’s literature, these stories are written in a simple, lucid, and endearing style.”
The Jungle Crow: Into the City
(Viidakon väki ja suuri muutto)
By Johanna Lumme
- Publisher: Otava, Helsinki
- Rights contact: Rights & Brands
- Book info: Read more here
No reported rights sales at this point.
- Newest – World Italian: Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore Srl
Johanna Lumme
“The current pressing themes of climate change and migration are depicted gently in this debut picture book.
“The Madagascar-style adventure leads into discussion about adapting to new surroundings and beginnings.
“Zebra, Giraffe and Mama Hen have a good life in their home jungle, but when several natural disasters force them to leave their home, a dangerous escape across the seas begins. They end up in a big city with high buildings instead of tall trees.
“Working together they build a new house that will feel like home for all of them.”
The Big Cuddle
(Das große Knuddeln)
By Timon Meyer
Illustrated by Julian Meyer
- Publisher: Diogenes, Zurich
- Rights contact: Susanne Bauknecht, Diogenes Verlag AG
- Book info: Read more here
No reported rights sales at this point.
Timon Meyer (image: Kaya Wielopsolski), left, and Julian Meyer (image: Nikolaus Urban)
“What we need now is an expert: Fluffily soft, of stature, and preferably of a cheerful nature.’
“This book features lovely pictures and unforgettable rhymes for children 5 and older.”
Timon and Julian Meyer are also the duo behind the Bear & Hippo series of books.
The Land of Recycling
By Meryem Ermeydan
Illustrated by Merve Atılgan
- Publisher: Epsilon Yayınevi, Istanbul
- Rights contact: Burcu Ünsal, Kalem Agency
- Book info: Read more here
Reported rights sales:
- Newest – Korean: BooknBean
- Spanish: Tramuntana Editorial
- Catalan: Tramuntana Editorial
Meryem Ermeydan, left, and Merve Atilgan
“Once upon a time, in a land where fruits and vegetables, and even flowers, were sold in plastic bags, there lived a girl named Sungirl. She was a bottle of sunflower oil and one day, she was left in the trash.
“There begins the tale of Sungirl.
“In this picture book, the author introduces the recycling process to children like a fairytale. Illustrations by the artist take us into the magical Land of Recycling.
“This title was selected into 2021 The White Ravens catalogue.”
Submitting Rights Deals to Publishing Perspectives
Do you have rights deals to report? Agents and rights directors can use our rights deal submission form to send us the information we need. If you have questions, please send them to Porter@PublishingPerspectives.com
Getting images to us. Please don’t send us images by Google Drive if the system will require us to ask your permission to retrieve those images. (It can take too long for our deadlines before that permission request reaches you.) Likewise, please don’t send us images by WeTransfer or a similar service. (Those expire, often before we can download your material.) If for some reason you cannot get images into our submission form, feel free to just drop them to us in an email (Porter@PublishingPerspectives.com) or in a Dropbox folder (non-expiring access) and send us a link to that folder in the submission form.
Categories. We get more submissions in children’s books than in others, and while we enjoy children’s books in the industry as much as anyone–please do keep sending them–we’d also like to see more of the following to help us balance our roundups:
- Adult Fiction
- Adult Nonfiction – particularly narrative nonfiction, political, historical, biographical, memoir, and philosophical categories
- Young Adult
Repeat submissions. We receive great submissions from many parts of the world and once we’ve carried a title, we’d like to give other work a chance to be featured rather than repeating that title–unless there’s major news developing around that previously used title that makes it a good candidate for a second listing. If one of your titles has previously appeared in our Rights Roundups but there’s a good reason you think it should be listed again, please be sure to drop us an email and let us know (Porter@PublishingPerspectives.com).
We look forward to hearing from you.
At the 2009 Frankfurter Buchmesse, young readers at a Comic Zentrum / Comics Center exhibition. Image: FBM, Alexander Heimann
More of Publishing Perspectives‘ rights roundups are here, and more from us on international rights trading is here.
More from us on the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on international book publishing is here.