Show is seen as ‘an important venue’ for licensing translation rights

Nearly 20 U.S. Christian publishers took part in the 2013 London Book Fair this spring, which generated brisk business. 

The publishers—including Tyndale House Publishers, Baker Publishing Group and Crossway—were part of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association’s (ECPA) exhibit, also known as the Christian Collective. Held April 8-10 at Earls Court in London, the fair hosted 1,700 exhibitors from 130 countries with a total attendance of 24,802, organizers said. 

Cindy Riggins, president of Riggins International Rights Services, represented several publishers, including Abingdon Press, AMG Publishers/Living Ink, B&H Publishing Group and Worthy Publishing. 

“Generally, traffic was active in most of the ECPA collective booths, mostly from pre-scheduled appointments,” she told Christian Retailing. “Since London is not as active as ICRS [International Christian Retail Show] or Frankfurt [Book Fair], it provides time for longer appointments with key publishing partners.”

The Christian Collective offered its first special event at the fair this year. Riggins International held a fiction tea for inspirational fiction rights buyers at a London hotel. 

“Two of our clients—European authors Frederick Hurr (B&H Publishing) and Kaare Skuland (Hermon Forlag)—spoke to a group of 20,” Riggins said. “We also presented key new fiction releases. While many European publishers are reducing the number of titles produced due to the continued economic woes, fiction is still very important to their acquisitions program.

“The U.K. publishers we met with seemed a bit more optimistic about their market after several years of decreased sales and mergers,” she added.

Baker Publishing Group Director of Rights and Contracts Marilyn Gordon said one of the fair’s highlight was the Digital Rights Conference, held April 7.

“The London Book Fair is an important venue for ECPA publishers to publicize their upcoming titles, and to license subsidiary and translation rights,” she said. “We met with publishers from around the world, including Asia, Europe, South America, Africa and even the U.S.”

This year’s Frankfurt Book Fair is set for Oct. 8-12, and the next London Book Fair is slated for April 8-10, 2014.

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